Who Is Your Favourite Main Character?

[Arcadia]

Gahhhh, even in print he's beautiful .... ooops, sorry, where was I? Ah, yes, London. I feel like the whole show is sort of a love poem to London. Makes me want to go there, and I really dislike cities ....

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

Ah, yes, London. I feel like the whole show is sort of a love poem to London. Makes me want to go there, and I really dislike cities ....

 

  Seems like Gatiss's strategy of fetishizing London is working. I want to go to and I hate cities.

[by the sea]

I haven't been to London in a long, long time ... although I've been there many times and admit to finding it pretty overwhelming in its diversity and its busy-ness.  But watching Sherlock has kind of rekindled my interest in the city because the show has brought the city back to life, as it were.  And, as Mr. Cumberbatch says, the atmosphere of the night sparks that sense of mystery I think most of us are looking for in Sherlock ... and it deflects some of the urban chaos which is more obvious in daylight.

 

Debbie

[Carol the Dabbler]

I feel like the whole show is sort of a love poem to London. Makes me want to go there, and I really dislike cities ....

 

Seems like Gatiss's strategy of fetishizing London is working. I want to go to and I hate cities.

 

 

I hate cities, too, at least certain big cities -- New York and Chicago give me the creeps. But London doesn't. Alex and I have walked all over Central London, and the only times I've felt at all vulnerable have been in a few dimly lit areas at night^* -- and those would bother me anywhere.  Otherwise, London is just terrific.

 

 

^* If you've seen Breaking and Entering (in which Martin Freeman has a supporting role as Jude Law's partner in an architectural firm), then you may recall the area they showed just east of King's Cross Station.

 

[Arcadia]

Yeah, the feeling of vulnerability would be there for me in any city, I guess, but what bothers me is the noise and the concrete. And the lights, I like to see stars at night. Can't even do that out here in the country much anymore, the light pollution is getting so bad.
 
There are some wonderful places in D.C. which are also quite safe ... but the cacophony just wears me down after a few hours. Once I've spent half a day there I'm done, and don't want to go back again for weeks.
 
L.A., Chicago, Baltimore, N.Y. -- forget it, if I never see them again it will be too soon! Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Athens, Rome ... ditto. But I think I'd enjoy seeing Bangkok again, if just to see how it's changed. But talk about noise ...... ugh.

 

I liked Amsterdam, as I recall.

[Redbeard]

 

I feel like the whole show is sort of a love poem to London. Makes me want to go there, and I really dislike cities ....

 

Seems like Gatiss's strategy of fetishizing London is working. I want to go to and I hate cities.

 

 

I hate cities, too, at least certain big cities -- New York and Chicago give me the creeps. But London doesn't. Alex and I have walked all over Central London, and the only times I've felt at all vulnerable have been in a few dimly lit areas at night^* -- and those would bother me anywhere.  Otherwise, London is just terrific.

 

 

^* If you've seen Breaking and Entering (in which Martin Freeman has a supporting role as Jude Law's partner in an architectural firm), then you may recall the area they showed just east of King's Cross Station.

 

 

Wait, you mean Alex the Dabbler?  Carol the Dabbler and Alex the Dabbler.  I get it now!!!  Are you guys a thing?  I am just getting that now lol.  And that is why I am no Sherlock Holmes.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Don't feel bad, Redbeard -- just because two people have the same surname, that doesn't necessarily mean they're related!    In real life, Alex and I are married -- but we have different surnames.  So you're not the only one we've ever confused!

 

 

Arcadia, have you ever been to Boston or San Francisco?  It's been a long time for me, but my recollection is that they both had a somewhat similar feel to London.  I've heard good things about Amsterdam, but haven't been there so far.  I know what you mean about city noise, but somehow that doesn't bother me in London.  Even though I'm a country kid, I can very happily spend a couple of weeks there.  Hmm -- maybe it's because I'm a country kid -- so London is a nice change of pace.

 

[Arcadia]

Both, but SF was ages ago, about the only thing I remember is that it was frigidly cold and windy. But yeah, I imagine it's pretty nice for a city; all those hills. And of course the bay.

 

Boston ... if I had a dime for every hour I've been stuck in Boston traffic, I'd have ... a lot of dimes.

 

Smaller cities are more my thing. Portland ME, Fredericksburg VA ... Annapolis, MD is pretty cool. They all have a lot of the older architecture, none of this glass and steel stuff. Still noisy, though!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hey, I didn't ask if you'd ever driven in Boston!  I lived there for nine years, but usually took the T unless I was headed out of town.  And there were some areas (e.g., the airport) where I wouldn't have driven on a bet.  But it was a great city for walking -- something like London in that regard.

 

Annapolis is definitely cool, but it feels more like a town than a city to me.

 

[Convict13]

I LOVE London, would live there in a heartbeat, the museums and art galleries, the history and the culture.  I love the underground and find London incredibly easy to navigate, it is such an exciting brash city but you know at it's heart it has depth and finery.  I've been there about four times, but the last time was a long time ago, 1997.

 

I remember sitting in a pub in the city of London at about lunch time, and there was no-one there but our party, then 5 minutes after twelve walked in all the city workers, 50 minutes later they were all gone, and we were left with ourselves once more, and if I remember correctly this Pub was only open Monday to Friday from 11am to 7pm, so it only existed for the city workers.

 

I love cities that you turn a corner and you are faced with reminders of it's past, Rome too is a city which I love, and you can be walking down a street there and then come across a fenced off area of Roman ruins, just to remind you of the people that have been before.

 

Having said all that I am ashamed to say that even though I stayed for a while in London and in Baker Street itself, I never visited 221B.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

Visiting #221 Baker Street is a tricky proposition, since it keeps moving around.

 

As I understand it, the address used to belong to a business office, which of course kept getting letters intended for Holmes (they would reply saying he had retired).  Then someone decided to open a "Sherlock Holmes museum" and they somehow managed to convince the city to give them the address, even though they're located a short distance away at what should be #239.  Both of those buildings are a block or two north of Marylebone Road.

 

To confuse the issue even further, during the years when Holmes (and sometimes Watson) are reported to have lived at #221, there was no such address, since Baker Street ran only to #100.  Some Holmes fans believe that Watson deliberately gave a false address, and that they actually lived south of Marylebone Road -- apparently including Moftiss and Gatiss, whose #221 lies between York and Crawford Streets (even though it's actually filmed on North Gower Street).

 

[Arcadia]

 

Annapolis is definitely cool, but it feels more like a town than a city to me.

Shows you what a country girl I am, then, it feels like a city to me!

 

Only driven in Boston once, rest of the time either bus or other driver. Misery, all of 'em.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Alex and I are planning a trip to Boston this October (our first in a long while), and our thoughts are to stay in a hotel along I-495 (the outer loop highway), near a commuter rail station, and rely on trains and the subway/streetcar system for any incursions to the citified area.  I agree that driving (or riding) on Boston streets is a nightmare -- the traffic is often heavy, and I have seen stunts there that I've never seen anywhere else.

 

Come to think of it, maybe one reason I like London is that I've never even tried to drive there!

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I have heard that London is a nightmare even for experienced drivers.....but that's only hearsay.

[Carol the Dabbler]

There's a lot of traffic, for sure.  And the streets change names every few blocks.

 

It'd be a special challenge for an American, since the traffic is on the left side of the street.  I figure I might be able to handle routine driving there (preferably with a GPS), but heaven forbid there should be any sort of emergency -- all my instincts would be precisely backward!

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

For those interested in learning more about the London below ground, PBS and MPBN is airing such a program at 11 pm tonight.

[jesskayding]

Uhmm Sherlock... And how in the world did Donovan make the cut. From the very 1st show till now... Can't stand that woman. I would think she'd turn Sherlock's stomach more than CAM.

[Arcadia]

I kind of admire her, except for her disdain for Sherlock. And he doesn't give her any reason to love him.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I like Donovan too.  She did seem to have a blind spot regarding Sherlock's virtues, but as Arcadia said, he wasn't exactly helping.  I'd be very curious to see what she thinks of Sherlock now.  Maybe in Series 4?

 

[jesskayding]

For those interested in learning more about the London below ground, PBS and MPBN is airing such a program at 11 pm tonight.

They also aired it like 3 weeks ago. It was so fascinating. I wish I was born in London.

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

She still seemed to be a little snarky about Sherlock in "TEH"..... and of course she was right about him killing someone....but she was so very  wrong about why he did it. It wasn't out of boredom. Not by a long shot and that's for sure.

[Carol the Dabbler]

What TEH scene are you referring to, Fox?  I don't offhand recall seeing Donovan in that episode except for some TRF footage in the news montage near the beginning.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

She is with Lestrade all through the Water Family chase. And when they finally have them red handed in the bank, she and Lestrade are lead.....ooohhh! No....it's "TSoT".....I'm sorry....my bad......

[Arcadia]

Don't feel too bad, I didn't notice either.

[Carol the Dabbler]

No problem -- I always have trouble remembering which episode those cute little beginning scenes belong to.

 

But now that I know what scene you're talking about, I still don't recall Sally saying anything about Sherlock.  Guess I'll have to resort to Ariane DeVere's transcript:

 

(Greg’s phone beeps twice more. He takes it from his pocket and stops to look at it.)
LESTRADE: Sorry, I’d better get this.
DONOVAN (continuing onwards with the other officers): It’s him, isn’t it?
 

Is that the part you meant?  It does sound a little sarcastic -- not up to Sally's usual standards, though!