Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville Second viewing

I downloaded the uncut version from iTunes (bless 'em!) and watched it again. The combination of the extra five minutes business, lowered expectations, and knowing what was going on to catch the little details made it much more enjoyable.


The scene with John trapped in the lab came together much better. I don't know if I missed the business with the sugar, or parts of it were cut from the PBS showing, but it hung together this time.

Sherlock experimenting on John still leaves a bad taste. In the Canon Watson remarks that he could imagine Holmes slipping him a bit of "some vegetable alkaloid" just to see what would happen, but Holmes never did it, and, as mentioned before, felt very badly at exposing him to the toxin in "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot."

I'd need a score card to keep track of what Gatiss did with the names from the original, so can't comment on that. One interesting little detail, however, was the scenes of Sherlock standing on the rocks overlooking Baskerville. In the book, Watson sees a distant figure on an outcropping and chases him down (as John does the headlights in the TV version) and discovers Holmes hiding in an ancient stone hut. Nice little Easter egg, that.

There were a few quotable lines:

"He's his PA. Well, live-in PA."

"Oh don't do that, being all mysterious with your cheekbones and your coat turned up!"

"I don't have friends. I have one friend."

Headlights code!

So cheers to the uncut version! It still lacks the brilliance of "Scandal" but it's better than the cut version, and worth watching again.