Re-watching 'The Great Game'

And the re-watching continues. There weren't many unanswered questions this time.  And I can't believe I've managed to wait more than year a to find out what happened next. Clicking 'next episode' feels like heaven right now. Oh, those lucky things which will get into Sherlock after 'The Empty Hearse'. How much I envy them. There *really* should be a built in one-year-waiting button in the next DVD box-set.

So, enough chatting; here we go again. 

• Why does Sherlock identify the handwriting on the envelope with the phone as that of a woman's? Who wrote it to him? Moriarty? Did he fake his own handwriting? Or does he just write like a girl? Hang on, is that an insult?

• Who'd be stargazing from London? Well, I know about Greenwich but, still, wouldn't there be too much light pollution to enjoy the view?

• Why does Sherlock *pretend* to do the shopping? John wouldn't have left faster...

• Oh_my_dear#1 When Sherlock sees John at the pool he HAS to think for a second that he's Moriarty.

• Oh_my_dear#2 What's worse. That's what has to come to John's mind too. But he cannot tell his friend because he has to repeat what Moriarty is saying to him.

• Oh_my_dear#3 When Moriarty finally show up in person they have to think they won't make it out alive. Well, that's at least what's on John's mind. After all, now they know how he looks like. So why should he let them go. That's why John's willing to sacrifice his life. Well, that and the fact that he really likes Sherlock.

• Oh_my_dear#4 Sherlock has no idea what to do with the gun after Moriarty has left.

Re-Watching 'The Blind Banker'

 Just some things which came to my mind when re-watching 'The Blind Banker'.

• What happened to the man Sherlock was fighting while John was out shopping? Why is that guy Sherlock's message for the people of the Jaria Diamond case? Why shouldn't John know about this?

• Why does Sherlock not let John in the flat after he enters it via the balcony? Does he want to make sure it's safe? Or does he not want to be distracted by his friend?

• What did Sherlock need that pen he'd been waiting for 'about an hour'? Good, him catching it without looking is quite impressive. I give you that. But you could have made him actually do something with it.

• Why does John use Internet Explorer? WHY?

• What is Sherlock's motivation behind him not telling John about that guy in Soo Lian Yao's flat? Is he that vain? Or is there more behind it?

• Couldn't help noticing that John's phone has great picture taking abilities illuminating the whole chiphre on the wall. In 2o1o. And it's an old phone he got from Harry... 

• The most unrealistic part of the episode is that Van Coon has so many books. Have you met people making a great living working at banks? More importantly, have you met their bookshelves?

• The guy at the ticket selling boot at the circus has to notice that John is not Sherlock. When Sherlock turns up he introduces himself to John's date right in front of the ticket seller's eyes.

• Love the way John says 'this is... art', as if art were something disgusting.  

• And most importantly, why didn't Van Coon ask his secretary to give him the hair pin back? Why was he willing to die for it?

Shattered Dreams...

Sadly, yesterday neither Sherlock nor Doctor Who could stand their ground at the National Television Awards (NTA), which is for the latter one the first time since it has been brought back to life. If you feel like torturing yourself, these YouTube videos show how they are NOT getting the awards. (Best Drama, Best Drama Performance).

And the winning parties forgot to thank Sherlock and Doctor Who being nominated in the same categories, which was the main cause for Waterloo Road (never heard of it) and ... erm who? - David Jason getting any awards in the first place.

Because, the obvious reason for this is that both shows have more or less the same fan-base, and as the two of them were put up against each other in the same categories, fans had to make up their minds what to vote for. And because of the split votes both failed... Well, I wouldn't say failed for Doctor Who is still one of the Beeb's most important series, and Sherlock is on the best way to get there, nevertheless, we are not pleased. I mean, back in 2oo5 the show could scope three awards, and I think since then Doctor Who has improved a lot.

Let's hope next year we'll have learnt something of this, because with Sherlock's new season it's more than just very likely that two of our most favourite serials will be nominated against each other again.

The Great Game

Someone is trying hard to drive people's attention to this show. For it looks as if the Beeb won't have another choice than giving us at least another season of this 21st century Sherlock.

So, we had our story-arch then... (and this made it official that last week's episode was really just a filler, as it seemed to be in the first place). Additionally, The Great Game showed us this series' future capacity. Come on, they could have made a whole season out of the last episode's plot alone. And after sitting through it the only thing we get is a cliff-hanger, which was a bit far-fetched IMHO. But who cares. Somehow it still managed to be amazing, and I can't wait for more.

And BTW I just love Sherlock's catchy opening-titles.

The Blind Banker

Sherlock is on its best way to become one of those save-the-date TV series. Because this was awesome. 

Sure, even the at times overly fast paced action couldn't help distracting from the fact that this was the filler of this year's season (well, I for my part hope there will be more). There were too many lose strings to speculate about. Like, what happened to the man Sherlock was fighting while John was out shopping? Why is that guy Sherlock's message for the people of the Jaria Diamond case? And most importantly, why shouldn't John know about this? And still, somehow I  have the feeling that it's not important. I guess, Thompson could have made more of these thrown away snippets.

But there were more things Sherlock did not want John to know about. Like him almost dying in Soo Lin Yao's flat. Does he want to hide the fact that their job is somewhat dangerous? Does he not want to admit that he did something stupid? Why doesn't he open the flat after entering it anyway? What's his motivation?

But otherwise, it's great to see a Sherlock Holmes adaptation in which John and Sherlock can be equals in their friendship. John is more than someone filling in for Sherlock's audience, or his skull. Well, at the same time, Sherlock does his best to irritate everyone around him, also John. It's clear that he's not trying to be nice. And John's failed attempt of having a date is somewhat foreshadowing his future. 

So, the M to which Shen was talking in the last seconds of her life is certainly Moriarty. I guess, next week things will start to become really interesting...

A Study In Pink

With no Doctor Who on until Christmas and a lot of spare time on my hand, I decided to dedicate almost ninety minutes of my afternoon to the BBC's new Sherlock Holmes adaptation of which a certain Steven Moffat's happens to be one of its co-writers.

Maybe, there is to mention, that I am, or rather was a big Sherlock Holmes fan a few years ago. Well, maybe not that big, but I read some of the books, and I remember enjoying them pretty much. Additionally, I was also quite curious about what Moffat would do with Sherlock Holmes' apparently not too temporary methods. And, luckily as far as I'm concerned, this series' opener didn't let neither of its fans down.

So, let's start with the casting... For a start, I wasn't familiar with the leading actors Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Marin Freeman who plays Doctor John Watson (John Watson on this blog.) Their mixture of sticking to the original characters and adding their (and the writers') own interpretation of them to the roles just won me over right from the start. For on the one hand Cumberbatch's Sherlock is eccentric enough so that it's not difficult to identify the world's most famous detective, but on the other hand their changed his relationship to Watson, so that he isn't only using him as someone in front of whom he can show off. And through this he appears to be nicer than in the books.
Additionally, I loved the way the team circumvented the BBC's 'not showing smoking heroes in our programmes' rule, while still sticking to Doyle's ideas of Sherlock Holems. His 'This is a three-patch problem' - line was superb.

My only, and slight critic of this opener is the plot of A Study In Pink. Until now the story didn't make too much sense, however, maybe when the Moriarty-story-arch will be finally reviled it might be possible that we won't be complaining about it anymore.

After all, this episode made me certainly curious about the following ones, for this was the best thing I've seen on TV for month.