Elementary 3.03
Oct. 14th, 2013 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakElementary, this is my frowny face. Not about the Holmes and Watson interaction, which continues to be superb, but about the plot of the week. Other than being on the brink of leaving for the Book Fair, the other reason why I didn't review last week's Good Wife episode was that I didn't think the NSA subplot was funny, even though it was evidently meant to be. And now Elementary gives us... Edward Snowden the dastardly criminal? Not even Clyde the alarm clock can make up for this shameful kowtowing to the government.
Seriously: making the Snowden character someone who assaults and kills the woman who harbours him, and tries to blackmail his way into freedom by threatening to release the name of undercover agents, while making the super secret organization representative the loyal-just-looking-out-for-his-men good guy: BOO, ELEMENTARY. HISS. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I mean, I get that you wanted Holmes to chase a whistleblower but needed to give him motivation to do that, for which the whistleblower needed to have done something truly awful, as opposed to, you know, revealing the US having done a great many bloody awful things, especially and including the killing of civilians, but this makes it feel even more like shameful government propaganda. BOOOOOOOOO.
Not getting over this any time soon. But I shall try valiantly to focus on other matters for the rest of this review. As awful as the USian propaganda of the case of the week is, combining Joan deciding to date again with Sherlock outwardly declaring that his Irene/Moriarty experience has now liberated him from any possibility of romantic love and inwardly still hung up on Moriarty, as shown near the end when he reads her letter from prison (nice Natalie Dormer voice over!), was an excellent choice. It avoided the implication that Joan gets the potential romance subplot because she's the female regular, and it also showcased their friendship. The direct comparison between Moriarty's version of Holmes (the whole "you and I are special and the only ones who count " rigmarole, the credo of ever supervillain hung up on their hero ever, see also: the Master et al) and Watson's version of Holmes (someone who has things to offer and can get close to people other than herself) iin the final scene is a tad obvious, but still very true. Not to mention good continuity. Re: his addiction, Sherlock has made the step from the Holmes in the pilot who thought himself a special snowflake above such things like NA groups to the Holmes of the s1 finale who knows he's not fine, he's sober, and who considers sober companions, sponsors and NA meetings important, but that doesn't mean he's not still having an Achilles heel in the form of the conviction of being special in general, and that's what Moriarty is honing in on.
Incidentally: we now have a first name for her, and it's Jamie. This is both amusing and perfect, considering male Moriarty is a James.
Also: Joan is right, Jeff Heinz is cute, and since he figured out those weird messages had to be from trolls and wanted to make sure Joan was okay, seems to be a good guy. We'll see how it goes.
Moreover: our Watson starts to write about their cases! (At least that's what I guess the headline is supposed to be?) I wonder whether she'll publish it, in which case I'm altering my guess about her returning to some small scale practising medicine this season to her starting the classic Watson occupation of chronicler-of-their-adventures, though I bet by the time she's ready to publish it won't be called just after Holmes anymore.
Poor Clyde could have gotten suffocated. I'm just saying.
In conclusion: anything not the case of the week was wonderful. But lowering yourself to this type of propaganda was really bad form, show, and I'm very disappointed you'd do that.
Seriously: making the Snowden character someone who assaults and kills the woman who harbours him, and tries to blackmail his way into freedom by threatening to release the name of undercover agents, while making the super secret organization representative the loyal-just-looking-out-for-his-men good guy: BOO, ELEMENTARY. HISS. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I mean, I get that you wanted Holmes to chase a whistleblower but needed to give him motivation to do that, for which the whistleblower needed to have done something truly awful, as opposed to, you know, revealing the US having done a great many bloody awful things, especially and including the killing of civilians, but this makes it feel even more like shameful government propaganda. BOOOOOOOOO.
Not getting over this any time soon. But I shall try valiantly to focus on other matters for the rest of this review. As awful as the USian propaganda of the case of the week is, combining Joan deciding to date again with Sherlock outwardly declaring that his Irene/Moriarty experience has now liberated him from any possibility of romantic love and inwardly still hung up on Moriarty, as shown near the end when he reads her letter from prison (nice Natalie Dormer voice over!), was an excellent choice. It avoided the implication that Joan gets the potential romance subplot because she's the female regular, and it also showcased their friendship. The direct comparison between Moriarty's version of Holmes (the whole "you and I are special and the only ones who count " rigmarole, the credo of ever supervillain hung up on their hero ever, see also: the Master et al) and Watson's version of Holmes (someone who has things to offer and can get close to people other than herself) iin the final scene is a tad obvious, but still very true. Not to mention good continuity. Re: his addiction, Sherlock has made the step from the Holmes in the pilot who thought himself a special snowflake above such things like NA groups to the Holmes of the s1 finale who knows he's not fine, he's sober, and who considers sober companions, sponsors and NA meetings important, but that doesn't mean he's not still having an Achilles heel in the form of the conviction of being special in general, and that's what Moriarty is honing in on.
Incidentally: we now have a first name for her, and it's Jamie. This is both amusing and perfect, considering male Moriarty is a James.
Also: Joan is right, Jeff Heinz is cute, and since he figured out those weird messages had to be from trolls and wanted to make sure Joan was okay, seems to be a good guy. We'll see how it goes.
Moreover: our Watson starts to write about their cases! (At least that's what I guess the headline is supposed to be?) I wonder whether she'll publish it, in which case I'm altering my guess about her returning to some small scale practising medicine this season to her starting the classic Watson occupation of chronicler-of-their-adventures, though I bet by the time she's ready to publish it won't be called just after Holmes anymore.
Poor Clyde could have gotten suffocated. I'm just saying.
In conclusion: anything not the case of the week was wonderful. But lowering yourself to this type of propaganda was really bad form, show, and I'm very disappointed you'd do that.
