As you may or may not remember from my last post, I'd spent most of my non-working hours during the snow storm watching Sherlock on Netflix. It's been in my queue for over a year now- number one spot too- but I've never watched it before. Oddly enough here was my thought process for selecting this show:
"Hmm. What to watch? I've been meaning to try Castle, but it's not on here. I could watch Bones, since that looks fun. But it's a crime show, I don't want to watch that...It'll start off with a murder, and freak me out...Hmm. What's this? Sherlock? I guess I'll give it a go..."
I certainly didn't reason too well as it's obviously a detective series, but I don't regret it.
Before the first episode was over, I knew it was one of my new favorite shows. Maybe one of the best shows I've seen. I've decided that the biggest difference between British and American television is this: in the U.S. we've prioritized being edgy, new, and provocative, whereas Britain seems to laud intelligence, and wit. This is why so many of their shows rightfully claim brilliance (Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, Top Gear, and even IT Crowd to name a few...) It's also why I'm very afraid to watch Elementary. (Remember what happened to Death at a Funeral?!)
Anyway, this show definitely deserves the rank of Brilliant. It's just so clever, so well-written, well-acted, and equally intense and humorous. Mycroft is wonderful (did you know Mark Gatiss is one of the writers!?), and it's no wonder that pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman fill the Geek section on Pinterest. It all makes sense now!
So in just a few days I'd managed to watch them all. Sometimes from under the knitted blanket on my couch. Why? Because of this man: Moriarty...
Moriarty is officially the creepiest villain I've ever seen. I'm a pretty paranoid person as it is, but post-Sherlock, it's become ridiculous. I can't decide what is worse- his sheer power and destruction paired with his insanity and intellect, or the fact that someone with the latter could be so...generic. That's so not the word I want to use, but he really could be anyone. I tried to rationalize- "well, I'm no Sherlock Holmes, so at least there is no one like that in the real world for me." But then, all those people he used in "The Great Game" didn't know Sherlock. So now just the possibility that there could be a Sherlock somewhere means there very well could be a Moriarty too. I don't know how I feel about that...other than somewhat terrified. I feel like this is what people who watch thrillers or horror movies (present company not included) mean when they refer to something as the "good kind of scary." It's so brilliant I don't even mind being scared really.
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| *shivers* |
Once I finished the series (not a hard task at only six 1.5 hour episodes), I wiped away my tears and began to do more Sherlock studies. I watched the Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law movies - Sherlock Holmes and A Game of Shadows. They are still good, but I've decided not as good, unfortunately. Well, it's not good in the same ways of the television shows. It has the original setting right, and still does a great job capturing the relationship between Holmes and Watson. But I actually like the contemporary setting in the show, and think it does a much better job with presenting Holmes' mastering of abductive reasoning (I realize it may be inductive, but certainly not deductive, but whatever. Abductive makes the most sense to me. [okay, that's kind of funny- if I understand it correctly, I had to use abductive reasoning to make that claim. lolz]). Anywho...that's my thoughts on the movie. Also, Professor Moriarty - even if he comes closer to the original portrayal by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle- he seems a lot less like a villain, a lot less mad, and more like a selfish man, to smart for his own good, focused personal gain at any cost...Well, that's not nearly as scary. And it's not as fun either.
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| They do photograph well together! |
And I also believe in Sherlock.
-BeetHats
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