Introspective girls can be awesome too.
Another great Elementary video, with ~bonus!~ musings -
This one almost seems a character-study for Joan, though I'm not sure it was entirely intended that way.
It highlights what I like about Joan - what it is in her that I relate to.
The thing is, Joan is not a therapist, and yet, given her position as a sober companion, she will continually find herself in situations that would probably be better served by a therapist. In a way, she's somewhat out of her league, but her intentions are good. She continually pries, with Sherlock, trying to get him to 'open up', or talk about what she assumes must be his emotional issues that led to addiction - and yet, when he tells her that she doesn't need to know, she just wants to, because she thinks it will help forge a connection - he's right. But she's right, too. It *would* lead to connection.....but only if come by organically. She's a 'picker' - but she's also slightly naive about it. The story, the sharing of it - that's not the important thing at all. The desire to share is more important, and that only comes through familiarity and trust, it can't be pushed.
So many of the lines reveal this naivety - 'he just won't let me help him, he's so adamant about being above all that' (she hasn't yet earned the right) - 'I'm fine, I have to be, I'm working a case, and talking about my feelings is not going to get it solved' (he's 100% right on this, he may be an addict, but he's also a professional, and it's not all about him....he actually can separate that, while she assumes he'll find it difficult) - Joan's lines about Sherlock's maybe giving up pleasurable things as a form of penance (which he responds to with 'you always know it, Watson. If you didn't, it wouldn't be penance.'), and her asking if, as a heroin user, he also wanted oblivion....the way she comes at these topics with him show both a sincere desire for connection, but an almost immature way of going about it. She's coming at him as if she's the strong, sensible one, the one with the solid grip on life, and he's this fragile, skittish thing, just blinking into the light, and she has to approach him tentatively (which, given her assigned role makes a sort of sense), but their interactions often reveal that just the opposite is true. She's playing a role with all the sincerity in the world, without quite realizing it - but his responses to her reveal that he's quite capable of thoroughly understanding both his situation and hers, and show the imbalance in the weight of their life experience.
He's kind about it though (usually), which I appreciate. Although he does find her persistence irritating at times, and will push back, he realizes that she means well, that she does care and it's not just a career-driven pretense, and that this caring and interest and push for connection can be converted from an (in theory) intention to 'teach' (on her part), to a drive to learn and be taught instead. The roles of teacher and student were mismatched at the start, and only had to flip to where they really belonged.
Anyway, I like this about Joan, because I can relate to it, being nosy and picky and psychologically-minded myself, yet also a bit naive, and without either the weight of experience, or the skills to do a good job of faking it. She's not smooth - she doesn't succeed in pulling things out of him because she's wildly good at it - but she is sincere, which seems to be somehow disarming, and manages to get her further than she otherwise would. I like that Joan's emphasis is not at all about any kind of career ambition - in fact, if anything, she's actively climbing DOWN the career ladder, not up it. There may be things that she misses about her former heights, but if she wanted to be there, she would have found a way, and not kept making choices that turned her down different, quieter paths. Her focus is not on scrambling and clawing her way up, leaving people in her wake, being 'the best' of anything. Instead, it's been a much narrower focus, on helping one person at a time, and now it's down to helping one specific person for as long as it takes, no matter what anyone else thinks of her in the meantime, and even if that means kind of trashing her 'career' in the process.
That kind of 'ambition', I can understand, and I like it much better than the other kind. I like that Joan is tough in her own way, but it's a quiet way, more personal, less showy. Also less focused on self. It's not about gaining, or getting, but giving. It's a different kind of 'strong woman' than we often see in TV....in fact, usually this type of woman gets considered to be 'stereotypical', and weak, not strong at all. I'm not sure how this manages to be seen differently, but I'm glad. There are different kinds of 'strong', and different kinds of women, and I think we all deserve characters we can relate to, and have those characters be seen in a positive light.
Click to viewThis one almost seems a character-study for Joan, though I'm not sure it was entirely intended that way.
It highlights what I like about Joan - what it is in her that I relate to.
The thing is, Joan is not a therapist, and yet, given her position as a sober companion, she will continually find herself in situations that would probably be better served by a therapist. In a way, she's somewhat out of her league, but her intentions are good. She continually pries, with Sherlock, trying to get him to 'open up', or talk about what she assumes must be his emotional issues that led to addiction - and yet, when he tells her that she doesn't need to know, she just wants to, because she thinks it will help forge a connection - he's right. But she's right, too. It *would* lead to connection.....but only if come by organically. She's a 'picker' - but she's also slightly naive about it. The story, the sharing of it - that's not the important thing at all. The desire to share is more important, and that only comes through familiarity and trust, it can't be pushed.
So many of the lines reveal this naivety - 'he just won't let me help him, he's so adamant about being above all that' (she hasn't yet earned the right) - 'I'm fine, I have to be, I'm working a case, and talking about my feelings is not going to get it solved' (he's 100% right on this, he may be an addict, but he's also a professional, and it's not all about him....he actually can separate that, while she assumes he'll find it difficult) - Joan's lines about Sherlock's maybe giving up pleasurable things as a form of penance (which he responds to with 'you always know it, Watson. If you didn't, it wouldn't be penance.'), and her asking if, as a heroin user, he also wanted oblivion....the way she comes at these topics with him show both a sincere desire for connection, but an almost immature way of going about it. She's coming at him as if she's the strong, sensible one, the one with the solid grip on life, and he's this fragile, skittish thing, just blinking into the light, and she has to approach him tentatively (which, given her assigned role makes a sort of sense), but their interactions often reveal that just the opposite is true. She's playing a role with all the sincerity in the world, without quite realizing it - but his responses to her reveal that he's quite capable of thoroughly understanding both his situation and hers, and show the imbalance in the weight of their life experience.
He's kind about it though (usually), which I appreciate. Although he does find her persistence irritating at times, and will push back, he realizes that she means well, that she does care and it's not just a career-driven pretense, and that this caring and interest and push for connection can be converted from an (in theory) intention to 'teach' (on her part), to a drive to learn and be taught instead. The roles of teacher and student were mismatched at the start, and only had to flip to where they really belonged.
Anyway, I like this about Joan, because I can relate to it, being nosy and picky and psychologically-minded myself, yet also a bit naive, and without either the weight of experience, or the skills to do a good job of faking it. She's not smooth - she doesn't succeed in pulling things out of him because she's wildly good at it - but she is sincere, which seems to be somehow disarming, and manages to get her further than she otherwise would. I like that Joan's emphasis is not at all about any kind of career ambition - in fact, if anything, she's actively climbing DOWN the career ladder, not up it. There may be things that she misses about her former heights, but if she wanted to be there, she would have found a way, and not kept making choices that turned her down different, quieter paths. Her focus is not on scrambling and clawing her way up, leaving people in her wake, being 'the best' of anything. Instead, it's been a much narrower focus, on helping one person at a time, and now it's down to helping one specific person for as long as it takes, no matter what anyone else thinks of her in the meantime, and even if that means kind of trashing her 'career' in the process.
That kind of 'ambition', I can understand, and I like it much better than the other kind. I like that Joan is tough in her own way, but it's a quiet way, more personal, less showy. Also less focused on self. It's not about gaining, or getting, but giving. It's a different kind of 'strong woman' than we often see in TV....in fact, usually this type of woman gets considered to be 'stereotypical', and weak, not strong at all. I'm not sure how this manages to be seen differently, but I'm glad. There are different kinds of 'strong', and different kinds of women, and I think we all deserve characters we can relate to, and have those characters be seen in a positive light.