Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville

[strange_complex]

I think the second episode of this season's Sherlock fell for me into the category of 'perfectly decent, but not outstanding' TV. Above all, its characters were not seeking to deceive one another on the same scale as had made last week's episode so thrillingly alive with alternative possibilities for me. Oh, sure, there was misdirection early on to the effect that Frankland was a friendly and reliable fellow while Stapleton was an eeeviiiilll mad scientist, but there was nothing on the scale of battle of wits between Sherlock, Adler, Mycroft and Moriarty from the previous story, and the motivations of the regular characters were never really in doubt.

Partly, of course, that's just the nature of the original Arthur Conan Doyle story, and there's also a fair case for saying that the middle episode of the series needs to rein in the pace a little between the sha-bang of the opening episode and what is clearly going to be an epic confrontation next week. But even with that understood, I felt I could have asked for a little more from it. What The Hound of the Baskervilles can offer is a creepy atmosphere of growing tension, and I felt that was missed, too.

Perhaps I wrecked the suspense for myself by reading the lovely thanatos_kalos's write-up of the preview screening shown in Cardiff on Tuesday, so that I knew before the story began that the fearful visions which the characters would experience were the result of hallucinogenic drugs. But I certainly felt that with Sherlock in particular, his attack of the terrors came on too quickly and too intensively for us to stand any real chance of believing that he was seriously facing up to a new and unsettling emotional experience. This would have been far more effective for me if we had seen him experience a few smaller moments of self-doubt earlier on (whether brought about by real experiences or by lower doses of the drug), so that we could believe the full-scale attack was an escalation of genuine fear, rather than obviously something anomalous. It could have been a really amazing moment in the ongoing development of his screen character to believe that he was really experiencing the break-down of his treasured logic and self-assuredness - but it didn't happen for me.

Still, it was great to have Russell Tovey on board, especially in the scene where his outside light kept getting set off, reducing him to a ball of sobbing terror. That really did look like a man who had been slowly and systematically pushed beyond the limits of endurance. And Sherlock's relationship with Watson developed a little bit when he described him as a 'friend' for the first time. Plus I liked the way the flashing light on the moor was at first misdirection (Morse code), then a joke (a different kind of dogging), then a plot device to ensure Watson wasn't exposed to the hallucinogens the first time around and finally the prod needed to help Sherlock figure out that 'hound' might be an acronym. That is definitely getting good value out of a single device.

Problematic portrayals were less of an issue than last week - but of course that's partly by dint of keeping women in the role of secondary assistant characters and not having any ethnic minorities (that I could spot) at all. And meanwhile, there, yet again, is that ridiculous running 'joke' about how everyone keeps mis-reading Watson and Sherlock as a gay couple. I liked this in the first ever episode, because any acknowledgement of queer sexuality on mainstream TV is cheering, and found the prospect of a heterosexual and heteronormative Watson being prompted to rethink his own attitudes by finding himself labelled as gay appealing. But that really isn't how it has turned out. Instead it is just the same childish gag about what a trial it is for a straight person to be continuously mislabelled as gay, like a broken record week after week, and it is REALLY annoying me now. Partly because it is offensive, but also because it is taking up screen time which could be used for more nuanced character development, or more intricate plotting, or - well - anything really.

So now I feel like one of those people who makes others wonder why they even watch a show if all they can do is criticise it. To which I can only give the classic reply to that accusation, which is that there is so much about Sherlock which I do like that it makes the flaws doubly annoying - and meanwhile I have written enough about it previously to feel that I can take its strengths as read now, and don't need to repeat them. In case it needs re-stating, though, I do think that Sherlock and Watson as characters are brilliantly drawn, that the plotting of the adventures they share together is (nearly) fantastic, that the scripts are witty and lively and clever, and that the visual design is absolutely outstanding. I bloody love this series, and can't wait until next week's grand finale. But I still think it could be better.

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Comments

[matgb]

not having any ethnic minorities (that I could spot) at all

See, it bothers me that the army base and research facility was like that (I've suspended disbelief on the place existing because, y'know, that's the point of the epsiode), but for the village it bothers me not at all. The older barman's wondering-all-over-the-place accent did mind, the only close to local accent I picked up (the tour guide) was Plymouth not Dartmoor, but rural Devon really is overwhelmingly white-as "the only Black farmer" likes to trade on. So not sure if realism is good or bad for this sort of thing though.

But yeah, I still love the show, but it has problems, many of which could be fairly easily solved, which I think is what makes it more annoying.

Charecterisation of the two leads remains bloody good though.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was the unremitting whiteness of the army base that most struck me, too. For a rural setting like Dartmoor, I think an absence of ethnic minorities becomes problematic if the audience is visiting that community every week, and supposedly getting to know it intimately, as in Midsomer Murders. In that set-up, I'd prefer to see 'the only black farmer' (as you say) being included, and his or her role within the community being explored. But for a community which we're only visiting briefly, and whose intimate daily life isn't the main focus of the plot, a more impressionistic form of realism at least helps to establish the setting quickly and efficiently.

[djm4]

I'm puzzled. I noted that the research base was visibly muliracial. Will Sharpe (Corporal Lyons) is English/Japanese (I checked, in case I'd imagined it) and there were several non-white faces. I have a memory of at least one having a couple of lines, but I could be wrong. In fact, lizw and I commented to each other afterwards on the fact that it *hadn't* been all white.

Of course, making the suspicious outsiders multi-racial but keeping the locals all white is a bit problematic in itself.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Oh, OK - guess I wasn't looking hard enough, then. I've been kind of meaning to rewatch it, so will take this as another reason to do so. Meanwhile, elsewhere, major_clanger reckons the presence of a beard on the commanding officer's face is a notable departure from realism (http://major-clanger.livejournal.com/605154.html)!