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Eight Thoughts About Sherlock: A Study In Pink

Published Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:20:54 -0500

Last updated Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:59:15 -0500

Well, Doctor Who may be over but we still have us three episodes of Moffaty goodness to get us closer to the Doctor Who Winter Special. Now I've been away and have only finally caught up and the second episode is tomorrow and who knows when the Americans will get it if they're not being naughty but anyway.

I know, Rich. October 24th. I reported on it. Pay attention – Brendon.

1. No "No Shit, Sherlock"

Now this is a modern Sherlock Holmes in a world where he was never a fictional character. Just think, a whole world in which no one anywhere says "elementary" or "the game's afoot" in an arch voice and expectant air. And we've got a medley of cast around him. Finally a role that Martin Freeman can play, his dour set upon-ness tinged with rage is so perfect for Watson in the same way it was so not for Arthur Dent. And Benedict Cumberbatch may look a bit like an Edinburgh student, but then so was Conan Doyle. Mark Gatiss thinks he's in a pantomime/League Of Gentlemen sketch, the coppers on the Bill and the bad guy in a drama but I kind of like the way it forms a melting pot.

2. I Do Like The Fringey Text

I liked it when Fringe made the location captions solid objects. Here, text messages come alive, bursting from people. It's a relatively novel televisual trick, something rare these days, so top hole! Sherlock was always a telegrams kind of guy over the new fangled telephone, his preference for texting over phoning again makes sense. And he gets to do tricks as well.

Moon and Panic Room did this in their titles, famously.

3. Modern London Is Rubbish

It is famously now as quick to get across London in a black cab as it was to travel by horse and cart. The congestion charge may have changed that a little, but it does enable Sherlock to catch up to a cab, with or without parkour (Robert Downey Jr is a flappy boxer, Benedict is a roof jumper). As one familiar with the streets of Soho, it was nice to see their intricate details proving a plot point – and I reckon there's a restaurant and kitchen that Sherlock could have run through at the point to gt him to his destination quicker.

4. The Drugs Don't Work

Not only do you get what looks like a heroin injecting scene that resolves as a nicotine patch solution, but there's even a drugs raid on Sherlock's place without result. If this guy chases the dragon, he does it on rooftops where no one can see. At least he still beats up dead bodies.

5. A Study In A Study In Scarlet

Lots of adaptations have used the beginning of this story, getting Watson and Sherlock together, andy that have gone further have chosen to miss out the divergence into Utah and Mormon politics, thank goodness. And there are lots of liberties with the plot taken here, twisting it into an entirely different direction, but no more than other Sherlock adaptations have done. And a hansom cab, as before, becomes a London cab with the greatest of ease. And so many people have asked if this is ripping off A Princess Bride with the pill choice trick, when it's the other way around, surely.

6. Is That A Norbridge Reference I Spy?

Steven Moffat's first series, Press Gang, was set in the town of Norbridge, and the place reoccurred in series such as Chalk and. Well, now it's in Sherlock too. The Moffatverse expands… we'll be meeting a Mr Talwinning any day now. Oh and "Gareth Jenkins"? That would be the name of the six year old boy who won a chance on Jim'll Fix It to appear in a specially created Doctor Who scene alongside Colin Baker. Another Gareth Jenkins works on Doctor Who audio episodes for Big Finish. And James Phillimore is the businessman victim in Holmes short story The Enigma of the Warwickshire Vortex by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre from 1997. And Beth Davenport, the dead MP, has the same name as a recurring character in The Rockford Files. Any more for any more?

7. We're Not A Couple

Yeah, that's going to come up time and time and time again. All part of Steven Moffat's anti-gay agenda, obviously. Not.

8. Don't Say, It Show It. And Don't Say It And Show It Twice

We read what Sherlock has observed about the wedding ring. Then we have to hear him say it too. Subtitles are usually read at the time the words are spoken, not thirty seconds previously. Better watch that in future… make the audience feel like idiots when we're trying to race and even ahead of Holmes.