Sherlock

Right, I've decided that its only going to get worse from here.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/04/to-an-undiscerning-critic-from-mark-gatiss

Here is a critic who says with low blow
Sherlock’s no brain-box but become double-O.
Says the Baker St boy is no man of action –
whilst ignoring the stories that could have put him in traction.

The Solitary Cyclist sees boxing on show,
The Gloria Scott and The Sign of the Fo’
The Empty House too sees a mention, in time, of Mathews,
who knocked out poor Sherlock’s canine.

As for arts martial, there’s surely a clue
in the misspelled wrestle Doyle called baritsu.
In hurling Moriarty over the torrent
did Sherlock find violence strange and abhorrent?

In shooting down pygmies and Hounds from hell
Did Sherlock on Victorian niceties dwell?
When Gruner’s men got him was Holmes quite compliant
Or did he give good account for The Illustrious Client?

There’s no need to invoke in yarns that still thrill,
Her Majesty’s Secret Servant with licence to kill
From Rathbone through Brett to Cumberbatch dandy
With his fists Mr Holmes has always been handy.
Mark Gatiss

The state of that ffs.
 
F*cking hell, it's Rentaghost.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Right, I've decided that its only going to get worse from here.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/04/to-an-undiscerning-critic-from-mark-gatiss

Here is a critic who says with low blow
Sherlock’s no brain-box but become double-O.
Says the Baker St boy is no man of action –
whilst ignoring the stories that could have put him in traction.

The Solitary Cyclist sees boxing on show,
The Gloria Scott and The Sign of the Fo’
The Empty House too sees a mention, in time, of Mathews,
who knocked out poor Sherlock’s canine.

As for arts martial, there’s surely a clue
in the misspelled wrestle Doyle called baritsu.
In hurling Moriarty over the torrent
did Sherlock find violence strange and abhorrent?

In shooting down pygmies and Hounds from hell
Did Sherlock on Victorian niceties dwell?
When Gruner’s men got him was Holmes quite compliant
Or did he give good account for The Illustrious Client?

There’s no need to invoke in yarns that still thrill,
Her Majesty’s Secret Servant with licence to kill
From Rathbone through Brett to Cumberbatch dandy
With his fists Mr Holmes has always been handy.
Mark Gatiss

The state of that ffs.
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feckin strange looking big nosed wanker
 
I've just caught up with this. I've very glad Mary is dead so we can hopefully get back to some interesting cases instead of exploring her unlikely former life as a super spy.

It wasn't without its pleasures, but I'm hopeful the coming episodes will be better than this one.
 
I was getting intrigued by the agents Mary worked with:

Your man (her former colleague trying to kill her) said he heard one of them die (Alex?) in captivity, then there was himself and obviously Mary, so what happened the fourth one?

I had myself convinced the fourth one was going to be Moriarty and all this Mary stuff was going to suddenly become worthwhile, as the two boys discover she had been close to their great enemy all along and all the potential storylines which could diverge from there.

Then I started to doubt myself and wonder if the woman on the bus was the fourth agent? A less exciting plot twist but another dynamic nonetheless.

Then they killed Mary and seemingly brushed everything from the previous hour and a half aside. Seems like the sole purpose of the episode was to write out a character that nobody really cared about anyway. I was left thoroughly underwhelmed.
 
I really hope this was a write off just to get rid of Mary - think they need to start going back to basics with Sherlock.

No more fighting in swimming pools and gunfights otherwise it's just Robert Downey Jr mark II.
 
There's no more going back to basics, the series, regrettably, is on fumes owing to the most obvious factor - lack of continuity. The actors are not available for any sort of continuity to be possible much less quality in writing, even Series 3 was poor by the standards of Series 1 & 2. Quality over quantity everytime
 
It's not just the actors. Steven Moffat is also into Doctor Who to fully devote his time to Sherlock.
 
I agree that from S3 the quality hasn't been as good as before although I think with the quality of the cast it will never be bad imo.

I think the problem, similar to some of the stuff I've not liked in Doctor Who recently, is that they seem to want to tie things back to the characters and have that drive the story rather than have a mystery that the characters are unravelling.

Wasn't a fan of Mary's character so not sad to see her go but I guess we'll have to deal with the fall out from that now.
 
I think everything bad goes back to the introduction of "Mary", the whole concept of letting Watson randomly marry that middle aged woman who just happened to be the world's greatest spy and assassin (really had to be the very bestest in the world) and introducing a multi-episode generic and weak spy plot was already ridiculous to begin with and then they tried to force this new much more emotional drama aspect into the show on top of that.
I'd maybe get that if it was an American show with twenty episodes a year, but not with a show that films about three every two years, no need to desperately force new stuff into the story.

Also even if we leave aside the broader story the particular writing of the last episode was just really, really weak. The whole code word ruse had the intellectual level of a five year old and to make it seem like the otherwise near omniscient Holmes brothers could fall for it was ridiculous. John, selfless army doctor, honourable soldier and devoted husband Watson going for an affair seemed very out of character to me, too. And of course when she has to die the world's greatest spy and assassin catches a bullet from granny in the most cliche way.
 
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'Mary' feels like tokenism.
 
Anyone watching it at the moment? I think it is extremely poor so far and I think I rate the show higher than most.
 
I'm not often shocked at twists anymore but they got me twice in that last 5 minutes!
 
Very good episode. Difference in quality between Moffat (wrote this weeks) and Gatiss writing. (last weeks),
 
Badunk said:
It's about Jimmy Savile.
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If this oblique, throwaway mea culpa is the level of regret from the BBC for decades of indulging Savile and other criminals, then they can get to f*ck.
 
Did anyone else not think the twist at the end was a bit stupid? Even when off his face on drugs the guy will obviously recognise the same face twice, I mean he remembered the precise measurements between her and the real daughter! Also when at the end the girl said to Watson "You're much nicer than I thought you'd be" in a mocking manner.. That line means nothing to Watson. He wasn't there when she first said it.

Really think its a shit twist and they were trying to be too clever.
 
SteveJ said:
If this oblique, throwaway mea culpa is the level of regret from the BBC for decades of indulging Savile and other criminals, then they can get to f*ck.
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Doesn't that just reduce the writers to nothing more than spokespeople for the BBC? Can't they just be ordinary people, horrified by how an institution (and society) could allow that kind of figure to flourish, who happen to have made programmes for the same institution a long time after the abuse took place?
 
Eckers99 said:
Doesn't that just reduce the writers to nothing more than spokespeople for the BBC? Can't they just be ordinary people, horrified by how an institution (and society) could allow that kind of figure to flourish, who happen to have made programmes for the same institution a long time after the abuse took place?
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Absolutely and, if so, that's commendable. It's still weak stuff though - at heart, this seems like getting others to make your non-apologetic apology for you; it's passing the buck of responsibility.
 
SteveJ said:
Absolutely and, if so, that's commendable. It's still weak stuff though - at heart, this seems like getting others to make your non-apologetic apology for you; it's passing the buck of responsibility.
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Maybe I've just naively managed to separate the writers and the network. The Louis Theroux thing was on the BBC and was a much more contemplative analysis of culpability wasn't it? This, to me, was a piece of light entertainment that used Savile to create a genuinely resonant, creepy villain. In that context I thought it was really well done.
 
Better than last week's, still pissed around too much to make up the 90 minute runtime and the main villain was more of a sideshow to Sherlock foreseeing everything and really being up to something else (as per) but enjoyable enough.

Was shit scared at the end that she'd go "haven't you guessed? IT'S ME MORIARTY I HAD A SEX CHANGE MISS ME?" though.
 
GDaly95 said:
Did anyone else not think the twist at the end was a bit stupid? Even when off his face on drugs the guy will obviously recognise the same face twice, I mean he remembered the precise measurements between her and the real daughter! Also when at the end the girl said to Watson "You're much nicer than I thought you'd be" in a mocking manner.. That line means nothing to Watson. He wasn't there when she first said it.

Really think its a shit twist and they were trying to be too clever.
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Ruined a really good episode for me.
 
Eckers99 said:
Maybe I've just naively managed to separate the writers and the network. The Louis Theroux thing was on the BBC and was a much more contemplative analysis of culpability wasn't it? This, to me, was a piece of light entertainment that used Savile to create a genuinely resonant, creepy villain. In that context I thought it was really well done.
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Fair points, mate, though I view the Theroux follow-up as more of the same, knowingly or otherwise: it effectively says "Let's face it - we were all taken in (and are therefore responsible to a degree)".
 
GDaly95 said:
Really think its a shit twist and they were trying to be too clever.
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Annoyingly, I knew the actress (not personally, just knew who she was) so I noticed it instantly, which made every scene with her in difficult to watch without noticing how hard they were trying to hide 'it' (they were all shot in deliberately obfuscating ways) ..I was inevitably then a bit underwhelmed when they finally revealed it, but I'm not sure that's really their fault - (though that said, why does everything now have to be intrinsically connected to the main characters and their personal lives somehow? It might make the writing more efficient, but it's also increasingly contrived)

Other than that though, I thought it was a lot better than last week. There was still a decent amount of melodrama, but once they'd painted themselves into that corner, they couldn't exactly ignore it completely. Toby Jones was great as always. Though that was easily the most hammy I've seen him since he was in Dr Who.
 
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Just watched both eps , liked the first one thought it was brilliant and I enjoyed the second one, even better than the first one, right up to the twist at the end and I thought it was fecking daft.
 
Much better today, but it was so Jimmy Saville it was weird
 
Not even going to lie I really loved that twist, didn't see it coming at all.
 
Thought it was a massive improvement on last week without hitting the highs it has before, and I thought the story line was well judged enough that - although you were sure Sherlock was right – it left enough doubt that maybe he really had lost it and Smith was little more than a harmless creep.

My only real grumble is the usual Moffat silliness at the end. It does nothing good for the show to pretend Watson has been shot; we know he hasn't been (not helped by immediately showing a preview with him running around) and its just a silly, manufactured cliff hanger that the show doesn't need.

Unfortunately the next episode looks like a return to Sherlock Bond, but it was nice to have something that got the balance a bit closer to being right.
 
NinjaFletch said:
My only real grumble is the usual Moffat silliness at the end. It does nothing good for the show to pretend Watson has been shot; we know he hasn't been (not helped by immediately showing a preview with him running around) and its just a silly, manufactured cliff hanger that the show doesn't need.
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Yeah agree with that. "Oh my God she's shot Bilbo"

Next week on Sherlock Holmes.............
 
I liked the twist. Not entirely happy with imaginary Mary or the Mrs Hudson stunt driver bollocks. Also, did it have to be Holmes' sister? Why not just a female villain that doesn't happen to be related to one of the main characters? Seems a bit silly, I certainly don't recall Holmes having a sister in the original stories.

Vast improvement on last week though.
 
... the best thing they could think of to get Watson to stop sulking was to go through that whole charade??
 
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