BBC Sherlock Unaired Pilot

If you are a true blue BBC Sherlock fan then you cannot say that you have truly lived until you've seen the unaired pilot. Trust me, it is not an experience you can live without.

Clearly, the quality of these two gifs are not equal but just looking at them you get the reason why you so desperately need to see this unaired pilot.

It is shorter, there are less cameos (Mycroft doesn't get his fabulously dramatic entrance) and it's thirty minutes shorter but what it lacks in pure quality and polished charm is the raw, unfinished nature of it.

It is so apparent that all of them (Moffat, Benedict, Martin, Rupert) have not finished making all of the great and small decisions about their characters, about the relationship and about the structure as a whole.

Both Sherlock and John are younger in the unaired pilot, Sherlock is practically a teenager while John is less an aged, world-weary soldier and more defianlty homosexual Three Continents Watson. 

Some of the delivery is sloppy, Sherlock moves likes he's just recently learned but he's open in a way that actual canon denies possible. 

John is dressed in stylish coats and open collar dress shirts. The limp is incredibly disgusting and fake but he's also eye-fucking Sherlock over the firelight and shooting the cabbie. 

Every time I really get into a fandom, I try and watch the unaired pilot. First of all, to see who that one actor/actress is that gets replaced (in this case, Sally Donovan is some other black English woman with less power and weaker line delivery. They really dodged a bullet there)

It's so apparent in some cases how much deliberation and minute action goes into a character. The littlest things like the cut of a coat can tell you so much about a person and their motivations. Watching the pilot was like getting a glimpse at Johnlock (ship name) in utero.

If this last gif does not convince you then you're dead inside.

That is all.

For everyone who has not seen the wonderfulness that is the unaired pilot, please go to 

 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtsdwg_ssherlock-2010-unaired-pilot_shortfilms

What the Hell is a Sherlock?

Our previous class got me thinking about Sherlock Holmes and who/what he is. I think people want to make Sherlock into many different things but I feel like the only necessary components to Sherlock are 1.) the obscure but unique name and 2.) The intelligence. I don't think that he needs to be British, Rude, a Drug Addict, or even a man.

It seemed that before we had our second class on Sherlock Holmes that the character kept cropping up in the most unexpected ways. I mean, I was looking through some K-pop videos as per usual and BAM! There he is in the form of a five member boy band. I can imagine people refuting that this music video is a representation of Sherlock because it's a music video. But why? There is a bull terrier, their playing the violin, they're solving a crime involving lost jewelry. The phantom girl and dance numbers are a twist but all and all I would agree that it is very Sherlock like. Have a look for yourselves! (ignore Taemin's hair please...it was a phase and he grew out of it.)

Wow, okay. I got lost in a youtube train of Korean pop music. I could write a thesis on the production value of Korean music videos.The world is dangerous.

But do you see what I'm hitting on? I think it only takes the bare accessories to accomplish a rendition of Sherlock. Does it cheapen it? Not in my opinion. You can do what ever you like with Sherlock [on that note there are so many Sherlock porn knock offs that I was shocked] and the canon will always be what it is/was. There are always going to be re-productions that miss the mark in comparison to others but I think the more varied the adaption the more interesting. Sticking too close to canon might to some be 'authentic' but I am interested in how the character (or even the idea of Sherlock) can exist in crazy situations that the canon Sherlock would never encounter. 

I am seriously ready for the female housewife Xiaohui "Shirley" Holmes (Chinese american) whose wife is head of the police department. She might look over her wife's shoulder while she, Gita Lestrade (Indonesian american), works on a particularly hard case. From dropping the twins off at school and running to the store she pieces together the answer and the real problem is attempting to sneak the answer into her wife's head. Then! Juliet Watson (African american whose family is from Sudan) , a retired military M.D, catches Shirley on the 'case' when the woman is stalking down a man with a baby in her arms. With a team effort, Juliet tackles the man to the floor and the authorities arrive. Juliet watches as Shirley takes none of the credit and looks flustered? They become fast friends and work on cases together. Juliet is constantly trying to get Shirley to take credit for her genius. Shirley is fighting off Post-postpartum depression with these cases but will her marriage survive if she tells Gita?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH I WANT THIS SO BADLY! 

MY TIME TO SHINE

I said it first day of class, and I'll say it again. I am 100% in love and obsessed with Elementary and now is my time to shine and discuss why I love it so much!

Obviously you can't talk about Elementary without discussing Sherlock. As they're both modern adaptions, you can't get away from comparing them. I like Elementary because it has everything that is missing from Sherlock, and none of the awful parts of it. To me, Elementary excels where Sherlock fails.

Irene Adler is speechless that the writers
thought that she was well written

To get into why I love Elementary, we need to talk about why I dislike Sherlock. The writing in it is often racist, sexist, and homophobic. The entire second episode is a train wreck of racism, the treatment of Irene Adler is sexist, and  the "queer baiting" of Sherlock and John and again the treatment of Irene Adler is homophobic. If you've never heard of "queer baiting" before, it's basically when the creators and/or writers continually hint at a homosexual romance in a joking manner and then never follow through with it or act like fans are crazy for shipping characters together. Almost every episode, if not all of them, have some kind of joke about John and Sherlock being a couple which is offensive to people who are actually queer and desperate for representation. Also, in Sherlock, Irene Adler is gay, but they still have her falling in love with Sherlock, contributing to the VERY damaging idea that a lesbian will only remain one until she meets the right man. (If you think this idea isn't damaging, please consider the fact that many lesbians are harassed and raped by straight men trying to "convert them.")

In addition to the terrible oppressive systems that the show contributes to, I also have problems with the relationship between Sherlock and John, which is very unhealthy and toxic, as well as Sherlock himself who is a complete dick that I CANNOT STAND.

SO now that I've explained all this, let's talk about why I love Elementary.

Every way that Sherlock fails to be socially progressive, Elementary excels. There are many POC in the show, and to my knowledge there hasn't been any criticisms race-wise (please let me know if I've missed anything though!) The fact that Watson is a Chinese woman is groundbreaking. There are many strong, diverse female characters and though Holmes can occasionally say misogynistic things, he's called out on it. There's even a transgender character on the show, played by a transgender woman which IS HUGE. And I am in love with Irene Adler in this version (and that's all I will say on that manner for fear of spoiling anything.)

The relationship between Sherlock and Joan is much healthier and satisfying. Their relationship grows very close and they trust each other. It is kept platonic (and I believe the writers intend to keep it that way?) which is a breath of fresh air, honestly.

I find Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock much more human and likeable. He can be an ass and mean sometimes but he's called on it and he learns. I loooooooove Lucy Liu as Joan like I will accept no other Watson ever again.

I love the format of Elementary as well. It is an hour long procedural cop show and I love that. I think they manage to incorperate elements of the original stories as well as original stories very well together.

ALSO I REALLY LOVE EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THE SHOW LOOK AT THIS THEY'RE ALL SO CUTE:

SO to make a long story short I really really love Elementary and I hope everyone goes and watches it all also PLEASE DO NOT LOOK UP ANY SPOILERS EVEN LOOKING ON THE IMDB PAGE BECAUSE ITS SO MUCH BETTER TO NOT KNOW ANYTHING THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.

Please forgive my long ramblings. 

Now I have a confession to make. I really hate Sherlock. For several different reasons that are long and complicated and definitely not something that you want to hear if you like the show, so I won't make you listen to that.

I used to be in love with it though and I wanted to share one of my favorite Sherlock fan creations from when I was into the show. There is a tumblr that is basically a cross between roleplay, text blog, and fanfiction. It's called "Text Messages from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson." The basic premise of it is that two people are roleplaying Sherlock and John. People send them questions and they answer them in character and in the format of text message transcripts and the occasional prose. Although they can't control what people ask, the two creators use the questions to create a story that goes along with the canon story line. Most of the action that happens takes place in between what happens in the episodes and seasons, so you'd most likely have to watch the episodes to know exactly what's going on 100% of the time. The timeline that these texts take place starts after the first episode of season 2, and they're currently doing Season 3.

What makes this so great is that a lot of what happens is because of the fans. Someone will send a question that will move along the story. It's interactive fanfiction, basically.

Here's a link to their index (though that doesn't have all of the texts just the most important ones.) Warning that it is shippy (Sherlock/John), though not all of the texts are and when there's prose it gives warning for any triggers or not safe for work material. The shippy aspects are slowly moving so the earlier texts are less likely to have shippy things in them. Also warning that there are triggering things in the material but again there's trigger warnings for everything.

I haven't kept up with the blog for for about a year but I do have fond memories about the fandom (called the Texts subfandom) and of reading it.

Sherlock on the Screen

Sherlock Holmes has definitely been a character that people have connected with or at least been intrigued by. Through his actions, behavior, and characteristics he follows the cliche of a man you love to hate. Sherlock's character has been transported from books to television and movies, and has been done and redone, adapted, and modernized over time.

http://the-final-problem.tumblr.com/post/47846214360/
new-gifs-for-a-new-theme-header-background-by

Looking at the different screen versions we looked into in class, it's interesting to see how creative teams each portray Sherlock as a different type of character, but still highlight his intelligence and sarcasm.

BBC Sherlock-

This had to be my favorite version of Sherlock. I really liked Sherlock's confidence (even though he's a jerk). He's completely assured in his abilities and how smart he is, so the behavior of those around him does not seem to surprise him. Out of version of Sherlock, he does seem to be the most unaware of how to interact with other people. I do not believe he's uncomfortable with others, but rather he believe that he's superior to them. He's socially awkward, but content to be that way.

                                      http://youtu.be/Rl41VkyXUmk- Sherlock-Arch Enemy
This clip does a good job showing Sherlocks relationships with others. He knows he arrogant and knows his flaws, he just doesn't care. He seems surprised by the idea that he would have a friend, but it's personally understandable to him that he would have an enemy.

Sherlock Holmes (movie) -
We talked in class about what makes Sherlock Holmes a British story vs an American one. I feel like the movie is more American just placed in Britain. The movie being more focused on action than anything makes me first think of it as an American movie. I also think Sherlock's character is very different from the BBC portrayal. While he's confident and rude, Sherlock in the movie is so (knowingly) dependent on Watson. He is focused on sabotage, so not to lose his friend, and in the movie I believe that Holmes really considered Watson his friend. The two have an interesting dynamic because of Holmes' dependency, which is different because I had always felt that Sherlock was independent and Watson was more of a sidekick.

http://ruhsuzkukla.tumblr.com/post/29631786455

Elementary (Television Show)

This depiction of Sherlock was pretty surprising to me. Forget the fact that Watson is a Woman named Joan who plays a role resembling a social worker, but it's kind of strange to think that Sherlock is using a social worker. This version of Holmes had him coming out of rehab and attending support groups. The show was smart to make all of that involuntary rather than voluntary because I do not believe that Sherlock's character would have gone to rehab or support groups willingly. This version of Sherlock humanized the most. He was fragile in the tv show than in other renditions of Sherlock stories. He still was incredible smart and sarcastic, but he needed a lot more emotional support.

http://i2.cdnds.net/12/37/300x225/ustv_elementary_1.jpg

What the deuce?

I found that phrase incredibly funny for some reason.  I tend to be amused by the small things in life.

So this was my first literary exposure to the Sherlock Holmes series.  I had seen the Robert Downey Junior movie a few years ago, but I honestly remember nothing about it except maybe people riding a train, that’s about it.

I found the first couple short stories to be rather dull but I appreciated that I got to be introduced to the characters and get to know them a little better.  The two stories I liked best were “The Speckled Band” and “The Dancing Men.”  These were the two stories that I felt had the most action and suspense, which I enjoyed a lot.

“The Speckled Band” had me in suspense the entire time and I was dying to know what the band was and how the girl had died.  But I have to say, the ending was a little disappointing.  I mean, it was interesting and a little unexpected that the “band” was actually a snake, but I was expecting some kind of huge scandal or elaborate scheme that led to the girl’s death.  Instead, it was just a snake that was fed through the wall and happened to eventually bite and poison her.  It was kind of a letdown, but I still enjoyed it.

“The Dancing Men” was super interesting.  I really like mystery/suspense stories that involve cryptic symbolism or secret codes, so I really liked the fact that a hieroglyphic alphabet was included.  But again, the ending disappointed me.  I was expecting Abe to get angry that he was caught and cause a big scene.  But instead, he just willingly gave up and conveniently told us exactly what happened.  I don’t know, maybe I’m too used to today’s twist endings on crime shows, but Doyle’s plots aren’t very interesting.  I think the only reason he’s maintained such a strong readership is his ability to maintain suspense.

Also, just a sidebar, Holmes is a total jerk.  Especially in “Charles Augustus Milverton.”  Who gets engaged to a woman just for the sole purpose of solving a case? A jerk, that’s who.

But I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by BBC’s Sherlock.  I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting, but knowing it was something produced by BBC, it had to have been good.  And it really was.

I loved how they managed to convert the series to a modern setting while still maintaining that vintage feel.  For instance, just with Sherlock’s clothing, the trench coat and the scarf made his character seem like he just stepped out of 1878.

The extremely modern touches, like the cell phones, text messaging and GPS tracking devices gave the story exactly what it needed.  I really loved how the viewers could see the text messages throughout the show by having them pop up beside the character as he/she is reading rather than just showing the phone screen with the text on it.  I thought that was very creative and a refreshingly different way of showing something so simple to the audience.

I also liked how the show portrayed Sherlock’s character as finding joy in what he does.  Doyle’s story shows some of this, but it was particularly highlighted in the show.  It was kind of funny watching Sherlock become giddy and jump up and down in excitement after making a breakthrough in a case.

Overall, my second experience with Sherlock Holmes has been a good one and now I’m going to go binge watch more episodes of Sherlock.