botherd | (no subject)

I caught up with the first two episodes of Sherlock, just in time for the last one tonight, and I have Thoughts. Mostly negative ones, even though I quite enjoyed it overall, just because I always tend to pick things apart.

So, I thought the first ep was mostly really good, but I thought the second left a lot to be desired.

A Study in Pink was nicely tense and intriguing and I liked Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock an awful lot. HOWEVER. There was one moment of such epic stupidity that I couldn't really get past:

At the end, when Sherlock's all, "Oh noes, I will never find out which pill was which!" TAKE THAT SHIT TO A LAB AND GET IT ANALYSED. Come on, Sherlock, you're meant to be smart. (Also, most likely explanation is that both pills were poison and the cabbie just didn't swallow his, y/y? Did Sherlock even mention that possibility?)

So that was the first episode. Mostly it was good, but those things bugged.

The second episode though, oh my God. Aside from the fact that it was just kind of boring, I couldn't get past the fail. I thought A Study in Pink was a really good, convincing update of a Victorian story set in modern times, but The Blind Banker was really noticeably based on something old-fashioned. I mean, Chinese smugglers? Really? The whole thing was just... racist. I expect those kind of offensive, stereotypical portrayals in old stuff, but that doesn't mean they're okay. Pick a different story to update.

And there was bonus gender!fail, when they turned Sarah into a damsel in distress for no discernible reason. The whole time she was tied to the chair with an arrow trained on her I wanted her to tip her chair backwards or to the side or whatever so she could get out of the way, but no: she stayed completely still, while Watson, also tied to a chair, managed to shuffle along and knock the arrow away. She'd already whacked one of the guys over the head, proving herself to be a pretty capable person, so WHY make her sit around doing nothing while Watson saves her? DNW.

I'm hoping the last episode tonight will be better. Moffat's writing again (ETA: or maybe he isn't, I've heard conflicting things), so it should be.

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Gatiss tonight. They got one each and let rubbish Stephen Thompson write the middle one.

Ah, that's what the Radio Times said; I got confused because I'd read elsewhere that the second one was "the only one not written by Steven Moffat".

Some places got confused about that, yeah, but as a co-creation without the time for them to co-write, an ep each is what happened. I would have preferred the second one to have been a co-write, and that was probably what they'd have done ideally too, but what with Moff and Gatiss' other commitments... I hope they resolve it for the next series now it has been re-commissioned, because I think it will swiftly lose a big chunk of intelligent audience if the writing isn't consistently good. The Midsomer Murders viewers and fandom will watch it whatever, but e'en so.

Oh, I didn't realise it had been recommissioned. Awesome! I agree about the importance of good writing; when your main character is meant to be as intelligent as Sherlock is, the writing has to be just as clever.

Yeah, The Blind Banker was a load of old cobblers. I'll give episode 3 a chance though because I really enjoyed A Study In Pink (although the central mystery wasn't much cop, really).

At one point during The Blind Banker I thought we'd reached the climax of the episode, and then I found out we were only halfway through. Disappointing. I'm hopeful that tonight'll be better though.