a) I have time;
b) I have things to say; and
c) An old wrestling buddy I ran into outside a bar asked if I was still running the blog.
When someone you haven't seen in seven years asks if you are still writing, maybe it's time to do an article. Interestingly, my highest readership recently has come from Germany. So - Guten tag, Deutschland! Wilkommen!
For the first time, I'm going to write today about television shows. There will probably be some meandering, as well, as I don't plan on editing myself. Enjoy.
Sherlock (BBC)
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| Do these two ever not make a movie together? |
Sherlock. Cheers. I assume that if you are reading this blog, you're not an uneducated buffoon, and therefore have read at least some of the original Sherlock Holmes mysteries. And if that's the case, then you have some idea of what to expect with this show. Guy solves crimes, he's kind of a dick, incompetent police, British accents, yadda yadda yadda. And you're right. BUT: I wouldn't write about this show if it wasn't something awfully special. So here goes.
A friend of mine introduced me to this show in March of this year, fully two seasons into its run. I was staying at another friend's house in LA, and, having just gone to the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I felt too upper-crusty to allow myself to enjoy a mere television show. Nevertheless, Jules put the first episode on, and I dismissively watched.
Have you ever been fishing? And cast a line out there and felt a trout kind of grope around dumbly for the bait before biting, and then you yank on the pole to set the hook? And that fish struggles for a half second before resigning itself to its fate - that it will be the guest of honor at that night's barbecue? Yeah, that fish was me. And Sherlock was the whole goddamn tackle box. And the BBC was the fisherman. And that's where I'm ending this metaphor. The point is, about ten minutes into the show, my host returned (yes, we were just hanging out in his house, though neither of us lived there) and I immediately told him to shut the fuck up because I was watching Sherlock.
There is so much good about this show. I think the first thing I really liked was the simple casting of, well, everybody. There's really not anyone who turns in a sub-par performance [side note 1: That's more than I can say for literally any of my other favorite TV shows with the exception of Firefly. The West Wing - Zoey Bartlet (Elizabeth Moss) and Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly); DragonBallZ - Kirillin (because duh); and Mad Men - Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss... again)] [side note 2: No, this blog program does not allow for footnotes. I've tried.] Now, patently, you need a good Sherlock Holmes to pull this show off, and you certainly get that with Benedict Cumberbatch. He's endearing, but I would want to punch him in the face if I met him. A good quality for the role. Same goes for Martin Freeman as Watson; he needs to be great (and is), but that's too easy. Each villain, especially Moriarty, is rounded and three-dimensional. How many TV series do that? Sherlock gives us ten to twelve really high-quality characters for any type of film entertainment (yes, including film) in its short run, and for $7.99 on Netflix, you can watch all of them. Remarkable.
I also really like the series for its (very) loose adaptation of the original stories. Remember all the hoopla over that godawful Lucy Liu show, Elementary? Well, if not, don't worry - you haven't missed much - but the hullabaloo there was that the show was "modern" and "edgy."
Americans don't do "edgy." We like things sanitized, watered down for the least common denominator. We eat that shit up, and before you crucify me for indicting American TV culture (that's the wrong word. The culture we expect within the world of the shows we watch? Read DFW's "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" if you need clarification. The point is: Americans like to say we like uniquity, but we don't.), remember that The King of Queens was on the air three times as long as Arrested Development.
Sherlock is actually edgy. By that I mean that it strips away our expectations of the established Sherlock Holmes mythos and allows the characters to inhabit the world created by the show - often with very unexpected results. The first episode is called "A Study in Pink" - a direct play on the Doyle story "A Study in Scarlet" - but instead of being predictable, the show grabbed me by the balls and didn't let go for the full 90 minute episode.
Oh yeah - each episode is an hour and a half long. Did I mention that? Ergo, the plot doesn't feel rushed, and the characters (well, the director, really) are able to use moments to create real human elements (homoerotic subplot between Holmes and Watson; lab tech's infatuation w/Holmes and its sometimes disastrous consequences, etc.). Scrubs cannot do this; its 21-minute plotlines just can't handle any largess, despite the fact that it is the shows tangents that give it character and relatability. In this way, Sherlock's ceiling is (at least) three times higher than any half hour show, and few hour long shows (actual run time in US = 46 min.) even come that close. Simply put, each episode roughly equates to a short movie... but since the exposition partly carries over, it becomes something more than that. Escapist, yes, but isn't this what we want from television? Isn't this the apex, or close to it, of what good television can be - a line blur between longer cinema and shorter vignettes?
Sherlock gets full marks from me - 10/10. No question. If you haven't watched it yet, you should, and if it's not your cup of tea (no Brit pun intended), then that's just your loss.
Postscript to this - after I got back from LA and finished the show (only six episodes right now, but again, that's nine hours), I got a coworker hooked on it and she showed her daughter... who happened to be in one of my classes. Anytime Sherlock Holmes and Medieval History can be discussed in one lecture, I figure my class is successful.
I'm back, bitches! As usual, I exhort you [like Ras?] to shoot me a message with a blog idea, or leave a comment below.
Um das deutsche Volk: Es tut mir leid, aber ich weiß nicht, keine deutschen Fernsehshows. Können Sie mir ein paar Titel? Außerdem liebe ich den Film "Das Leben der Anderen." Keep it up! Und vielen Dank für das liest!
Maintenant, je dois le français me découvrir, aussi!
