Night Not-Very-Terrors

Working it out.

Night Terrors, season 6, second episode of the second half of the season.

To be honest with you, the idea of writing a review of this episode has slowed me down more than once.

I heard wonderful things about it: how scary it was, how clever it was, how apt the title was, what a brilliant script Mark Gatiss had written.

And I won't say any of those things are absolutely 100% wrong -- but I have watched Terrors two or three times now and every time I watch it I come away more strongly convinced of the fact that I paid for something I didn't get.

The story is simple enough but 'ware spoilers if you haven't seen the episode yet.

Small child is having nightmares: weird noises outside his window, in the closet, under the bed, etc., etc. The parents are powerless to do more than soothe and are discussing getting some kind of nebulous "professional help." The child overhears the conversation and, panicking, manages, without meaning to, to get a message to the Doctor. The Doctor arrives quite promptly and, with Amy and Rory, takes on the fun task of searching a multistory council flat for the child in question. Amy and Rory do not find him; the Doctor finds not only the child, but the child's father, and sets about solving the problem. Amy and Rory, meantime, have tried to use the elevator -- bad idea in council flats, apparently.

So far, so good.

My problem with the episode is not that you can figure it all out beforehand -- that's fine. The problem is that the end reveal is...exactly what you've figured out beforehand. And it isn't that interesting. The kid himself does little except pant and stare through the whole episode which makes your chest ache after awhile. The father is a great character to start with who gradually slides into being a cliche by the end. It's a nice difference that it's the father rather than the mother who has to undertake the journey and trials to get back the child but -- it's not enough to make the whole episode feel like it lives up to its publicity.

There are some clever startles -- "scare" would be too strong a word -- but they don't last. The dolls are only disturbing the first time you see them and after that...they lose punch very quickly. This is interesting because they're very similar to the Weeping Angels who simply become more terrifying every time you see them!

It is nice that this is another episode like "The Doctor Dances" where "...everybody lives!" but it doesn't put it up there with the best of this season as far as I can see. It's a solid entry but somewhere in the realm of "The Black Spot" rather than "The God Complex." This is only disappointing because I expected more from Mark Gatiss -- a fact which I'm sure causes him daily heartburnings.

Magic Words

I am going to give you the two magic words that will make the last episode of the second season of Sherlock watchable.

Are you ready? You're gonna want these -- get a pencil and some scrap paper or something. Got it? Okay, good.

Andrew. Scott.

Or, if you prefer:

James. Moriarty.

Like any good fairy tale -- remember those words, folks -- the villain makes the piece. Without Vader, Star Wars falls apart (ceases to be, actually, I think) and the Doctor is better with his Master -- yeah, well, this Sherlock has a fuck-tastic Moriarty.

Yeah, okay, I'll grant that Cumberbatch and Freeman and Gatiss turn in reasonable performances -- Freeman's is actually inspired at more than one point -- but Scott is the beating black heart of this thing. He's freaky, he's scary, he's violent, he's crazed, he's unreliable, and he is fucking convincing.

This isn't a villain you want to have tea with (Al Swearengen, anyone?); this is a villain you'd hide behind the couch from (think John Simm's Master at his nutsiest.)

So you've got that, right? Glue your eyes to Andrew Scott and don't fucking let go or you will miss the best, juiciest bits of this show.

Apart from that, Reichenbach Fall is a hot mess -- we're back to Scandal territory here and it's painful. The story kinda makes sense -- at least the bits with Moriarty have the charm of complete and utter insanity -- and you know what's gonna happen in the end, so, really, it's just a matter of making sure we get from A to B in an hour and a half.

I'm not going to bother going through the motions of a plot summary here and if you really think you can be spoilered on a story that was first published in 189-blahdeblah, then...wow, I really have no help for you. But there are some nice character moments -- Watson at Sherlock's 'grave' is palpably painful and Molly, once again, gets some truly awesome screen time.

Does the whole thng work? Well, do you want to be convinced by it? Then you will be. I think Gatiss and Moffatt have signed themselves up for more trouble than they really need for the third season -- already contracted for, or so I hear -- and I'm really not looking forward to seeing how they get themselves out of it because all the options I can think of at least are messy and unfortunate.

Still, through all this, there's my happy place: He didn't screw up season 6. He didn't screw up season 6. He didn't screw up season 6. :)

Rules Part 1

A Good Man Goes to War.

*claps hands*

Everybody ready? (Spoilers await, folks.)

Okay, Good Man is straight-up, cracked-out, full-on rock'n'roll Doctor Who -- I'm not sure how much caffeine Moffat pumped into his cast for this one but it is so totally absolutely worth it in every single possible way. It's such a frenetic rollercoaster of goodness, in fact, that it's kind of difficult to write anything about it.

I'm not even going to try to go over the story here. Suffice to say the big reveal is revealed: River is...well, River is River. She's also Amy and Rory's daughter but, really, you had ample time to figure that out during the season so it's not worth holding your breath through the whole episode waiting for it.

That said, the final reveal scene -- even without the reveal itself being a huge gasp-inducing moment -- is just...really really great. There's Amy and Rory and the Doctor and River and hugging and sexual innuendo and so much emotional energy passing between the characters that the screen practically crackles. It's just...sweet in the best possible way.

Other points of interest...

The good man. Clearly, as self-identified, the good man is not the Doctor: "Good men don't need rules. Now is not the time to find out why I have so many." Okay, good, I'll just be over here crouched in the corner whimpering gently, then.

This leaves us with relatively few options for the good man -- so, really, it's Rory. Which is kind of awesome because the show needs more Rory. Rory is coming from a relatively simple place: he wants to get his wife back and keep his family in one piece. It's not exactly a revolutionary goal in life but, given the events at the end of The Almost People, you can't blame him for being a bit tetchy: "Do I need to ask the question again?"

Rory has come such a long way from The Eleventh Hour -- and then, in a way, he hasn't. Rory has always been both observant and determined and, really, those qualities have only been enhanced by travelling with the Doctor, as the second half of the sixth season proves. He has a very handy knack of not being distracted by non-essentials: he sees the odd thing out or the thing that should be there and isn't and his habit of dogged insistence is extremely useful.

And the Doctor is not a good man in this; he doesn't even follow his own self-established rules, as Lady Vastra and Dorium Maldovar take a certain amount of pleasure in pointing out to him. The whole conversation with Colonel Manton ("Colonel RunAway") is just fucking terrifying; it's as close as the Doctor has come in quite awhile to losing it and it's so very very bad when he does that. And, of course, he gets bitten in the ass for it as Madame Kovarian waltzes off into the wild blue yonder with baby Melody quite neatly.

The secondary characters in this episode are fantastic, some of the best in the season: Jenny, Madame Vastra, Dorian, the Headless Monks, the Fat One, the Thin One, and Commander Strax. The baddies, particularly Madame Kovarian -- I wish I felt...better about. She's a little...uncentered. It's not clear why she's doing what she's doing or, even when Moffat tries to make it clear, it's still unclear what she gets out of it.

"What? What?!"

All right, before we start the investigation (see what I did there?) into the second season of Sherlock, let me lay something right out on the table.

I'm a Whovian.

In plainer English, I am a Doctor Who fangirl.

Bet you're surprised, right?

Yeah, no, I know you're not.

But my point is that, in the grand world of Steven Moffat's televisual projects, Sherlock can win, lose, or burn to the ground for all I care so long as Doctor Who stays solid.

My mantra since the end of Who season 5 has been "Don't fuck up season 6."

He didn't.

I'm happy.

That said, I like Sherlock. I heartily enjoyed the first season. I was looking forward to the second season.

And...well...Moffat didn't fuck up season 6.

And I can't say that Sherlock 2 is a total loss but....wow. After season 1? It's kinda sad.

The short version: Scandal = hot mess. Hounds = much stronger. Reichenbach = oh my fucking God is anyone paying attention here?!

Spoilers follow. RAYOR.


So, Scandal in Belgravia. I can't even begin to recap the story for you because, honestly, I'm sorta confused as to what happened. I think the actors were confused as to what happened. I'm damn near certain the writers were.

There was the pool. And then there was a phone. And some pictures. And a dead hiker. And a naked woman. And the phone again. And Mycroft being seriously bitchy for no good reason. And the phone again. And....yeah, I don't know.

Moffat. Gatiss. We all know you can do better than this. WTF, guys. Seriously. Pull your fingers out and do a third draft next time.

And if you ever ever write another female character as hampered, pointless, uneven, whiny, and generally useless as Irene Adler (who could have been so completely kickass I can't even stand to think about it), I will end you. Me, and every fangirl out here with a sense of self-respect.

Also? Moffat, stop ripping off your Who storylines for other things. Most of us watch both. Cribbing River Song to make a cod dominatrix version? Not. Cool.

(And while we're on that subject, I don't think you need to whap someone around with a riding crop after you've tranked them. One or the other. Not both. Both was just going for a forced 'sexy' moment that didn't work. If it had worked, I'd've forgiven you much. But it didn't. And if you'd realised it didn't and then let it drop, I'd've forgiven you. But you didn't. It didn't work -- and then you kept pushing it. Realise when the horse is dead, fellas.)

The best thing about Scandal is the few moments of Moriarty at the beginning. Oh, that, and John, Sherlock, and Mrs. Hudson. Mrs. Hudson wins all the things in this -- as does Sherlock coming to her defense from the American (really, Moftiss? really?) thugs who break in to interrogate her. And Molly. Molly can share the things with Mrs. Hudson for finally stepping up for herself and telling Sherlock off -- much to the apparent amazement of everyone else in the room -- bar Lestrade, who was still trying to get over her dress.

I really cannot fully express my disappointment in this episode. It was a complete let-down after the tight, well-thought-out, detailed, character-rich storytelling that was the bulk of the first season to get this kind of sloppy rubbish that didn't seem to know where it was going, what it was doing, or what story it was trying to tell.

Anyway!

Something more fun on Wednesday. I promise.

So -- About Those Zombies

So, I finished the first season of The Walking Dead in my mad "finish everything before Doctor Who arrives!" dash. (And I just caught the first couple episodes of season 2 on AMC during a marathon leading up to mid-season tonight.)

And I like Dead. I like it a lot. A lot a lot.

One of the things that really intrigues me about Dead so far is the strongly liberal/moral stance it has adopted and I nearly originally wrote that sentence as 'moral,' but that wouldn't be true because, well, morals aren't absolute no matter what the fundies might say and I think Dead has adopted a fairly liberal stance. True, they haven't come up against any dealbreakers yet, really: no gay zombies, or trans survivors, or anything like that. But a lot of horror, even very recent horror, takes a pretty conservative stance on things: sex is punishable by death; outsider status (unless heroified deliberately by the narrative) is punishable by death; etc., etc.

Dead seems to be defining some interesting new (or new-ish) territory outside of this rather routine horror storytelling. And this is quite apart from having characters who are adaptable, bright, quick to realise what's going on in the situation and I really have to reiterate my earlier point that I would like to kiss the actors and screenwriters all 'round for not making me live through an unending stream of 'But it can't be happening!' speeches 'cause I can't tell you how sick I am of that. My girlfriend can tell you of the long lectures I deliver to characters in horror movies instructing them to either snap to the truth of things and get a gun in hand or line up to be a hot dinner for whatever evil is on the rampage.

In any case, back to the point.

Dead seems to be lining up to take a slightly new view on things -- but it's being a little heavyhanded about it. You're a racist redneck? Better watch out: someone'll handcuff you to a pipe and (unintentionally) leave you for the eaters. Beating your wife recreationally? Watch out for the (sexually frustrated) sheriff's deputy with a chip on his shoulder -- then the zombies'll getcha, just to make sure the viewers get the point.

It's an interesting idea -- but already, even in season 1, I'm wishing they'd take it further -- and be a little more subtle about it. I don't think that the writers here are going to leave me high and dry the way the writers of Supernatural continually do: "Oh, here's an interesting---oh, shit! oh, shit! something controversial! Padalecki's acting skills can't cope! Retreat! Retreat!" (All said in a kind of quasi-Dalek voice, of course.) At least Dead is willing to talk about things like is suicide an acceptable alternative in this world? Okay, granted that it is, what about someone unconscious in a life or death situation (non-zombie related)? Okay, that's a bit blurrier so lets make it fun: what if it's a kid? What if someone does something really bad to get medical supplies so the kid can make it?

They're all interesting questions and I'm glad to see something genre that isn't backing away from them or cloaking them in so much symbolism and alien hoohah that they're unrecognizable to the naked eye or casual observer. That said, I'd also like some fairly basic storyline questions to be asked at this point: no-one seems all that concerned about infection, for example. Or where the zombies came from. Or where they're going. Or how they behave. Aren't these questions that a group hoping to survive for more than the next ten minutes should really be looking to?

Live-Blog the First! "Downton Abbey"

All right, folks, welcome to the results of the first-ever joint live-blog between the Feminist Librarian (aka my girlfriend, Anna) and me, and our friend Minerva. :)

The subject? Not the season ender of Doctor Who Season 5 or Torchwood: Children of Earth although these were considered. Instead, we voted -- with the support of our friends -- for the first episode of the BBC production Downton Abbey.

And, no, this isn't technically a live-blog. It's more the result of us sitting here with a laptop between us and typing whilst (like my vocab use there?) we watch. And then you get to read it! Fun all 'round.

So lets get going...(time stamps off my laptop rather than PBS...)

8.57: Waiting for the off. Mark Walberg from The Antiques Roadshow a continual disappointment since he is not Mark Wahlberg.

8.58: And now the "Give up for car to earn PBS money" ad. Anna and Minerva make tea for refreshment.

9.00: And finally we get the real lead-in ads!

9.00: Laura Linney leads off...and the inevitable ad....oh, god, he's from Manchester! We might have to die -- or kill him---

9.01: There's a Masterpiece Trust now? Interesting. Uh...thanks, rich guys, for paying for this, I guess!

9.02: Who gave Laura Linney this job? But her delivery's improved. "A voyage to America won't solve anything." Oooooohh.... but Morse code will?

9.03: And the rounds of everyone who is in this...good god...Oh, I need someone to call Joanne Froggatt! Oh, a telegram! Horror! Interesting historical commentary there... I know that house...

9.04: Minerva makes a justified comment on the fuzziness of the camera. Very bad decision. M: "With the shaky cam again!" H: Must admit, it seems more natural with James Bond than Maid Jane.

9.05: The rolling POV...A: I wonder what the average size of a household staff for a house was? M: About 50 people? H: Pissed butler is pissed!

9.06: M: Someone's sleeping with one of those maids! A: Possibly all of them? Simultaneously?

9.07: M: And a remarkably see-through outfit. A: So which one of the men is sleeping with Lady Mary?

9.09: A: The lordship always has a dog. H: Because no-one else would put up with him.

9.09: And so we bring up the Titanic -- odd starting point. Interesting point. H: And the fucking harpies enter...whoa...flanked by weird daughters...

9.10: We wait with bated breath for the telegram. Which...isn't all that helpful. James and Patrick! Augh! Who are they!

9.12: H: Mr. Crawley. Hehe. Why is the new valet cause for weird music?

9.13: H: Butler Exposition and Housekeeper Plotpoint.

9.14: [servants discussion about new valet] A: Is he not his type? Why is everyone freaky? M: Yeah, is he too chubby or...? (The endless fun of jokes about slash. :))

9.15: [Lord and Daughter confer about drowning death of fiance] Uncomfortable father-daughter moment, there...M: What is with bitchy ex-valet? H: Mr Happy Laugh!

9.16: M: Is it me or is innuendo just...kind of rife?

9.18: [first appearance of Dame Smith as Dowager Lady] Fangirl expressions of love for Maggie Smith all 'round... A: For someone who I'm led to believe is sweetness and light, she plays bitch.... M: Maybe it's cathartic?

9.20: [Dowager Lady and Lady plotting to save money and estate] M: Granny is manipulative and awesome. A: Yeah, it would be a little frightening to be on her side -- but it would be frightening to be on the side that wasn't her!

9.21: [Daisy mooning over sulky footman] M: Daisy is going to end up in the family way... A: And not quite understand how it happened. H: Does she only have one dress? M: Yeah. She's so going to end up pregnant.

9.22: [lawyer and Lord discussing new heir] Oh god, not Manchester! A: The midlands! "There are worse professions." ".....Yes." M: Oh -- snap!

9.24: "Blessed and merciful God, thank you!" [maid freaking out about chicken for no identifiable reason] M: What the fuck!

9.25: [housekeeper and butler confer] Brief side disquisition on straining of port to remove sediment. H: Always interesting to note in these dramas how "downstairs" adopt the "upstairs" as family, faux or otherwise.

9.27: [Lord and Other Daughter share 'moment'] "If being all right is compatible with feeling terribly terribly sad." M: Awkward, awkward hug.

9.29: [sulky footman and Yorkshire maid] M: What's goin' on with those two? H: Both smoking. Interesting.

9.30: [maid commenting "not very lame" about Bates] A: What's up with sour older sister? M: Sour older sister's probably tired of being used as a pawn! A: But not ready to chuck it all and give it over.

9.31: So what is with footman/maid alliance against Bates? Who seems quite nice? M: Jesus... H: That was about the least subtle subterfuge I've ever seen in my life...

9.32: [Mary at mirror] M: I'm going to have an existential crisis... A: Maybe this will be a wake-up call for her.

9.33: [Bates and Lord] A: What's the history there? H: Peter and Bunter. [moment of silence] M: You know it's sad when you get the offhand British allusion.

9.34: [Lord: "Even with a servant?"] H: Old Lordship showing up well here...

9.35: [Lord: "You may not mean it but I bet you will!"]

9.36: [Lord: "...I hope to die here."] H: Your odds are bad.

9.39: [Grandma: "No-one wants to kiss a girl in black."] General burst of laughter.

9.40: [Daisy: "And me?"] M: It looks like she was about to take off her top! "No, Daisy.." A: Be careful or she'll just be lying there naked on the bed...

9.42: [Duke: "We shall do very well together..." whilst eyeing sulky footman [Thomas?]] M: That was not subtle! A: That was definitely like "fuck me now!"

9.45: [as Duke and Mary explore house...] M: There's going to be shenanigans...wait for it...what the fuck! H: Ah, the endless fun of boundaries from up and down... [Mary: "I always apologise when I'm in the wrong. It's a habit of mine."] A: Good for her. Some backbone.

9.47: M: Him...[the butler] telling him [the lord] about the honor of Downton? That feels kind of...odd.

9.48: [Lord: "...a valet's extra duties."] M: Stuff. H: And things.

9.50: [Middle sister Edith: "What were you and Mary doing in the attics?"] H: And middle sister sticks her foot in it. Hehe.

9.52: [Anna taking food to Bates] M: I hear you, honey; I"m a sucker for that shit. H: And what's he going to do? Hang around until he can be cannon fodder in 1914 as a disabled but useful officer? Yay for the treatment of veterans!

9.54: [re looking up Anna/Joanne Froggatt on IMBD] H: Oh, hell, I just remembered -- she's from that awful second episode of MI-5 -- she's the one who got deep-fried....yuck. Anna, God, we're idiots! She is fucking Sam Tyler's mother! I mean, not literally...she is Sam Tyler's mother!

9.56: [Duke and Lord arguing] H: The...thunder? in the distance is a little heavy-handed, yeah?

9.57: [Duke: "You might tell that footman I've gone up."] H: Well, you're not the game there, honey! M: God, how did women survive this time? H: Vibrators. A: I don't know if vibrators would solve their financial problems...

9.58: [Thomas kneels in front of Duke] Moment of stunned silence. A: This is like slash that gives you the 'no feeling.' M: ...this is still a little hot. This is like Upstairs, Downstairs with a gay twist! H: They're...quite sweet? M: Oh -- not sweet. H: Nope, not sweet. [as threats pass between footman, Duke] M: Oh, wait -- I feel some angry sex coming on...maybe not...maybe...awwww...no slashiness. A: Well, he was being a bit of a bastard. H: Yeah...Maurice without the nice ending. M: Wow... [as footman tries to master his emotions.] H: Yeah...kind of touching.

10.02: [as Lord and Lady retire] H: Oh, they sleep together. A: Yeah...wonder if they changed it for modern audiences?

10.04: [as Bates and Duke leave]: M: Oh...Bates...

10.05: [as Bates returns] H: Oh, good on the old Lordship... M: What's going on there? A: They might just be doing a Peter/Bunter... M: It's interesting because of his thing about "I have to do what my conscience feels is right" and then what about that [Bates]?

10.06: H & A: Harriet Jones, Prime Minister!

10.07: [as Matthew and Mrs. Crawley arrive] A: He's going to have radical ideas, isn't he? H: He's George. M: Are they putting him up in a cottage? H: They said they had a dower house...

10.09: [as Matthew meets Mary] M: Oops... [general laughter as Matthew looks glazed and apparently can't breathe] H: Oh, I bet you wish you hadn't said that. A: He's thinking "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit..."

10.10: [as servants critique Matthew] H: She would be the only one with a Yorkshire accent...

10.11: [as cook rates Daisy] M: Cooks are always really bawdy in these things... A: I always got the impression in these novels that the cooks ran the kitchen and nothing else, so if they wanted to have authority... H: The housekeeper ranked the cook, so while the cook was in charge of the kitchen the housekeeper was in charge of how she had to cook it?

10.12: M: Are you guys noticing the fuzzy edges of every single shot? It's making me feel like I've got cataracts!

10.12: [as Mrs. Crawley/Dowager Lady Grantham clash -- general laughter] H: And the butler thinks that was the funniest thing he's seen all week. M: I think all the servants really enjoyed that!

10.14: [D. Lady Grantham: "What is a weekend?"] Applause. M: That was beauteous.

10.15: [Lord and Matthew going at it] H: Nothing like a good generational shift to help settle your dinner.

10.18: [D. Lady Grantham: "It always seemed rather dark when my mother-in-law lived here."] General approval.

10.20: [Molesley: "This is my job, sir." Matthew: "It seems silly..."] M: Ooohhhhh. H: Oh, what a thing to do. M: Dude...

10.22: And Mark Walberg is back to disappoint us again. M: That was a really odd ending point. I don't know what to do with half of the women in this show. A: And when they're trained to pick a husband based on their economic prospects...to some extent she's been raised since birth to make those kind of judgments of future prospects. She doesn't have any sense of marrying someone because she likes them as a person. M: She has a little bit of an inkling of that -- "I refuse to mourn for a man I do not love..."

And I can only type so fast, folks, so for more, either bug Anna, Minerva, or me for more, or tune in next week!

Closing thought: A: "That was a lot...of a lot."

"...later."

And -- now it's Wednesday. How are we all feeling?

(I seriously urge you to read your lease first, though. And lots and lots of thanks to my friend over at Hypomnemata for putting it together for me.)

So now I've finished fangirling, what else can be said about the show?

Well, one of the nice things about Moffat's Sherlock is that it is, at one and the same time, so essentially different from what I think of as the "classic Holmes" while drawing from the original story/character/theme pool, that there's no clash of inevitable fandom clash. This isn't Brett's Holmes -- the same stories are there (sometimes), but that's about it.

Sherlock and John at their new favorite place.
All hail to Minerva for the picture!

What is the same -- or at least much the same -- is the relationship between Holmes and Watson which forms the core of the story. Without that and without that done well, a lot of the attraction of the stories is gone. At least, it would be for me. I was willing to go along with the lunacy of the Ritchie Holmes largely because Downey, Jr. and Law seemed to be having so much fun with what they were doing -- and there was something about their portrayal of the friendship that worked. Perhaps because it wasn't so much a "friendship" as an unspoken and obviously unconsummated romance, but that's a whole different post.

Honestly, I'm not all that interested in the endless debate currently going on about which team Sherlock may -- or may not -- play for. I know what Benedict Cumberbatch has had to say; I suspect what Moffat would say; I'm pretty sure what Conan Doyle would say; and....well, to be honest, that's all just fine and dandy but it's like arguing with an ouroborous. You could be there all day and probably will! Characters -- especially popular ones as Sherlock seems to be becoming -- are blank slates; fans can and will inscribe anything they damn well please onto them. I'm sure there's someone out there who is heartbroken that Torchwood will not be moving to Fox because he or she is convinced that inside Captain Jack somewhere is a straight boy yearning to come out.

What I think is interesting in the new Sherlock is how detached Sherlock has become. The Brett Holmes was distanced, uninvolved -- but never unemotional. He had a sense of humor (albeit occasionally a peculiar one), a great deal of pride in his skill and accomplishments, a keen sense of class distinction, an ear for music, and rather snobby tastes in food and wine if I remember rightly. My point here in assembling this rather mongrel list is that Holmes never came across in the original Doyle stories as suffering from any kind of psychiatric condition: yeah, he was a bit weird, but it's mostly the kind of weird you can write off as being genuine Victorian gentleman weirdness. (This is the same kind of weirdness that comes across with the father of the family in Doctor Who's "Tooth and Claw" episode, written off by the Doctor with, "I just thought you were happy!")

This Sherlock is a little bit beyond that -- this is sort of like what would happen if you took Conan Doyle's Sherlock, crossed him with Cracker, and then added some of the late Prime Suspect Jane Tennison. He is not only distant, he is actually removed. We don't know why -- I would imagine speculation runs rife in fandom -- but there are, presumably, reasons.

Which then makes it interesting to watch when he is startled into not being removed: e.g., the closing scenes of "The Great Game." Watson goes out for the evening when everything should have been solved and resolved, leaving Sherlock to shiver quietly in 221b. Sherlock goes out, too, taking the jump drive which contains the solution to the nouveau "Bruce Partington Plans" with him. The two meet up at a deserted swimming pool -- and for a startlingly real-feeling minute, it seems like Watson might be the bad guy.

Watson not being the bad guy. Go and thank
Minerva for the lovely still!

I bow to Moffat and Gatiss and the work they must have done and to Martin Freeman for making the possibility of Watson's betrayal feel so real. And the look on Sherlock's face -- bow to Cumberbatch, too -- shows how much this hurts. And how unexpected the hurt is. Half of his problem seems to be with what to do with the sudden feeling that someone might have hurt him -- and how the hell does that work?! (Watch Cumberbatch's eyes, by the way, if this isn't working for you -- as a friend of mine said on Saturday evening, "It's all going on there!")

The bad guy is, of course, Moriarty and he and Watson are not one and the same -- not even close really. As someone who was deeply terrified of the Brett series Moriarty as a child -- I was traumatized by the Reichenbach Falls episode -- I like this Moriarty. He's unstable on a level that makes quicksand seem dependable. His voice, his attitude, his physicality change as quickly as he speaks and it's really unsettling to watch.

There's a great, great moment here when Watson tries to help himself: Sherlock has a gun on Moriarty and we know there's a sniper with a bead on John, so he grabs Moriarty -- not such a great idea as it turns out, since there's more than one sniper, but the complex of emotions going across Sherlock's face makes it totally worth it. An equally valid story choice, of course, would have been for Moffat and Gatiss to choose to unbalance their hero -- and he is the hero, don't mistake that, just a very...rough-edged one -- bit by bit and allow him to discover slowly how much the new relationship with John has grown to mean to him -- but this is a lot more fun. Forcing him out of his adopted stance of emotional detachment -- which we've even seen in relation to his brother who tries to bribe John to spy on Sherlock for him out of "concern" -- and watching him not snap under the strain is fascinating. He doesn't know what to do with the new information -- but it is information and he can cope with it.

I don't want to absolutely ruin the end of the episode for those of you who have braved spoilers to follow me thus far -- suffice it to say, Moffat wanted to be sequel-hunting and classy at the same time and pulled it off moderately well.

And I really really hope that the new series -- which I hear will begin filming in the spring? -- will show up over here in non-pirate quality soon. I've figured out two possible ways for our heroes to survive the end of the Game, but what I'm really eager to see is if Moffat figured out a third.

Did I mention he's also Irish? Go forth and give thanks to the
mighty Minerva for making this post much more scenic
than it would otherwise have been!

"Catch you..."

Sherlock.

You knew I was going to get here sooner or later, right? Lets talk.

When I first heard about the "update" of Holmes -- "a detective for the 21st century," a tagline I devoutly hope Stephen Moffat didn't come up with or, if he did, that he regrets intensely -- I was dubious. Me? I'm a Brett girl. Always have been. Rathbone doesn't thrill me; Downey, Jr. amused me, but didn't shake my essential loyalty; King's (no, not that one) Mary Russell novels, ditto. As far as Holmes goes, it's all Brett all the way.

Despite my essential bias, I have to say: Moffat and his co-conspirator, Mark Gatiss, know their Holmes. There's really no better way to put it than that; better still, I suspect they know their Conan Doyle. I find C. Doyle interesting as a historical figure and I adore the Holmes canon, but he was a pretty hack-job writer, often comes across as being rather stupid, and was personally bigoted, Imperialistic, and jingoistic to a painful degree. Just try reading his "impartial" history of the Boer War -- but don't blame me when your eyeballs ache. Does all this affect his writing? Oh, hell yeah, honey. Get through Study in Scarlet -- and try not to wince. If Holmes himself doesn't come out with something winceable, just wait 'til we get to the "American scenes." Oh, baby, oh, baby.

And if that doesn't get you, try The Sign of Four. Argh. There's lots of awful -- yet, somehow, it didn't get swept away with a lot of the rest of the late Victoriana that The Strand and the Gentleman's Magazine and Blackhill (Cornhill? Corn...black? Blackhilll? Cornhillblack? Blackornhill? Oh, something like that. Someone else be the librarian and look it up!) and whatnot used to print up every month. There's just something about Holmes and Watson that works and continues to work and continues to work and just...well, it just goes on continuing to work.

And it works here. Gatiss and Moffat have got it jumping through old and new hoops and it still works.

So lets have a brief rundown. Spoilers ahead. Take this seriously. If you haven't seen it and want to, read no further.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.
Note the coat.
:)

Episode one, A Study in Pink. :) Great stuff. Really really awesome first episode. The characters and story spring straight into action and really don't stop to breathe for about an hour and half -- particularly Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes who speaks so quickly that I was surprised he didn't either a) pass out; or b) gasp at the end of every sentence like Mrs. Haddock in Gerald Durrell's story about his sister getting involved in spiritualism. Man must have breath control like a merman.

The basic plot is lifted straight from A Study in Scarlet (if you try to read the original, don't blame me for the pain of the second half. It hurts everyone.) A body is found; there are no clues/weird clues/anomalous clues; Lestrade calls in Holmes; and I could make a "the game's afoot" reference here and I will restrain myself. Holmes and Watson meet for the first time; Holmes shows off his observational skills all over the place; the rooming situation at 221b is arranged and we're off to the races.

I need to say right off the bat how excellent a pairing Holmes (Cumberbatch) and Watson (Freeman) are here. They are great. This is like...it's like watching David Tennant and John Simm play against each other as Doctor and Master -- an inevitable comparison given who wrote the storylines in each case. They feel each other out for a few scenes -- both as characters and, rather visibly, as actors; get a sense of how this could work -- and then they basically just start having fun. And they have a lot of fun. And it is good fun. :) Martin Freeman is fantastic. He is a solid, believable, angry, damaged, unbelivably hurt -- and still functioning John Watson. He has discovered depth and humor and anger in that character that I wasn't quite sure were there and it works when he does it. This Watson is an Afghan veteran; his wound is giving him psychological symptoms; and he starts blogging about his "adventures" with Sherlock largely on advice from his therapist. The opening scenes of Pink show some real darkness behind this character; he's struggling with survivor guilt, PTSD, a wound that won't seem to quite heal, and having no money.

Enter Sherlock and the 221b flat.

The rest is history, more or less. Rupert Graves as Lestrade is great stuff; just thick enough to let Sherlock be continually impatient with him but still a solid, dependable copper -- who also knows that Sherlock is a show-offy, overly dramatic prat who needs to be stepped on firmly now and then before he starts riots just because he can.

Martin Freeman as John Watson.
Couldn't find a picture of him
in the good coat.

Second episode, The Blind Banker. Less successful -- tries to draw on things like The Sign of Four and whatnot that really were Conan Doyle playing with his Orientalist/Imperialist prejudices and letting them run riot: The British Empire Is Good. Anything East of France (And Much of France) Is Bad. Anything Coming From the East Is SUSPICIOUS. And Probably EVIL To Boot.

One of the best parts of this show for genre fans is going to be seeing Paul Chequer, aka Eugene from Torchwood's "Random Shoes" episode as DI Dimmock trying to wrestle (not literally) Sherlock into being useful and coherent and polite, all at once. There's also a location from a Doctor Who episode -- look really carefully at the museum where the Asian teapots are being kept and see if it rings any bells. Personally, I think there are two locations: does anyone want to scrutinize the round, tall room where the curators sit -- there's a long scene with Soo Lin Yao there although it's mostly in the dark -- and then watch the Doctor Who "Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead" duo and see if anything looks familiar?

There are some great character moments here between Watson and Holmes -- e.g., a scene where Sherlock breaks into a flat to examine it -- and forgets to let Watson in, leaving the honest John storming in the street outside, occasionally stopping to shout through the letterbox to Sherlock in a mood that passes from curious to exasperated to angry and back to exasperation again. (Sherlock is being distracted by a strangulation attempt, by the way; so it isn't all rudeness on his part that he forgets good ol' John.)

And the show does introduce Sarah -- fan question: is she meant to replace Mary? if so...why? is there some reason we don't like the name Mary? -- who is a staffer at the medical clinic where Watson finds part-time work. They go out on a date -- Sherlock tags along -- disastrous consequences. There are people tied up; weapons aimed at them -- it isn't the greatest start to a relationship, lets just put it that way.

The worst part of this episode is, really, the story. It's Orientalist. It's not well thought out. It plays to a lot of stereotypes and cliches that...really, Moffat and Gatiss could have come up with better than this. I don't know why they didn't. It plays as good Holmes but -- it plays as good old-school Holmes and if this is new-school -- then they can't really hope to get away with stuff like this. At least not very often.

The whole function of the episode is really to lead up to the reveal of the existence of Moriarty. Not much of a reveal, I grant you, but given events in episode three, it needed revealing. And it's a nice introduction which also serves to get rid of the villain from this episode who was clearly a "single use" villain.

Sherlock and Watson having a pleasant night out.

So, Episode three, The Great Game. My friends and I counted at least four original Holmes stories being referenced in the first ten minutes of the show: "The Five Pips," "The Bruce Partington Plans," "A Scandal in Bohemia," and "The Empty House." There are others.

I have to say, I struggled with this episode a little bit for oh, say...the first thirty fucking seconds because after that it. did. not. stop. Which was great. Lets face it, Sherlockian logic works at its best when it moves so fast you can't see the joins. The Great Game moves fast enough and it was dark enough to make me a very, very happy new little fangirl.

"Bored. Bored -- bored!"

Sherlock is bored. He is very, very bored. (See? look at him being bored over there.)

Much to his delight -- something interesting happens. Someone blows up the building across the street. And then sends him a cell phone. A cell phone made up to look identical to a phone that was critical to the Pink case, in fact. And the phone has a single message: five beeps and a photograph. The photograph takes them to a location where there are items. Evidence from an old case. One of Sherlock's first cases, in fact. And one which he failed to solve.

Not wildly interesting in and of itself -- except he also gets a phone call on the cell. Someone needs his help -- someone has been tied up with explosives all over them and needs him to solve the mystery of the shoes before the explosives are detonated.

Neat, yes?

And guaranteed to get the attention of someone like Sherlock who thrives on this sort of situation: two puzzles, both comfortably removed from real people, and a deadline to work against. His favorite things!

Of course, the problems multiply: he solves the first mystery -- an old murder which he failed to solve years before; saves the woman with explosives strapped to her...and lookie here: the cell phone rings again. Another photo (introduced by four beeps this time); another plea for help; another old case. Another solution; another salvation -- and we repeat. But -- we kind of don't because Sherlock loses this one. It isn't his fault, it must be said: he solves the mystery and gets the solution back to the Mysterious Evil Genius (are we really taken in by this? No, no, we are not -- but it's fun to pretend for awhile even though we know who it is) under time -- but the woman at the other end of the phone starts to describe said Mysterious Evil Genius -- and that's all she wrote. Big boom. But still -- the phone calls (with ever-dropping numbers of beeps) and the old puzzles keep coming.

The old mysteries don't get a lot harder, in all fairness, but Watson is starting to get frustrated: Mycroft (who we met in the first episode) has a case he wants Sherlock to work on that Sherlock's ignoring; and Watson doesn't feel that Sherlock is taking the threat to the people seriously. Since the last phone call is from a child -- Watson nearly loses his bottle entirely. But, it has to be said, doesn't.

So we solve the final mystery -- to do with a forged painting -- and we finally get a name for our Mysterious Evil Genius, in case we had any damned doubt. But there aren't any more phone calls: perhaps the terror is over? Of course, we know it isn't.

salt and fire

hey, look, guys! i finally finished a season of something! i thought the fireworks last night were in celebration of that fact, really -- not the really irritating ones at 2 a.m., but the nicer ones earlier in the evening. i definitely think that something should mark the accomplishment of finishing the first season of supernatural.

yeah, i know; i'm only about 6 years behind the curve here but at least part of that time? i was living with no cable and no real way of knowing such a show existed. i would have walked over broken glass to get cable had it been a new doctor who series -- and, in fact, went to great lengths to find internet rips of the first christopher eccleston episodes via canada -- but no-one told me about supernatural.

i actually rather walked into it through sheer chance; the first season boxed set was on sale at best buy for something like $12. and i looked at it, remembered part of an episode i had seen recently where the boys walked into a convention of themselves, and thought, 'what the hell.' so far, i have not been disappointed.

in fact, certain episodes -- like "asylum," "faith," and "nightmare" -- have raised the bar in terms of what i expect. if you can do that, guys, lets have less messing about with stuff like "skin" or "the benders" -- both fun, don't get me wrong (and it's always a delight to see dr. julia from earth 2 again), but nothing special and both really derivative of episodes from other series: "squeeze" from the x-files in the case of "skin" and "countrycide" from torchwood in the case of "the benders" as well as things like the hills have eyes and so on and so forth.

i always hope for more out of season finales than i usually get. the exceptions to this tend to be the new seasons of doctor who ("journey's end," anyone?), torchwood, and buffy. carnivale kind of doesn't make the list because, lets face it, it's that weird all the damn time and there are only 2 seasons. i have a great fondness for al swearengen's monolog at the end of season 1 of deadwood, but i haven't found time or focus yet to watch the next season, so i can't comment.

back to the original topic in hand: so, yes, i like the end of season 1. it was great to finally get some answers out of john winchester even if they were unsatisfactory and partial. i'm interested to see what happens with the colt if only because i know it's important in later seasons and the idea of a side-arm made especially for a "hunter" on a horse by colt himself just seems like such an obvious nod to roland in the dark tower series that it makes me happy. it probably has nothing to do with it and we're either setting up for a plot element that goes nowhere or a flashback to some winchester ancestor, but it makes me happy anyway.

and there was some good character development in the last few episodes. it was nice to see dean finally admit how much he depends on his brother and father; how little else he feels he has outside of them. and equally pleasant to see sam stop bitching about his father in rather vague ways and actually take a shot at standing up to him squarely.

and since i vaguely remember some of the twitching online in the genre blogs i read around the end of season 1 and the kind of "well, we know it got renewed so they really can't all be dead---right?" feeling that was wandering around, i'm intrigued to see what happens next. the good bit is that season 2 was on sale the next week for about the same amount, so i don't have to indulge in any delayed gratification. i can get my gratification at about -- oh, 5 this afternoon. :)

friday fun times: "i am rygel XVI, dominar to over 600 billion people. i don't need to talk to you!"

after writing my wednesday post for this week, i was thinking about farscape and about how i didn't have a video for this friday and...well, the two things just came together.

so go forth and enjoy the pilot episode of the series: season 1, episode 1 -- and for those of you who have netflix, the rest of the series up on insty. :) (or at least it was as of the last checking of my insty queue!)

quit while you're ahead

while i was clearing out my rss feeds on google reader this weekend, i came across a post from...well...sometime in the past two weeks? it had been awhile since i cleared everything! anyway, a post from sf signal asking about which series you would like to see end if you could. the original post is talking about books, but i'm not a real diehard fan of any currently going series, so i broadened it a bit.

i did take the liberty of adducing a few book series that i am just tired of seeing about the place -- i don't even have to mention the sparkly vampire thing, do i? good. i didn't think so.

but there're also laurell k. hamilton's anita blake books. i read the first one, guilty pleasures, back in the day when it first came out and loved it. i loved the series right through the third book, gave up because it was too gory for me at the time, came back years later, caught up, got through the gore -- and stubbed my toe on all the damned sex. jeeze -- i'm all for a little light romping about, but god. the books stopped being urban fantasy awhile ago and started being soft-core porn.

george r. r. martin's books i vaguely resent because a) i've never been able to get into them; b) i hear there's a tv mini-series version coming with lots and lots and lots of actors i love in it and i wish they were all doing something i could get more enthusiastic about; and c) my ex thought they were just awesome. so that's just a constellation of things i don't necessarily appreciate.

i rather wish dennis mckiernan would stop writing mithgar books. i'm not quite sure why i feel this -- i still enjoy reading them -- but they don't feel like he's paying as much attention as he used to. despite the fact that, in the most recent one, he brought back my favorite character -- aravan -- and favorite location -- aravan's ship, the eroean -- i'm still not sold on the more recent novels. the earlier ones? i'll recommend those heartily to anyone in need of an epic fantasy fix. i remember reading journey of the fox rider and the dragonstone with my mouth hanging open i was so into it.

and there are a couple of series -- trilogies, really -- that i rather wish had ended at stand-alones. caroline stevermer and patricia wrede's cecilia and kate novels might have been better if they'd stopped at the enchanted chocolate pot; and i'm really afraid that steve cash's meq series isn't going to be much improved by a third or even a fourth entry in the series. but i could be wrong.

as far as other media go -- there are series i got so frustrated with that i gave up, notably buffy the vampire slayer. by the middle of season 6, i really disliked buffy so much that the rest of the scooby crew no longer made it worthwhile to watch the show. i stopped with "gone," just before "doublemeat palace" which had, sadly, been spoilered for me by the blurb on the back of the dvd set! with the prospect of "doublemeat" looming before me, it hardly seemed worthwhile to put up with buffy's bad attitude in the distant hope that spike would come to his senses and suck her dry and not in a fun way. i'm not sure i wish that whedon had stopped before season 6 -- i've been told by those hardier than i who have gone on and finished the series that it really is worth it and i do intend to finish it...one of these days.

i think we could probably all live without another fast & furious movie -- much as i love three out of the existing four! (the one in tokyo is just --- bizarre. it's almost not even fun it's so weird -- i mean, what's with the chick who looks more like michael jackson the more you watch the movie? just watch the initial car "race," enjoy the kid rock song -- then find something else to do would be my advice. if you want a lucas black movie, watch friday night lights -- that has garrett hedlund, too!)

much as i love the underworld franchise as a series which keeps kate beckinsale in latex, vampires toothy, and lots of guns about the place, there are days when i wish they had stopped at a stand-alone. and do i even need to mention the existence of the two sequels to the matrix? the original brilliant stand-alone movie -- ruined by its sequels.

i never finished farscape -- after season 3's two-parter,  "self inflicted wounds," i just couldn't go on.

it wasn't that i didn't love the show; i did. and it wasn't that i wasn't into the plot or the characters any more; i was.

it was more that after going through most of a pack of tissues on that two-parter -- and all the dreadful occurrences of the prior episodes in that season: what was it? kick d'argo month? -- i was a tad bit drained as far as the crew of moya went. like buffy, i fully intend to go back and finish the series someday; how could i ever totally abandon a series with a villain as truly spine-chilling as dear darling old scorpy? (and what makes it even better is that wayne pygram was grand moff tarkin in revenge of the sith -- yeah, yeah, yeah, i know we only saw him for about 25 seconds and he had one line but who cares?!)

but, really, the topper of "series that i can't stand to finish right at the minute" (which is kind of what the end of this post has turned into) has to be torchwood.

i watched "day one" of the "children of earth" mini-season and stuck right there.

i know what happens. i know it's horrible. i know awful things happen to at least one of my favorite characters. and i'm in full wuss-out fangirl mode -- somewhere in the back of my mind i am convinced that if i just hold out on watching "children of earth" for long enough, the bbc will come to its senses and renew the show for a fourth, proper season.

it won't happen. and someday, i will gather together sufficient tissues and chocolate and i will finish "children of earth" -- but not this week.