XistentialAngst's Blog, page 9
January 20, 2017
Piccadilly unconfirmed
TL;DR: that image was originally part of the article, and was later removed. There is no hidden agenda.
I’ve been following this because from what I saw of the page source yesterday, what I know from past work in digital marketing, and the fact that the Facebook effect stopped working after a few hours, the inclusion of the Miss Me image was definitely intentional.
Here’s why: the first version of the article included that image instead of the interactive slider you see now. (I finally thought to look at the history instead of the code - a lesson I should have learned from Sherlock?) Courtesy of archive.org’s Wayback Machine:
There were four versions of the page scraped on 16 January, so they made a few updates, but the major change was replacing the static callback to the Sherlock promotion with the fancier widget that’s up now. It makes sense that the fancy part may not have been ready for initial release, so they used the most famous recent event at this location to promote it, until it was.
See the old and new versions for yourself:
Introduction of the interactive slider image
There were additional changes made to either the page metadata (or the configuration settings of the article in BBC’s Facebook tools) since the effect was first reported. This is why it no longer works when people share on FB.
Sorry, but I think this is debunked. Previously,
I have only posted inconclusive evidence, not suggested conclusions, and as far as
I know few people have seen those posts; but apologies if anyone has been misled.
Tagging the last poster I remember, please spread this information, @sherlock-overflow-error
Thank you very much, @roadswewalk. Signal boost this, guys.
SherlockS4 recap: A cavalcade of WTF?
SherlockS4 recap: A cavalcade of WTF?
Robert Viglasky, Hartswood Films/BBC
Sherlock Season 4 | “The Final Problem” | Aired Jan. 15, 2017
So…what was that?!
Look, let me say upfront for the diehard fans that there were parts of “The Final Problem” that actually started tugging at my heartstrings and had me visibly scared and tense. The treatment of Eurus’ tests was over-the-top (more on that), but the emotional effects, as shown…
January 19, 2017
BBC Sherlock, Gaslighting, & How Much I Love You (Yes *You*)
You’d think that I’d be all over TFP tinhatting. I’ve been entranced by the “you can’t trust what you’re seeing” imagery in BBC Sherlock since I started watching it. I even wrote a post, shortly before TFP, about how we as the fans are like John looking up at BBC Sherlock on the roof at Bart’s, watching him as he lies to us, trying to have faith.
“Faith is a funny thing,” I wrote in that post. “It’s not inherently good or bad. To lose faith when it ought to be kept is a tragedy, but so is to keep faith when it ought to be cast aside.”
Like a lot of people, I’ve been flipping back and forth between two readings of TFP. The first reading says, “BBC Sherlock is actually terrible. All the things I thought I saw - the imagery, the clues, the characterization, the mirroring, the references - I must have just made up. TFP is real, it has to be.” The second reading says, “BBC Sherlock has gotten really, really meta. TFP is fake, and they’re violating all sorts of norms about how television works in order to surprise everyone and make a point. TFP is fake, it has to be.”
These readings are in conflict, not just with each other but with me. Believing either requires me to question my own reality. If I accept that TFP is real I have to question my ability to read and understand stories. If I accept that TFP is fake I have to question all sorts of norms about how the world works and how tv gets made.
Neither feels tenable. And I feel like, well:
(Image by @livingthegifs)
I doubt I’m alone in this. And the idea that anyone else in fandom feels like this, especially the younger fans, the other queer folks, the people who already deal with mental health issues – it breaks my heart.
So I want to be absolutely clear here:
Your perceptions of reality are not flawed. You are not wrong to be deeply upset by TFP. And you are not alone.
There are, more or less, three theories about TFP:
1) We made up everything. We took coincidences and concocted a false narrative in our heads. Our predictions were wrong because our perception of the evidence was wrong.
2) TFP is fake. We’ve been right all along, and the creators are preparing a giant rug-pull, hopefully without realizing how much distress they’ve caused. Our predictions will be proved right because our perception of the evidence was right.
3) TFP is real, and all the ‘evidence’ we thought we had was planted either to fuck with us or because the creators changed the story they were telling. Our predictions were wrong, but our perception of the evidence was largely correct.
I am going to go ahead and eliminate #1 as impossible. We did not make up everything. We did not make up the ‘question reality’ imagery used over and over again in the show. We did not make up the references to queer icons, including to Oscar Wilde and Freddie Mercury in TFP itself. Much of the stuff we’ve pointed out in our metas may be coincidence but not all of it, and not all of it together.
One of the other two options must then be the truth. I can’t say which it is - obviously I’d prefer #2, but #3 is still possible. But both imply two things:
* The creators are fucking with our sense of reality.
* Our sense of reality is just fine.
And this is what angers me so deeply. Because gaslighting is awful. It’s a textbook sign of abuse. It’s something that multiple BBC Sherlock villains engage in – Culverton Smith most notably, but also Frankland in THoB and Moriarty in TRF. And yes, yes, the writers are villains, the mystery writer is the criminal, but that’s symbolism, okay? It doesn’t excuse gaslighting just like it wouldn’t excuse Moffat or Gatiss if they went out and actually murdered someone. It’s still a shitty thing to do.
And it’s a shitty thing to do at this particular moment in history, when we are all struggling so hard to figure out how to trust each other, how to build a shared and reliable reality. I mean, f I want to be gaslit, I’ll go read my President-elect’s twitter.
Look, it’s good to question the stories you’re told. Very good. And it’s good to question the stories you tell yourself, occasionally, to keep an open mind and admit when you’re wrong. But this type of questioning comes from a place of strength. You question the stories you’re told because they violate your values or your knowledge. You question yourself when something about what you’re doing or thinking feels out of line with who you are. It’s hard to do that when you’re wracked with self-doubt and in pain.
I love every last person in this fandom and I want you all to feel whole and strong. I want that for your own sake, because you deserve it, but also, selfishly, because I need you. I need you to help me fix all that’s wrong with this world - to help me fight Trump and the rise of fascism, to help me protect and nourish the next generation of LGBTQ folks, to help me build a better and kinder world.
So be good to yourself. Throw yourself into analysis if that makes you happy, take a break if you want to, reach out to friends and family, do whatever it is you need to do to remind yourself that you’re okay. And, if you can, help others to do that. Share your love and your strength. Don’t try to push your opinions about reality onto anyone else – we’ve had enough of that already. Treat each other with gentleness. Treat yourself with gentleness.
(Gif from @livingthegifs again)
<3
^this
This cuts to the heart of my unease. It’s terrible to imagine I could misinterpret the story so badly but also terrible to imagine that all of that evidence and subtext was planted just to fuck with us.
silentauroriamthereal:
johns-potato:
freebatchhell:
glassofgaytea:
Mary ruined their show. like...
Mary ruined their show. like completely ruined the ending, ruined the dynamic, ruined everything. wow, still not over it. what a huge fucking mistake that was lmao
This is, objectively, 100% true. They turned it into exactly what they had used to claim it wasn’t… a fucking gang show. They acted as if John and Sherlock needed that “glue“ to stick them back together, as if they needed her to just “be there and want them to go on their little adventures“, as if they needed someone third to tell them information about each other, tell them what to do and who to be and how to act, who they really are, but it doesn’t matter anyway, what the fuck like?? how dare she act as if she knows them better than anybody else and then call them “my Baker street boys“ she is disgusting and manipulative, she knows shit, yes, exactly she literally ruined everything with her presence, she was being part of scenes that were meant to be about John and Sherlock only, they gave her lines that were originally lines exchanged between Holmes and Watson in the books. They gave her the entire ending. It was simply disgusting and awful, I’ve never hated her more. It’s Mofftiss fault of course, if she remained the villain that’d be great but this way… it’s just… An utter disgrace to the books and I am quite sure that Martin feels similar. Not so sure about Ben but still, imo, John and Sherlock’s relationship is what they love the most about the show and s4… s4 took all of it from them, no wonder they seem to want no more.
Mary’s relationship to her “Baker Street boys” is summed up by the impossible condescension of that phrase. Patronising, mollifying, off-putting.
Preach!
byebyefrost:
I love the Sherlock fandom. I understand people’s denial and hope. I am proud of the...
I love the Sherlock fandom. I understand people’s denial and hope. I am proud of the brave souls who try to make sense of the utter nonsense that is TFP. But, at risk of being unpopular, I have to admit that I’ve got no faith left. I don’t think there will be a fourth episode. And if I’m wrong and there’s one, what guarantee do we have that it won’t be another hurtful, laughable and overindulgent mess like TFP? I don’t think I’m being negative: I am just being logical. We gave the writers so much credit, we trusted them, we forgave them everything - only to be mocked and slapped on the face. I’ve been getting desperate messages from people contemplating suicide in the last few days. I’m afraid of getting more when the last hope is crushed. Please take care. Use your energies for healing your pain and for rightful indignation. Be kind to each other. Create new art and new fiction. Do not accept less than you deserve. Do not tolerate abuse. Rise and shine.
Same.
victorianfantasywatson:
I think the problem I’m having coming to terms with this and the reason I...
I think the problem I’m having coming to terms with this and the reason I keep switching between rage, despair, hysterical laughter at TFP, and tinhatting, is this: (the episode) The Final Problem really did burn the heart out of (the show BBC) Sherlock.
The heart of the show is the relationship between Sherlock and John. The love story, the friendship, both. That’s what keeps it going.
But it was also the cleverness. The subtext. The deductions; the clues, the mirroring. The beautiful cinematography. Arwel’s gorgeous wallpaper. The music. So many things made this show unique and made it what it was and what we loved and TFP did away with every single one. Deliberately or accidentally, I don’t know.
John can’t recognize a grenade or human bones. Sherlock doesn’t respond to Vatican Cameos. Mycroft is the opposite of the Iceman - flustered, panicked, vomiting. Every character is not themselves. The beautiful sets, the camerawork, all gone. Baker St destroyed. The heart of the show, of any version of this story, is John and Sherlock in Baker St together. The scenes we get of them rebuilding at the end are rushed, as if they don’t matter. Mary intrudes from beyond the grave to stand in the middle of their story and tell us what we know isn’t true - that it isn’t about the two of them. It is. They are absolutely and always have been the heart of this story.
I keep heading off in ten different directions from here. I can’t see anyone deliberately destroying their own show like this, either in a fit of rage at perceived “fangirls”, or as part of a trick, or a plan. It boggles my mind that the BBC would let them do that. I have zero hope for a secret episode but even that is more believable than the idea they would pull a stunt like this on purpose and expect to come back for a fifth season and fix it then.
Which means they must have done it accidentally which is … how did they even manage to make the show if they didn’t know what it was about?!? How did they manage to deliberately and systematically burn its heart out if they didn’t understand what they were destroying?
If they had just …..not done Johnlock it would be easier for me to understand and move on. TFP baffles me.
"[Episode 3] is the culmination of everything we’ve building up for for the past 6 years of Sherlock,..."
-
Mark Gatiss, Sherlock Series 4 Preview (x)
TFP was bad enough without having been expecting the world based on what Gatiss had said about it. Like… in what reality is the psychotic sister episode the culmination of everything? There was any true character development in it.
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