If Benedict Cumberbatch starts working with otters, I bet we could solve global warming and achieve World Peace in my lifetime!
The International Business Times has an interesting summery of Sherlock and Sherlock Holmes news and gossip, including some Sherlock Series/Season 4 updates and hints from Mofftiss. Since Mofftiss is already teasing and people are already guessing about what’s to come in Series/Season 4, I’ll throw out a few guesses and thoughts of my own.
Sherlock Series/Season 4 Possibilities
First, I believe that the comment by Sherlock in “Sign of Three” that he loves to dance and then demonstrates his skills, followed by —
“Never really comes up in crime work but, um, you know, I live in hope of the right case.”
— is a tease for “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” where the men really do dance. Mofftiss have already done one of these literal re-takes with “The Naval Treaty” being about a belly-dancer and not a military department. (Although it will mean Cumberbatch taking a lot more dancing lessons since it was obvious he didn’t do the pirouette and his waltzing wasn’t Strictly Ballroom quality — but lovely all the same.)
Since it was also obvious in “The Empty Hearse” that someone on Team Sherlock (yes, I’m looking at you, Mark Gatiss) reads some of the fan fiction, or at least knows the plots of some of the fanfic that’s popular on an Archive of Our Own, and IF Mofftiss continues the pandering and hack writing of “His Last Vow” in Series/Season 4 (which, alas, I expect), then I expect that we’ll get some Two Men and a Baby (and a Female Dexter/River Song), along with Uncle Mycroft made uncomfortable by said baby. And, of course, more Martin Freeman masterfully portraying John Watson suffering more than any human since Job. Actually, I might forgive them if they swiped the Sherlock-becomes-a-werewolf-due-to-a-Baskerville-experiment-gone-horribly-wrong gimmick. At least, it would be something different than the plot gimmicks we’ve seen a million times.
Sorry if I sound a bit bitter, but… well, I am. This isn’t like Castle getting lazy and recycling standard conspiracy plots from the 80’s & 90’s, or even Miami Vice lifting the entire “Did You See the Sunrise” episode ending shot-for-shot from Magnum, P.I. For me, “His Last Vow” was like David Lean deciding that people would like Dr. Zhivago better with a happy ending or he could extend the franchise of Lawrence of Arabia, if Lawrence stays and fixes the Middle East problems. Or ending Casablanca by having Rick shoot Captain Renault and Victor, and board the plane for New York with Ilsa.
Sherlock Series/Season 1 was groundbreaking Art — genuine storytelling, acting, directing, scoring, costuming, set designing, everything filmmaking art! Because of the artistry of Series/Season 1, and the continued freshness for much of Series/Season 2, I kept my fingers-shut about the snowballing problems in “Scandal in Belgravia” despite massive illogical, impossible bits of gimmickry. Like Irene’s surprising appearance from the back of the plane . Which meant she had to have not only gone from freshly-showered-naked-woman-with-nothing-but-a-borrowed-dressing-gown-watching-the-car-with-Sherlock-drive-down-the-block-from-the-window to a perfectly-coiffed-designer-clothed-made-up-and-accessorized villainess in the time it took Mycroft’s agents to drive Sherlock directly from the flat to the plane, BUT she had to have snuck on board past the CIA agent who was guarding the stairs, slipped past both Sherlock AND Mycroft to get to the back of the plane unseen (passengers & Sherlock facing forward, Mycroft facing the rear of the plane, the only entrance being the standard one by First Class and Adler comes up behind Sherlock from the rear of the Economy Class)!
This sort of thing is sloppy filmmaking and cheap tricks. It’s fine for 60-second Coca Cola and Hallmark commercials, but after “A Study in Pink” I expect more from Team Sherlock. Okay, let me correct that. I expected more. Now I merely hope for more and better, but what I expect…
For those who asked, yes, I’m working on at least one more Holmes Boys story but it’s grown in size and scope and taking longer than expected because (unlike some people who shall remain nameless…Moffat) I’m having to do a lot more research to make certain it’s as accurate and consistent as possible.
“Since it was also obvious in “The Empty Hearse” that someone on Team Sherlock (yes, I’m looking at you, Mark Gatiss) reads some of the fan fiction, or at least knows the plots of some of the fanfic that’s popular on an Archive of Our Own, and IF Mofftiss continues the pandering and hack writing of “His Last Vow” in Series/Season 4 (which, alas, I expect), then I expect that we’ll get some Two Men and a Baby (and a Female Dexter/River Song), along with Uncle Mycroft made uncomfortable by said baby.”
Ack! You just described my worst nightmare! Oh, I wish the Moftiss would stay away from ALL fan fiction!!!!
Yes. I know what you mean. I confess I wasn’t certain anyone in Sherlock fandom would get the “Three Men in a Baby” reference since it came out so long ago, and so few younger fans appear to have heard of it. I was thinking I should have changed this to “Hamish Holmes” since most of the Sherlock fans know of the fanfic where Sherlock and Irene have a child named Hamish whom Sherlock discovers when Adler is killed by Sebastian Moran and their son, Hamish, is 5(?) years old.
I think it’s amazing that Elementary which began so incredibly awful by completely eviscerated the character of Watson to turn her into a Frat Boy/Lads wet dream of weakness, submission and vulnerability with Sherlock as the kinky-sex crazed Lad has improved with time, while Sherlock which began so incredibly brilliantly with a genuine updating of the characters from Canon has devolved into a sloppy, soppy, repetitive, Fan Boys Only Fantasy Clubhouse of cliches, gimmicks, and predictable plot devices. For Heaven’s Sake Moftiss, what the hell happened to your originality?! (And pride.)
Yes, I’ve noticed that about Elementary, too…it has improved, while Sherlock…um…yeah. That last episode was a bit hard to swallow. And I tried, believe me!
Yes.
Unfortunately, as time has passed not only has “His Last Vow” pretty much destroyed Sherlock for me, it’s made it impossible to ignore many of the same problems in “Scandal in Belgravia”: the first time Moffat through Watson’s characterization under the bus, blithely wrote literally impossible scenes and situations (although a friend who’d only seen the PBS version, informed me that PBS deleted the worst offender in the airplane), and gave us four “endings” to the episode (1. Sherlock solves the phone puzzle — “Sorry about dinner.”; 2. John chooses to tell Sherlock she’s in the Witness Protection Program rather than that she’s dead; 3. Sherlock staring out the window after tucking the phone in the drawer; and 4. the actual beheading rescue and fade to black.) We’ll pretend we don’t recall a few of the more minor “Mofattisms” in the episode (like the notion that a woman can not actually win in a battle of wits with Sherlock and requires the assistance of a man (Moriarty) to have a chance and well, all those other Lads Notions that are becoming more prevalent).
It’s one thing to have Abrahams trash the viability of the Star Trek series (not only can individual people now use a portable transporter to completely move across the galaxy, but with Khan’s blood, they can bring people back from the dead), but like the total destruction by Lucas of the Star Wars series with his “prequels,” Mofftiss has taken something truly brilliant and done irreparable damage. I’ve re-watched every episode but the last, but I’m now sensitized to the smaller cheats. Like John Watson for the past two years, I grieve.