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9/8/10 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minervasoloI feel almost obliged to have opinions on Doctor Who.
Characterisation, A++
Cinematography, A++
Casting, A (amazing for the main roles, but very white overall)
Mystery plots, D
I'm sorry, but the first and second episode both hinged on Sherlock not noticing something as a viewer I found reasonably obvious:
I would have loved an actual ACD inspired episode, rather than just snippets, but failing that a good, solid mystery would have been nice. It's Sherlock Holmes. I don't want to be frustrated because I'm ahead of him.
The third episode didn't suffer from this, partly because everyone knew it was Moriarty behind it all anyway, and partly because the several-short-mysteries format meant they didn't have to string anything out. Though "Janus Cars" was a little painful. I liked the ending, including the cliff-hanger, though Moriarty chewed that scenery to pieces. Sounded almost Lloyd Grossman. I liked that he'd appeared briefly earlier, but when it's only three episodes I would have preferred to see a cameo in episode 1 or 2 as well. When I first saw that profile I though it might be Jonathan Rhys Meyers, but that would have completely ruled out any earlier cameo appearance!
(how awesome would JRM be as Moriarty? You know, just as glimpses)
Let's face it, I'll watch another series quite cheerfully. I may even watch it on iplayer if I miss it, which is something I don't actually enjoy doing. But I'm not even a big mystery fan (well, Rosemary&Thyme, since it's the only thing one at that time of day worth watching) and I was ahead of Sherlock in two episodes. I can't imgine what a Poirot fan would have thought. The point of Watson is to make sure we're one step behind Holmes, so we can appreciate his brilliance without having the whole mystery solved in the first five minutes and the rest of the episode being evidence hunting (which is a horrible way to solve crimes!).
Just don't make the characters TSTL just to string the plot out a bit longer. It makes me want to wander off and get a cup of tea, which really shouldn't be true of a show with Benedict Cumberbatch in.
Characterisation, A++
Cinematography, A++
Casting, A (amazing for the main roles, but very white overall)
Mystery plots, D
I'm sorry, but the first and second episode both hinged on Sherlock not noticing something as a viewer I found reasonably obvious:
"Your cab is here." "I haven't called a cab." Rinse, repeat several times until the audience is grinding its teeth because it's already been heavily hinted it's a cabby and, oh, the phone is in the building and the uncalled-for cabby is in the building and get a clue, Sherlock. Cabby! Go! Now!
That's funny, thinks I, that graffitti looks kinda like they're a non-roman alphabet, say, Chinese. Some kind of code, you say? Could it be a code in another language? Is it going to take you over half an hour to consider that possiblity, Sherlock? Because otherwise the episode would be a lot shorter?
I would have loved an actual ACD inspired episode, rather than just snippets, but failing that a good, solid mystery would have been nice. It's Sherlock Holmes. I don't want to be frustrated because I'm ahead of him.
The third episode didn't suffer from this, partly because everyone knew it was Moriarty behind it all anyway, and partly because the several-short-mysteries format meant they didn't have to string anything out. Though "Janus Cars" was a little painful. I liked the ending, including the cliff-hanger, though Moriarty chewed that scenery to pieces. Sounded almost Lloyd Grossman. I liked that he'd appeared briefly earlier, but when it's only three episodes I would have preferred to see a cameo in episode 1 or 2 as well. When I first saw that profile I though it might be Jonathan Rhys Meyers, but that would have completely ruled out any earlier cameo appearance!
(how awesome would JRM be as Moriarty? You know, just as glimpses)
Let's face it, I'll watch another series quite cheerfully. I may even watch it on iplayer if I miss it, which is something I don't actually enjoy doing. But I'm not even a big mystery fan (well, Rosemary&Thyme, since it's the only thing one at that time of day worth watching) and I was ahead of Sherlock in two episodes. I can't imgine what a Poirot fan would have thought. The point of Watson is to make sure we're one step behind Holmes, so we can appreciate his brilliance without having the whole mystery solved in the first five minutes and the rest of the episode being evidence hunting (which is a horrible way to solve crimes!).
Just don't make the characters TSTL just to string the plot out a bit longer. It makes me want to wander off and get a cup of tea, which really shouldn't be true of a show with Benedict Cumberbatch in.
