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Episode 4.1 "The Six Thatchers"


Undead Medic

What did you think of "The Six Thatchers"?  

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    • 10/10 Excellent.
    • 9/10 Not quite the best, but not far off.
    • 8/10 Certainly worth watching again.
    • 7/10 Slightly above the norm.
    • 6/10 Average.
    • 5/10 Slightly sub-par.
    • 4/10 Decidedly below average.
    • 3/10 Pretty Poor.
      0
    • 2/10 Bad.
    • 1/10 Awful.


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And Moftiss keep talking about how action packed Ep 3 is. My chief fear right now is that it's Ep. 2 that's the anomaly, and Ep. 3 will have the visual style of Ep. 1. Aggghh, I don't think I can bear it.....

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Wasn't there talk of there being a scene on a boat? I'm wondering if that's how all the water imagery fits in - someone drowns? If it's in London though I can't say the Thames is really known for it's shark population ;)

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:lol: the sharks ...

 

Yes, they filmed on a boat. Also I just read that the East Wind is a sign of rain....

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Hell, London is a sign of rain :P

 

 

I keep thinking how weird and creepy the whole 'the east wind is coming' line is when Mycroft knows that's his sister. Saying it's coming is like saying he knows she's out when he clearly doesn't, assuming Sherrinford is some sort of facility. You'd think he would avoid mentioning anything to do with the east wind, unless it was some sort of prompt to see how Sherlock reacted, if he realised it was a reference. I get the impression he isn't aware of his sister, maybe he was told she died when they were little?

 

Edited by T.o.b.y
Added Spoiler box for TLD spoiler
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Copied here from another thread:

 

 

 

I think the season started a bit sloppy and focused way too much on the drama. I still don't understand how they weren't able to save Mary.. John is a doctor and has been in Afghanistan where he probably had to deal with situation like that all the time even if Watson was in too much shock they were in the middle of a big city, London, which is full of hospitals. Don't know if Cumberbatch or Freeman had something to do with since they've gone to the big leagues and they might have more control over the show... maybe they just wanted more screen time for themselves? What ever the case the first episode was nothing we expect from Sherlock imo.

 

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Copied here from another thread:

 

 

 

I think the season started a bit sloppy and focused way too much on the drama. I still don't understand how they weren't able to save Mary.. John is a doctor and has been in Afghanistan where he probably had to deal with situation like that all the time even if Watson was in too much shock they were in the middle of a big city, London, which is full of hospitals. Don't know if Cumberbatch or Freeman had something to do with since they've gone to the big leagues and they might have more control over the show... maybe they just wanted more screen time for themselves? What ever the case the first episode was nothing we expect from Sherlock imo.

 

What bothered me most about the dying scene was that it seemed unrealistic. I don't know what I would have expected, but everyone just stood around. John was the only one who rushed to her, and he left her in that sitting position. I would have at least moved her to a lying down position. As far as "working" on her, maybe John knew from where the bullet went in that it was hopeless. (It went in higher than when she shot Sherlock.) At least John did tell Mycroft to get help, which of course didn't come in time.

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Yeah, that's the only assumption I can make ... John and Mary both were supposed to realize it was a fatal wound. And I suppose Sherlock and Lestrade would know enough to realize that too. But the way it was staged was simply unimaginative; with less accomplished actors, it would have been unbearably schmaltzy. Martin saved that scene with his keening, imo. Well, almost saved it. It was a valiant effort of the part of both the actors.

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Yeah, that's the only assumption I can make ... John and Mary both were supposed to realize it was a fatal wound. And I suppose Sherlock and Lestrade would know enough to realize that too. But the way it was staged was simply unimaginative; with less accomplished actors, it would have been unbearably schmaltzy. Martin saved that scene with his keening, imo. Well, almost saved it. It was a valiant effort of the part of both the actors.

 

Of course any injury can be lethal if treated wrong. I think the problem here is the series is taking place in modern day, since today's medicine has come so far. Time where the original books took place a injury like Mary's would've been an death sentence, but not any more. They should've been able to save Mary.

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Arcadia: I had to look up keening. Thanks for teaching me a new word! (Dictionary.com defines it as "a wailing lament for the dead".)

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Of course any injury can be lethal if treated wrong. I think the problem here is the series is taking place in modern day, since today's medicine has come so far. Time where the original books took place a injury like Mary's would've been an death sentence, but not any more. They should've been able to save Mary.

I think it might have worked if they'd left the speech out. A simple "I don't want to leave you," and then off she pops would have been both more heart-breaking and more believable. Ah well, too late now.

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So I guess Mary decided to name their baby after herself?  Without telling John the reasoning behind the name?  Am I getting that right? 

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Oh, hell, this is brilliant. I sense some funny edits coming our way :D

 

BTW, it also shows how difficult it is to film on location, and how it can be more efficient to build a set instead.

 

I was very surprised it wasn't a set for that very reason.  It is both more difficult and less efficient to film in a jumbo jet than to use a set of a jumbo jet.  It constrains the director rather than freeing her.  Again, that is the problem with the Aquarium set.  As Arcadia pointed out, that severely restricted what could be done with the scene and thus made it more pedestrian.

 

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The thing is even if it wasn't a set, the actors could have moved around more dynamically. I noticed the weirdness of 221B looking like a set more than I thought about the aquarium - that looked weirdly flat.

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The thing is even if [the Aquarium] wasn't a set, the actors could have moved around more dynamically.

No.  Look again at the small size of that room.  There wasn't the space to shoot the actors moving around in there, let alone having them move "dynamically".  If you notice, when they film Sherlock about to be 'shot', they couldn't even do the dolly/zoom in-camera there.  They did it mostly as a special effect.  That is a TINY space.  AND they needed to 'divide' the room up into two scenes - the confrontation (where they are being held STILL at gunpoint) AND the death scene.  So they couldn't use ALL the space for BOTH sequences.  They were limited because more than one scene was being shot in there.

 

The two scenes are as dynamic as (if not more than) the revelations scene on the plane between Sherlock, Mycroft, and Irene in SiB.  And in SiB they had the 'luxury' of lighting through the plane's windows.  T6T didn't even have that because they were surrounded by the aquariums.  I don't think anyone is going to accuse SiB's director of being pedestrian, let alone bad.

 

Also, do not think that the actors would not have moved around if they felt they should and if they had the space to do so.  Especially in the second half of the scene, if they thought they lacked movement - and had the room to move - they would have demanded to do so, saying it was a requirement for their characters.  Don't think they wouldn't.  And don't believe that this director would have had the power to forbid it.

 

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I'm back!

 

(As I said in the TFP thread, I just finished watching that episode, and I can keep up my hiatus from the fandom no longer. I realize I will probably be making some comments others have already done, but I wanted to share my thoughts on each of the episodes before starting to dig into the finer points. I suspect it will take me some time to catch up.)

 

This was a great way to use a really nothing ACD story. I mean, The Six Napoleons is nice, but you basically know what has happened about three paragraphs in, and you're just reading the story to fill in details. So it made for a nice little case to wrap the big stuff in.

 

I had a whole bunch at the time to say about Mary's involvement with AGRA, but now the only thing that matters is Mary's death. I (and about 75% of the fandom; I'm not that arrogant) called it by saying Sherlock would be the proximate cause of Mary's death and John would blame him. It worked well. Offing Mary in the first episode also gave a lot of time for resolution of the friendship, and I think the shared grief between the two really made them closer.

 

I was about 25% convinced for the entire week that Mary wasn't dead. Even Mr. Boton, who now seems to be a convert to the fandom, kept going back and forth on her death.

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One thing I forgot to say is that, when TST was over, I turned to Mr. Boton and commented that I was afraid that Sherlock had become Harry Potter.  Like, the whole show started out light and magical, and we end up in this terribly dark place with Death in Sumarra/The Deathly Hallows or whatever.  

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Keep forgetting to ask, what is the relevance of the case Sherlock tells Mrs Hudson to mention to him when he's getting cocky? I assume it's an ACD canon reference?

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