Boton

I agree with Pseud. BC is not particularly aging well, and the shorter hair takes away some of the softness that those odd and angular features really need. Right now (don't kill me either), I think he mostly looks older and tired. MF, as Pseud points out, seems to be getting better with age. Sometimes those guys with the boyish good looks early on become absolutely stunning when they hit their prime in middle age.

Count me in on this one. The alpha male thing really does it for me sometimes, and this is one of those times.

I'm with Arcadia a bit on this one. I think they decided to emphasize her role as a mercenary, which can indeed be heroic (as well as profitable). They sort of glossed over the "she's gone a bit freelance" comment from CAM by having Mycroft say that he stopped using freelancers after the AGRA disaster. However, I always assumed CAM's comment referred to Mary being hired by a private individual or non-governmental agency to off an enemy, which can be ethically grey. The only way for me to make sense of both S3 and S4 Mary is to go back and assume that Mary thinks that John will feel that any killing she ever committed was unjustified and enough to make him not love her. I find that a stretch, given that John's a soldier and has pretty much admitted to killing people, so he would be in the best position of anyone to understand her motives.

I think this is another aspect that suffered from the desire to get things wrapped up by the end of S4. I think we were supposed to take John at his word in HLV that he was willing to keep Mary's past in the past and work on their marriage, and his frustration and infidelity was an inexcusable reaction to being a new dad and suddenly tied down. But then they had to overlay that with a rushed plot where Mary's "freelancing" is discovered to be at least in part something heroic she was doing for Mycroft, and there's a whole lot that should have been said/shown that was elided for speed. That's unfortunate.

I agree. I'd go so far as to say that, at least with CAM, Mycroft probably wanted Sherlock to get involved, because he knew Sherlock could do things outside the law that Mycroft himself could not. I think Mycroft relies pretty heavily on "freelancers" (including Mary, although I know he said in TST that they had stopped using freelance help). He has become adept at keeping his own hands clean, maybe justifiably. If he is seen as analogous with the British Government, then any actions he takes might implicate the PM or the entire government. However, he can disavow a freelancer, and, in the case of his brother, he may just trust Sherlock enough to think that Sherlock can get the job done. Regarding the Mary discussion above, I haven't read it all, but there are some very interesting points about why he continues to trust her. I think I'm leaning toward the idea that there were plot lines that were scrapped for a hurried redemption arc in preparation for bringing the show to a halt or at least to a long pause.

I assume when you say "partially possible because he's a man," you mean (even ignoring the fact that he's a trained fighter) John can hit harder than Molly because testosterone makes for bigger, stronger muscles. If Molly had kicked Sherlock while he was down, the way John did, it wouldn't have looked as violent because it wouldn't have *been* as violent -- and might even have looked a bit silly. Exactly. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree. Grey's Anatomy has done some really good work creating female military doctors; to me, they seem very natural and intriguing. I like the added layer to their personality/background.

Totally agree. (With both Pseud and Toby, who was typing while I was!)

In some ways, you have Sherlock's female mirror image in Molly, who is an intelligent, resourceful, yet socially-awkward woman. Now it's not a a one-to-one comparison because Molly is an original character who has evolved over time, and Sherlock is an adaptation of the Victorian character. But think about the fact that both John and Molly hit Sherlock when he was using drugs. John's actions, because they were so much more violent (which is partially possible because he's a man) read as violent, whereas Molly's slaps read as spunky. Sherlock is able to stand and take it while Molly hits him, while he cowers on the floor during John's attack. The situations aren't completely analogous, but I think some things come across differently depending on gender, and social awkwardness may in some cases blunt gender differences but it doesn't erase them.

I have no trouble with the idea of doing an incarnation of Sherlock Holmes with a female Sherlock; I'm excited to see Miss Sherlock. I do think it is a firmly AU idea, because the original Sherlock Holmes is, to me, extremely male and masculine, so it changes the character to make him a her. To the original question, if you wrote a character as male, I think simply doing a search and replace on the pronouns would not work. Women speak differently than men on average; if you look at Deborah Tannen's work on communication and gender, you will see that. So, at minimum, some of the things that come off as borderline arrogant from a male Sherlock would probably read as extremely rude from a woman. Plus, women move differently than men (or men move differently than women, if you like), so some of the descriptions of movement would need to change to convey the same effect. IMHO.

Same as many of you, and all positive: Like Carol, I discovered a fandom I was as passionate about (almost) as I am about Star Trek. Like Arcadia, I found this forum and get to talk to all sorts of people around the world, which has really done a lot to personalize perspectives different from my own and has been an excellent antidote to all the online yelling that goes on in the world. I went to see the filmed versions of the plays Frankenstein and Hamlet, which I assure you I would not have done otherwise. Even took my MIL to Hamlet, since she's a Shakespeare fan. Bought my first (only) pair of Louboutins to be more like Irene, or at least more like how Irene dresses. Discovered that there was such a thing as fan fiction, started reading a lot of it and gaining respect, and have written 30+ stories with more on the way, hopefully.

I think Irene delivered the meta description of the show: "I like detective stories. And detectives." Sherlock is a story about a detective, as Arcadia said, not a mystery show. I thought the first few Harry Potter books functioned as young adult mysteries before the main plot was unearthed. What I think is most fun is to read the whole series completely ignoring Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and just read it as Snape's story. It becomes very poignant for me when I do that.

I agree. I never had trouble following the timeline of HLV, or I guess I don't *think* I had trouble - it all is coherent in my head, but heaven knows if that matches what was intended. I have a hard time believing Sherlock was in hospital for that long too. I think you have to conjecture a few things that Mummy is counting in the run-up to "home from hospital:" Some sort of complication, like pneumonia or similar, that prolonged his stay An intermediate period where Sherlock was not back at 221B. I know the traditional trope is to assume that John came back to 221B to care for Sherlock because John couldn't face Mary, but I don't believe that. I tend to think that Sherlock (perhaps unwillingly) stayed with Mycroft before returning home. Mummy being inexact in her comment, referring more to the idea that this is the first gathering they have had since Sherlock's shooting and not that he was released a few days prior.

I'm with Hikari. Also, having had a military career, not just a quick stint, would fit better with the idea that he was sort of searching for a new identity in SiP, feeling cast adrift because of his wound. I know people have the screen caps of his CV from TBB. Does it say anything about what years he served?

At DSW. Snerk. (And, FWIW, I like DSW, but still.)

Those red soles make me crazy, because that lacquer starts to scuff as soon as you wear them outside. We see Irene walking into her house wearing that same model of Louboutin when she's wearing her white outfit and being texted Sherlock's photos. Then, when she walks into the room in her battle dress and takes off the shoes, they are unscuffed. *Yes, she could have multiple pairs, but only wearing each pair once is a bit of an extravagance, even for her. And they do make touch-up lacquer. But still.

That is fantastic, Arcadia!

One would be tempted to make him beg for mercy. Twice.

I think anything that involves clothing-optional earthiness has to start with the Detective Inspector. You just know that he would know what he was doing. Sherlock brings the pretty, but I can't imagine him being anything but incredibly high maintenance in that department.

The entire reception makes me cringe, except for the part where John side bars to Mary that she is to keep him from hugging Sherlock, and Mary says "certainly not."

Yes but this is why I suspected from the very beginning that he was up to something since he would never lower himself to flirting behavior with the goldfish unless he had an objective or a case. Goldfish, though, is a Mycroft thing. Although we've seen Sherlock disparage those of lesser intellect, there are just as many cases, especially later on, where he appears to be wanting to try out the kinds of human interaction he sees everyone else doing. I read the wedding as an awful lot of flirting both ways, plus John perceived it that way, saying something about glad Sherlock managed to pull at John's wedding. I can't see how he would have been planning to hook Janine from the beginning. I think it really was a fortuitous coincidence that he met her at the wedding and later discovered the CAM connection.

And that's what I thought too ... he was being a gentleman (whilst, at the same time, being a complete arse....) But these days it's getting harder and harder to tell gentlemanliness and paternalism apart ... women are tired of men establishing the rules, I guess, even when the "rules" work in women's favor. What you say is true. I do, though, think this scenario works better for me than the alternative. Having Sherlock sleep with Janine almost under false pretenses (although I think he would have liked it) skirts some “informed consent” issues for me. This is at least a bit more honest. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The first time I watched HLV with my husband, I knew what was coming, so I later asked him why he thought Sherlock didn't sleep with Janine. His interpretation was similar to the above, except he saw it as Sherlock having some morality of his own: he wouldn't cross that line with someone he knew he was using. So, at least one male opinion was that it was an attempt to be gentlemanly rather than paternalistic.

The extra cold weather a couple of weeks ago worked to our advantage. He did not want to go outside to do his biz, so when I made him go, he would make the quickest trip imaginable. One morning it was -9F, and I put him out there and stood right inside the door because I was going to yank him back in as soon as he did anything. He looked at me through the windowpane on the door and kept absolute eye contact as he did 100% of his biz in about 45 seconds, and then I let him back in. :D That may have been a breakthrough moment. (Although he hasn't been perfect, but he's been better.)

I work from home about 80% of the time. I have a plush dog bed in the corner of my office, and our puppy (7 months old) likes to come up and play and nap while I work. Definite perk.