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chase820I just saw "The Empty Hearse."
I'm happy to see that the Sherlolly and Morlock fans each got a shout-out, even though Molly now has a fiance and Moriarty appears to be most sincerely dead. John was appropriately angry and Sherlock appropriately apologetic, in his strange way. Both actors were so freaking on it was scary: You could really tell that Ben and Martin were happy to be back.
Honestly, though, I didn't find the Sherlock and John scenes nearly as interesting as the Sherlock and Mycroft scenes, because the Sherlock and John scenes didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Of course John was grieving, angry, not gay, etc.
Sherlock and Mycroft, on the other hand, had such neat tidbits of exposition in their scenes, particularly the parts where they discuss their childhood. "A world full of goldfish" indeed: poor Mycroft.
Of course, when you create a Mycroft so brilliant that even his brilliant brother seems slow, you make it impossible for him to be anything but a static supporting character. Hard to see him with a spouse, children, cats, fetishes, etc. But I suppose that's what fanfic is for.
(Also, it really is stretching the bounds of believability to think that the Holmes parents would be so normal. Heredity really does matter when it comes to intelligence, and while it's possible that one child of ordinary parents might, through some odd concatenation of genetics, come out insanely smart, it's very unlikely that two in a row would do that. Gatiss has said that he based the scenario on Frasier and Niles Crane, but what he's forgetting is that on that show, Hester Crane was a brilliant scientist, and Martin Crane was a whip-smart homicide detective. Frasier and Niles didn't come from nowhere, and neither would Mycroft and Sherlock.)
But I digress.
The treatment of the female characters is improving a bit. Molly is not so doormatish, Mrs. Hudson not so annoying, and Mary appears mostly harmless. (Hurrah for no Donovan at all!) Amanda and Martin have the expected chemistry, though I wish she'd re-think the hair color.
Overall, I'm pleased. Gatiss was very respectful of the fandom, right down to refusing to declare anybody right in the Sherlock faked-death sweepstakes. Though his canon is not my fanon, what with the alien Mycroft and normal parents and heterosexual John, he didn't do anything that made me hate his John and Sherlock.
I don't really care about the petty exposition, so long as I can still like the canon versions of the characters. When I can't, my love for the show dies, as it did with Buffy. Gatiss didn't waste time declaring the fandom versions of the characters stupid or wrong, as the BtVS writers so often did. Even John's frantic declaration that he is not gay and Sherlock was not his boyfriend can be read in many different ways.
Of course the A-plot was pants, and Sebastian Moran might just as well have been named Snidely Whiplash, so little did he resemble the ACD canon character. But the A-plots of Sherlock are nearly always pants. Nobody loves Sherlock Holmes--in any iteration--for his scintillating mysteries.
If the next two episodes are as fun as this one, I will be happy with Season 3 of Sherlock.
I'm happy to see that the Sherlolly and Morlock fans each got a shout-out, even though Molly now has a fiance and Moriarty appears to be most sincerely dead. John was appropriately angry and Sherlock appropriately apologetic, in his strange way. Both actors were so freaking on it was scary: You could really tell that Ben and Martin were happy to be back.
Honestly, though, I didn't find the Sherlock and John scenes nearly as interesting as the Sherlock and Mycroft scenes, because the Sherlock and John scenes didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. Of course John was grieving, angry, not gay, etc.
Sherlock and Mycroft, on the other hand, had such neat tidbits of exposition in their scenes, particularly the parts where they discuss their childhood. "A world full of goldfish" indeed: poor Mycroft.
Of course, when you create a Mycroft so brilliant that even his brilliant brother seems slow, you make it impossible for him to be anything but a static supporting character. Hard to see him with a spouse, children, cats, fetishes, etc. But I suppose that's what fanfic is for.
(Also, it really is stretching the bounds of believability to think that the Holmes parents would be so normal. Heredity really does matter when it comes to intelligence, and while it's possible that one child of ordinary parents might, through some odd concatenation of genetics, come out insanely smart, it's very unlikely that two in a row would do that. Gatiss has said that he based the scenario on Frasier and Niles Crane, but what he's forgetting is that on that show, Hester Crane was a brilliant scientist, and Martin Crane was a whip-smart homicide detective. Frasier and Niles didn't come from nowhere, and neither would Mycroft and Sherlock.)
But I digress.
The treatment of the female characters is improving a bit. Molly is not so doormatish, Mrs. Hudson not so annoying, and Mary appears mostly harmless. (Hurrah for no Donovan at all!) Amanda and Martin have the expected chemistry, though I wish she'd re-think the hair color.
Overall, I'm pleased. Gatiss was very respectful of the fandom, right down to refusing to declare anybody right in the Sherlock faked-death sweepstakes. Though his canon is not my fanon, what with the alien Mycroft and normal parents and heterosexual John, he didn't do anything that made me hate his John and Sherlock.
I don't really care about the petty exposition, so long as I can still like the canon versions of the characters. When I can't, my love for the show dies, as it did with Buffy. Gatiss didn't waste time declaring the fandom versions of the characters stupid or wrong, as the BtVS writers so often did. Even John's frantic declaration that he is not gay and Sherlock was not his boyfriend can be read in many different ways.
Of course the A-plot was pants, and Sebastian Moran might just as well have been named Snidely Whiplash, so little did he resemble the ACD canon character. But the A-plots of Sherlock are nearly always pants. Nobody loves Sherlock Holmes--in any iteration--for his scintillating mysteries.
If the next two episodes are as fun as this one, I will be happy with Season 3 of Sherlock.
