Quick Empty Hearse reaction post

[rotaryphones]

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

It was a weak episode of television all around, even before we got to the fanservice. The multiple iterations of the faked suicide scene--the one thing the episode really needed to address in a satisfying way--were too long (I got bored) and too similar to each other (they weren't scripted to emphasize the differences among them very effectively), and too disconnected from the coming-home themes they dealt with in the rest of the episode (they felt gratuitous). The plot/mystery was stupid. The reactions to Sherlock's return seemed off, somehow--John's anger and emotions were played for laughs, Mary's wry amusement didn't fit in with John's anger. (I mean, fine, have them react differently, but show us that they recognize the dissonance between the two reactions.)

Re: the fanservice, it wasn't just that there were a lot of things I disliked, but there were a lot of the types of things I disliked--the nods to fandom with the fan group and the kiss between Sherlock and Moriarty, definitely, but the nods to action-film tropes with

[woldy]

You're right about the action sequences! I hadn't even consciously realised that, except in the stupid motorbike scene, but they've shifted from the focus on information and details to the simplistic external symbols, and the show is much the worse for it. *sigh*

[magnetic_pole]

but they've shifted from the focus on information and details to the simplistic external symbols, and the show is much the worse for it. *sigh*

*nods* There was a moment when I found myself watching Sherlock and Mary careen across London on a motorcycle, and I checked my e-mail. Not good, you know? M.

[rotaryphones]

I thought the fake suicide was such a clever opener, but it got old as soon as they did it a second time. The first one should have been it. Open with one fandom-nod internet theory, and move on.

And to be fair to Martin Freeman, my favorite person on earth, I thought his reaction to Sherlock was perfect and moving. But agreed: all of that emotion was played off as a joke even though it was SO ripe for drama. And it's such a shift in tone from, say, the very first episode of the series, when the drama is so much more important than the humor. Not to mention that it used to be quiet understated human drama underneath the mystery and action bits, instead of this frenzy to make everything exciting and action-y even when there's nothing going on

[woldy]

And considering there was hardly any story to serve, practically everything in the episode felt like filler. Yes, I agree. I think they had to do a certain amount of re-establishing relationships, but it should have been much tighter and tied into the story. All the stuff with Molly's boyfriend and Anderson came across as soap opera-y, as though they're just spinning out something on screen to fill up the minutes.

[rotaryphones]

Yeah, they could have written an interesting mystery, and woven everyone's reconciliation into that. What a lovely episode that would have been. And not only were there entire scenes that felt like filler, even Sherlock's mind-palace montages dragged on too long, as though they just needed to fill up the time. Sloppy, sloppy writing.

[downjune]

Oh, good, a place to rant!

I thought the episode was such an exercise is male fantasy, I gave myself a headache watching it. Anderson's fawning, doing Molly the FAVOR of letting her tag along with Sherlock for a day, the no-homo jokes, Mary deciding that she liked Sherlock despite the fact that he'd emotionally DESTROYED her fiance (b/c of course no one can resist him ever, for any reason, they're all just secretly in love with him even when they hate him, or even if they're a lesbian), ALL the Mycroft bits (what, I'm expected to care about his precious feelings now?), humiliating Molly yet again, and oh yes, embracing his fame even though he of course looks down on all those silly people who idolize him.

Frankly, it disgusted me.

[rotaryphones]

Okay, to start, the show has ALWAYS had male fantasy problems. And I think in this episode it ties into the larger problem of isn't Sherlock great? We know everyone out there loves him, and we the writers love him, so we're just going to make everyone in the episode love him so we can all talk about how great he is all the time. (Which, incidentally, has also been one of my problems with Doctor Who, haha.) It's bad writing, and what's worse, it's fanfic writing for their own damn fiction. It has nothing to do with how the characters have developed, or how events have shaped things, or where the story is leading them, and has everything to do with trying to fanboy along with the audience.

Thanks for sharing in the rant. :)

[woldy]

I thought the episode was such an exercise is male fantasy This, absolutely. It's true of a lot of the Sherlock episodes (Scandal in Belgravia is such a puerile male fantasy that it's absurd) but was certainly really evident here.