HA! I knew it!

[rabid1st]

A friend has seen Sherlock and was telling me a bit about it. I'd talked it up for them, but they said..."It seemed very shallow. Like the writer was just showing off how 'cool' the character was supposed to be. Mostly, I thought Sherlock was boring and childish."

And I said, "Hmmm! I usually love it. I wonder if Moff wrote that one, because he certainly has that problem when writing The Doctor."

So, I toddled off to Wikipedia...and sure enough...Stephen Moffatt tackles Irene Adler (probably poorly, I bet, making her super sexy and yet not very clever in the end). I doubt the fanbase will notice, of course, because we are all very excited by this return. But there it is from the lips of someone not at all invested in any of this...the Moff-Muppet syndrome strikes again. Trying to be too cute, too clever and putting people off his characters. I will let you all know what I think of it soon as I watch it.

I see Gatiss is tackling Hound of the Baskervilles, a personal fave. I'm glad to see that. Gives me something to look forward to if Scandal truly is a bust.

Comments

[hoegh.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! Interesting.

I admit, as much as I find it very, very interesting and important, I've never been good at recognizing different writers' styles within shows. So I didn't give it any thought. And haven't talked to anybody who hadn't seen the first season.

But (No spoilers! apart from speculation on what you mentioned) I do see what that critique is about in this ep. I mostly enjoyed it, apart from a few major details, but if I think about how it would be if the whole show had been along the same lines... Yeah, I probably wouldn't have fallen so much in love with it. Childish is the key word, I think. Or maybe immature for the subject matter and audience?. ('Childish' always makes me think 'WTF is inherently wrong with children? :) )

Hm, I want to make another comment, but that might be going into spoiler territory. I'm sure you'll lol at certain points when you get to watch it, though.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

My reaction was similar, though I know of people whose opinions I respect who found it a fascinatingly rich exploration of Sherlock's relationships. As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, I was actually struck by the resemblances between SiB and Girl in the Fireplace. You'll see what I mean. It's another of Moff's textbook enigmatic women.

[nightbeast.livejournal.com]

The most interesting hype over here (non-spoilery) was pre-watershed nudity. But, of course, the newspaper commenting had a picture of the nudity in question, and I'm pretty sure all paper editions are pre-watershed, too.

Visually I find this series of Sherlock intriguing. It does indeed look pretty from a photographer's perspective. I shall wait until you've seen it to discuss the emotional aspects.

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, you could definitely feel the Moff's hand on this one. On the whole I liked the episode (hell, I was just glad that it's finally back on the air) - it had some really funny lines, wonderful exploration of Sherlock's "heart" (he cares far more than he lets on), great shout-outs to the original stories, and Martin Freeman's acting was unparalleled. And Mrs. Hudson is my new hero. :)

But...and with a Moffatt episode there's always a "but"!...there were plot holes you could drive a truck through, questionable handling of the Irene character (not as bad as it could have been, but let's just say that I was less than impressed with the ending given that Irene Adler is supposed to be the one woman who beat Sherlock Holmes), and, sadly, some overacting by Benedict Cumberbatch (which I'm shocked at, since he was pitch perfect the 1st go around - I have to wonder if it was a [poor] decision of the director). It's the last that probably caused your friend to find Sherlock childish. I loved the sibling rivalry between he and Mycroft, but it just got pushed a *little* too far.

And believe me, the fanbase noticed. There have been some pretty heated debates about how Irene was characterized, as well as her relationship with Sherlock.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the episode, there were just a lot of little things that rang false. Not to mention that the editor needs a smack upside the head for managing to allow John to don his coat twice (in one shot, then the next) in one scene. Bad editor!

I think Hound will be quite good. Gatiss has reworked the premise considerably to make it properly scary and I'm always a fan of Russell Tovey. Gatiss is a big horror nut, so I expect he'll do it justice.

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

I gather you missed all of the spoilery rage against Moffat calling him a misogynist and Moffat getting butt-hurt against The Guardian, calling their review slanderous.

Personally I liked it, but more for the acting and the cinematography than Moffat's text, although some of it was quite good. I definitely preferred it to the Who Christmas special.

[soophelia.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched The Hound of Baskervilles yet, but I HATED 'Scandal.' I raged for over a week with my fellow Sherlock fans. Some fans hated it (like me) for various reasons and others loved it (and thought Moffat was a genius/didn't understand why we had a problem with his writing of women/glbt characters).

Here are some thoughts on why I hated it:

Read this


And to sum it all up: This drawing does it nicely.

To see people supporting Moffat and saying that we're "overreacting" and "seeing sexism" everywhere, makes me sick. (Moffat stans said the same thing when people were upset about River Song or the way Moffat treated Amy).

I only watched Sherlock because of Mark Gatiss and I'll continue to do so (unless Moffat takes over everything). I would never watch anything written solely by Moffat.

And don't even get me started on Benedict's and Mark's recent remarks about slash, female writers and Sherlock/John's relationship :/

*Or Russell's "women didn't watch sci-fi" remarks and I made it palatable for women to watch" :|
(My childhood disproves that theory, Russell). Sorry for the ranting.

[asahifirsa.livejournal.com]

Funny, because I thought that the Irene Adler ep was among the best things Moffat has ever written. I thought it was amazing and had all the emotions I did not expect to see. I'm sometimes really surprised how he can write such an amazing Sherlock and cannot pull of the Doctor.

Maybe it's the actors after all? I don't really thing so, but who am I to judge. I just can say that Sherlock works for me and Doctor Who doesn't anymore.