XistentialAngst's Blog, page 50
December 3, 2016
EMP: Sherlock vs House
Can we talk for a second about this episode of House MD?
It begins with a gunshot just below the heart.
(Spoilers follow; I highly recommend watching the episode first, even if you don’t watch House. It’s fantastic!)
Wow, this is another terrific signpost for EMP. I haven’t seen this episode but now I need to watch it. Just… shit.
December 2, 2016
heimishtheidealhusband:
may-shepard:
heimishtheidealhusband:
How beautiful is it that Mycroft’s...
How beautiful is it that Mycroft’s symbol, from his very first moment on screen, is an umbrella? Protecting himself from water so fastidiously that he clings to his shield everywhere he goes, even on a sunny summer day? It so perfectly captures his role as the superego, the cold logician, the head above the heart.
It’s his identity, but he leans on it - literally. It’s his crutch. Which is spelled out for us directly in his debut in ASIP, with John in the warehouse: John is relying on his crutch, and Mycroft is relying on his own. The metaphors have been laid out for us from the beginning.
I can’t help but wonder if over reliance on his crutch is what will play a part in his downfall.
This is beautiful.
Over reliance, total failure of said crutch?
I feel like we’re going to get an extension of Mycroft’s talk with John in the cafe–that Sherlock will succeed on the very point on which Mycroft falls down. One of them will succumb to the deluge, the other will sail.
“Initially he wanted to be a pirate.”
And the one thing that Mycroft has always belittled Sherlock for, that Sherlock has always considered his most shameful weakness, is the one thing that will ultimately bring about his redemption.
December 1, 2016
Press Screening of TST
The Six Thatchers was screened this morning, Amanda was there as were several members of the press. No doubt others were there also.
Of course there are sharks. The Six Thatchers is the title. Rachel Talalay showed us the custom made T-shirt with Margaret Thatcher’s face and a shark.
Memento Mori
Ok, folks, I’m not an art historian, but to me, this is a memento mori (“remember that you have to die”) or a Vanitas (emptiness).
The skulls, the violin, the book… all are classic ingredients of such pictures. I read that there are three categories of requisits:
Musical instruments, books, treasures, insignia of power (Mycroft’s umbrella) stand for the daily life and a stability that is only pretended because nothing ever lasts.
Symbols of evanescnece are skulls and broken or upset glasses (the cup) but can also be clocks or hour glasses.
The third group encompasses symbols of rebirth, like ivy, laurel or grain ears (the wallpaper?)Those pictures remind us of the
inevitability of death, but also convey the preciousness of life.
What death? Why could John’s life be empty? Because he lost wife and child? And Sherlock’s life is empty because he lost John.So, this is not a happy picture. If this is a happy gay couple, don’t show me a sad one. They are in the same room, alright, but don’t even look at each other. It’s solemn, bleak, sad, they seem defeated and disillusioned. Sherlock is almost dissolving in the water - thanks to @longsnowsmoon5 for spottingthat his left leg is vanishing - and they don’t seem to care that their living room gets slowly flooded. They are sitting and waiting, staring into nothing (emptiness).
For this is not a rushing flood - this seems to be water slowly permeating 221b. The hearth is already cold - and John and Sherlock seem frozen, like puppets with their strings cut.
Water is an element, and yes, we’ve seen loads of water during setlock (rain, ocean) - but that was all water in its natural habitat. Water three inches high in the 221b living room is NOT its natural habitat! This is not good.
Yes, we had the reainbow colours in the words on screen. A rainbow comes out if it rains and the sun shines. But I don’t see the sun in this pic. Perhaps there’s hope but to me this looks gloomy.
I might add wellies to my shock blanket…
@ebaeschnbliah @gosherlocked @monikakrasnorada @tjlcisthenewsexy @yan-yae @tendergingergirl @wssh-watson @darlingtonsubstitution
This is absolutely a Memento Mori–and coupled with the Vanitas elements, it’s all about mortality and inevitability. Even the Vanitas is related strongly to death, not just emptiness: it’s about the “transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death” ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas).
It’s chilling and terrifying. This is really not a happy couple. Is them sitting together back in 221B supposed to emphasise that even faced with death, they’ll go into it together? But if that were the case they could have had them standing in the water, adopting a more active, stronger pose, shoulder to shoulder to show resolution and decisiveness and a will to keep on fighting, living. But we see them sitting–a passive pose–and barely looking at one another.
Something’s paralysed them. The inevitability of death? Mortality? But why is that suddenly such a NEW thing? The series started out with death–they bonded over a death–so why is this suddenly so significant, and so totally different in tone? Might be because this time it’s personal: Mrs H, the baby, Mycroft? It was serious when John assumed Sherlock faked his death. But what if it isn’t any of those minor characters at all? What if we see Moriarty burning the heart out of Sherlock for real?
What if “it’s not a game anymore” signifies this time the jump from Bart’s won’t be a game–won’t be fake? What if this time Sherlock is personally confronted with a real death, his own?
I mean look at him; he looks quite different to me than john. They’re both hollow of course but sherlock looks much more defeated, lacklustre, and uncaring than John. In John I still see some resolution, something… but sherlock? Nothing. He looks defeated. Done.
It’s this all over: his strings are broken. What if this is about sherlock, all the deathly symbols?
(Someone please add the promo pic with sherlock’s violin I am on my phone ugh)
This is breaking my heart.
Are you saying Sherlock really dies? But why would that happen? It’s completely against canon. I know Moftiss play fast and loose with quite a bit of canon, but I think Sherlock’s real death is a step too far.
Sherlock might believe he’s dying and give up all hope - only to be saved by John Watson.
finalproblem:
An official episode description for The Six...
An official episode description for The Six Thatchers is up on the BBC Media Centre:
Sunday 1 January
BBC ONESherlock: The Six Thatchers
In episode one of this new series, written by Mark Gatiss, Sherlock waits to see where Moriarty will make his posthumous move.
One mysterious case in particular baffles Scotland Yard - but Sherlock is more interested in a seemingly-trivial detail. Why is someone destroying images of the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher? Is there a madman on the loose? Or is there a much darker purpose at work? Something with its roots deep in Mary Watson’s past…
Benedict Cumberbatch returns as Sherlock Holmes, with Martin Freeman as John Watson, Mark Gatiss as Mycroft, Rupert Graves as Inspector Lestrade, Una Stubbs as Mrs Hudson, Amanda Abbington as Mary Watson and Louise Brealey as Molly Hooper.
November 29, 2016
tjlcisthenewsexy:
mylastvow:
mollydobby:
ship221b:
Diagram...
Diagram from John Yorke’s ’Into the Woods’ (classic book about narrative structure).
I’ve read a lot of excellent analysis of Sherlock, but none that explicitly addresses narrative structure in terms of acts. If we assume each act is a series, and each episode is one step within each act, this does seem to fit with Sherlock falling in love with John. (The use of ‘problem’ is unfortunate terminology in this case, but if we consider that Sherlock sees emotion as abhorrent, then it is a ‘problem’ in that sense. Bear with me.) I’m not suggesting that the writers have deliberately explicitly followed this structure (Moffat has said he hates discussing structure and just tells the story), but that (as Yorke explains) good writers cannot help following this structure because THIS IS HOW STORIES WORK.
Anyway.
Act/series one: from no knowledge of what love feels like to a knowledge of it as he and John meet and become close, saving each other’s lives.
Act/series two: from a refusal to acknowledge that he loves John (separating himself from him physically frequently in ASiB, eg the hitchhiker scene, Battersea Power Station where he is present but unseen), to an acknowledgement of it (TRF).
Act/series three: Experimenting with the knowledge - testing out John’s feelings (eg in the tube carriage in TEH), key knowledge about John (take your pick from everything in TSoT), and experimenting with key knowledge of problem (making sacrifices for John and Mary).
Act/series four: Consequences. Fear. Anxiety. (All of which fits with what we’ve been told.) Full knowledge (an actual confession of love?). The worst point (Mary-related? Moriarty? Mycroft? All of them? Gaaaahh).
BUT…
Act/series five: Final choice (John vs some major aspect of The Work?), final battle (Moriarty/another antagonist kidnaps John, perhaps?), then mastery of knowledge (canon Johnlock relationship, throwing of confetti, uncorking of champagne, much merriment throughout the land).
If anyone has more on this idea I’d love to read it.
Tagging a couple of excellent people below for your thoughts if you’re interested.
TAB: a 90 minute experiment by Sherlock with key knowledge of the problem.
In case we get a fifth series (which I hope is still very likely) TAB would literally be the Midpoint… the ‘breakthrough’ with regards to the ‘problem’ and how fitting would that be?!!!!
Well it’s the final problem innit? And look at that big ol circle going round in a clockwise direction - tick tock it’s time for change.
I think this makes sense. However, I feel like they will condense act 4&5 into S4 though, because it’s just too fucking long to wait to resolve the story (likely another 2-3 year hiatus) and they are losing their window and any opportunity for surprise. What Moffat said about “to hell with delayed gratification” and “they could be cancelled at any time, so why wait” and Ben’s comments about S4 ending at a place where things could rest for a time – I feel like they’re going to complete the plot arc by end of S4.
I'm loving your fic recs so much. You've given me so much new reading matter, thank you! You seem like the one to ask. Do you know of any fics covering Sherlock's time dismantling Moriarty's web?
Hey nonny, I do know of a few fics that follow or touch on Sherlock’s time away after the fall. Enjoy! :)
Vegas High by pennypaperbrain, 6 k, teen.
Undercover after Reichenbach, tracking the snipers who threatened his friends,
Sherlock has one thing left he can depend on: his mind. But when he faces
making his first kill, alone among the mad excesses of Las Vegas, the pressure
turns out to be greater than even he can endure without John beside him. (Part
of Four Corners of the Western World.)
Against the Rest of the World
by
SilentAuror, 151 k, explicit. Sherlock escapes torture in a cell in Turkey to
return to London before he manages to destroy all of Moriarty’s network. John
is engaged, but choses to come with him to complete the mission. .
Pre-relationship to relationship. This
has action/adventure like a spy novel, but the incandescent sex scenes were the
draw for me!
A River Without Banks by
Chryse, 203 k, explicit. This story is worlds within worlds. Sherlock uses a
time traveling device to go back into his past, rejoining his consciousness to
that era to redo key points in his life. Over and over, Sherlock tries to find
the change that will defeat Moriarty once and for all. This fic has it all.
Warnings for torture and rape.
457 Days by
221b_careful_what_you_wish_for, 2 k, mature. While Sherlock is traveling during
his two years away, hunting down Moriarty’s web, he finds himself ill, holed up
somewhere with fever. Thoughts and regrets come spilling down to keep him
company.
Last Call at the Homesick Pub by Chryse, 3 k,
teen and up. This is a lovely bittersweet look at Sherlock as he traveled in
disguise around the globe for two years hunting Moriarty’s web. Just for a few
weeks, Sherlock plays the fiddle with an expat Irish band at a pub in some
foreign city far from home.
The Sigerson Letters by h3rring, makokitten,
WIP, mature. A month after the fall, John begins receiving emails from a young
fan who calls himself Jeremy Sigerson, a fan who seems determined to keep an
eye on John and single-handedly spread the truth about Sherlock Holmes and
James Moriarty. But that’s surely a task too monumental for one man, isn’t it?
Unless that man is… (While this fic has been abandoned, I enjoyed it too much
not to rec it.)
Letters series by
earlgreytea68 – 5 parts. During Sherlock’s absence after Reichenbach, he writes
John letters than he never intends to send. When he fears for his true death,
he mails them off. John tracks him down. Angst, romance, and crazy all wrapped
together.
Landscape with the fall of Icarus by caitlinfairchild, 4 k, teen and up. This is a very clever “fill
in the blanks” fic that describes what happens to Sherlock at the beginning of
series 3. Some torture, and PTSD, and Mycroft to the rescue. So well done!
"Obviously it’s Sherlock’s show but there’s far more parity [in Sherlock] than I think there often is..."
Obviously it’s Sherlock’s show but there’s far more parity [in Sherlock] than I think there often is [portrayed] in that relationship [between John Watson and Sherlock Holmes].
I know [creators] Steven [Moffat] and Mark [Gatiss] primarily wanted the show to be about that relationship as much, if not more, than anything else.
[It’s about the relationship] and how it develops and how it changes and the things that wind each other up, the things that they genuinely sort of love about each other as well.
It’s the gayest story in the history of television… People certainly run with that, which I’m quite happy with!
But we all saw it as a love story. Not just a love story, but those two people who do love each other — a slightly dysfunctional relationship, sometimes, but a relationship that works. They get results.
”-
Martin Freeman, to reporters after winning the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ BAFTA in 2011 for his work in Sherlock.
(Digital Spy report, May 2011 [x])
[ Skulls & Tea | Sherlock Creator Quotes Collection | Disclaimer/reblogs ]
(via skulls-and-tea)
Just bought tickets to see TAB in the theater with the S4 preview. I really hope they make the S4...
Just bought tickets to see TAB in the theater with the S4 preview. I really hope they make the S4 preview worth it! I already have TAB on DVD. New footage I hope. Something interesting! Are you guys going?
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