what keeps you hooked/addicted

[jesskayding]

So before I asked how did you know you were hooked. Now the question is what makes you stick around? What makes the wait so worthwhile?

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

[jesskayding]

Ok so for me. I felt bamboozled. Public Broadcast Television tricked me! Made me think that Sherlock came on every week with like 1 month in between each series. Turns out I was catching reruns 4 years after the fact. WhAt!!

 

But I never set time aside, dissed time to hang out with my friends, cut an evil eye @ someone talking during or turned up the volume & walk up to the television while my friends are playing games. They think I am so rude during this show. & when they tell me to get Netflix, my upper lip turns up, my hands go on my hips & then I give a don't you dare say another word glare.

 

This show gets me emotional. Like American football fan who paints their faces & has an entire room set aside to pay homage to their favorite team.

 

There's no explaining the madness. There needs to be an Sherlock Anonymous support group or something, because it really is affecting all those around me. My family & friends are concerned.

[besleybean]

The best TV ever.

[jesskayding]

 

That man looks just like a man I loved with all my heart some years ago. He apparently didn't feel the same. Who is that? Really is a freaky resemblance. Sad face with tear. ( don't feel like referring to the emoticon code page)

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

It's from Supernatural. They've got a gif for everything.

[T.o.b.y]

What keeps me interested? Very good question. I've never had this happen to me before with a TV series. I'm not a series person. I have books I read over and over and over again, but until Sherlock came along, there was no audio-visual fiction I was addicted to.

 

Well, for starters, I think I have a bit of a crush on Sherlock. Not the actor - don't get me wrong, he's a very talented and handsome man, and I respect him highly for what he does, but I wouldn't faint or scream if I met him in the street, I don't fawn over him in interviews and such, and I don't care two straws what he does in his spare time. But Sherlock I think I am as much in love with as is at all permissible for a happily married woman.

 

Then, the series bears re-watching exceptionally well. I'm not one to discard anything after a first view; I like to go over books and movies and plays a few times and really process them, and Sherlock not only withstands, but even rewards, that behavior. Even now, I keep discovering new things.

 

Then, while it's funny and fantastical enough to count as light-hearted entertainment that I can take in even after a long hard day at work, the show keeps making me think in the best and most enjoyable of ways. It deals with a lot of topics that are not that common in fiction, at least not the fiction I've encountered before, or at least it deals with common topics in uncommon ways. Like love, for example. Some day, I will really write a page-long, convoluted and entirely illogical and unreadable essay about love in Sherlock.

 

I have always focused on characters rather than plots. And the Sherlock cast is really rich. There is nobody I truly don't like (I often say I don't like Mycroft, but it's more a love-to-hate thing than a true aversion). The people all feel very real to me.

 

Language is also a factor. I am an English junkie, and I have seldom heard such wonderful English, spoken in such pleasing voices and in such a variety of subtle little accents as in Sherlock.

 

Last but not least, there's the love story. I love the love story. I always have, and I really like this modern interpretation of something I think was originally not intentional, but just sort of happened. I wouldn't call myself a "shipper" - what have ships to do with love and anyway, I always understood that meant wanting a relationship between two characters that is "more" or different than what's on screen, while I am very satisfied with exactly what I see (of course I see what I want to see).

 

If they ever ruin the love story, I think I'll stop watching. But I don't think they will. I have the impression that the writers and actors are sick and tired of being asked about it and explaining it, but the way they did series 3 tells me they're certainly not tired of telling it. As (I think) Mark Gatiss said once, the story of Sherlock Holmes has always been that he makes a friend and that changes his life. What's not to love about a story like that?

[sherlockandjohn]

What keeps me addicted is, of course, a bit the same as what got me there in the first place; great friendship, great humor, brilliant dialogue, etc. It is my favorite TV show ever. I suppose the fact that they keep it just as brilliant and even more emotional is what keeps me waiting for new episodes. That, and having a forum on which I can discuss everything 'Sherlock' and vent all of my feelings in between series. If I couldn't do that, I seriously don't know if I could handle the addiction. I might have had to go cold turkey!

 

More specifically, John and Sherlock's bond is what keeps me watching. It is not the only thing that makes the show the most brilliant ever, but it is the most important factor.

[jesskayding]

Yes the friendship between them is truly, really unconditional. Thanks for sharing guys... This is great.

 

I just realized that I shared about my reaction to the show versus why my love for the show hasn't faded.

 

This show has alot of quotability. I feel like I know these people/ characters. Not only that I can relate to Sherlock. Because I grew up amongst so much violence & instability. I grew up in the foster care system, went to 14 different schools due to constantly going from one place to another.

You learn that caring isn't an advantage & in my mind love was a fantasy. It didn't exist.

 

I've actually said in a group of people (over 10 years ago)," you all do realize that people die!" All of them had been discussing the death of a young athlete, and were genuinely sad about her death. I truly was cofused & annoyed

 

When I think of the person I used to be I kind of cringe! I was uncompassionate... Didn't understand how people cried so easily. I actually couldn't stand romantic comedies... They made me so angry.

 

The point I'm trying to make is, through patient friends & lots of counseling I learned compassion, I learned to cry, I had to learn to feel, I learned to consider others.. This took a lot of practice... I purposely made discisions to put the needs of others before my own.

 

So when I see his transformation show after show... That really resonates with me. There are still times where I'll respond to something, say or do something that's completely inappropriate or unthoughtful. And I'm like- Really. I remain aware that I learned these things much later on in life than most.

 

So its relatable. I can relate.

[Arcadia]

To quote Bendydoodle .... everything.

[Carol the Dabbler]

When I think of the person I used to be I kind of cringe! I was uncompassionate... Didn't understand how people cried so easily. I actually couldn't stand romantic comedies... They made me so angry.

You had to be that person for a while, Jess -- it was your survival technique. If you'd cared back then, being bounced from one home to another would have broken your heart. But then you learned you didn't have to continue being that person, and that's wonderful! I can see why you might cringe remembering who you used to be, but you don't need to be ashamed of her. She protected you.

 

 

What keeps me hooked on Sherlock?  I think it's a combination of things:

 

1.  There's so much detail in each episode, and the closer you look, the more detail you see.  As T.o.b.y says, the show is eminently re-watchable.

 

2.  The acting is just superb.  It's so good that I never feel like I'm watching actors acting.  Sometimes I intentionally study their technique, but even then I keep getting sucked back into the place where the characters are real.

 

3.  Everything looks so real, and the scenes are put together so nicely that they're really easy to watch.  A lot of people must spend a lot of time basically making their own work invisible -- which allows us to focus on what's happening -- and they deserve far more praise than they get.

 

4.  I have a huge crush on John Watson.  (Please don't tell Mary!)

 

5.  Most episodes have a wonderful balance of humor, drama, mystery, and suspense.  One reason I'm somewhat ambivalent about Series 3 is that I don't get such a satisfying sense of balance.

 

I've had a similar reaction to only one other television program, and that was over forty years ago -- the original Star Trek, which may look a bit simplistic nowadays, but was truly stupendous for its time.

 

[jesskayding]

Thank you Carol for your words of encouragement. My counselors used to say the same thing. The problem is once you learn to access a conscious, it's hard not to feel responsible for my past actions... I know in my mind that my past environment affected my ability to mature emotionally, unfortunately can't always control my feelings.

 

Can't relate to Sherlock in that area anymore.

[sherlockandjohn]

 

5.  Most episodes have a wonderful balance of humor, drama, mystery, and suspense.  One reason I'm somewhat ambivalent about Series 3 is that I don't get such a satisfying sense of balance.

 

 

Come to think of it, I feel the same. The episode in series 3 that balances best is probably Sign. I don't mind that an occasional episode focuses on the emotional drama, such as Hearse and Vow; I just wish it didn't come at the cost of the sharpness that signifies Sherlock and makes it stand out. Unfortunately, I feel that it does in s3. Reichenbach had a sharper script, in my opinion, while also being an amazing drama. I will give Hearse and Vow that they are emotionally profound and evocative, though.

 

When I use the word 'sharp' here I am referring to cleverness in plot, dialogue, humor and character drama. In other words, that balance Carol mentions. While Hearse has lots of humor, some of it (though far from all) is like watching stand-up comedy: It's comedy for comedy's sake. Like the fake suicide theories. I enjoy them, but not as much as the character based humor Sherlock brings along when he's being his sociopathic self. Hearse also decidedly lacks a clever plot.

 

Vow has a better plot - and the lack of humor here is natural. However, the character drama, while being profound, has its' weak links, such as the time jump which means we suddenly see John forgiving Mary (or is it forgiveness?). Also, John's character is being manipulated with, as I have stated before. Throughout the episode we see a much increased focus on his need for danger, which hasn't been prominent since ASiP. This is done, no doubt, in order to tell us that John deserves Mary, as Sherlock states. The situation with John coming to terms with Mary's past and his own need for danger is very emotional, but I feel it's a bit set up... Yes, he is a soldier, but how come he didn't go nuts during those two years Sherlock was away, if his need for adrenaline is that great?

 

Of course, setting up character drama is hardly anything new. The Great Game focuses on Sherlock's ability to detach himself, and how the heart gets in the way of that. Scandal focuses on pretty much the same, but from a very different angle. In each episode, of course, characters are being set up, but I suppose it's a matter of what the individual can stomach... I can stomach a detached Sherlock, but it's harder to accept John as an adrenaline-junkie, who "fell for" both Sherlock and Mary because they have an element of danger in them. I never saw it that way before. John seemed to me 'addicted to a certain lifestyle', yes, but not to dangerous people.

 

Ugh, I'm getting completely off topic and discussing something that's been discussed to death already. Somebody stop me.

[Redbeard]

Like others I have never had this reaction to a TV show before.  I mean to actively crave a television show.  Absurd!  And yet look at us all.  

 

For me I think it is how all the elements are perfect.  I think the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch has a lot to do with it.  He is the perfect anchor around which everything can unfold because he is fascinating and Sherlock is fascinating and the combination results in a character portrayal that is one for the ages.  Then they went ahead and got everything else right too.  The perfect John Watson, perfect secondary characters, music, locations....and they do it so intelligently too.   

 

I find I just get immersed into each episode, never bored, never rolling my eyes, never websurfing or fiddling with my phone like during other shows.  I am always 100% there.  So then, when it goes away, it leaves a big hole because nothing else is just that awesome.  So even though the wait is long, it feels so good to get another hit when it comes!  I probably sound like a drug addict and I wasn't meaning to.  But I suppose there is a parallel there.  Like Sherlock's mind revving out of control with boredom when he has no "work", so he resorts to drugs for satisfaction.  Maybe Sherlock is a show for smart people, who's minds are numbed by the pablum of other shows and Sherlock is like the fix that engages our minds and our emotions and keeps us happy and thinking.  And thank goodness for this forum because we can discuss the endless thoughts of Sherlock that swirl through our brains with others who understand.  We can keep tastes of it alive in our memories until the real thing brings us something new.  Drugs not necessary. 

[Redbeard]

 

 

5.  Most episodes have a wonderful balance of humor, drama, mystery, and suspense.  One reason I'm somewhat ambivalent about Series 3 is that I don't get such a satisfying sense of balance.

 

 

....

Ugh, I'm getting completely off topic and discussing something that's been discussed to death already. Somebody stop me.

 

 

Well sherlockandjohn, I for one will never stop you.  Discuss all you want. 

 

[sfmpco]

Jumping in with my 2-cents...

 

I've been firmly hooked in the last 2 months since first discovering this show via Netflix (I don't own a TV).  I don't know what instantly hooked me.  All I know is that I'd never seen anything like it before.  Being an Anglophile always draws me to the Brit shows, but there was like a vortex around SHERLOCK that I'd never experienced before, and once I got drawn in, I couldn't get out - nor have I wanted to get out.

 

Although I am just starting to watch more of BC's works, I avoided the other works  for a while because I just wanted to focus on Sherlock who exists entirely separate to me from the actor.  I don't see the actor.  I see only Sherlock.  Well, that's good acting for you.

 

But I love more than just the acting.  The writing is brilliant.   I'm usually pretty stoic when watching anything.  What many consider funny I may not even crack a smile at, but this show can make me laugh, and the more I watch it, the funnier some of the bits are.  

 

I look at the makeup.  Still trying to figure out how they did BC's makeup in HLV when he was in the lab being drug tested.  Interesting that a show would make me look at something as silly as makeup.

 

And there's the editing.  Even in ASiP we got to see this frenetic editing with graphics during the chase scene.  Don't see that in other TV.  And the whole beautifully choreographed sequence in TRF with Moriarty's dance and all the break-ins with the police being yanked here and there trying to keep up - will never see that in regular TV shows.  That entire episode has brilliant editing, the likes of which cannot be found in other TV shows.

 

The music - well, there's the incomparable David Arnold.  While I'm not crazy about the opening title sequence - there are many pieces of music in it that are fantastic.  Wish the opening music was "The Game is On" instead because it certainly is when the show begins!   

 

The relationships are all fantastic.  Never a false moment or misstep.  Even from the very beginning when John realizes there is something quite fantastic about his new flatmate - so much so that he is willing to kill someone to save him - and that they both giggle over it - you get the feeling that in some ways they have the same blood running through their veins even though their characters are vastly different.  John is a sounding board that Sherlock bounces off of.  Sherlock's other sounding board had only been Mycroft, and that relationship was strained at best.  John allows Sherlock to be himself but slightly rounds off the rough edges of unsociability, but Sherlock also has a flatmate that isn't offended by his strangeness.  Love the bit where he's even able to be insulted and indignant when John tells him that no one is reading his blog on 240 types of tobacco ash.  LOL.  It's like no one has ever stood up to Sherlock that way to let him know that his superior thinking may be just about rubbish things.  John always stands up to Sherlock, always ready to throttle him should the occasion arise.  In some ways they are like brothers.

 

And his humanness is beginning to show through more brightly - from the darkness of shooting Magnussen in cold blood to the moments of gentleness and tenderness that he gives to Molly when he's not being an arse.  He is being completely genuine with her in TEH when he congratulates her on her engagement.  The most normal and unpretentious he's been.  The quiet moment where he is real and you get the feeling that this man could actually be a very GOOD man someday if he allowed himself more moments of real.

 

So why do I like this show... well, it's so hard to explain.  I can explain all the little bits that just tickle me or mesmerize me.  That would take a book.  I can talk about all the technical aspects.  I can talk about why it's like no other TV show ever.  All of that would be true.  

 

I just know that I can keep going back to it daily and checking little things.  No other show in all my years of TV watching has ever made me want to go back and study the minutia of it.  Seriously.  

 

I don't know what else to say except that it's just all around brilliant.

 

[sfmpco]

Oh, and I should add some little technical thing that I got off of Sherlockology last night... something that has gone over my head a zillion times with every viewing of HLV - that SH was not just being sent on a 6-month mission.  The "hardly merciful" solution was in fact exile.  EXILE.  Rip my heart out again.

[besleybean]

No, it was a 6 month mission which would probably end in his death.

[sfmpco]

No, it was a 6 month mission which would probably end in his death.

 

It may have been more than that.  Even if it didn't end in his death, he wouldn't never see Britain again.  

[jesskayding]

I feel you Redbeard. I'm posting on my phone right now during a fairly interesting documentary. Wont even do that during a rewatch of a Sherlock episode.

 

 

Yes there really is a void. Nothing else is as satisfying. I've been watching Father Brown. So sad.

[Bendydoodle Cantaloupe]

 

No, it was a 6 month mission which would probably end in his death.

 

It may have been more than that.  Even if it didn't end in his death, he wouldn't never see Britain again.  

 

 

He seemed upset about that on the plane. Like he was silently breaking down.

[Carol the Dabbler]

While Hearse has lots of humor, some of it (though far from all) is like watching stand-up comedy: It's comedy for comedy's sake. Like the fake suicide theories. I enjoy them, but not as much as the character based humor....

Yes, that too! I absolutely love the intrinsic humor in the first two series, and it's been largely upstaged by broader humor in Series 3 -- when there's any humor at all. Not to say that the broad humor (e.g., the stag night) wasn't brilliantly done, just that -- well, I hope they've got that out of their systems now, and can (mostly!) get back to the humor that arises "naturally" amidst the action.

 

... John's character is being manipulated with, as I have stated before. Throughout the episode we see a much increased focus on his need for danger, which hasn't been prominent since ASiP. This is done, no doubt, in order to tell us that John deserves Mary, as Sherlock states. The situation with John coming to terms with Mary's past and his own need for danger is very emotional, but I feel it's a bit set up... Yes, he is a soldier, but how come he didn't go nuts during those two years Sherlock was away, if his need for adrenaline is that great?

 

<snip>  Ugh, I'm getting completely off topic and discussing something that's been discussed to death already. Somebody stop me.

Well, the flip side of "what keeps you hooked?" is naturally "what turns you off?" -- so you're not really off-topic here, just exploring ramifications. As for rehashing -- bringing up new points can't be called rehashing, and I don't recall ever seeing your "why didn't John go nuts?" argument before. Excellent point!

 

[jesskayding]

Either way death exile or both... The thought of any that being Sherlock's consequences would be heart breaking.

 

In the words of Lady Smallwood (paraphrasing) " Is there anyone who will stand up to that man [yada yada yada].. Baker Street."

 

He did a little more than stand up to him. But not only that I think we've grown to love him nearly as much as Dr. Watson. We certainly are more obsessed with him than he is.

 

The end of Sherlock as we know him? The separation of him from London, John, Lastrade, Mrs Hudson, Molly & countless villains... What would we do? We can't stand 2 years, nevertheless the permanence of death or Exhile.

 

Yeah so I agree with sfmpco.. Heart Ripping thought.

[Arcadia]

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... if that plane hadn't turned around at the end of HLV, I don't think I could've borne it. I'd STILL be sobbing. Moffat can be an annoying git but a thousand thousand blessings be on him for that ending.

[jesskayding]

Yeah could you imagine not having resolve for two years? Wondering what's to become of him. The writers seem to be really merciful in this way. Could you imagine upon the ending of TRF if Sherlock wouldn't been standing next to that tree in the cemetery?

 

So yes Arcadia thank goodness that plane turned around.