In passing: Sherlock S4, Wynona Earp S1

[selenak]

Not really reviews, just short remarks on shows Netflix put up I don't have the time and/or motivation to write proper reviews for:

Sherlock, Season 4: good lord. I can see where the conspiracy theorists who think Moffat & Gatiss wanted an end but because the show continued to be a hit for the BBC couldn't just quit, so self-sabotaged are coming from. That was one big mess, displaying their worst tendencies as writers. Mind you, it's also the kind of mess that made me look for fanfic, despite not being in the fandom, which I haven't done for Sherlock before. But messed up families are almost always a surefire button for me. Oh, and since Lestrade's statement in the very last episode very consciously points to his statement in A Study in Pink, and thus it does feel like an ending, here's the irony: back in s1, my major (not the only) problem with the show was that Sherlock himself was far too dislikeable, as if M & G had taken a look at Holmes avatar Dr. Gregory House and concluded he was way too mild-mannered, and that consequently I couldn't root for the central Holmes & Watson relationship. By the end of s4, one of my major problems (leaving aside the messy writing for the season, especially the finale) is the reverse: the show's Sherlock Holmes has grown on me (and I mostly buy his in-story growth arc), but I can't stand this particular John Watson anymore. This never happened to me with an incarnation of Watson, but there it is. Which still leaves me unable to root for what's supposed to be the central relationship.

Meanwhile, the Holmes clan, or, what happens if two writers think "wouldn't it be cool if we went Gothic!" in a manner what would make the Brontes and Daphne du Maurier weep, and not with joy: . This is what made me look for fanfic, of course, because dysfunctional siblings, yay, and also the actress playing Eurus was actually good (and got to be quite versatile, playing Faith, John's public transport crush, John's therapist and Eurus all convincingly and in a way that didn't clue me in that they were all the same person before the reveal). But having cast Benedict Cumberbatch's rl parents as the Holmes parents in s3 and milked the "the Holmes parents are actually utterly normal, delightful people" gag for all it was worth, the show has the problem of evidently not wanting them to be the ones deciding to keep their homicidal pyromaniac genius child locked up in the attic the proverbial hidden island. Otoh, the show also established in this same season that Mycroft is seven years older than Sherlock (and thus eight years older than Eurus), which meant he was 14 when Eurus turned murderous, and there's no way a fourteen years old boy would have been able to make that decision instead of his very much alive parents. So we get the explanation that Uncle Rudy (previouly only alluded to as a crossdresser) did that original faking-Eurus's-death-and-lockign-her-up deed, and Mycroft "carried on his work", which enables the show to let the other characters, notably the Holmes parents at the end, to still only blame him. Except. For Sherlock to have successfully altered his memories, deleting Eurus and replacing his friend Victor whom she killed by a dog, the Holmes parents would have to a) destroy each and every photo of Eurus in their home, b) never mentioning her when talking to Sherlock, and c) doing the same re: Victor Trevor. As opposed to, you know, get your traumatized kid (or kids: teenage Mycroft treated to displays of Eurus slicing her arms open to see how anatomy works still qualifies as a child as well, I'd argue) a therapist. V.C. Andrews, the one of "Flowers in the Attic" fame, wrote as her follow-up novel "My Sweet Audrina", in which it turns out the narrator's father (and the rest of her family) dealt with her having been raped as a child by persuading her that she was her own sister and her bad memories were dreams about said sister. But these people are supposed to be completely fucked up. Not Mr. and Mrs. Salt-of-the-Earth.

Wynona Earp, season 1: this, otoh, was a delight. Perhaps the inheritor of the mixture of earnestness and camp 90s fantasy shows like Xena excelled at? Anyway, Wynona, descendant of Wyatt, enters the tale with backstory trauma (and how!) and present day chip-on-shoulders attitude, would be a good (or bad, depending on your pov) drinking buddy for Jessica Jones and has a delightful geeky younger sister named Waverly who also has a canon f/f romance going on with a female cop in their hometown named Purgatory. This means 99% of the fanfic is about Waverly and said cop, btw, much as most Orphan Black fanfic is about Cosima/Delphine and most of Torchwood used to be Jack/Ianto. Now I don't begrudge anyone their canon slash juggernaut pairings, but while Waverly and Nicole are charming, I'll admit that my own main relationship interest lies with Wynona and the show's version of Doc Holiday (who is still around because it's a fantasy show and shortly before expiring from tuberculosis as history has it, he made the proverbial deal with the devil). Without being a Western expert: I've seen a few, and any version of Doc has yet to fail holding my interest. (My first was Kirk Douglas, btw - Wyatt: Burt Lancaster -, because Dad was a fan of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and scorned the black and white My Darling Clementine. Val Kilmer came much later, kids. Though yes, he's probably the best screen Doc. I also have a fondness for the Doc Holiday who guest stars in Walter Sattherwaite's novel "Wilde West", where a young Oscar Wilde keeps running into him during his lecture tour through the American West. Anyway, the Doc Holiday in Wynona Earp has kept his thing for Earps through the 120 plus years since last he saw one, and his moral ambiguity, which considering our heroine is a) currently trying to be lawfully good, having been unceremoniusly drafted as deputy to the show's lawman for all things supernatural, Dolls, and b) really has issues by the dozens, makes for a fiery relationship.

The show's special effects (mostly for the revenants, aka the demonic cowboys Wynona alone can dispatch because she's The Chosen One the current heir-of-Wyatt-Earp (who got cursed back in Ye Olde Days) are not so special, and unfortunately it shares that tendency of all too many media where when the heroes rough someone up, it always brings the correct results, and it often is unabashedly cheesy, but nonetheless, it charmes me the way Supernatural s1 (the only one I saw) did not. Give me the Earp sisters over the Winchester brothers any day. And their supporting cast. P.S. Waverly and Nicole aren't the only gay (or bi, in Waverly's case) people in Purgatory, either. The sole revenants in s1 who are not out to kill and menace but are presented as capable of good are an m/m couple.

Comments

[snickfic]

when the heroes rough someone up, it always brings the correct results

I thought I remembered a plotline across several episodes where that was deliberately subverted. With the revenant they had tied up in the warehouse? It's been long enough now that I forget how that plot point resolved, but I thought he gave them false information.

[misbegotten]

I don't know you feel about Mycroft/Lestrade fic, but out_there tried to make sense of the Eurus mess from Mycroft's POV in Habits of a Lifetime. She explores a lot of the work that Mycroft would have had to do to keep Eurus a secret.

Now that you point it out, of course, the culpability of the parents *must* be addressed. I can only chalk my erstwhile inability to notice that with the fact that I pretty much treat the entire season as one of Sherlock's drug-induced hallucinations.

[jainas]

I was actually about to rec that very fic as well!

You are quite right in your analysis of course, but this season was such a mess that I just... went with it without trying to have it make sense, because it can't. (But out_there does a great job of it!)

[selenak]

A drug induced hallicunation makes more sense. Including the way Sherlock goes from plunging back into addiction hard enough for Molly to diagnose imminent death in one episode, to being fine and dandy without the stuff in the next. (*pauses a moment in thought of Elementary, still the best and most believable take on drug addiction*)

Mycroft/Lestrade: I don't have anything against it, though I don't ship it myself due to lack of canon interaction. Thank you for the link!

The parents: yes, it must, and so far I haven't seen many people noticing.

[muccamukk]

I only watched the last ep of this series of Sherlock, because I resoundingly dislike this version on most levels (Mycroft and Lastrade aren't bad). But I kind of enjoyed what an unrepentant shit show it was? That wasn't jumping the shark, that was doing loops around the shark at close to the speed of light.


Love Wynonna Earp. It's so charming, terrible FX and all. It really does remind me of cheesy '90s fantasy shows. Continues charming in the second season as well. I think this season the fic is starting to pick up for Wynonna/Doc and a few other pairings (I ship the OT3 myself). But yeah, I'm not that interested in the canon femslash ship. Show also adds more gay characters next season, because why not? (The over use of torture is my one major problem with the first season, and I'd say it's less of an issue this year.)

[selenak]

I'm not there with the OT3 yet, not because I have anything against Dolls but because by the end of the first season, he and Doc are still on the grudging respect stage, and I'm not yet sold on Dolls actually liking Doc. Though them being impressed with each other's fighting skills and Wynona being all "I'm glad you boys had fun" in the finale does lay the grounds for more. Wynona, of course, being attracted to both of them is Canon. :)

re: Sherlock, agreed on all counts, plus I also like Molly Hooper.

[muccamukk]

Yes. I liked Molly too.

There's good OT3 stuff next year. I'm probably going to lead myself to ruin with this, but I maintain a small hope that canon will go with a V even if not an OT3. Time will tell. Season 3 confirmed.

[chelseagirl]

Lots of folks I know over on FB are fans of Wynnona Earp -- M watched an episode and was unimpressed, but you've actually intrigued me.

I've read multiple bios of Oscar Wilde, and once fanficced him in a story called the Wilde Wilde West, so I am adding Satterthwaite's novel to my wishlist.

ETA, not only is there a title coincidence between his novel and my fic, but Amazon tells me his first novel was called Cocaine Blues, which is coincidentally also the name of Kerry Greenwood's first Phryne Fisher mystery . . .

[muccamukk]

I found the pilot a little rocky, if that helps. I'd give it a couple more.

[chelseagirl]

Thanks! I may give it a try, without M (my partner).

[selenak]

Is your Oscar Wilde story online? Must check!

I liked Wilde West a lot, not just for the Doc Holiday appearances. In it, Oscar has to team up with the proverbial grumpy hard drinking old Sheriff to fight crime, and Satterthwaithe gets a lot of fun out of the odd couple.

[chelseagirl]

It's not up on AO3 yet, and it's from a fairly obscure older fandom (it was originally published in a zine, just imagine!), but you can find it here: http://asjfans.ashtonpress.net/wilde.htm It's nearly 20 years old and when I do finally put it up on AO3, there will be some edits.

Definitely going to have to read the book, then. Sounds like great fun. I read one or two of a mystery series with Wilde as detective by Gyles Brandreth, but he seemed a bit uncomfortable with Wilde's sexuality and I had lots of other things to read, so I didn't stick with them. I may be being unfair to the way they eventually evolved.

[wendelah1]

I stopped watching Sherlock BBC a couple of seasons ago. I didn't like their version of Sherlock in season one, I disliked season two even more than one, and have never seen anything after that. I am aghast at what you've described here. I don't understand. What does any of this have to do with Sherlock Holmes?

[selenak]

Nothing. It's a Gothic extravaganza, ticking off all the tropes (secret crazy sibling! Madness in the family! Our heroes put through torture scenarios modelled Edgar Allen Poe! etc.). Not that ACD didn't use melodrama in the Holmes stories for the occasional client, but not for Sherlock Holmes & Relations.

[ffutures]

There's a rather nice story which posits Potterverse magic as the explanation for most of the Eurus storyline:

Lady Smallwood and the Obscurus of Azkaban by AJHall

[selenak]

You know, that makes way more sense than the storyline did, not surprising given the author.

[shadowkat]

Okay, I think you managed to make me curious about Wynona Earp...or your description of Doc Holliday/Wynona did. I am also a fan of Doc Holliday. (Did you see Denis Quaid's take on the character in the Kevin Costner film Wyatt? Granted it is no where near as fun or good as Tombstone.) Also apparently Maria Doria Russell has written a fictional biography of Doc Holliday, entitled Doc...which my mother read, but I haven't gotten around to yet.

I also rather like the idea of two sisters fighting demons over two brothers. Just because it's innovative. Apparently Supernatural is doing a spin-off about female demon hunters, so maybe not so innovative.

I have similar issues with fanfic in relation to television series (and comics), I can never find any that relate to what I'm interested in. There's a lot of slash fic, which is great, but...I wish there was the other as well. I keep hunting the sibling (non-incestuous) relationships, and platonic friendships. But apparently these are hard to find or not that many people write them?

Agreed on Sherlock. The only episode I liked that season was the one by Moffat, which I think was the second episode? Before they visited the island and before they Gothic haunted house. It was a mess. I've come to the conclusion that Mark Gatiss should stick to acting, and leave the writing to Moffat. And I did not like Watson either that season, which I found to be odd. I usually like and feel rather sorry for Watson.

[selenak]

Mark Gatiss: that has been my opinion since New Who started, since this was where I first became acquainted with him both as a writer and an actor.

Doc Holiday: Dennis Quaid was also excellent in the role; Val Kilmer compliments him on his take as well, btw, in an article about the filming of Tombstone (and how it came to be a surprise hit beating Costner's Wyatt Earp). (Which was too long and too self important, Costner being Costner.)

[shadowkat]

Completely agree on both. Had exactly the same reaction to Gatiss in regards to New Who.

Didn't know that Val Kilmer had done that. Thanks for the link. Quaid's Doc was the best thing about Wyatt Earp.

[lilacsigil]

I also really enjoyed Wynnona Earp, because it's very self-aware and fun. All the actors are obviously having a great time, and nobody has to be stupid (emotionally stupid, yes!) for the plots to work.

[selenak]

Indeed. It's a really endearing show.

[jesuswasbatman]

I didn't pick up on the implausibilities in the Eurus backstory because of all the other problems I had with the season. First, Mary getting killed because of Sherlock being vindictive and it being done as the start of his redemption. Secondly, just how explicitly Culverton Smith was based on Jimmy Savile, which I thought was tasteless. And finally, because Sherlock getting such a loving brotherly feeling for Eurus, even though Eurus had killed several people in a gratuitously cruel way, was played as his complete moral growing-up, which upset all my "feeling altruism towards one specific person you like does not constitute moral awakening" issues.

[jesuswasbatman]

And did you hear about the reaction of some extremist John/Sherlock slashers to the failure of the series to end with Canon Gay? It included one person writing an open letter demanding that gay charities Gatiss works with expel him for being a queerbaiting homophobe and hurting gay youth by denying them representation, and a whole group of people believing that Apple Tree Yard , the drama series that took over the timeslot, was a secret continuation that would have John and Sherlock making a surprise appearance as a couple.

[selenak]

Yes, I heard about that via fannish osmosis, and rolled my eyes a lot. Of all the problems the show had, this wasn't one of them.

[selenak]

All of this, and you can add a lot more (Mary being used as an excuse for Our Heroes behaving badly by the narrative - Sherlock only goes back on drugs because she told him to to "save" John, John beats up Sherlock brutally because he mourns for her -, and then in the end to validate them (closing DVD Narration about how they're the hope of the hopeless when we never actually saw them doing this in this season, and rarely in any other), etc., etc. As I said, I didn't intend a full review.

Basically: a mess.

[jesuswasbatman]

Forgot to say this earlier - I didn't mind the final speech because I heard it as partly an early-modern fourth-wall breaking epilogue trying to reassure people who, like me, didn't like Moftiss's take on the Doyle characters that the characters will always exist in their essential form regardless of what any particular retelling chooses to do.

[monanotlisa]

Yeah, Wynonna Earp for the win -- I really love this show; reminds me to download the S2 finale...

[selenak]

It's charming as hell, and I'm glad I found this show.

[grimorie]

Ooh, are you open to any suggestions show wise? Have you heard of Killjoys? I'd like to think of it as a fusion between Farscape and Firefly. And I think the team there and the lead heroine, Dutch is really interesting. It also has a really good worldbuilding IMO.

Also, have you considered watching Person of Interest, it got a slow start in its first season, and I think it got better after (also season 1 improves a lot on rewatch).

Erm, that is, if you're shopping for shows to watch...

[selenak]

I'm always open to suggestions, it's just the time which I rarely have. Also the sources. It's v.v. useful to have Netflix and Amazon Prime now, but I tend to go for shows with short seasons, because of rl obligations. Sooner or later, I WILL get around to Persons of Interest, I promise, not least because of Michael Emerson, who had been so outstanding on Lost.

[grimorie]

You have no idea how excited I am that you are planning (someday) to watch Person of Interest! I've always loved your episode reviews, so I'm really looking forward to what you'll think of the show! Especially Michael Emerson as Harold! And other things I can't mention at this point!

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

I am so glad you've discovered Wynona Earp! It is a very endearing show, and while I find it a bit uneven, it really shines when it focuses on the relationships among the Earp sisters (which is why I think it builds strongly in the last 4 episodes of that season). My main issue with season 1 was that I was not a huge fan of most of the villains and resented their screen time, especially when they were scheming with/against each other, but I do love Wynona and Waverly.

IMO season 2 is a big improvement, and handles the expansion of the cast and world well. And while Wynona/Doc is not so much my thing, I think given how much you enjoy complexity in relationships you would enjoy how that arc develops.

[selenak]

Re: relationship between Earp sisters, agreed as far as Wynona and Waverly are concerned, but I'm going to and thro about whether the whole Willa-as-Patty-Hearst thing wasn't an easy way out of dealing with the issues Willa's presence raised. Waverly suddenly faced with another sister who used to have a stronger relationship with Wynona than she did due to their greater closeness in age, Wynona faced with the idea of not being the heir, or at least not solely anymore, and how that made her feel. Both Wynona and Waverly faced with a living Willa who is not a dead martyr, and has flaws. All of which doesn't matter anymore with the Willa-is-evil reveal, followed by her quick death.

Then again, Wynona as the heir is central to the show's premise, and it's hard to see which role a non-evil Willa could have taken in the longer term narrative with that in mind, so I can see their reasoning. But it still bugs me a bit.

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

The Willa arc worked for me in large part because it finally gave the heroes a villain they had good reason to care deeply about, and because I found the period of time where I was trying to figure out what was up with Willa, how much of her behavior came from trauma/flawed humanity and how much from supernatural conspiracies, effective and entertaining.

But I would argue that the show presents Willa and Wynona as closer not because of their ages, but because Willa as eldest child picked up on real tension around Waverly's presence in the family, which we get definite hints about even before the revelation that she "isn't even an Earp." Willa's main role is to exacerbate the existing tensions between Wynonna (who never wanted to be heir but is stuck with the job & self-sabotages) & Waverly (who would love that job but can't have it, and tries too hard to prove herself), and that definitely doesn't go away afer Willa is revealed as a villain and killed. I think Willa helps us see where Wynonna's sense of isolation and Waverly's insecurity come from, but neither of those problems is effectively resolved, and both have actually worsened by the season 1 finale.

(Now if you want to argue that Willa ultimately rates a bit too high on the Evil Camp scale, cackling over arranging for the murder of the entire town and not retaining a strong enough connection to Wynonna, I might agree. But she has plenty of company in that regard.)