Tag Archives: tv series

Sherlock Season Four Reviews and Recommendations

BBC Sherlock looking dazed, confused and fearful with blurry John Watson and Mycroft Holmes in the background

First Brexit, then Trump and now Series 4. Will the nightmare never stop?

Not having seen all of BBC Sherlock Series 4 (life is too short, especially at my age, and we really should reduce the amount of bad and horrible images and trash we lock into our brains and fill it with good things) and having too many serious issues to focus on at the moment (You see, Humans, this is why we can’t have nice things! We forget Why we aren’t suffering from economic collapse, terrorizing regimes, world wars, and disfiguring, disabling diseases like polio and suddenly think “Oh, the Great Depression, WWII, the McCarthy Era and near nuclear annihilation during the Cold War sounded like jolly times of camaraderie (especially if you were a straight, white male), and weren’t Thatcher and Reagan such lovely parental figures taking such good care of all of us and creating perpetual homelessness to allow us to say at least we aren’t homeless?”). So instead I’m providing links to an excellent review of Sherlock Series/Season 4 by Vox (which brings up several points I’ve been making since S3 Episode 3 at the least (okay, I’ve been complaining since Irene Adler in series 2, but the series didn’t completely derail until S3 E3)) and a compilation of reviews by various press:
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To Quote You, Sherlock, I Got It Right.

Empty hearse with flowers spelling out 01-01-14, the air date for Sherlock Series 3, Episode 1 in the UK

I hearse you were coming back. Why do I think this promo idea was dreamed up by Mark Gatiss?

I’ll refrain from doing a Sherlock-like gloat… Okay, I can’t help it. I was right. I correctly deduced that Sherlock Series 3 would air 1 January, 2014 in the U.K., giving Moffat and Gatiss the double Holiday punch of a Dr. Who Christmas and a Sherlock New Year’s. There’s a very nice piece, with photos, on the Guardian site here.

Benedict Cumberbatch as BBC Sherlock in deerstalker and coat with sour frown on his face

My sentiments exactly, Sherlock, over the change in plans. Now where can I find an otter who looks like he’s sucking lemons for my desktop?

I am, however, only mildly consoled in my grief that my U.K. Holiday Invasion was canceled due to circumstances beyond my control (although, if I wasn’t already committed to classes starting the following week, I’d seriously consider doing damage to a credit card and fulfilling several items on my “bucket list” in one fell swoop to the London). Meanwhile, I am questioning the psychological affect of the delay in Sherlock Series 3. I find myself unreasonably cheered and excited by a new blog post appearing on the official John Watson blog site. I’ll refrain from commenting on the comments, since I don’t want to have to deal with any spoiler alerts (there are people in developed countries who don’t know who Mary is, seriously?), however, the blog post ties in nicely with the social media teaser video (below) and the hearse promotion.

 

No, Thank You, Ms. Adler. I’m Already Tied Up.

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been a tad busy lately — and I fear it’s going to continue at least until the end of the year. I am, however, hoping to move Sherlock Cares to a new hosting service and definitely a new theme. The old one is no longer supported by the developer and I’d rather build my own theme than wrestle with any more 3rd Party issues. For one thing, I plan to do some simplification and speed optimization (I’ve been taking a few classes online to hone the brain and update the coding repertoire). I’m also wrestling with the fact that Google appears to be under the influence of Moriarty’s Minions (or possibly is being blackmailed by Charles Augustus Milverton) and is making RSS news feeds, particularly on specific subjects like Sherlock Holmes, problematic. I’m toying with the idea of writing a program to parse a Google news results pageview and then feeding it into my site, but I’m not certain I wouldn’t rather spend the time writing some new fanfic (and non-fan fic). 

I’ve also been re-reading the Canon (inspired by the visit to The International Sherlock Holmes exhibit presently at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) as well as quite a few spin-offs and pastiches. I hope to get some book reviews and recommendations posted soon with some suggestions for Holiday Gift Giving to share Sherlock Holmes with the world.

Martin Freeman as John Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as BBC Sherlock Holmes reading pages over someone's shoulder.

Oh, look, Sherlock! We made the Nice AND the Naughty List this year.

I’ll be re-posting the Sherlock Gift Tags PDF from last Holiday Season and coming up with a few Holiday gifts as we work our way towards the Big Day.

Here’s wishing everyone in the U.S. had a Happy Thanksgiving and a lovely Holiday Season of Sherlock Holmes.

 

A Nicer Sherlock With a Bigger Star Than Benedict Cumberbatch? Really BBC?

Benedict Cumberbatch as BBC Sherlock with blowtorch and goggles reading computer over John Watson's shoulder

Over at Deadline London, Ben Stephenson, BBC drama head, confirms that if Sherlock had been made with a focus on international sales it would have been with different casting, specifically someone other than Benedict Cumberbatch. The article states:

If Sherlock had been made expressly for international, Stephenson told me recently, it would have been cast differently. In the early days of the show, he said there were concerns that Benedict Cumberbatch’s high-functioning sociopath would not be embraced. “Couldn’t he be slightly nicer? Couldn’t you have a bigger star?” are questions he said were bandied about. “Ultimately it was the courage of convictions. It made Benedict a star and people love those rough edges.”

Why am I thinking that “the courage of convictions” were Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss throwing polite but firm fits at casting “a bigger star” instead of using the right actors?

Although, I do have to mention a recent “Happy Hour” conversation I had with someone who said she couldn’t watch Sherlock because “he’s just so mean to people.” I should mention that this person is a graphic designer who announced in the same conversation that she had just used Adobe Photoshop layers for the first time. After I picked my jaw up from my cheese plate (she’s not that young or a new designer), she explained she used Illustrator for all of her design work and used Photoshop to crop pictures. In other words, this is not someone who handles change in her life, or contradiction, well.

Fortunately, a large part of the prime PBS demographics disagrees with her and likes a character who says what we all wish we could say but are too polite to do so.

“What’s it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring.”— Sherlock Holmes in BBC Sherlock, A Study in Pink

Taxes nearly done. Class materials prepared (and class starting tomorrow). Alas, I won’t be able to make 221B Con (despite having a membership), but I will get a chance to work on the fanfic and some more captions this weekend. Ta for now.

But Santa Moftiss, We’ve Been Good!

A series of images of Andrew Scott as BBC Sherlock James Moriarty looking disturbed and then screaming; text reads "A 3 month delay for Sherlock S3 production? Why not just KILL ME NOW!"

NO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yes, that eery, horrific noise you heard was the sound of millions of BBC Sherlock fans screaming in pain at the news that production for Season 3 is being delayed for at least 3 months due to scheduling conflicts for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

This is what happens when you have so much incredible talent working together. *Heavy sigh* Well, kids, I guess we’ll just have to find ways to keep ourselves entertained (notice I did not say sane) until late 2013.