Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville
Jan. 9th, 2012 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
awanderingbardShort review: lots of fun, a nice, less serious middle episode before what will no doubt be a wham one next week, great acting and terrific writing
Long review: ranty and disordered, spoiler filled, below the cut
- First of all, thank you Mark Gatiss for writing the characters as they are supposed to be. Sherlock is human, John is especially BAMF and Lestrade is back to being perfectly capable. The original story is mostly Watson wandering around and reporting on things and I liked that we got a lot more of John handling business while Sherlock does...Sherlock things.
- I watch this show for John and Sherlock and their interaction was wonderful this episode. I like how they've accepted that Sherlock has to be a little more human for having John around and the whole exchange about the friendship was very sweet and handled in character for both of them.
- Wonderful acting all around, especially from Russell Tovey who did insane-on-drugs perfectly, without getting too over the top about it. Henry got a bit of the shaft from his original incarnation, who was more adventurous and brave, but I did like that we followed exactly how awful this project was by watching Henry slowly go insane.
- I called Sherlock being drugged during the inn scene, because Benedict did a great job of showing Sherlock not being himself, even in the way his hands moved around out-of-character. I didn't connect the drug to the H.O.U.N.D project though. I thought he might have done it to himself, for some reason.
- I also called the 'cell phone' thing, mostly because of how many times I have erased that word and changed it to 'mobile' while writing fic.
- The H.O.U.N.D project itself was super clever. Unlike Scandal I really enjoyed how they changed the story this time. You have to update it and Hounds is one of the more archaic stories in terms of having servants and a time when religion and curses were more readily believed. Doing what they did updated it nicely and more importantly, kept the general spirit of the story intact. Even if they changed the villain, somewhat.
- Sherlock drives? Really? Not only does that throw my canon out of whack, but I would really think that he would make John drive so he could look around without being distracted. I would have put down Sherlock as a terrible driver, yelling at everyone else on the road while doing crazy manoeuvres because of some misplaced sense of being on more important missions than everyone else.
- Sherlock's memory palace was awesome (is he related to Aloysius Pendergast?), but all I could think about when I watched it was how ridiculous Benedict must have looked acting it out before all the effects were put in.
- Again, I really enjoyed the little things - Sherlock hallucinating Moriarty (another check for personal canon!), John putting his military service to good use and keeping his little notes and instantly picking up on the Morse code, John's thought text coming up in a different font that Sherlock's, Sherlock bouncing around at the beginning of the episode and John being totally calm, Sherlock's harpoon, Sherlock's Cluedo theory, Sherlock not knowing Lestrade's first name (more personal canon checks!), John looking after Henry and remaining completely rational when Sherlock went off the deep end, John holding down the fort when Sherlock went off the deep end and Lestrade having a bit of fun being useful.
- Two small quibbles: did we ever find out what the Morse code was for? Besides scaring Henry to death? And John, a trained doctor, walking through a lab which makes bio weapons without bothering to put on any sort of safety equipment? When everyone else we've seen is all kitted out? Really?
Long review: ranty and disordered, spoiler filled, below the cut
- First of all, thank you Mark Gatiss for writing the characters as they are supposed to be. Sherlock is human, John is especially BAMF and Lestrade is back to being perfectly capable. The original story is mostly Watson wandering around and reporting on things and I liked that we got a lot more of John handling business while Sherlock does...Sherlock things.
- I watch this show for John and Sherlock and their interaction was wonderful this episode. I like how they've accepted that Sherlock has to be a little more human for having John around and the whole exchange about the friendship was very sweet and handled in character for both of them.
- Wonderful acting all around, especially from Russell Tovey who did insane-on-drugs perfectly, without getting too over the top about it. Henry got a bit of the shaft from his original incarnation, who was more adventurous and brave, but I did like that we followed exactly how awful this project was by watching Henry slowly go insane.
- I called Sherlock being drugged during the inn scene, because Benedict did a great job of showing Sherlock not being himself, even in the way his hands moved around out-of-character. I didn't connect the drug to the H.O.U.N.D project though. I thought he might have done it to himself, for some reason.
- I also called the 'cell phone' thing, mostly because of how many times I have erased that word and changed it to 'mobile' while writing fic.
- The H.O.U.N.D project itself was super clever. Unlike Scandal I really enjoyed how they changed the story this time. You have to update it and Hounds is one of the more archaic stories in terms of having servants and a time when religion and curses were more readily believed. Doing what they did updated it nicely and more importantly, kept the general spirit of the story intact. Even if they changed the villain, somewhat.
- Sherlock drives? Really? Not only does that throw my canon out of whack, but I would really think that he would make John drive so he could look around without being distracted. I would have put down Sherlock as a terrible driver, yelling at everyone else on the road while doing crazy manoeuvres because of some misplaced sense of being on more important missions than everyone else.
- Sherlock's memory palace was awesome (is he related to Aloysius Pendergast?), but all I could think about when I watched it was how ridiculous Benedict must have looked acting it out before all the effects were put in.
- Again, I really enjoyed the little things - Sherlock hallucinating Moriarty (another check for personal canon!), John putting his military service to good use and keeping his little notes and instantly picking up on the Morse code, John's thought text coming up in a different font that Sherlock's, Sherlock bouncing around at the beginning of the episode and John being totally calm, Sherlock's harpoon, Sherlock's Cluedo theory, Sherlock not knowing Lestrade's first name (more personal canon checks!), John looking after Henry and remaining completely rational when Sherlock went off the deep end, John holding down the fort when Sherlock went off the deep end and Lestrade having a bit of fun being useful.
- Two small quibbles: did we ever find out what the Morse code was for? Besides scaring Henry to death? And John, a trained doctor, walking through a lab which makes bio weapons without bothering to put on any sort of safety equipment? When everyone else we've seen is all kitted out? Really?
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 09:33 pm (UTC)They did a great job on the pacing too. Some of the older productions I cannot get through because it seems so slow. I'm a product of my generation, I suppose, but after ten minutes of people sitting around looking at each other, I tend to go 'happen! something happen!'
no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 09:43 pm (UTC)I was sad Roxenburg and Hart didn't do any other Holmes stories together.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-10 11:58 pm (UTC)I find things that aren't based on the original stories tend not to be as strong. You can update them all you want and make it work for modern audiences, but I think you need the framework of the stories for it to really work. It's what makes the new series work, I think. The threads to the original stories are there, as well as lots of interesting new ideas.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-11 12:53 am (UTC)And yes, for academic purposes. Of course. :)