Elementary 2.20
Apr. 11th, 2014 04:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOh show, you are very dear. May you not be cancelled for many years to come!
Case of the week was so so, though it tickled me that it turned out the reason for the anthrax wasn't domestic terrorism but an insurance scam. But the character B-plot, which is what one watches this show for anyway, was superb.
I must confess Alistair wasn't a favourite of mine, Roger Rees playing him notwithstanding, and thus he wasn't on my "guest star who needs to return" list. But curse it, now he is, because the show managed to make him and his relationship with Sherlock fascinating in retrospect. And they only had to kill him off to do it (and to give him actual scenes with Sherlock; the last time, his scenes were all with Joan and during one of them he was pretending to be someone else anyway). I sound flippant, but I don't feel like it: I found the whole storyline very moving, and btw, while I can't recall whether or not Alistair being gay was mentioned before, the way it was handled here was great precisely because nobody made a deal out of it, and Holmes visited Alistair's partner Ian was presented in exactly the same way as a condolence visit to a female widow would have been.
I wonder whether Alistair's sudden death, and the manner of it - heroin after years of being sober, and when he's successful and happy professionally, with a devoted spouse, and the utter shock it evokes was inspired by Philipp Seymour Hoffmann's? But be that as it may, the way the show played it - first letting Sherlock listen to Alistair's Derry accent teaching recordings, playing it as just another Sherlock excentricity, then letting Joan twig something is off, because he's just that bit more abrupt than usual, then letting Sherlock mention that Alistair is dead (but as it turns out name the wrong cause of death), then the condolence visit, where the audience wonders whether Sherlock wants Alistair to have died of something he can explain/deduce in order to cope, but doesn't know yet the final reason why, and then Jeremy shows up to complain to Joan, and only THEN do we find out just how Alistair died... it all builds up, and en route we find out far more about Alistair than we did when he was alive: he had a son, Jeremy, who didn't get over his father leaving his mother (presumably after coming out, though the series doesn't specify whether Alistair was bi or gay), but was on (stormy) talking terms with him, a partner, Ian, whom he was happy with and who, as Sherlock says, made him happy, he was working as an actor (not granted in the profession). And his relationship with Sherlock: Alistair had mentioned to Joan it started when Sherlock was a child, but now that we know Alistair had a son of his own with whom he had problems (and adding to that that Sherlock had him play Sherlock's father to Joan when first arranging a meeting between them), I wonder whether they were both seeing each other as alternatives to the biological relation, second chances, so to speak. Not that if you ship Sherlock/Alistair romantically you can't do so instead based on this episode, because Sherlock does use the word "love" to describe his feelings for Alistair, which as far as I recall he never did for anyone other than Irene/Moriarty. (I mean, we know he loves Joan as his best friend, but he hasn't used the l-word towards her, has he?)
Now that Sherlock canonically has a head!Alistair, there is, of course, room for Roger Rees to come back. (Though I doubt the writers will use that ploy more than once.) Oh, this episode! I never thought before I might want that.
Case of the week was so so, though it tickled me that it turned out the reason for the anthrax wasn't domestic terrorism but an insurance scam. But the character B-plot, which is what one watches this show for anyway, was superb.
I must confess Alistair wasn't a favourite of mine, Roger Rees playing him notwithstanding, and thus he wasn't on my "guest star who needs to return" list. But curse it, now he is, because the show managed to make him and his relationship with Sherlock fascinating in retrospect. And they only had to kill him off to do it (and to give him actual scenes with Sherlock; the last time, his scenes were all with Joan and during one of them he was pretending to be someone else anyway). I sound flippant, but I don't feel like it: I found the whole storyline very moving, and btw, while I can't recall whether or not Alistair being gay was mentioned before, the way it was handled here was great precisely because nobody made a deal out of it, and Holmes visited Alistair's partner Ian was presented in exactly the same way as a condolence visit to a female widow would have been.
I wonder whether Alistair's sudden death, and the manner of it - heroin after years of being sober, and when he's successful and happy professionally, with a devoted spouse, and the utter shock it evokes was inspired by Philipp Seymour Hoffmann's? But be that as it may, the way the show played it - first letting Sherlock listen to Alistair's Derry accent teaching recordings, playing it as just another Sherlock excentricity, then letting Joan twig something is off, because he's just that bit more abrupt than usual, then letting Sherlock mention that Alistair is dead (but as it turns out name the wrong cause of death), then the condolence visit, where the audience wonders whether Sherlock wants Alistair to have died of something he can explain/deduce in order to cope, but doesn't know yet the final reason why, and then Jeremy shows up to complain to Joan, and only THEN do we find out just how Alistair died... it all builds up, and en route we find out far more about Alistair than we did when he was alive: he had a son, Jeremy, who didn't get over his father leaving his mother (presumably after coming out, though the series doesn't specify whether Alistair was bi or gay), but was on (stormy) talking terms with him, a partner, Ian, whom he was happy with and who, as Sherlock says, made him happy, he was working as an actor (not granted in the profession). And his relationship with Sherlock: Alistair had mentioned to Joan it started when Sherlock was a child, but now that we know Alistair had a son of his own with whom he had problems (and adding to that that Sherlock had him play Sherlock's father to Joan when first arranging a meeting between them), I wonder whether they were both seeing each other as alternatives to the biological relation, second chances, so to speak. Not that if you ship Sherlock/Alistair romantically you can't do so instead based on this episode, because Sherlock does use the word "love" to describe his feelings for Alistair, which as far as I recall he never did for anyone other than Irene/Moriarty. (I mean, we know he loves Joan as his best friend, but he hasn't used the l-word towards her, has he?)
Now that Sherlock canonically has a head!Alistair, there is, of course, room for Roger Rees to come back. (Though I doubt the writers will use that ploy more than once.) Oh, this episode! I never thought before I might want that.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-11 04:34 pm (UTC)It wasn't mentioned that Alistair was gay before. I wrote him as such in a fic because it struck me as possibly likely, given his relationship with Sherlock (and Roger Rees is gay, not that that matters too much). But yeah, it was great that it was never actually brought up. I am kind of in awe of Ian's massive living room, though. (I assume Alistair's bookshop gig didn't pay for that.)
no subject
Date: 2014-04-12 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-12 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-12 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-12 04:42 pm (UTC)Which made me sad all over again about PSH.
But in show terms, I'll be happy to see more of Rees.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 06:52 pm (UTC)