RARGH

[etben]

So we watched the newest Sherlock tonight, because we enjoy suffering (and also because neither of us have to get up in the morning, snow emergency WOOHOO).

Basically, I have three objections:

1) it's a heist movie, which ORDINARILY I would be fine with, because I fucking love heist movies, I love love LOVE the big reveal at the end, they are my kryptonite and I have no shame.

BUT. In a heist movie, there are two big emotional relationships, right? One is between The Dude and His Fellow Criminal, who is maybe his love interest or maybe his bro (or maybe BOTH! see: Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan); they ride off into the sunset together and Thwart The Man and everything is brilliant (or sometimes the Bro dies, if it's a tragic sort of movie, but that's bullshit and I disapprove).

The OTHER big relationship is between The Dude and The Law, whoever that is, and they antagonize each other and The Law is grudgingly respectful and also driven as fuck, but ultimately unsuccessful.

AND JOHN WATSON IS NEITHER OF THOSE. Which, like, that's fine...but it basically sets him up as the patsy, the stool, the guy who stands by and is totally gulled by The Dude, and that's just...not very interesting, to me. If he's conned, then Sherlock's entire apology scene is patently insincere, the entire emotional oomph of The Reichenbach Fall is removed, and Sherlock is even more of an asshole than he appears to be. And I'm just not here for that.

2) The queerbaiting, dear jesus the queerbaiting. ENOUGH. STOP. NO. NO NO NO NO NO. Throwing myself off of a balcony with how much NO.

3) *deep breath*

V FOR VENDETTA DID IT FIRST. AND DID IT BETTER.

So, yeah. That happened, and it was entertaining but ultimately SUPER FRUSTRATING, as anticipated. After we were done, J and I turned to each other and said, "yeah, that was...kind of awful. Why can't we watch more Elementary instead?"

AND THEN WE REALIZED THAT ELEMENTARY COMES BACK TONIGHT. IN 27 MINUTES, TO BE EXACT. WINNERS.

Comments

[mrsronweasley.livejournal.com]

YES YES YES THIS ALL OF THIS YES.

Also, STOP MOCKING YOUR OWN FANBASE, MOFFATT, YOU, SIR, ARE A DICK. >:(

[etben.livejournal.com]

oh god, the fangirl bit! /o\ I think I must have actually blacked that out, it made me so angry. STOP MOCKING YOUR FANS, YOU UTTER DOUCHECANOE.

Also - and this is very important to me, Liz - V FOR VENDETTA DID THIS FIRST. I can't stop with that, because I fucking love that movie, and it says so many things that I very much like, and the way this show did it is just - NO. STOP IT. STOP TALKING AND STAND THERE AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE.

[mrsronweasley.livejournal.com]

OKAY, CONFESSION, I HAVE NEVER SEEN V FOR VENDETTA SO I DON;T KNOW WHAT THEY DID BETTER /o\ HELP ME UNDERSTAND /o\

[etben.livejournal.com]

OH MAN LIZ WE MAY HAVE TO HAVE A NIGHT. Um, basically the entire "there is a train packed with explosives hidden under Parliament" plot is straight out of V for Vendetta? Like not even changed that much; there's a train on an abandoned track, stuffed with explosives, set to blow up Parliament on Guy Fawkes Day.

(The difference, FTR, is that V for Vendetta positions itself very very firmly on the side of the people who want to blow up the oppressive ruling class, which Sherlock...didn't. WHICH IS A WHOLE OTHER COMPLAINT, actually, about how Sherlock is increasingly invested in the military-industrial/terrorism/espionage side of things, and not from a "hey, this system is bullshit, we should do a more differenter thing!" perspective, which...is not my area of interest. GIVE ME PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE; YOU ARE NOT JAMES BOND AND I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE.)

[go-gentle.livejournal.com]

my reaction to sherlock was that i enjoyed all the bits that didn't have john and sherlock in the scene together, which, uh, is maybe not the reaction they should be going for.

[etben.livejournal.com]

Agreed! If my least favorite thing about your show is the interaction between the two main characters, you are doing something tremendously wrong. NOT THAT THAT IS EVEN REMOTELY SURPRISING.

[giddygeek.livejournal.com]

I'M SO TIRED OF BEING QUEERBAITED. I'm so tired of it. I get that show writers/producers/actors see fandom happening and don't quite get it and try to both play with it and on it--fine. It would be possible for a show to queerbait with kindness, like, "We can't actually go there but we kind of wish we could; you're not wrong!" but TPTB never seem to GO that route (excepting, really, Due South!) and what happens is that it gets mean-spirited. And of all things I will cope with, mean-spiritedness is just not on the list. AND Moffatt is one of THE ABSOLUTE MOST mean-spirited PTB around. >:(

[etben.livejournal.com]

ugh, seriously - it's not just the queerbaiting, but the sheer mean-spiritedness of the fangirl bit was SO UPSETTING to me. The gambit on its own was great—all of the different people with their different theories on How Sherlock Did It—but the way they set it up in re: Generic Fangirl just left such a bad taste in my mouth. God forbid people engage with the show in a way that Moffatt doesn't approve of! Let us mock them onscreen!