Episode 3.2, "The Sign of Three"

[Arcadia]

PBS edited out "shit" in TLD. And apparently the shit filter's not working either, judging by all the shit that's been going down, ah har har har.... :p

[Carol the Dabbler]

Right, I had forgotten about TLD.

 

OK, experiment complete.  Out of George Carlin's "seven words you can never say on television" (plus two more from Lenny Bruce, plus one from me), the forum does permit the following to be posted:

 

 

 

from Carlin: shit, piss, tits

from Bruce:  ass, balls

and from me: crap (just to be sure)

 

 

 

Any of the other seven words will be "bleeped" with asterisks if posted by a regular member.  (Staff members are, oddly enough, allowed to post them, but we do try to restrain ourselves.)

[Arcadia]

We do? And here I thought we were just naturally genteel.  :angel1:  Well, maybe not "potty-mouth" T.o.b.y...... 

:P 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Correction:  No, we moderators aren't allowed to use those other four words.  Used to be, but I just checked and we're now bleeped, same as anybody else.

[Arcadia]

No!!! :cry: :cry: :cry: I had so many plans.....

[J.P.]

Was re-watching TSOT yesterday in German TV (something strange has happened to them - there is our Sherlock running twice Sat/Sun on one channel, once on another and yet another one has Elementary)… Anyway, I seem to like the speech part (until the moment when John hugs Sherlock) less and less, while loving the other pieces. It's hyperactive, it looks overexposed while the all over the series looks rather dark-ish. Sherlock behaves like a loon with eyes lit in a way that makes him look like a reptile, and there is something definitely wrong with his hair. Or maybe it's the lack of sexy shirts and the coat?

 

Need to look into the script to see if they wrote the little bit when Sherlock is in the barracks building and turns away his face to hide from the men walking by. Because it's actually quite clever.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... I seem to like the speech part (until the moment when John hugs Sherlock) less and less, while loving the other pieces. It's hyperactive, it looks overexposed while the all over the series looks rather dark-ish. Sherlock behaves like a loon with eyes lit in a way that makes him look like a reptile, and there is something definitely wrong with his hair.

They may have intentionally done all of that to signify / emphasize how much Sherlock is out of his element in this scene. A speechifier he is not!

[Artemis]

I think I like all of the scenes that take place at the wedding less than the rest of the episode, personally.

[Boton]

I think I like all of the scenes that take place at the wedding less than the rest of the episode, personally.

 

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."

[gerry]

I think I like all of the scenes that take place at the wedding less than the rest of the episode, personally.

I agree. The best man speech was entirely too long too.

[Hikari]

 

I think I like all of the scenes that take place at the wedding less than the rest of the episode, personally.

I agree. The best man speech was entirely too long too.

 

 

I agree that the Best Man speech dragged on . . and on.  We thought he was done and then he leapt over the table and the whole "Let's Play Murder!" half was a bit anticlimactic.  I would have liked to see more from a couple of the 'cases' shared in the montage. 

 

But considering the great demands both of stamina and continuity on the part of all our actors, that whole speech portion was an achievement.  Particularly from Benedict, who was on his feet and talking continuously for at least 30 minutes of run time, which would have required the better part of a week at least to get in the can.  After my fourth or so time though with that episode, I started focusing on all the supporting actors while Sherl was droning on . . they are all very active, albeit minusculely in the background.  Martin and Amanda in particular have very active faces.  It's as if, dare I say, they were actually at their own wedding and the Best Man speech was coming spontaneously from the mouth of the Best Man as if it was in that very moment created, and the entire company hadn't actually gone through this dialogue 10 or 20 times already.  Martin in particular is adorable, but when isn't he?

 

This is why they are actors and I'm not--no matter how tired they are, how grueling the conditions or how many times they've done the scene, their reactions are freshly minted for the camera as though it was the very first time.  As though they are actually in Real Life, in fact.

 

That wedding meal looked truly disgusting . and what is it with the British love affair with 'pavlova'?  Coals to Newcastle with the wedding cake, one would have thought.   Amanda Abbington is a character actress, with a variety of looks, and sometimes, not always flattering ones--but during the reception scene she was as luminously lovely as a real bride.  She could have been in a bridal magazine. 

 

I don't mind the reception bits, except for the headgear worn by Mrs. Hudson and Molly.  Those are hard to look at.

[J.P.]

I loved the bit about Sherlock describing himself as the most obnoxious person. After that it falls apart.

[T.o.b.y]

I really like the whole episode. The case is a bit meh imo but it's not really what matters here.

 

The Sign of Three is the one I am most likely to rewatch, actually. It just makes me feel good. And I love Sherlock's exit at the end.

 

The speech is neither too long for me nor do I find it cringeworthy. I like it, I like how it's written and acted.

[Hikari]

I loved the bit about Sherlock describing himself as the most obnoxious person. After that it falls apart.

 

Sherl called himself "the all-around most obnoxious arschbole" (paraphrased for naughty word), which always hits a clinker note with me.  Sherlock Holmes can be grating, condescending, obnoxious and can really give a toss about social etiquette--in a word, what most of us would describe as an arschbole.

 

But--would Sherlock describe himself in that way?  Even supposing that he's doing his level best to be self-deprecating on John's wedding day, I don't think he would.  Sherlock Holmes doesn't really *do* self-deprecation.  That would be to admit that he's got something to apologize for, or that there is something innately inferior about his way of conducting himself.  He's heard John call him 'an annoying d*ck' to his face, and he may have internalized that insult, in the same way that he's internalized John's compliments.  Perhaps some of us might gamble on getting a laugh at the top of a big speech by telling everyone that we're just arschboles, but I doubt SH would do it.   I suppose random people he's insulted have called him an arschbole, in the same way that Sally Donovan calls him 'Freak' to his face--but I never bought that SH would dignify those terms by using them in reference to himself, even as a joke. 

[gerry]

The case is the only thing that held my interest in this episode but then again real life weddings bore me too.

[Arcadia]

I really like the whole episode. The case is a bit meh imo but it's not really what matters here.

 

The Sign of Three is the one I am most likely to rewatch, actually. It just makes me feel good. And I love Sherlock's exit at the end.

 

The speech is neither too long for me nor do I find it cringeworthy. I like it, I like how it's written and acted.

 

Yeah, I really like it too, Toby. One of my favorites (although I say that about almost all of them, don't I? :smile:) I think it's a bravura piece of storytelling from both the writers and Benedict. Love the time jumps, very creative.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I really like the tidy structure of the episode (just like good computer code!) (and unlike the other two episodes in this series). There's never the slightest doubt as to what happens when, despite all the sidebars. I don't find the speech overlong, because each of those little subplots is on its own timer, at least in my mind.

[Arcadia]

Has everyone seen the graphic that shows the time jumps in TSo3? It's a work of art! :d I'll see if I can find it again.

[J.P.]

I remember it! :D

[Arcadia]

Found it! I think I'm mesmerized....

[Boton]

That is fantastic, Arcadia!

[Arcadia]

Cool, innit? It's like watching a flea do ballet. :D And I also enjoy how HLV jumps all over for awhile, then there's a flat out race to the finish. (Or a dawdle to the finish, perhaps, if you're not a fan of the episode. :smile:) Pretty smart way to build suspense.

I really admire non-linear storytelling, when it's done well. I like how it forces the viewers to pay attention if they want to keep up. That was the best thing about the Imitation Game, imo. The story itself is rather old hat by today's standards, but the way it was constructed was like watching a fine watch being assembled. Neat.

[Carol the Dabbler]

If you look only at the finished diagram, TSo3 looks like a real mess -- but if you carefully watch the diagram in progress, you can see that each leap backward is followed by a leap forward to the origin point of the leap backward.  I found that structure very easy to follow, even the first time I watched the episode.  It's really just a simple time-line with story-telling superimposed.

 

Whereas I have no idea how they figured out some of the HLV timeline.  I suppose the episode is fairly clear as to what comes before/after what, and it clearly all takes place within the nine months of Mary's pregnancy, but ....

 

Perhaps the diagram-makers were similarly bewildered at one point in TEH, seeing as how they don't even show the one clear departure from the time line (when we see Sherlock explaining The Fall to Anderson while he and John are in the bomb train).

[Arcadia]

Yeah, I think there's rather more time jumps than the diagrams allow for, I suspect they were trying to make a point about TSo3 and HLV.

Is the time line in HLV hard to follow? I can't recall ever having a problem with it. Doesn't it mostly jump back and forth between Christmas and the "domestic" at Baker Street? (I really need to make time to watch these again ... sigh.) Maybe you mean the amount of time? I do still have trouble believing Sherlock was months in the hospital.

[Boton]

Yeah, I think there's rather more time jumps than the diagrams allow for, I suspect they were trying to make a point about TSo3 and HLV.

 

Is the time line in HLV hard to follow? I can't recall ever having a problem with it. Doesn't it mostly jump back and forth between Christmas and the "domestic" at Baker Street? (I really need to make time to watch these again ... sigh.) Maybe you mean the amount of time? I do still have trouble believing Sherlock was months in the hospital.

 

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.