Thoughts on 'The Lying Detective'
I'll work under the assumption that you have seen The Lying Detective by now, since BBC Sherlock has aired both in the UK and on PBS in the US. If not, and you don't want to be spoiled, do not proceed.
That said, I have a variety of scattered thoughts.
-Sherlock is starting to repeat itself. Dying is what people do, the character that sets the honey trap, etc.
-I did like our villain. He was pretty darned villainous without being Moriarty level bad. I did find it odd that they ascribed CHAS's trait of being the worst kind of worst to him instead of Magnusson last season. It's a minor detail that probably only bugs me.
-If I wanted to watch Trainspotting, I would watch Trainspotting. While Sherlock walking the walls was a nice effect, I kept on my guard for the appearance of a dead Rosie the entire rest of the episode.
-Where the heck WAS Rosie? She became an ephemeral non-character for me because we didn't see her, and she was only mentioned a handful of times. Roughly three. It was like they were trying to distance themselves from a child they don't know what to do with?
-I doubt they're going to kill her. We've just pulled John up by the bootstraps, losing his child would be too crushing of a blow. The problem is, the child is a problem. She has to go away. It's very easy to do when you make her less of a real person.
-John kind of redeemed himself, and he's slightly less of a piece of trash. But still, texting (maybe sexting) some woman while your wife is in the next room feeding your daughter is not only skeevy, but seems almost out of character for a man who, while a chaser of tail, is about duty.
-John was sexting Sherlock's sister. SO many implications.
-Hallucinations of a dead wife are actually quite serious. He SHOULD get that looked at. I know it was a plot device, but man, it's overused. It was overused years upon years ago when NCIS did it. And at least everyone had the decency to hallucinate the character.
-You don't bounce back from double kidney failure. As far as I know the only solution is a transplant. Sometimes, with Sherlock, I can't tell if Sherlock is an unreliable narrator, the writing is shoddy, and they've just let the medical or science side slide. Unfortunately, that stuff makes or breaks a show like this for me. If Sherlock is going to be making epic deductions that we're supposed to buy into the truth of, I feel like we need to have solid realism with medicine and science. Sometimes I wonder if this show even has a medical consultant, which it really does need if you're going to have two doctors on the show.
-Molly, where have you been this series? We love Molly. I love Molly at least. She sees through Sherlock's shit.
-Can Molly do a proper examination in just an ambulance? Again--medical realism.
-Sherlock's advanced planning (two weeks, the cane, etc) really stretched credulity for me.
-Mrs. Hudson. Blessed Hudders. Her epicness grows. She has lived a strange and amazing life, to retire in a house with a yucky moldy basement flat (let's talk about how the numbering of the flats doesn't even make sense) and a crazeballs tenant in the upper floor, a smoking hot car, and gentlemen willing to drop Sherlock several times while tossing him in the trunk of the car.
-The trunk of that car is awfully roomy.
-Where does she park the thing?
-Does Molly matter or not matter? Are they making a point? Writing flaw? I can't tell.
I'm looking forward to the last episode. We'll see if they manage to smooth over some of my problems. And make John still less of a human trashcan. Either way, though, I feel like I'm going to be unsatisfied with Rosie's fate.
Tammy Garrison is the author of The Twisted Blackmailer – Watson and Holmes Book 1 – the first in a new Sherlock Holmes YA series available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Book Depository (free worldwide shipping) & Kindle