Sherlock BBC!
Jul. 28th, 2010 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
new_kate\o/
I am ridiculously in love with the new Sherlock BBC series.
Up till now I thought Neil Gaiman's Study in Emerald might be the coolest Sherlock Holmes fanfic ever. Now it's a tie between that and Study in Pink. Which loses a bunch of points for not having a better title, by the way.
Okay, Mr Gaiman is clever and ruthless, and his story is better written. And, since it wasn't meant to be a pilot for a saga, his story doesn't save any hooks and moneyshots for later in the series, it goes all out on you. Also it's a crossover! How is it even possible not to love a crossover?
But what Sherlock BBC wins really, really hard at is the pure joy of it.
It's a fanfic, unapologetically a fanfic, the way most of recent Dr Who is a fanfic. It's playful and witty, and not afraid of being shallow and pandering to the audience. It doesn't look down on its audience even as it does the pandering: there is a sense that the writers are writing for their peers, fans like them. And, most importantly, it's all about crazy fannish love for the canon, with all its beauty and flaws. The kind of love that makes you waste countless hours browsing comms and researching obscure trivia, the kind of love that wouldn't let you put the stupid canon and its infuriating characters out of your mind till you read your fill of the fanfics and write your own, write them just that tiny bit different, just the way you need them to be.
Omg omg this show. I want to clutch it to my bosom.
With the first episode the writers made pretty much all the mistakes of a newbie ficwriter. Extended direct quotes? Check. Revelling in own cleverness? Check. Flailing dorkily between sprinkling in-jokes around and making the plot accessible for those unfamiliar with canon? So much check. Unability to stop laughing at the crackiness of the whole endeavour? Hell yeah.
The bit with Harry's mobile phone was extremely cute, but I hope they'll soon get over the urge of blatantly modernising the text for crack value. The punchline of that scene, however? BRILLIANT <3
I think the "three patches problem" scene would be the perfect example of ur doin' it rite. You can so do extended quotes of modernised text if you twist the underlying meaning hard enough. Modern Sherlock's bizarre and delightful abuse of nicotine patches is very different from the Doyle's Sherlock's acceptable and commonplace smoking habit, and yet on a certain level it's exactly the same. THIS IS WHAT THE MODERN AU IS ALL ABOUT YOU GUYS. This is why I love them so. Once you deconstruct the 'verse till all the frills and trappings fall away, then you really see the real characters, the core of that makes them who they are, the reason why why they have such power over our fangirl imagination.
Also I love the way this show handles the subject of drugs. It's fascinating to compare it with Doyle's descriptions of Holmes casually, methodically shooting up while Watson watches and doesn't really feel it's his place to intervene. And, of course, with the utter mess that's RDJ's Holmes in relapse, and the exasperation of Jude Law's Watson. I love that BBC's Holmes seems to be in a shaky recovery state, and that Lestrade knows, must have seen the worst of it, and doesn't have any qualms about using it against him.
Most of all I loved the characterisation of Watson. FUCK YES this angle was something I really wanted to see explored. The utter lack of PTSD, the psychosomatic limp, the thirst for adventure to match Sherlock's. Jude Law's Watson sticks with Holmes partially because of that, too, because this kind of life pulls him in against his better judgement, but mostly out of deep, unshakable affection. BBC's Watson doesn't really like Sherlock as a person, not yet, anyway, but can't stay away regardless. This is a beginning of such beautiful friendship!
Sherlock is, well, the writers are holding back on him for now and rightly so, but he's pretty much himself. He's a freak, he knows what his diagnosis is, he's fascinated with technology and fascinated with himself, he fears girl cooties and he suspects that Watson is that one person in the world that can come close enough to knowing the colour of his soul. And he knows that life is incredibly beautiful and full of wonders, and that universe makes perfect sense, and he has this great power at his disposal, all the power he needs to make the world better. But he only really knows this when he's not bored.
Can't wait for more, seriously.
By the way, episode one features a quote from the Russian TV series "Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson" :D It's when Watson first sees their flat and says "Well, this can be quite nice. You'll clean this all up, of course..."
And it just about killed me that BBC Sherlock actually made some half-assed attempt to move some of his crap around after that remark. Oh, oh so much love.
Let's talk about this more! I want to flail and fangirl! Are you guys writing fics?
I am ridiculously in love with the new Sherlock BBC series.
Up till now I thought Neil Gaiman's Study in Emerald might be the coolest Sherlock Holmes fanfic ever. Now it's a tie between that and Study in Pink. Which loses a bunch of points for not having a better title, by the way.
Okay, Mr Gaiman is clever and ruthless, and his story is better written. And, since it wasn't meant to be a pilot for a saga, his story doesn't save any hooks and moneyshots for later in the series, it goes all out on you. Also it's a crossover! How is it even possible not to love a crossover?
But what Sherlock BBC wins really, really hard at is the pure joy of it.
It's a fanfic, unapologetically a fanfic, the way most of recent Dr Who is a fanfic. It's playful and witty, and not afraid of being shallow and pandering to the audience. It doesn't look down on its audience even as it does the pandering: there is a sense that the writers are writing for their peers, fans like them. And, most importantly, it's all about crazy fannish love for the canon, with all its beauty and flaws. The kind of love that makes you waste countless hours browsing comms and researching obscure trivia, the kind of love that wouldn't let you put the stupid canon and its infuriating characters out of your mind till you read your fill of the fanfics and write your own, write them just that tiny bit different, just the way you need them to be.
Omg omg this show. I want to clutch it to my bosom.
With the first episode the writers made pretty much all the mistakes of a newbie ficwriter. Extended direct quotes? Check. Revelling in own cleverness? Check. Flailing dorkily between sprinkling in-jokes around and making the plot accessible for those unfamiliar with canon? So much check. Unability to stop laughing at the crackiness of the whole endeavour? Hell yeah.
The bit with Harry's mobile phone was extremely cute, but I hope they'll soon get over the urge of blatantly modernising the text for crack value. The punchline of that scene, however? BRILLIANT <3
I think the "three patches problem" scene would be the perfect example of ur doin' it rite. You can so do extended quotes of modernised text if you twist the underlying meaning hard enough. Modern Sherlock's bizarre and delightful abuse of nicotine patches is very different from the Doyle's Sherlock's acceptable and commonplace smoking habit, and yet on a certain level it's exactly the same. THIS IS WHAT THE MODERN AU IS ALL ABOUT YOU GUYS. This is why I love them so. Once you deconstruct the 'verse till all the frills and trappings fall away, then you really see the real characters, the core of that makes them who they are, the reason why why they have such power over our fangirl imagination.
Also I love the way this show handles the subject of drugs. It's fascinating to compare it with Doyle's descriptions of Holmes casually, methodically shooting up while Watson watches and doesn't really feel it's his place to intervene. And, of course, with the utter mess that's RDJ's Holmes in relapse, and the exasperation of Jude Law's Watson. I love that BBC's Holmes seems to be in a shaky recovery state, and that Lestrade knows, must have seen the worst of it, and doesn't have any qualms about using it against him.
Most of all I loved the characterisation of Watson. FUCK YES this angle was something I really wanted to see explored. The utter lack of PTSD, the psychosomatic limp, the thirst for adventure to match Sherlock's. Jude Law's Watson sticks with Holmes partially because of that, too, because this kind of life pulls him in against his better judgement, but mostly out of deep, unshakable affection. BBC's Watson doesn't really like Sherlock as a person, not yet, anyway, but can't stay away regardless. This is a beginning of such beautiful friendship!
Sherlock is, well, the writers are holding back on him for now and rightly so, but he's pretty much himself. He's a freak, he knows what his diagnosis is, he's fascinated with technology and fascinated with himself, he fears girl cooties and he suspects that Watson is that one person in the world that can come close enough to knowing the colour of his soul. And he knows that life is incredibly beautiful and full of wonders, and that universe makes perfect sense, and he has this great power at his disposal, all the power he needs to make the world better. But he only really knows this when he's not bored.
Can't wait for more, seriously.
By the way, episode one features a quote from the Russian TV series "Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson" :D It's when Watson first sees their flat and says "Well, this can be quite nice. You'll clean this all up, of course..."
And it just about killed me that BBC Sherlock actually made some half-assed attempt to move some of his crap around after that remark. Oh, oh so much love.
Let's talk about this more! I want to flail and fangirl! Are you guys writing fics?
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OT - hotel
Date: 2010-07-28 02:41 pm (UTC)Right. Have done that. I told them it might be subject to change, just in case.
Re: OT - hotel
Date: 2010-07-28 02:44 pm (UTC)Re: OT - hotel
Date: 2010-07-28 02:56 pm (UTC)(Two days! OMG!!)
Re: OT - hotel
Date: 2010-07-28 03:34 pm (UTC)Re: OT - hotel
Date: 2010-07-28 03:36 pm (UTC)Oh oh Louise I miss you so much.
Re: OT - hotel
Date: 2010-07-28 04:30 pm (UTC)Re: OT - hotel
Date: 2010-07-29 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 03:37 pm (UTC)Now I know that there's a quote from Russian Sherlock Holmes it's even better.
he fears girl cooties and he suspects that Watson is that one person in the world that can come close enough to knowing the colour of his soul.
Hahaha. Yes.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-29 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-31 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 01:06 am (UTC)