What would you like to see in series 4?

[sfmpco]

I love the shock fest!  That's what has been so fun about watching some of the reaction videos on Youtube.  All the shocking moments.  Gag... we still have another 16-17 months to go before we get the Christmas special.  Countdown to filming the Christmas special in 5 months....

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I downloaded a BBC Sherlock app to my phone. It automatically gives the count down to the Christmas Special starting with the filming and the new up coming season. Oh well, I try not to look at that to often. 

\

I didn't mind "HLV" really. Sherlock is as big a hero to me as he ever was. I knew CAM was going to get it in the end...but having Sherlock as the shooter....that was such a shock to my Sherlockian soul....it took a while to process that.

[sfmpco]

Dang, I didn't want to download that app but now I will have to... arrrggh.

[T.o.b.y]

Yup, the Christmas special could be along the lines of "Many Happy Returns"  maybe....hopefully... dealing with the aftermath of Sherlock's near exile. But since it is reportedly supposed to run the full 90 minutes it could be a full fledged case...still hoping to see a full updated version of "The Blue Carbuncle".  Darker....for Season 4....would be no surprise. Learning who and what is behind the Moriarty "Did You Miss ME" gif and maybe more about "the Other One". It promises to be a eye opener but I do hope not as much of a shock fest as "HLV".

 

 Probably wrong about that...but a woman can dream with the best of them.

 

I'm hoping the special will be, in effect, a fourth episode; that it will be the beginning of series 4 and tie in neatly with the rest. I don't need anything truly "special" in the sense of "different", I just got the impression that for series 3, they had too much material and too little time, and maybe by making four times 90 min instead of 3, they could avoid having to rush things.

 

Of course I'd love it if they did a version of The Blue Carbuncle, but I'd be thrilled to learn they were using almost any of the old stories. It is so much fun to see those transformations and twists happen.

 

And there is still so much they haven't gone near yet. "The Speckled Band"... they can't mean to tell us they will never do anything with the classic Holmes story except for that stupid pun in series 2?

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

With them working on six more episodes since last year, anything at all is possible. Maybe they've had to brainstorm on how to  kick it up from being just a "stupid pun" to a full fledged serious case. What kind of toxin would cause such spots, motive, the where, when, why and whom of crime solving.

[sfmpco]

Well, one thing for sure, they're upping the ante.... I'm sure S4 will knock it out of the park.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

At least that's what I'm expecting of the BBC Sherlock team for sure.

[Arcadia]

I'm hoping the special will be, in effect, a fourth episode; that it will be the beginning of series 4 and tie in neatly with the rest. I don't need anything truly "special" in the sense of "different", I just got the impression that for series 3, they had too much material and too little time, and maybe by making four times 90 min instead of 3, they could avoid having to rush things.

That's increasingly what I'm feeling too, about HLV at least. At it's core it's a good story but it's like they had to excise chunks of it to make it fit in the time slot. Even the ending of TEH feels a bit rushed. Still, I maintain S3 was all about feels, not about events, so they probably thought they could ignore the boring details and still get their real message across....(impressionistically, of course!)

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

They couldn't tell the whole story or there would be no excuses for surprises and reveals in Season 4 and maybe into Season 5.

[Arcadia]

Ummmmmmm....................................................  

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Not convincing....huh.

[jesskayding]

Hay they got to put a heck of a lot in 3 shows. We know they put a lot of time & effort into each show. Doubt these Sherlock geeks are cramming any thing. They are telling the story they want to tell.

[Carol the Dabbler]

And there is still so much they haven't gone near yet. "The Speckled Band"... they can't mean to tell us they will never do anything with the classic Holmes story except for that stupid pun in series 2?

Oh darn, now I'm trying to recall where I saw/read a quote from Moftiss, saying they have no qualms about using the same original story several times (presumably different pieces each time).  Goodness knows they've picked The Sign of the Four to bits, till all they had left to work with was the title.  So don't worry, if they come up with an idea they like for adapting "Speckled Band," they'll just have to call it something else.

 

They say it's going to be darker, but you know that it will still have the great humor as well.

 

Oh Lordy, not darker than HLV! 

 

Dark is fine, but as with humor, there needs to be a balance.  I hope they go back to more or less balancing each episode, rather than the S3 approach of balancing a funny episode against a grim episode.

 

[sfmpco]

So far in each season the pattern has been more or less LIGHT, LIGHT, DARK.   Well, i don't think HOB was "light" but it really wasn't scary either, and it did have a lot of lightness in it.  Loved SH's meltdown.  Even his make up with John, however, was light.  But S3 was definitely LIGHT, LIGHT, DARK.

[sfmpco]

Since I seem to be unable to post ANY images anymore... what's up with that???? - I shall simply write it out:

 

HOW DO YOU PRONOUCE MOFFIT AND GATISS?

 

MOFFIT IS PRONOUCED "SATAN"

 

GATISS IS PRONOUCED "SATAN'S BEST FRIEND"

 

lol

[jesskayding]

Hmm, but even in the dark episodes there's been humor. They don't drop the humor at all. I laughed several times in HLV. Also TRF had lots of comedy, especially in the beginning. TGG was also funny throughout.

 

Those three remind me of a Tom Hanks movie 'The Lady Killers' Starts off with slap stick/ light comedy, then the comedy becomes really dark. They call it dark humor.

 

Not everybody finds dark humor funny. Those who don't usually find it appalling. Like with the whole CAM thing @ the end of HLV. Not everyone appreciates the irony & quick witted comments of CAM & The Sherlock response.

 

Like the banter between Sherlock & Moriarty actually quite funny in TGG.

A few things on the roof in TRF is full of dark humor.

 

So the point I'm trying to make is that the 3rd episode of each series doesn't lack humor, the humor is just dark. I personally LOVE dark humor, it's my 2nd favorite - Dry humor is my favorite... Hello ' The Office'.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I love dark humor too -- as long as it's actually funny, rather than being a euphemism for sadism.  I loved the recent television series Fargo, for example (and not just because Martin Freeman was so amazing in it).  And I love dry humor (which I guess is my own natural style).  And I adore the original British The Office (though the American take-off is pretty good too).

 

However, I still find "Last Vow" to be unbalanced.  It has some humor, true, but then it has a whole lot of tragedy.  Actually, I don't think I'd mind that so much if it was -- I don't know the technical term, but "poetic tragedy," where things turn out sad but still satisfying.  "Reichenbach" was like that.  "Vow" isn't, in my opinion.  It's just a whole lot of bad things happening to characters I care about, with no apparent logic behind it.  If I want to watch that kinda stuff, all I have to do is turn on the television news.

 

Maybe it'll all make sense once I've seen Series 4, but (judging by how they followed up on "Reichenbach") I'm not optimistic.

 

[jesskayding]

I loved how they followed up on Reichenbach. I personally liked the flow of HLV. I don't know that it needed to be balanced??

[sherlockandjohn]

All I can say is that for me, 'Vow' and 'Hearse' took some getting used to. One was too dark, and one was too lighthearted, considering the outcome of 'Reichenbach'. But all in all I still love both episodes for their character drama. They were very emotional. I don't need another shock fest like 'Vow', though, and I hope the darkness, Mofftiss have decided on for s4, will be in tone more with 'Reichenbach'. It was sad, but not overly so until the end, and it didn't make our "good" characters feel too dark. I like complex characters, but 'Vow' just shook me to the core with not just one character being dark, no; they had to do that to Mary, John and Sherlock.

 

I'd prefer dark events to dark characters.

[sfmpco]

Oh TRF was very dark , and it started off dark with John saying that Sherlock Holmes was dead.  Then it got light with the whole Moriarty break-in and trial sequences, but once he showed up at Sherlock's flat and they shared tea, the dark clouds began to gather again, and that ending was absolutely shattering...even though we get a final shot that he is alive.  Still, everything that John went through, the whole rooftop discussion after JM shoots himself... it's about as dark as it gets.

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

I love dark things. I SHALL SUMMON THE DARKNESS WITHIN MOFTISS SO WE SHALL ALL PERISH IN FEELS AND HELLFIRE. So I hope S4 has more gruesome stuff in store for us. Like delving deeper into why Sherlock got addicted to drugs in the first place, and what happened to the Other One, and the answer to the big ol' IS MORIARTY ALIVE???? OR DID ALL OF ENGLAND HAVE A MASS HALLUCINATION??

 

Personally, I think they should have ended TRF off with no shot of Sherlock at all. So we think he's actually dead. So that all of our hopes and dreams would have died along with him, and our reasons for living would have faded from our grasp as Sherlock descended toward the pavement at terminal velocity.

[sfmpco]

 

 

Personally, I think they should have ended TRF off with no shot of Sherlock at all. So we think he's actually dead. So that all of our hopes and dreams would have died along with him, and our reasons for living would have faded from our grasp as Sherlock descended toward the pavement at terminal velocity.

 

So do you think they should have shown him hit the pavement or just heading towards it??

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh TRF was very dark <snip> it's about as dark as it gets.

Well, yes -- but it strikes me as poetic dark, as opposed to "Last Vow," which seems like the writers just decided to see how many things they could make go wrong.

 

 

Personally, I think they should have ended TRF off with no shot of Sherlock at all. So we think he's actually dead. So that all of our hopes and dreams would have died along with him, and our reasons for living would have faded from our grasp as Sherlock descended toward the pavement at terminal velocity.

That would have been fine with me, because OF COURSE he was still alive. He's Sherlock Holmes, after all!

 

[T.o.b.y]

Well, yes -- but it strikes me as poetic dark, as opposed to "Last Vow," which seems like the writers just decided to see how many things they could make go wrong.

 

I can't quite agree with you there, Carol. I think His Last Vow was highly "poetic", and it satisfies me, on its own, much more than The Reichenbach Fall. That was lovely as long as I thought it was part one of something bigger, but when it turned out there was no real part two and that part one was actually kind of marred by the bit of follow-up we did get, I was a bit dissatisfied with it.

 

What I really like better about His Last Vow is that the drama is less fake (I hope). Sherlock is genuinely in trouble and his emotions are real. And I must admit that I like the airfield farewell better than the rooftop phone call. It's the boys finally seeing eye to eye, if you know what I mean.

 

I was just thinking... If they do decide to kill Mary, I hope they'll at least do it right. Of course, everybody has a different idea of what that would mean. My requirements would be:

 

- Her death would have to serve some purpose for the plot. They can't just kill her because she "has to die".

- Before she dies, they should manage to make as may viewers as possible forgive and even like her. I'd hate it if I felt I knew that her death was largely celebrated. I know I'm practically asking to be made as sad as possible myself here, but really, I'd feel a lot better if I knew she was going to be mourned and especially if the other characters' mourning for her would resonate somewhat with the audience.

- They should leave John his daughter. I don't want to see the kid at Baker Street, or see much of it at all, in fact, but I think it would be just too horrible to kill off his entire family.

- And finally, if she has to die, I want her to stay dead. No more fake deaths!

 

 

[Arcadia]

I love dark things. I SHALL SUMMON THE DARKNESS WITHIN MOFTISS SO WE SHALL ALL PERISH IN FEELS AND HELLFIRE. So I hope S4 has more gruesome stuff in store for us. Like delving deeper into why Sherlock got addicted to drugs in the first place, and what happened to the Other One, and the answer to the big ol' IS MORIARTY ALIVE???? OR DID ALL OF ENGLAND HAVE A MASS HALLUCINATION??

Meeee toooo!

 

Personally, I think they should have ended TRF off with no shot of Sherlock at all. So we think he's actually dead. So that all of our hopes and dreams would have died along with him, and our reasons for living would have faded from our grasp as Sherlock descended toward the pavement at terminal velocity.

 

So do you think they should have shown him hit the pavement or just heading towards it??

OMG, that would've been brilliant! Sherlock starts to fall, and just then the credits roll......