by the sea

Whoa ! Some of those underwater dogs would scare the Baskerville hound ! And they're still adorable . Never met a dog I didn't like. Debbie

Sorry ... I haven't read most of the above but just wanted to say that I have been reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes and about two nights ago read A Scandal in Bohemia and yesterday afternoon what did Showcase have on as their Sunday Afternoon movie ?? ... A Scandal in Belgravia !! I haven't seen an episode of Sherlock in possibly two weeks, I think, so I was about due and I particularly like this one and it gave me a good opportunity to compare the story with the show. In the story, Sherlock has such little contact with Irene ... he mostly admired her (a lot) from afar. And, she got the better of him really, although he knew that she would never cause any trouble for the king because she said she wouldn't. He believed her. In the show, we get to see far more of her ... literally ... and Sherlock has a lot more personal interaction with her and you get a better idea of why he admires her. She is smart, devious and well-connected whereas in the story, you can see she is smart and well-connected but I didn't get a sense of her deviousness ... maybe because we don't get to spend much time with her. I think the best moment in the whole show is when Sherlock whispers in Irene's ear "because I took your pulse" when he realizes that her phone password is SHERLOCKED. Suddenly, Irene is just like the rest of us ... our collective pulse would quicken if he held our hand, too !! LOL ! And, like literary Sherlock, our Sherlock gets to set "the woman" free, but in a much more dramatic way than just letting her sail off into the sunset. I love the little smile on his face when he remembers her. Debbie

Again, I think I'm missing something here. What exactly indicates that Sherlock is abusing drugs ? OK, in the beginning of HLV, he's undercover in an "opium den" and presumably has imbibed to fit in. Since he's supposed to have a history of drug abuse, one assumes that the occasional "taste" could potentially lead to relapse. However, he never seems to me, at least, to be under the influence of anything ... maybe I just don't know what I'm looking for ? He reels off information at breakneck speed on a regular basis ... is that an indicator ? He's endlessly bored if he's not working on a case ... does that have to do with dependency ? (I'm reading the Sherlock Holmes stories by ACD and started A Sign of Four last night as a matter of fact and the drug use is featured prominently in the early stages of the story ... telling the reader that Sherlock uses the cocaine to stimulate his brain when he's bored.) Can somebody please point out the signs of his drug abuse to me ? Debbie

I think I've listened to most of the commentaries and don't find them especially difficult to understand. I know that Mr. Cumberbatch speaks pretty quickly ... he even said so in one of the commentaries ! ... and I love Mr. Moffat's gentle Scottish lilt. But, so far, no subtitles required. Maybe it's the wide group of accents I heard growing up ... or my addiction to British TV ... learning to make sense of all those regional accents so I can figure out what's going on. Debbie

I saw Series 1 of Ripper Street on Netflix and then the Space Network (!) here in Canada ran Series 2 ... don't know why they would be showing it but whatever it takes ... It's a really good show ... very realistic and the sets are so authentic and the characters are pretty gritty . The lead character (played by another delicious Brit, Matthew MacFadyen) has some very profound dialogue ... he said something about religion once that will forever be imprinted on my memory ... I won't go into it here . In any event, I highly recommend the show if you want to get the DVDs. Debbie

LOL ! Too funny ! But did you see the part at the bottom of the article which said that Louise Brealey is going to be on Ripper Street ? It's an excellent show ... she's going to play a doctor so she could be some long lost ancestor of Molly's ! Debbie

Thank you, Arcadia. He's not hard to understand at all ! Debbie

You may also have seen Urban in Lord of the Rings, where he played one of those characters whose names I get mixed up -- OK, Éomer -- with a completely different accent, of course, as well as a lot more hair. Nope ! Haven't read or seen Lord of the Rings, either. ( Also The Hobbit and The Game of Thrones ... although I'm tempted to look in on the latter on TV as I understand Iain Glen is one of the stars and I think he is completely delicious ! ). Seems I'm a literary as well as a movie moron !! I like Mr. Urban, though, and would be curious to hear him speak in his native New Zealand accent. I have a terrible time trying to understand the NZ accent ... not so much with the Aussies, though. Debbie

Sorry ... I don't get the "high" thing. Sherlock seemed perfectly in control of himself when he left his parents' place and headed off for his confrontation with CAM. I'm thinking he had his plan worked out and had to fall back on his last resort when the basic assumption ... that CAM had to maintain paper documents in order to have such vast quantities of information to spread around ... proved to be false. So, I guess I'm voting for hot-blooded as he found he couldn't solve the CAM problem any other way and still protect his friends and family. He reacted emotionally. Debbie

Can't afford movies ... haven't been to a movie since Serenity, really ! But Star Trek Into Darkness is on Netflix Canada. In fact, based on my viewing history, Netflix chose to put it on the list just for me !! I'm so honoured ! LOL ! It seemed just fine on my 42" Samsung Smartie. I was babysitting my friend's dog and she and I thought it was great. Since I'm kind of a movie moron ... not going to movies kind of keeps me out of the loop ... I don't really know many of the current popular actors ... Mr. Cumberbatch being the exception thanks to Sherlock ... I haven't seen most of the other actors ... another exception being Karl Urban from the TV show Almost Human ... I kind of liked Mr. Spock. I'm thinking the shower scene might have been nice. Debbie Ooops ! My Samsung Smartie is only 32 " ... wouldn't fit in my living room if it was 42" but I can dream ! Ooops ! Edited again to say that I know Karl Urban was Dr. McCoy and not Mr. Spock ! I'm going back to work now !

Yesterday was Canada Day .. the birthday of my home and native land ! We were expecting a hot and humid afternoon so went for a drive through some of the smaller communities around my city in the morning to see what they were doing for our special day and hunkered down in the darkened living room for a cool afternoon and watched Sherlock Series 3. As always, after HLV, I was sad to know that it would be so long until we got to see our lovely curly-haired sleuth and his special pals in any new adventures ... and, SURPRISE ! Look at this great news today ! I hope they show it on Masterpiece ... then I might get to see it in a more timely fashion. Debbie

Aww ... this photo is genuinely precious ! I love sea otters ! Debbie

How cute is this little guy ? He's a Tamar Wallaby ... Debbie

It's the choice we make ... or the risk we take, if you will. Will the show continue to serve up quality entertainment that can stimulate the viewer ? Look at us ! You can't say many of us are not stimulated ! Can the stories stay true to their origin and continue to please the purists (and Mr. Cumberbatch, apparently ) ? Can the characters go darker and not offend people ? Can Mary ever be redeemed in the eyes of those who strongly dislike her ? Will we still want to watch after whatever is going to happen happens ? Only time ... and series 4 ... will tell. For myself ... I want to see what Mr. Holmes can get up to ! Debbie

I'm a Mary fan, too, sfmpco ... so I'm with you. Everyone is entitled to their opinion about her actions and her past ... even though we don't know for sure just what that is ... but I like her. And, Sherlock likes her. I don't feel that I'm following Sherlock's lead ... I just like her. I'd hate to see her killed off, but if it's what makes the story happen, then I'm sure Mofftiss will come up with something effectively dramatic and those of us who like her can mourn and the people who don't can feel that justice was served. It's all good ... or most of it anyway ! Debbie

Yeah, I don't see Mofftiss being big on the baby thing and that bodes well for fans who dislike Mary as, under the circumstances, baby care should sideline her somewhat if not all together. And, maybe once Sherlock is finally convinced that the child will not be called by some variation of his name, he'll exclude it from his thoughts completely. Debbie

Ah ... idle speculation can be fun .. or not ! Apart from possibilities for kidnapping, there's not really much babies can contribute to the drama, I suppose. Debbie

Ha ! You think they actually ask Sherlock to babysit ?? LOL !

Yes, the whole Archie business was pretty cute ... my personal feelings about headless nuns having been previously explored. It does introduce children into the mix ... one child, anyway ... and makes me wonder, if Mary actually survives to give birth and show her child to the world, what will Sherlock's reaction be towards said child ? It'd be hard to think he'd be particularly interested in children ... but this would be John and Mary's baby, the offspring of two of his favourite people. So, what would he think of her/him ? Debbie

Thanks, Carol. I see that Amazon has all three series' soundtracks on CD. I've got The Hounds of Baskerville sitting in my DVD player ... I must play it and listen to the music. The actual theme pops into my head unbidden an amazing number of times a day ... must be because I like it so much ... but I remain unaware of any other music involved in the shows. Must be because it's so well done it's seamless. Debbie

Thanks, Arcadia. It is ! I have an iTunes phobia I can see I'm going to have to get over 'cause I think it's the easiest way to go for this quest. Debbie

Netflix (GRRR ARGH for more reasons than I need to go into) has added a new thing, too, on the making of Sherlock. It's an hour documentary that goes over some of the points covered in the DVD's extra stuff and some things I hadn't seen before. They talk to Mofftiss and BC, MF , AS and others and it's quite fun to watch. To all of you in the know out there ... where can I get the theme music from Sherlock ? BBC has the best theme music ... between Sherlock and The Musketeers, I bounce around all day !! LOL !

Wow !! I've never seen Torchwood but have to say, if it's current, he's still looking pretty good. Debbie

Well, I admit I always wanted to know what happened to Buffy during that last season of Angel, so I'd probably go along for the ride. And ... I'm partial to Josh and his more fun characters ... I don't understand at all why Firefly didn't catch on. As for Spike and Angel ... David Boreanaz isn't looking too bad yet ... getting tired of it but still watching Bones ... but I haven't seen James Marsters in years. Maybe I'll pop into morethanspike.com if it's still there and see what he's up to. Debbie

Not sure what you mean, but if you've heard that the food at Speedy's isn't good, you've been seriously misinformed. Admittedly, all I've had is the Watson wrap (twice) and some chips (what we Americans call French fries), but they were both wonderful! Sorry ... not intending to make any disparaging comments about Speedy's 'cause I've never heard anything at all about their food until you mentioned it above. I was just curious as to why the writers had Sherlock, who was, presumably, getting nourishment from his IV, wandering around outside the hospital looking for "real" food. I guess maybe they were just providing the audience with another example of CAM's rudeness ? Debbie