Playing the waiting game for Sherlock, season three, one finds one's self doing all sorts of things to pass the time. Take tonight, for example. I was walking through the living room just as the good Carter was settling down to watch some Netflix. An Asian woman was describing the process of applying tea to an ancient tea pot in a museum.
"Hmm," I thought. "Familiar . . . what heist film is she watching? I know this . . ."
And so I stood, stopped in my tracks, going, "I know this! What is it?"
"Of course, you know this!" the good Carter replied.
But I didn't get it until the signature music and main characters showed up: "Is this 'The Blind Banker?'"
It was, of course. and I found myself drawn into watching it. I actually don't think I have re-watched it since the DVD release, all those years ago. Long before Elementary came along. It was always the "not quite as good" episode, and the one I'd willingly admit was lesser when the Elementary fans would complain that Sherlock wasn't a perfect show.
But good goddamn, after watching a season and a half of Elementary? I freakin' love this episode!
The client from Holmes's college days. The cipher-based case. The locked room murder Holmes finds was committed by someone who near-impossibly came in from a great height ala Tonga. The Asian tattoo. So many elements of a Sherlock Holmes story. True, those cipher stories were never the best, even in Doyle's day, but still . . . Canon-ish! So Canon-ish . . . .
And the charm of Cumberbatch and Freeman interacting in a relationship that actually feels like a relationship. Holmes giving Watson the twirl-around talk on human memory only being so accurate, then having Watson stop him with a phone pic. And Molly. Gotta love some Molly, poor uncomfortable Molly.
John is saving Sherlock's life again, sure. Moriarty is teased again, sure. But that lucky girl with the jade hairpin worth millions learning of her unexpected windfall, Watson's charming-yet star-crossed date Sarah, so many little moments that, all in all, make this still an entertaining and rewatchable episode.
I'm sorry, "Blind Banker," for ever doubting you. Sure, you're the little brother to some pretty impressive, and even award-nominated TV movies. But I remember another little brother to a very impressive "mind of a whole government" type of wonder man, and that little brother didn't do too bad for himself either.
Maybe you just needed a better Scotland Yard guy.
The ongoing investigation of Sherlock Holmes, reported from the Peoria, Illinois outpost of Baker Street's dirtiest half a dozen.
Hey, I liked Dimmock.
ReplyDeleteI put TBB down to first season pains...they had to decide on a direction, that TBB is the one they didn't pick in the end (the option in which Sherlock and John meet new people all the time, the cases are a little bit less obvious referential and the episodes focus not only on Sherlock and John but also on the client/future victim). That's why the episode feels so different. But "bad" in Sherlock-land is still way better than what your average TV-show has to offer.
The set-and-leave deathtrap, so redolent of cheap melodrama and 1960's Batman; the Yellow Peril plot, so 19th Century in its causal racism; the sword fight in Baker Street with the Arab in full Bedouin garb, so ridiculous that PBS' editing actually improved the episode. It just goes to show that when you're a fan you forgive a show its flaws and when you're a disliker even the best aspects of a show are flaws to be mocked.
ReplyDeleteNo, I believe it goes to show that if you set something you enjoy next to something you don't enjoy, it looks that much better by comparison. And which comes first, the enjoyable program or the fan? Feel free to mock Sherlock all you want. I think it can take it.
DeleteIt is not mocking, since I like "Sherlock", to point out when it falls short. I do that with "Elementary" also, as you well know.
DeleteWell, you're on the right way, Brad. After what we've got this season so far TBB at least feels still like 'real' Sherlock and not 'Sherlock light'. I have no idea what happened and am curious to hear what you're thinking when you've finally seen it. But I'm so damnably disappointed at the moment, I have no words.
ReplyDeleteBut I liked Dimmock, too.
I think it is fun...for the moment. The slight shift in focus was necessary and appropriate for part of the story. And I really like how they build up to ep 3, with all the hints they drop concerning CAM.
DeleteSorry, but I don't agree AT ALL. I can see absolutely no necessity for that shift in focus and do find the sudden lightweight sitcom-y feel highly inappropriate for a show with seasons like the ones we got before.
DeleteOooo . . . does this mean in addition to our Rathbone/Brett and Miller/Cumberbatch factions, we're eventually going to get a funny Cumberbatch/serious Cumberbatch schism? Interesting . . .
DeleteI think it is better to discuss this when you have actually seen it. Let's just say that I had one or two problems with TEH, but loooooved TSOS. The current season is a little bit different from the former ones, which does disappointed a few fans, and naturally a lot of the show haters have come out of the woodwork in order to fuel the fire, but fact is that TEH pulled a new rating record with 33,8% (That's more than one third of the audience) and STOT barely lost viewers (the final ratings aren't there yet, but I guess something around 32% will be the end result). And it seems like a lot of people miss that those two episodes are just one giant built-up for the third...which, I am sure, will hurt! Badly!
DeleteSeries 4 & 5 have been confirmed. So the current (well, almost current in the USA) series is just part of the ongoing story. Nothing wrong with a bit of lightness. And I'm pretty sure we'll get some darkness in Episode 3.
DeleteAlas, at least one writer of (really excellent) fanfic is so upset that the John Watson seen most recently is so unlike 'her" Watson--that she's begun "getting into" Elementary. Sad....
(Yes, I've been re-watching Sherlock, too. It's all good. Some is a better. For a change, there's always "Sleepy Hollow"--an original take on an American story. With the hero played by a Brit.)
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DeleteYes, AQ is a decent writer, but she hasn't produced anything in ages and I'm rather cross because of all the unfinished WiPs. Let E have her, if she prefers it!
DeleteJournalists at the preview of S3/3 cried it says on the web - although they cheered for TEH, too, but maybe we're back on track? Keeping all fingers crossed....
ReplyDelete