brain droppings watching sherlock

[senoritafish]

Wrote last July, even though I first started watching Sherlock in January '12.  I had it private since I figured no one was interested, but there's a couple of people who are fans so I guess I'll make it public:


Mostly a bullet list of observations that I kept going back and adding to - may be kind of dated by now...

• How many freaking patterns of wallpaper are in 221b? There's at least three just in the living room, two in Sherlock's bedroom, two outside their door, and something different at the bottom of stairs.
• According to Tumblr fans - Sherlock is an otter. John is a hedgehog made of equal parts kittens, jam and rage. I don't know where the kittens part comes from (although it seems to have something to do with a sweater). He doesn't appear to really care for Sehkmet. Then again, cats rarely care for other cats.
• Drag John to a restaurant. Don't eat yourself. Never let him finish anything either.
• Benedict Cumberbatch may be an otter in fandom, but seems to also be part giraffe (note - the now [in]famous scarf removal gif). He's got the most mobile face I've ever seen; sometimes he looks like a teenager and other times, worn and haggard (I'm not sure [and this is how pathetic I am] but looking at close-ups where he looks really young, he seems to be wearing mascara or something). His eyes keep changing colors. When he starts yelling he looks like Will Ferrell. During his meltdown in front of the fireplace, I can just see him as an old man, with his eyebrows out to here (my god, those eyebrows), yelling at the kids to get offa his lawn and his neighbors that they're lowering his property values. He'll look like Peter O'Toole as an old man. Of course, I'll be dead by then.
• For people trying to save money on a flat (well, John is, anyway), you'd think less expensive public transportation would be in order.
• I didn't get the impression John was trying to hit on Sherlock. He's open-minded, but still, sometimes it's nice to know your roommate's status before moving in, just to know who else may be coming and going. That's not to say it's out of the question later, though.
• Molly, however, definitely is. Molly is me, once upon a time, only by asking Sherlock out for coffee, she's a lot more brave. She deserves a lot more respect - unless something's different in the UK, a pathologist is still a doctor, y'know, even if it's for dead people. And even if her blog looks like it was done by an eighth grader.
• Sherlock's not as observant as he thinks; in Baskervilles, he tells Mrs. Hudson she's wearing a new dress. But she was wearing the same dress the day after they meet Irene Adler inScandal as well, so she's had it at least six months.
• I'd really like to know what Mrs. Hudson's husband did in Florida, and I want to read John's blog entry about The Geek Interpreter never mind.
• My kids are deliberately mixing up fandoms - to them Sherlock's older brother is Minecraft, and they're looking for the Hound of the Basketball. Not that they watch basketball.
• Why are Maneki-neko two thirds of the inventory of a store in Chinatown? I thought they were a Japanese thing (although the Mom & Pop Chinese restaurant we used to go to had one on the counter next to Hotei - who had pennies balanced all over him).
• The only time I've ever seen the door to their flat closed is when Moriarty comes up the stairs. Sherlock tells him "Most people knock" - but actually it seems like everyone (including clients and DI Lestrade) just walks right in - after buzzing the street door, I suppose (which usually gets ignored). Oh, I forgot - Mrs. Hudson does her little "boop boop" first. And there are two doors into the flat from the landing- one in the living room and one in the kitchen, two rooms adjacent to each other. Odd, but I suppose I've seen weirder floor plans.
• "You were clearly born in the 80's" - way to make me feel old. Even Sherlock (if he's supposed to be the same age as his actor) was born the year I started high school. Edit: I saw an excerpt from "Casebook" publication in the UK that says Sherlock was born in 1981. Great. Even worse. I'm now old enough to be his mother. Not only that, but if Moriarty is the same age, the ringtone he uses dates from before he and Sherlock were born! Aggh!
• Kept wondering why fanfic writers all knew the name of Molly's cat...
• John mentions Sherlock having Aspergers to Lestrade, although Sherlock says he's a high-functioning sociopath (are there low-functioning sociapaths? I've never heard of any). Very interesting article here on Sherlock and Aspergers and here, (via TGPA's facebook page) and very extensively here on Tumblr.
• John's sister is gay and getting a divorce; Mrs. Hudson says her neighbor has "married ones." Formal same-sex marriage is not yet legal in the UK, although although it looks to be progressing toward it. And I guess some people celebrate a domestic partnership in the same way? For someone who has a gay brother I should know this - however, that one has been single for a very long time, and that possibility was never discussed.
• When I first saw the scene in Buckingham Palace it was funny; however, I was unaware the British mean something else by the word pants. Gives it a whole new meaning. Also, Red. Pants. Beware using that as a search term on Tumblr. >:)
• Something I just realized recently, with the driver who shows up in Sherlock's flat when he's in his sheet. While the police are investigating the dead outdoorsman by the lake, the driver's car is still there with the hood popped up! It looks to be be out in the country. How'd he get to 221B? Then again, John arrives with his laptop in a taxi, so maybe it's not too far away; I live in a Southern California suburb of Los Angeles, so my sense of distance from city to rural is massively skewed. Depending on the direction, it would take me an hour to several hours of driving to get anywhere that might be considered rural.  Also, the driver is in their flat from when Mrs. Hudson yells at them, to when Sherlock in his sheet is talking to John out at the scene
• When Sherlock and Moriarty are the roof, the lighting keeps changing. When they start talking, the sun is fairly high in the sky. You can see it on their faces; their foreheads and cheekbones are brightly lit while their eyes are in shadow. By the time Sherlock stands on the roof's edge, the light is full in his face as if it's approaching sunset - although I got the feeling this whole scene took place early in the day (Sherlock and John having spent the night in the lab). A bit moot, as by the end of the scene,e it's raining, but I notice things like that. Also, Sherlock never seemed to check whether Moriarty was actually dead.



• I want Sherlock's teapot.  Artist has tons of other neat stuff too, frogs and tuataras on teapots and mugs.