Elementary 4.06
Dec. 19th, 2015 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Morland is back, and I sigh for Kitty.
Who has really spoiled me in terms of "new character integrated with cast" is concerned. Or perhaps it's the "new character brings out new facets in established characters?" part? I'm trying to lay my finger on why Morland Holmes, so far, just doesn't work for me in that way. It's not John Noble's performance, which is unsurprisingly excellent; in the final scene when Morland threatened Lucas, he was chilling. I think it's the writing.
Some differences to how Kitty was used:
1.) We saw Kitty both with Joan and with Sherlock (in fact, at first more with Joan than Sherlock, because Joan was the pov character for the early s3 episodes), and also to some degree with Bell and Gregson. This meant she got to interact with the entire cast, and they with her. Morland, except for the one confrontation scene with Joan, we've seen only with Sherlock so far as far as our regulars are concerned.
2.) And the relationship with Sherlock still doesn't rise above the standard Formerly Neglectful Stern Parent/Resentful Scarred Son formula. It doesn't bring anything new to the table. Kitty's relationship with Sherlock was different from the one he had with Joan (or anyone else). Joan's relationship with Kitty was also different from any other we'd seen her form before. Both evolved. And they became a trio, which hadn't happened to any of them before, either. The scenes she had with Gregson and Bell were interesting and illuminating about her.
Obvious short term solution: show Morland more with Joan (Joan trying to figure out what his game is is fun to watch, a bit remindful of the Joan/Moriarty encounters minus Moriarty's interest in Joan), and come up with an excuse to let him interact with Gregson and Bell.
Meanwhile, on to the actual episode. It was the Holmes men versus Lex Luthor, which pleased my inner Lois & Clark watcher (how so relatively unchanged, John Shea?), or maybe it's Team Holmes versus Cary Agos' Dad. By the end, we got the long awaited hint that there's more to Morland staying in New York than wanting to repair father-son relationships, and it's something sinister. I could see this going two ways:
a) Red Herring, as it was with Mycroft in season 2 (which I correctly predicted at the time), i.e. the audience is led to believe Morland is Up To No Good, as it was with Mycroft, and then it turns out Morland was in fact Up To Ambiguous Good But Undercover. (And speaking of Mycroft, despite the fact the restaurant encounter was a virtual restaging of a Mycroft scene, set-wise if not content wise, we've still yet to hear anyone as much as mention him. This is starting to irritate me far more than warranted by a character I otherwise don't have any emotions about, probably the show is mostly so good with its character continuity. (See the occasional Moriarty mention despite the fact she hasn't shown up since s2, either.) Come on, show, just a single line of dialogue, I don't want more, just a single line.
b) Morland is in fact Up To No Good, though there will be a red herring misled about the nature of the No Good until the finale when Joan & Sherlock will figure it out. This would avoid a simple repeat of the Mycroft storyline, and would also solve a problem this episode indicated - if Morland as a genuinely supportive dad were around all the time, with his money and access, he'd make things far too easy for Our Heroes. Something has to happen to ensure they'll have to worry about stuff like breaking the law or getting guilty rich people to talk to them again.
By far my favourite thing in this episode was, unsurprisingly, a Holmes & Watson partnership scene, the conversation where Sherlock revealed he'd long since figured out his father's intercession with the state attorney and was curious about Joan's opinion on Morland but also aware he'd biased her against him through the previous years so left any new conclusions to her without mentioning his own ideas in this regard. The respect he has for her judgment, and the trust between them: aspects like these are why they're my current favourite Holmes & Watson.
Who has really spoiled me in terms of "new character integrated with cast" is concerned. Or perhaps it's the "new character brings out new facets in established characters?" part? I'm trying to lay my finger on why Morland Holmes, so far, just doesn't work for me in that way. It's not John Noble's performance, which is unsurprisingly excellent; in the final scene when Morland threatened Lucas, he was chilling. I think it's the writing.
Some differences to how Kitty was used:
1.) We saw Kitty both with Joan and with Sherlock (in fact, at first more with Joan than Sherlock, because Joan was the pov character for the early s3 episodes), and also to some degree with Bell and Gregson. This meant she got to interact with the entire cast, and they with her. Morland, except for the one confrontation scene with Joan, we've seen only with Sherlock so far as far as our regulars are concerned.
2.) And the relationship with Sherlock still doesn't rise above the standard Formerly Neglectful Stern Parent/Resentful Scarred Son formula. It doesn't bring anything new to the table. Kitty's relationship with Sherlock was different from the one he had with Joan (or anyone else). Joan's relationship with Kitty was also different from any other we'd seen her form before. Both evolved. And they became a trio, which hadn't happened to any of them before, either. The scenes she had with Gregson and Bell were interesting and illuminating about her.
Obvious short term solution: show Morland more with Joan (Joan trying to figure out what his game is is fun to watch, a bit remindful of the Joan/Moriarty encounters minus Moriarty's interest in Joan), and come up with an excuse to let him interact with Gregson and Bell.
Meanwhile, on to the actual episode. It was the Holmes men versus Lex Luthor, which pleased my inner Lois & Clark watcher (how so relatively unchanged, John Shea?), or maybe it's Team Holmes versus Cary Agos' Dad. By the end, we got the long awaited hint that there's more to Morland staying in New York than wanting to repair father-son relationships, and it's something sinister. I could see this going two ways:
a) Red Herring, as it was with Mycroft in season 2 (which I correctly predicted at the time), i.e. the audience is led to believe Morland is Up To No Good, as it was with Mycroft, and then it turns out Morland was in fact Up To Ambiguous Good But Undercover. (And speaking of Mycroft, despite the fact the restaurant encounter was a virtual restaging of a Mycroft scene, set-wise if not content wise, we've still yet to hear anyone as much as mention him. This is starting to irritate me far more than warranted by a character I otherwise don't have any emotions about, probably the show is mostly so good with its character continuity. (See the occasional Moriarty mention despite the fact she hasn't shown up since s2, either.) Come on, show, just a single line of dialogue, I don't want more, just a single line.
b) Morland is in fact Up To No Good, though there will be a red herring misled about the nature of the No Good until the finale when Joan & Sherlock will figure it out. This would avoid a simple repeat of the Mycroft storyline, and would also solve a problem this episode indicated - if Morland as a genuinely supportive dad were around all the time, with his money and access, he'd make things far too easy for Our Heroes. Something has to happen to ensure they'll have to worry about stuff like breaking the law or getting guilty rich people to talk to them again.
By far my favourite thing in this episode was, unsurprisingly, a Holmes & Watson partnership scene, the conversation where Sherlock revealed he'd long since figured out his father's intercession with the state attorney and was curious about Joan's opinion on Morland but also aware he'd biased her against him through the previous years so left any new conclusions to her without mentioning his own ideas in this regard. The respect he has for her judgment, and the trust between them: aspects like these are why they're my current favourite Holmes & Watson.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-21 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-22 05:29 pm (UTC)