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I realize I have no chance of outrunning spoilers for the new series of BBC Sherlock. We've preordered the series on DVD from Amazon UK and hope to have it by the end of the month.
However, I thought this would be an excellent time to revisit Jeremy Brett's Holmes, and we introduced Small Child to him as well.
First, Jeremy Brett is as awesome as ever. He's brilliant. I first saw this series at home with my parents. Then I watched some with my best friend from college (hi there, best friend from college! If you want, I can put in your LJ user name here, but I didn't want to surprise you by doing so! You know who you are!). I seem to recall spending hours watching these with her, and we also watched My Fair Lady to see Jeremy Brett play Freddy. Then I watched some with the man who is now Brilliant Husband, because the Granada series aired in fits and starts on PBS for at least a decade (aired in the UK 1984-94, PBS months later at least), and I loved them all. I found myself pointing out to SC how differently Brett acted when he was in disguise than when he was Sherlock.
She commented on his teeth being less than perfect. Oi. (They're not even bad teeth; they're just normal human teeth instead of Hollywood actors' perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth!)
Second, the sharp-eyed among you will notice that I cheated in my icon. David Burke was Brett's first Watson, but I'm showing the second, Edward Hardwicke. I found Burke a little too slow and too dim. Perhaps I am judging too early, and he may improve in later episodes. Yet Edward Hardwicke is my Victorian Watson: not as brilliant as Holmes, of course, but not completely dazzled, and quite bright and sharp in his own way. Some people say he was always a bit too old for the role. That's as may be. I don't care. Hardwicke will always be my Victorian Watson.
I was struck by the slow pacing of the Granada episode. No quick cuts, no montages. I must confess that I occasionally itched for things to move a little faster, but that was my failing. The pace works for the Victorian era and a slightly less ADHD Holmes (though this Holmes is also an addict who bores too easily and is rude to people).
I'm still not sure about Irene Adler. I had completely forgotten the pronunciation (like "Irena"; I've had it the American way in my head for ages). She seemed a bit fragile-looking, but of course she was supposed to appear that way: sensitive, a little shy, not at all a con woman with more guts than most men. I also expected her to show some trace of her upbringing from the States, and I couldn't detect it, but I do know that a 19th-century New Jersey accent is not the same as a 20th-century one. I'm just not sure how the 19th-century one should sound. Naturally, Irene would probably have dropped it over the course of her opera career and her retirement.
I do like the ambiguity of the episode. It's hard to credit what Irene says in her letter about suspecting nothing until the smoke bomb; she calls over the disguised Holmes to give him money for witnessing her wedding, and it's hard to believe she's not examining him at that time, nor recognizing him as the man who was trimming her hedges less than half an hour before the wedding. I think she lies regularly and casually, and she may be stroking Holmes's ego even as she writes the proof that she won. That's why Holmes can't forget her: not only did she win, but he doesn't know how much of her letter even to believe! (in my head, at least).
I was also a bit surprised to realize how much Gatiss and Moffat loved this series. They had call-backs to this very episode:
Brett: I would be lost without my Boswell.
Cumberbatch: I would be lost without my blogger.
Okay, I knew they'd borrowed the line, but I didn't know it was from the very first Jeremy Brett episode!
The hands folded under the chin! The wild looks! Has Cumberbatch said that he watched the Brett episodes, do any of you know? I don't know if it was the writers' stage directions, the director, the actor, or some combination, but there were definite shades of Brett in Cumberbatch's performance, even though the latter seriously played up the antisocial aspects.
The layout! I've been trying to work out the BBC series flat layout in my head, with much annoyance at being uncertain where Sherlock's room lies, but the flat looks remarkably similar, given that Victorian Holmes neither had nor needed a full kitchen and 21st-century Holmes has a full kitchen (even if he uses it for purposes John Watson and I may not approve). Watson's room seems to be on the third floor (or second if you count British style), which is where I assume John's is in the BBC series (but don't think they actually said). The arrangement of doors off the staircase seems rather similar, though there's a door to Holmes's bedroom that doesn't have a match on the BBC series, I think, where we only have the door parallel to the staircase that goes to the kitchen and the door perpendicular to the stairs that leads to the main room (sitting room?) in both.
I love the cabs. I love that Sherlock has overdone his plan and his presence a bit and that Irene catches him out, because really, the whole scene with the gang and Sherlock as preacher and then a smoke bomb was absurd! I love that Watson is game and not particularly worried about the law. (I did wonder at Watson's explicit willingness to break the law "in a good cause" when it was not at all clear how good the cause was; I didn't think much of the King!)
I am glad that Irene finds happiness at the end—and that the King is satisfied, so Sherlock can keep the thousand pounds.
Small Child did enjoy it and wants to see more.
However, I thought this would be an excellent time to revisit Jeremy Brett's Holmes, and we introduced Small Child to him as well.
First, Jeremy Brett is as awesome as ever. He's brilliant. I first saw this series at home with my parents. Then I watched some with my best friend from college (hi there, best friend from college! If you want, I can put in your LJ user name here, but I didn't want to surprise you by doing so! You know who you are!). I seem to recall spending hours watching these with her, and we also watched My Fair Lady to see Jeremy Brett play Freddy. Then I watched some with the man who is now Brilliant Husband, because the Granada series aired in fits and starts on PBS for at least a decade (aired in the UK 1984-94, PBS months later at least), and I loved them all. I found myself pointing out to SC how differently Brett acted when he was in disguise than when he was Sherlock.
She commented on his teeth being less than perfect. Oi. (They're not even bad teeth; they're just normal human teeth instead of Hollywood actors' perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth!)
Second, the sharp-eyed among you will notice that I cheated in my icon. David Burke was Brett's first Watson, but I'm showing the second, Edward Hardwicke. I found Burke a little too slow and too dim. Perhaps I am judging too early, and he may improve in later episodes. Yet Edward Hardwicke is my Victorian Watson: not as brilliant as Holmes, of course, but not completely dazzled, and quite bright and sharp in his own way. Some people say he was always a bit too old for the role. That's as may be. I don't care. Hardwicke will always be my Victorian Watson.
I was struck by the slow pacing of the Granada episode. No quick cuts, no montages. I must confess that I occasionally itched for things to move a little faster, but that was my failing. The pace works for the Victorian era and a slightly less ADHD Holmes (though this Holmes is also an addict who bores too easily and is rude to people).
I'm still not sure about Irene Adler. I had completely forgotten the pronunciation (like "Irena"; I've had it the American way in my head for ages). She seemed a bit fragile-looking, but of course she was supposed to appear that way: sensitive, a little shy, not at all a con woman with more guts than most men. I also expected her to show some trace of her upbringing from the States, and I couldn't detect it, but I do know that a 19th-century New Jersey accent is not the same as a 20th-century one. I'm just not sure how the 19th-century one should sound. Naturally, Irene would probably have dropped it over the course of her opera career and her retirement.
I do like the ambiguity of the episode. It's hard to credit what Irene says in her letter about suspecting nothing until the smoke bomb; she calls over the disguised Holmes to give him money for witnessing her wedding, and it's hard to believe she's not examining him at that time, nor recognizing him as the man who was trimming her hedges less than half an hour before the wedding. I think she lies regularly and casually, and she may be stroking Holmes's ego even as she writes the proof that she won. That's why Holmes can't forget her: not only did she win, but he doesn't know how much of her letter even to believe! (in my head, at least).
I was also a bit surprised to realize how much Gatiss and Moffat loved this series. They had call-backs to this very episode:
Brett: I would be lost without my Boswell.
Cumberbatch: I would be lost without my blogger.
Okay, I knew they'd borrowed the line, but I didn't know it was from the very first Jeremy Brett episode!
The hands folded under the chin! The wild looks! Has Cumberbatch said that he watched the Brett episodes, do any of you know? I don't know if it was the writers' stage directions, the director, the actor, or some combination, but there were definite shades of Brett in Cumberbatch's performance, even though the latter seriously played up the antisocial aspects.
The layout! I've been trying to work out the BBC series flat layout in my head, with much annoyance at being uncertain where Sherlock's room lies, but the flat looks remarkably similar, given that Victorian Holmes neither had nor needed a full kitchen and 21st-century Holmes has a full kitchen (even if he uses it for purposes John Watson and I may not approve). Watson's room seems to be on the third floor (or second if you count British style), which is where I assume John's is in the BBC series (but don't think they actually said). The arrangement of doors off the staircase seems rather similar, though there's a door to Holmes's bedroom that doesn't have a match on the BBC series, I think, where we only have the door parallel to the staircase that goes to the kitchen and the door perpendicular to the stairs that leads to the main room (sitting room?) in both.
I love the cabs. I love that Sherlock has overdone his plan and his presence a bit and that Irene catches him out, because really, the whole scene with the gang and Sherlock as preacher and then a smoke bomb was absurd! I love that Watson is game and not particularly worried about the law. (I did wonder at Watson's explicit willingness to break the law "in a good cause" when it was not at all clear how good the cause was; I didn't think much of the King!)
I am glad that Irene finds happiness at the end—and that the King is satisfied, so Sherlock can keep the thousand pounds.
Small Child did enjoy it and wants to see more.
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