Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville Review
I've only seen it once so far, but I hope to watch it again tonight!
I didn’t really review episode one, “A Scandal in Belgravia,” here because I think everything I wanted to say has been said by others. Despite being plenty of engrossing fun and me loving Sherlock and John (and Mycroft! And especially Irene, even though her character didn’t really make sense) more than ever, it ultimately continues the Sherlock trend of having unnecessary sexist and racist overtones, not to mention changing the original story to downplay how awesome Irene was. (When Irene actually begs Sherlock, I wanted to scream. And Sherlock wasn’t even holding the phone at that point, Mycroft was! But I digress.)
“The Hounds of Baskerville,” however, is more like what I want in a Sherlock episode. It’s case-based, nothing major changes, and it’s full of the John/Sherlock interactions I love. It should be a rule that at least once an episode, John has to protest that he and Sherlock aren’t lovers.
This is the only original Sherlock story/novel I read, and as I recall in the original, there was actually a giant hound who was fed stuff to make him glow fluorescent green. But I like the changes they made here. It seemed fairly believable.
Things I loved:
-John. Good lord, John. He didn’t really get to shine in episode one, but he was back in action here with the best one-liners imaginable. When Henry Knight asks Sherlock to explain and John goes, “It’s not important,” I was so close to spraying stuff all over the screen. He had me in hysterics. And how I love him being the calm one for once, and pulling rank, and actually being a doctor to both Henry and Sherlock. And stealing the meat receipt! And trying to help with the Morse code! *huggles him*
-Russell Tovey plays distressed better than anybody I know. I 100% believed him and loved that he challenged Sherlock to see if he was laughing at him. *insert Being Human werewolf/hound joke here*
-Sherlock being so scared his hands shake. Just go ahead and hit all my kinks, Mark Gatiss, why don’t you? (EDIT: see this great post about how the way John treats austistic-spectrum Sherlock during this sensory overload is very bad and unhelpful.)
-What was that line about Sherlock and John not getting a double because they were all out? Does that mean they had to sleep in the same bed? :DDDD
-The general atmosphere and pacing, particularly in their first break-in to Baskerville. I love how Mycroft didn’t really confront Sherlock or say, “Get out of there,” he more just wanted to know what was going on. I imagine him sighing and going, “What’s my baby brother got up to this time?” I did want more of Mycroft, to be honest.
-Dr. Stapleton and her glow-in-the-dark bunny Bluebell. Cute tie-in to the little girl on Sherlock’s website. I enjoyed how they made it seem like Sherlock broke into Baskerville just to confront her about Bluebell.
-Moriarty’s “Sherlock” room. Oooh, so shiver-worthy. I can’t wait for next Sunday. (Hmm, I’ve been saying that for three weeks now…)
-The gay innkeepers! “Is yours a snorer?” My goodness, how many gay or bi or asexual characters are we going to get in Sherlock? I approve.
-“I don’t have friends. I've just got one.” *dies*
-Mycroft/Lestrade is now canon. Done and done.
Things I wasn’t so fond of:
-How, how could Sherlock do that to John? I know he’s Sherlock and all, but hadn’t we just finished hearing all that adorable stuff about John being his one and only friend, and Sherlock spending so much time trying to apologize to him? :( It was kind of set up to be funny and clever, but I just found it completely horrifying. I always thought John was the exception for Sherlock.
-The filming choices at times. Oh my god, if anyone else flashes a light in my eyes in the next month, I will kill them. And I didn’t like the extreme closeups where we see Sherlock’s cheek and John far away, and then reversed. I wanted to watch Sherlock freak out from a better angle where I could see more than his eyes.
-CGI puppy was hilarious. Moriarty was so much scarier, man. The fact that Sherlock is at least a little afraid of him is so fascinating to me.
-What was the deal with Mrs. Hudson? She’s dating a guy from Speedy’s who is cheating on her multiple times? It just seemed like Sherlock was being pointlessly mean to her. He could have told John in that manner, then John could have told Mrs. Hudson in a nicer way. (EDIT: Here's a much better reading on this scene in light of Sherlock deduction-dumping while having a meltdown.)
-Sherlock driving. My head!canon is that Sherlock doesn’t know how or hasn’t had any practice. Oh well. But somehow I thought John would drive if they had to go anywhere. EDIT: Am slightly mollified. It's because Martin Freeman can't drive, lol.
I actually solved this case before Sherlock! I suspected the fog right away (it was just so thick, and only in that one spot), then started to doubt myself with the sugar, heh. And Dr. Frankland was being far too helpful to be innocent.
More than ever, I want Molly Hooper to be Sebastian Moran (or the real Moriarty). I find it extremely odd that we haven’t met him yet. The genderswap casting would be a great touch and partially redeem the series for me, it would explain why she and Jim were “dating,” and the delicious surprise to Sherlock would be just fantastic to see.
I'm hoping we might find out who Anonymous and “theimprobableone” on Sherlock's blog are. I'm assuming Jim is Anonymous, and I really hope theimprobableone goes along with my Molly-is-Moran theory and turns out to be Molly. :)
But whatever happens, I can’t wait for next week! (Hopefully we’ll get to meet Moran, one way or another.)
I didn’t really review episode one, “A Scandal in Belgravia,” here because I think everything I wanted to say has been said by others. Despite being plenty of engrossing fun and me loving Sherlock and John (and Mycroft! And especially Irene, even though her character didn’t really make sense) more than ever, it ultimately continues the Sherlock trend of having unnecessary sexist and racist overtones, not to mention changing the original story to downplay how awesome Irene was. (When Irene actually begs Sherlock, I wanted to scream. And Sherlock wasn’t even holding the phone at that point, Mycroft was! But I digress.)
“The Hounds of Baskerville,” however, is more like what I want in a Sherlock episode. It’s case-based, nothing major changes, and it’s full of the John/Sherlock interactions I love. It should be a rule that at least once an episode, John has to protest that he and Sherlock aren’t lovers.
This is the only original Sherlock story/novel I read, and as I recall in the original, there was actually a giant hound who was fed stuff to make him glow fluorescent green. But I like the changes they made here. It seemed fairly believable.
Things I loved:
-John. Good lord, John. He didn’t really get to shine in episode one, but he was back in action here with the best one-liners imaginable. When Henry Knight asks Sherlock to explain and John goes, “It’s not important,” I was so close to spraying stuff all over the screen. He had me in hysterics. And how I love him being the calm one for once, and pulling rank, and actually being a doctor to both Henry and Sherlock. And stealing the meat receipt! And trying to help with the Morse code! *huggles him*
-Russell Tovey plays distressed better than anybody I know. I 100% believed him and loved that he challenged Sherlock to see if he was laughing at him. *insert Being Human werewolf/hound joke here*
-Sherlock being so scared his hands shake. Just go ahead and hit all my kinks, Mark Gatiss, why don’t you? (EDIT: see this great post about how the way John treats austistic-spectrum Sherlock during this sensory overload is very bad and unhelpful.)
-What was that line about Sherlock and John not getting a double because they were all out? Does that mean they had to sleep in the same bed? :DDDD
-The general atmosphere and pacing, particularly in their first break-in to Baskerville. I love how Mycroft didn’t really confront Sherlock or say, “Get out of there,” he more just wanted to know what was going on. I imagine him sighing and going, “What’s my baby brother got up to this time?” I did want more of Mycroft, to be honest.
-Dr. Stapleton and her glow-in-the-dark bunny Bluebell. Cute tie-in to the little girl on Sherlock’s website. I enjoyed how they made it seem like Sherlock broke into Baskerville just to confront her about Bluebell.
-Moriarty’s “Sherlock” room. Oooh, so shiver-worthy. I can’t wait for next Sunday. (Hmm, I’ve been saying that for three weeks now…)
-The gay innkeepers! “Is yours a snorer?” My goodness, how many gay or bi or asexual characters are we going to get in Sherlock? I approve.
-“I don’t have friends. I've just got one.” *dies*
-Mycroft/Lestrade is now canon. Done and done.
Things I wasn’t so fond of:
-How, how could Sherlock do that to John? I know he’s Sherlock and all, but hadn’t we just finished hearing all that adorable stuff about John being his one and only friend, and Sherlock spending so much time trying to apologize to him? :( It was kind of set up to be funny and clever, but I just found it completely horrifying. I always thought John was the exception for Sherlock.
-The filming choices at times. Oh my god, if anyone else flashes a light in my eyes in the next month, I will kill them. And I didn’t like the extreme closeups where we see Sherlock’s cheek and John far away, and then reversed. I wanted to watch Sherlock freak out from a better angle where I could see more than his eyes.
-CGI puppy was hilarious. Moriarty was so much scarier, man. The fact that Sherlock is at least a little afraid of him is so fascinating to me.
-What was the deal with Mrs. Hudson? She’s dating a guy from Speedy’s who is cheating on her multiple times? It just seemed like Sherlock was being pointlessly mean to her. He could have told John in that manner, then John could have told Mrs. Hudson in a nicer way. (EDIT: Here's a much better reading on this scene in light of Sherlock deduction-dumping while having a meltdown.)
-Sherlock driving. My head!canon is that Sherlock doesn’t know how or hasn’t had any practice. Oh well. But somehow I thought John would drive if they had to go anywhere. EDIT: Am slightly mollified. It's because Martin Freeman can't drive, lol.
I actually solved this case before Sherlock! I suspected the fog right away (it was just so thick, and only in that one spot), then started to doubt myself with the sugar, heh. And Dr. Frankland was being far too helpful to be innocent.
More than ever, I want Molly Hooper to be Sebastian Moran (or the real Moriarty). I find it extremely odd that we haven’t met him yet. The genderswap casting would be a great touch and partially redeem the series for me, it would explain why she and Jim were “dating,” and the delicious surprise to Sherlock would be just fantastic to see.
I'm hoping we might find out who Anonymous and “theimprobableone” on Sherlock's blog are. I'm assuming Jim is Anonymous, and I really hope theimprobableone goes along with my Molly-is-Moran theory and turns out to be Molly. :)
But whatever happens, I can’t wait for next week! (Hopefully we’ll get to meet Moran, one way or another.)