I haz shinies, yay!

[wiseheart]

Abusing the shared computer in the school library again (godawful keyboard, by the way), since Help Guy still haven't found his way to us from next door. *sighs*

Anyway, Bestsellers (the English bookshop in the inner city) has worked its magic and my brand new Season 3 Sherlock DVDs have arrived yesterday. So far, I only had the time to watch "The Empty Hearse". My spoilery review is behind the tag, for people like myself who live on Mars.

For starters, I liked the episode as a whole.

Sure, there was a lot of completely unnecessary stuff, like Anderson's dogged attempts to prove that Sherlock'salive and him trying to come up with some hare-braiend theories to explain the Fall. When did he become a Sherlock fanboy anyway? I don't say that it was impossible for the guilt to cause such results, but let's face it, we weren't shown the process that would lead to it, and frankly, it was just a wee bit unbelievable. Although I liked the beard.

Still, I found it a waste of time. Time that could have been used to show John's grieving process, his way to acceptance, his meeting with Mary, his moving on. Yes, I know I'm obsessed with characterization, but for me, it's a lot more interesting than idiotic theories. As much as I appreciate Anderson as the comic relief, John's a hundred times more important for the whole thing, and frankly, he was too sparsely used. Ditto for Lestrade and Mrs Hudson.

And shoot me, but I was very disappointed with Sherlock's parents. I get that it was an insider joke to allow BC's parents, both actors, to share a bit of their son's fame, but for the worldbuilding part the parents were, frankly, pitiful. John called them "ordinary", but he was just being nice. No way that two geniuses like Mycroft and Sherlock could have come from that utterly mediocre stock. Unless they were test tube babies, of course, genetically enhanced and gestated within 6 months to become fully mature. But even that would be unlikely. I've read half a dozen much better parental background theories in fanfic, including my own. Sorry to sound immodest, but that's the sad truth.

Also, I know that the way "Sherlock" is filmed is supposed to be highly visual and fantastic and stuff, and to the knowing eye it probably is. Me, on the other hand, I was confused like hell at times. The cuts were so rapid that I couldn't even figure out what was happening. My fault, I know. Should have grown up on video games. Had the same problem with the second part of "The Hobbit", too, BTW.

So, you'd probably ask, was there anything I actually liked? Oh, yes, there was. Freeman and Cumberbatch are still fantastic together, and I liked Amanda Abbington's Mary,too (steadfastly ignoring what would be revealed later and what I already knew). And then, there was MYCROFT, of course. Mycroft, amazing as always. And the brothers interacted a lot more, which I loved. I couldn't quite shake off the suspicion that Mycroft was actually glad about John moving on, because now he had his little brother for himself again. But I might be wrong.

All in all, it was an episode with a solid enough plot, fantastic acting, confusing visuals and a lot of wasted opportunities.

Also, I got myself the Torchwood novel "Another Life" by Peter Anghelidis. Mostly because I needed the whole background about the Bruydac for "Director Jones". Not a bad novel per se - the author writes Gwen as she should have been, instead of the unsympathetic idiot as she appeared in the series, but I can live with it. What got me really bored was Owen and his VR game - I leafed through those parts. Unfortunately, they were rather long. Tosh was great. Alas, Ianto got largely ingored.Just like in the series. But the book is useful for my writing, so I'm not complaining.

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Your reactions are much like mine.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Comes with our age, I guess. I lived "The Sign of Three" better, despite the OOC-ness of Sherlock displaying emotion in front of such a large crowd. The individual cases were hilarious, though, I laughed myself silly. The Mycroft work-out scene was my favourite. Liked the main case, too, even if it Jossed my Miss Marple storylinr.