Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Missing Plot
Season three wrapped up this week, and it begged the question: does Sherlock want to be a TV series, or an angry blog comment?
The piece that follows covers Sherlock‘s third series in depth and detail. If you haven’t watched it yet, TURN AWAY NOW.
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There’s something not quite right with Sherlock.
It’s always been a patchy show, as capable of awkwardness as it is sublime, Freddy Mercury high-note perfection, but the third series, which returned to the BBC on January 1 and ended on Tuesday, avoided anything close to a falsetto high.
Amongst the low notes is Channel 9’s insistence on delaying the Australian premiere of Sherlock until ratings season begins. Such a move is cripplingly out-of-touch, compared with the more fan-friendly fast-track approach shown by the ABC and 10; it also means millions have downloaded the three movie-length episodes, and are already debating them online.
When the very first episode, ‘A Study In Pink’, aired in 2010, Sherlock was perfection. The show was clever – able to mix Conan Doyle’s iconic text with hyper-connected street smarts, lifted by the wonderful chemistry between Martin Freeman (Doctor Watson) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes). Importantly, it deftly managed to keep source material fresh, and stay ahead of an audience who knew the ending — helped by a committed and consistent fanbase, who were eager to expand the offered mythology and source material into new ways. Sherlock fan fiction abounds, as does online discussion that debates, praises and criticises all aspects of the series. Nowhere is this more obvious than on Tumblr, where Sherlock-related hashtags, joke animated gifs and fan fiction (predominantly focused on Sherlock shagging one of his co-stars) flourish.
The Empty Third Series
In the third series premiere, ‘The Empty Hearse’, Sherlock returned from the wilds, (literally) just in time to prevent show producers Steven Moffat and Mark Gattiss from using the entire plot of V for Vendetta, and every gif they found on Tumblr.
In fact, the entire premise of the 90-minute episode seemed more about making jokes than an actual story. The tired old “are they gay?” refrain got plenty of airplay, tying into boundless erotic fanfiction, which features Sherlock and John or Moriarty in infinite variation. A running joke about conspiracy theories on how Sherlock survived was as much a wink to online fans as it was a sneer.
The sole highlight of the episode was Martin Freeman’s heart-rending portrayal of devastation mixed with annoyance, during Watson’s reunion with Sherlock. The lowlight was watching Sherlock reduced to a cut-rate impersonation of Balki from Perfect Strangers. Balki. But in a coat.
‘Sign of Three’, the second episode, was essentially a clip show of new footage — a shame, because an actual storyline in that 90 minutes of sawdust would have been appreciated. The ending could almost have qualified as satire, had the show retained the cool hauteur for which Sherlock is famous.
Throughout season three, the show seemed obsessed with making Sherlock more human, but played it like a sitcom instead of an exploration — reminiscent of the first Star Trek series’ repeated plot of “but what if Spock felt human emotions?” Here’s Sherlock hanging out at a bar! Being nice! At the fish and chipper! With a kid! Flirting! Talking ‘bout babies! Fighting with his girlfriend at Ikea!
It all came together in last night’s season finale, ‘His Last Vow’, where everyone bickered before facing off against a media magnate — and so many gotcha! moments that we ended up with whiplash instead of a furthered story. The episode was an effective allegory for Gattis and Moffat, who could learn something from Sherlock’s mistaken assumption that every solution is a labyrinth of detail.
The finale sets up series four with the improbable return of Moriarty (because we’ve never seen that before), and probably more of Sherlock learning strange new human emotions — along with more trips to the mind palace, which should now be considered the Baker Street TARDIS.
Actually, if the current trend continues, the fourth series of Sherlock may just well be Gattiss and Moffat repeatedly pecking at their reflection in a mirror, surrounded by printouts of gifs from Tumblr… In their mind palace.
Sherlock’s Greatest Nemesis: Fans
The only consistency Sherlock has shown in its return has been a steady decline in quality towards sitcom-land, and a complete inability to write female characters (PRO TIP: just like men but with different names). Gatiss and Moffat’s attempts to peacock their intelligence with a script that desperately tries to appear meta falls flat, and their previous energy has petered out, leaving them scowling as they lag behind their own audience.
In fact, this need to be ahead of their audience may have turned their strength into one of their greatest failures. After watching series three, it’s apparent that death has become little more than cheap plot point, one that Gatiss and Moffat trained their audience to have little reaction towards because it’s now so overplayed. On top of that, the audience’s proclivity towards distributing their own (if not unfairly maligned) fanfiction stories online makes the show’s references towards fandom seem less like cute self-awareness, and more like territorial pissing.
Take away those references, and where were the actual stories in series three? We saw a series of sketches rather than stories or cases, each scene playing as a somewhat-hostile preoccupation with fans rather than a full narrative. The question remains: does Sherlock want to be a TV series, or an angry blog comment?
The stars of the show generally appear uncomfortable at the mention of fandom and fanfiction. Meanwhile, Moffat will vehemently deny visiting Tumblr, despite season three of Sherlock featuring more shout-outs to the platform than a Kanye West lyric.
This discomfort was taken to new lows at the premiere screening in London recently. Before the event, host Caitlin Moran laughed at Twitter jokes that the fans were all desperate virgins, before goading the stars into a live performance of an erotic fanfic Moran had found online. (Moran has since contacted the author privately to resolve the matter, and footage of the reading will not be made public.)
Pair this to episodes that poke fun at online groups and their favourite tropes, and it begins to feel like team Sherlock don’t want you in on the joke — because they think you’re the punchline.
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