DVD/Blu-Ray Extras for Series 3

[sittything]

[Carol the Dabbler]

You're not going frame by frame, Carol?  Slacker!

Speaking of which, am I the only one who sorely misses Aithine's screencaps?

 

There seem to be some other Sherlock screencap sites now, but so far I haven't found any that come even close. If I've overlooked a good one, somebody please let me know!

[sherlockandjohn]

 

So zaprudering the footage of a pulse ox monitor is nothin', I tell you. 

When did Zapruder become a verb? (And does anyone under the age of -- umm, lemme see -- fifty understand the reference?)  Makes perfect sense to me, though -- that's exactly what we're doing!

 

 

I love the JKF movie with Kevin Costner - so, yes

[T.o.b.y]

Speaking of which, am I the only one who sorely misses Aithine's screencaps?

 

There seem to be some other Sherlock screencap sites now, but so far I haven't found any that come even close. If I've overlooked a good one, somebody please let me know!

 

 

What would make a site with screencaps "good" for you, Carol? I know of a few, but I have no idea whether they're anywhere near that definition...

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Well, "good" would minimally cover all of the episodes to date, and would cover each episode in its entirety (not just the highlights).

 

Then I'd be really happy if its sampling rate were tight enough to capture any brief glimpses and fleeting facial expressions.  (I believe Aithine's rate was something like every fifth of a second.)  And easy to use would be very much appreciated as well.

 

[Arcadia]

So, CAM is a moist, pervy, creepy reptile of a blackmailer, but he's not sloppy about medical equipment apparently.

So he has SOME redeeming qualities! Or, one, at least. Good to know.

[Arcadia]

I formally apologize. 

Egad, don't apologize! Look how much entertainment we got out of it! Do it again!!!!

[Arcadia]

This deleted scene further enhances my impression that Magnussen mostly embarrasses himself. He doesn't work that well as a villain for me, because he's more cringe-inducing than frightening. He thinks he's very cool and terrifying, but to me, he's just a big perverted obnoxious brat, who routinely makes a spectacle of himself and has nobody who could give him a friendly tap on the shoulder and tell him to stop talking now. Moriarty I am afraid of. Magnussen just makes me feel nauseous.

That's pretty much the way I feel about him. Except now I hate his guts, too. He touched my Sherlock!!!!

[T.o.b.y]

 

This deleted scene further enhances my impression that Magnussen mostly embarrasses himself. He doesn't work that well as a villain for me, because he's more cringe-inducing than frightening. He thinks he's very cool and terrifying, but to me, he's just a big perverted obnoxious brat, who routinely makes a spectacle of himself and has nobody who could give him a friendly tap on the shoulder and tell him to stop talking now. Moriarty I am afraid of. Magnussen just makes me feel nauseous.

That's pretty much the way I feel about him. Except now I hate his guts, too. He touched my Sherlock!!!!

 

Nah, the deleted scene doesn't change that much for me. First of all, my level of loathing for Magnussen was about at maximum height before this little extra, and besides, Sherlock didn't seem to be half as bothered by that little visit as we are.

 

That's actually one of the things I admire and envy about Sherlock, his ability to just pass over silly affronts like that. The scene where Magnussen pisses into his fireplace is another example. Sherlock just ignores that, and focuses on the little bit of useful information he got out of that encounter (there are actual letters in existence, Magnussen has them, and he's ready to negotiate).

 

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that creepy spectacle was simply filtered for information, which was stored away neatly in the mind palace somewhere, and then the rest got deleted. I mean, he's got to keep a little memory space for Irene in her battle dress, won't do to clutter up that area with Magnussen's wet hands...

[Arcadia]

For some reason I am feeling very motherly towards Sherlock at the moment. Well, big sisterly, perhaps. Anyway, I feel like beating up on anyone who picks on him, whether he minds it or not.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Agreed.  It's still yucky even if Sherlock doesn't mind.

 

[sittything]

Can you spoil a DVD commentary?  lol   Anyhow, just in case...

 

 

I saw on Tumblr that Moffat and Gatiss say (in the DVD commentary) that the Lazarus explanation is the actual reveal

 

 

 

[John Cartney]

I don't have my S3 special edition yet, so can anyone who has a copy confirm that there's also an audio commentary on His Last Vow, as well as The Empty Hearse?

 

When this was originally announced, the extras just listed a commentary for Empty Hearse only, but the BBC shop and Amazon listing now mention a commentary for His Last Vow too.

 

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

Can you spoil a DVD commentary?  lol   Anyhow, just in case...

 

 

I saw on Tumblr that Moffat and Gatiss say (in the DVD commentary) that the Lazarus explanation is the actual reveal

 

 

But they could be LYING!

[sittything]

 

Can you spoil a DVD commentary?  lol   Anyhow, just in case...

 

 

I saw on Tumblr that Moffat and Gatiss say (in the DVD commentary) that the Lazarus explanation is the actual reveal

 

 

But they could be LYING!

 

 

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

[BlackButterfly]

@the dvd comentary .

When talking about Mary shooting Sherlock we have the "I nearly killed you" from Mary and the "..you didn't hit the middle of the coin.  No ones perfect." Sherlock reply. Apparently lines almost included and then the comment - Sherlock is very forgiving here. 

Been  pondering this a lot, so very ambiguous again.

Mary missed. Ok. Missed what? The killshot ? Or the less harmless shot. ? Mary seems to contradict Sherlocks ' She saved me...' argument, but Sherock continues with it anyway. 

 

 

This ambiguity over absolutely everything is killing all substance to series three and so very very annoying. 

Will this ambiguity go on forever..seems so..hard to keep faith with this show and not have sympathy for the - Sherlock jumped the shark pov. 

 

[T.o.b.y]

Oh joy.

 

This wonderful lady: http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/74768.html has done a transcript of the commentaries for The Empty Hearse, which is a real blessing for people like me who hate watching anything they love with the commentary on, because it distracts from the action and spoils the magic, but still really want to hear the creative team's thoughts.

 

http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/74768.html

 

I must say, this was very, very interesting. I can't wait until she does the other two (is there a commentary for The Sign of Three? Anyway, until she does His Last Vow).

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh dear -- I just started reading that commentary transcript, and it's hilarious in spots.  Would love to read the whole thing right now, but it's past my bedtime already.  *sigh*

 

[Schlauer Fuchs]

Yippiiiie, finally my DVD arrived. It looks really posh with those golden silhouettes on the cover. So I'll do some cooking now and then enjoy this newest jewel of my DVD collection

[Boton]

@the dvd comentary .

When talking about Mary shooting Sherlock we have the "I nearly killed you" from Mary and the "..you didn't hit the middle of the coin.  No ones perfect." Sherlock reply. Apparently lines almost included and then the comment - Sherlock is very forgiving here. 

Been  pondering this a lot, so very ambiguous again.

Mary missed. Ok. Missed what? The killshot ? Or the less harmless shot. ? Mary seems to contradict Sherlocks ' She saved me...' argument, but Sherock continues with it anyway. 

 

 

This ambiguity over absolutely everything is killing all substance to series three and so very very annoying. 

Will this ambiguity go on forever..seems so..hard to keep faith with this show and not have sympathy for the - Sherlock jumped the shark pov. 

 

I agree with your point here, BlackButterfly.

 

First, I haven't gotten my DVD yet, but I've seen this quote from the commentary, and I am pretty sure that this means they cut a fairly important line that would have explained why Sherlock was as injured as he was from Mary's shot -- she was aiming for the least lethal place she could have shot him and still hit the abdomen (like a shot that just hit the liver), and by being off a fraction of an inch, she involved a more critical structure like the IVC.  But nobody's perfect.  Since the off-center shot in the coin always bothered me (although it also impressed me), I like having that possible addition.

 

But yes, I enjoy obsessing over this show and trying to parse dialogue and look at the possible double meanings of scenes, but I can also feel myself getting to the point that too much of it will suck the joy out of the show.  I don't think the show is jumping the shark, but the downside of getting three "movies" every two years is that there is too much time to think.  I think it's time for me to still enjoy things like this forum  , but to spend a bit less mental time trying to analyze the show and to take it at face value.  It is too easy to get sucked into discussions and commentary and fictional reworks, etc., online that are all about rewriting the Sherlock universe to fit someone's pet theory or interest or perspective.  That can be fun once in a while, but I need to step back from it and just let it be the Moftiss creation and my own head canon for a while, if that makes sense.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... I enjoy obsessing over this show and trying to parse dialogue and look at the possible double meanings of scenes, but I can also feel myself getting to the point that too much of it will suck the joy out of the show.  I don't think the show is jumping the shark, but the downside of getting three "movies" every two years is that there is too much time to think.  I think it's time for me to still enjoy things like this forum  , but to spend a bit less mental time trying to analyze the show and to take it at face value.  It is too easy to get sucked into discussions and commentary and fictional reworks, etc., online that are all about rewriting the Sherlock universe to fit someone's pet theory or interest or perspective.  That can be fun once in a while, but I need to step back from it and just let it be the Moftiss creation and my own head canon for a while, if that makes sense.

 

That makes perfect sense to me, Boton.  I'm seriously considering staying away from the forum for a while when S4 airs, just to give myself a chance to develop my own sense of the episodes before being bombarded by everyone else's.

[T.o.b.y]

First, I haven't gotten my DVD yet, but I've seen this quote from the commentary, and I am pretty sure that this means they cut a fairly important line that would have explained why Sherlock was as injured as he was from Mary's shot -- she was aiming for the least lethal place she could have shot him and still hit the abdomen (like a shot that just hit the liver), and by being off a fraction of an inch, she involved a more critical structure like the IVC.  But nobody's perfect.  Since the off-center shot in the coin always bothered me (although it also impressed me), I like having that possible addition.

 

Well, that's one interpretation... I thought what they meant was that Mary had aimed to kill him and missed, but... Anyway, I'm sorry they cut those lines, because it sounds like a pretty funny bit of dialogue, and I am sure the actors could have delivered it really well.

 

As for the ambiguity, well, I don't mind that so much. I usually come up with an interpretation of what I see that I like pretty fast, and then I just hold on to it until it's disproven by the show itself. Sometimes, of late, I have felt as if the storytellers are getting a bit lazy and let us do a bit more than our fair share of the work, but then, they have to strive to keep an increasingly large fan base happy, and I guess that means you have to give everyone room for their own dreams...

 

 

That makes perfect sense to me, Boton.  I'm seriously considering staying away from the forum for a while when S4 airs, just to give myself a chance to develop my own sense of the episodes before being bombarded by everyone else's.

 

Well, here's at least one reason to be glad series 4 isn't here yet. I'd miss ya, Carol!

[Arcadia]

@the dvd comentary .

When talking about Mary shooting Sherlock we have the "I nearly killed you" from Mary and the "..you didn't hit the middle of the coin.  No ones perfect." Sherlock reply. Apparently lines almost included and then the comment - Sherlock is very forgiving here. 

Been  pondering this a lot, so very ambiguous again.

Mary missed. Ok. Missed what? The killshot ? Or the less harmless shot. ? Mary seems to contradict Sherlocks ' She saved me...' argument, but Sherock continues with it anyway.

 

 

 

First, I haven't gotten my DVD yet, but I've seen this quote from the commentary, and I am pretty sure that this means they cut a fairly important line that would have explained why Sherlock was as injured as he was from Mary's shot -- she was aiming for the least lethal place she could have shot him and still hit the abdomen (like a shot that just hit the liver), and by being off a fraction of an inch, she involved a more critical structure like the IVC.  But nobody's perfect.  Since the off-center shot in the coin always bothered me (although it also impressed me), I like having that possible addition.

 

Well, that's one interpretation... I thought what they meant was that Mary had aimed to kill him and missed, but... Anyway, I'm sorry they cut those lines, because it sounds like a pretty funny bit of dialogue, and I am sure the actors could have delivered it really well.

 

As for the ambiguity, well, I don't mind that so much. I usually come up with an interpretation of what I see that I like pretty fast, and then I just hold on to it until it's disproven by the show itself. Sometimes, of late, I have felt as if the storytellers are getting a bit lazy and let us do a bit more than our fair share of the work, but then, they have to strive to keep an increasingly large fan base happy, and I guess that means you have to give everyone room for their own dreams...

 

If you just look at that exchange ("I nearly killed you" from Mary and the "..you didn't hit the middle of the coin. No ones perfect.") by itself, it might seem ambiguous. But if you look at it in the context of everything else Moftiss says about Mary, I think it's pretty clear they meant that she was NOT trying for the kill shot. The shot she missed was the less harmful shot.

 

Not much new to be learned from the TEH comments, I thought, but all kinds of stuff to chew on in the HLV comments. They seem to have established that Sherlock did NOT premeditate CAM's murder, for example. (Altho Moffat still annoys me by acting like it was a perfectly okay thing to do....) There were other things like that, but I kept bearing in mind that they knew people would be parsing their words for clues, so they could be lying.

 

The most positive thing for me was this: (from http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/75250.html)

Mark: “Now, ‘A.G.R.A.’, Agra, is of course a back reference to the great Agra treasure which was Mary’s inheritance in the story she first appears in.”

Steven: “‘The Sign of Four’.”

Mark: “Here, it’s her initials. Amanda ... Google ...”

Steven: “... Rampant ...”

Mark: “... Abbington!”

Sue: “She’s got a necklace there, hasn’t she?”

Mark: “Yes. We’ll have to explain that at one point.”

Steven: “There’s quite a lot of things we’ll have to explain, Mark! I’ve got a list somewhere.”

[There is an interesting Tumblr post here discussing the necklace.]

Mark: “We had to think, has Mary herself made a decision to change her life? I mean, she meets John Watson and she thinks he’s a very decent man. Is she actually intending to go straight ...”

Sue: “I think so.”

Mark: “... or is it always murky?”

Steven: “My feeling was [that], a bit like John, she can’t really keep away from that. She fits in with these two blokes because she’s got exactly the same problem. ‘I can spend six months without having an adventure, but not seven.’ What other wife is gonna be sending John out to play with Sherlock, and then tagging along? The way she behaves in ‘The Sign of Three’ is preposterous for a bride at a wedding. She likes that world better.”

Mark: “In my head, though, she’s sort of like Callan. She’s a troubled assassin. I don’t want to think she’s being totally evil.”

Steven: “I think the Callan comparison’s terrific – the idea that she’s done bad things but not because that’s what she wants to do.”

That indicates to me that they 1) deliberately withheld information, instead of just thinking the audience was too dumb to notice; 2) they plan on revealing some more. Some day. Maybe.  Oh ... and possibly they themselves don't know what the answers are yet.

 

The other thing that came through was how much they really do write this for themselves. That's the only way to go, imo --- as much as we quibble with some of the things they come up with, at least it's not "let's write what the fans want to see." That way lies Dullville!

 

Gotta read through it again, there's some more points that stuck out but too rushed right now to remember them.

[sittything]

 

First, I haven't gotten my DVD yet, but I've seen this quote from the commentary, and I am pretty sure that this means they cut a fairly important line that would have explained why Sherlock was as injured as he was from Mary's shot -- she was aiming for the least lethal place she could have shot him and still hit the abdomen (like a shot that just hit the liver), and by being off a fraction of an inch, she involved a more critical structure like the IVC.  But nobody's perfect.  Since the off-center shot in the coin always bothered me (although it also impressed me), I like having that possible addition.

 

Well, that's one interpretation... I thought what they meant was that Mary had aimed to kill him and missed, but... Anyway, I'm sorry they cut those lines, because it sounds like a pretty funny bit of dialogue, and I am sure the actors could have delivered it really well.

 

 

I assumed, even before reading those lines just now, that Mary didn't intend to kill Sherlock.  I think partially because I didn't want to believe that of Mary, and also because that is what Sherlock tells us so I just took it at face value.  That it was "surgery," that she wouldn't have missed at 6 feet, and that she saved his life (I still kinda question that).   After reading those cut lines, I do wish they had left them in.  It acknowledges even a very good shot like Mary can be a bit off, which as Boton says, explains why Sherlock was more injured than she likely intended.