these inconvenient fireworks

The Adventure of the Yellow Face

I don’t have much to say about this case. That tends to happen for the ones where half of the story is the client narrating their experiences. I appreciate a good mystery on occasion, but I’ll be honest, I’m just here for Holmes and Watson.

I was fully prepared to dislike this case. I remembered enough from reading this story years ago to know that Holmes’ guess about blackmail was wrong, but I’d forgotten the whole issue of the child being multiracial. That - and Watson’s soppy description of the scene - won me over. Racial issues! Social commentary! Broken families accepting each other! 

Of course, I’m still annoyed that the entire “mystery” was easily solved by - wait for it - COMMUNICATION. I might be a hypocrite because I am often reluctant to speak my mind, but one of my least favorite tropes in fiction is when a significant conflict exists because a character decides not to communicate their thoughts, feelings, or an important piece of information with another character, and then drama ensues. Usually it’s pretty obvious that withholding this information will cause more problems in the long run. (Why would you marry someone you haven’t told about your child from a previous marriage because you think they would judge you? If you never tell, you’ll be miserable because you can’t see your child and you’re keeping secrets. If they do find out, they’ll either break it off like you thought they would from the start, or they won’t judge but you’ll have shown that you don’t trust them. Win-win right?)

…I wrote the above paragraph and then found out there’s a page on TV Tropes called Poor Communication Kills. So yeah.

itsfeelingbyzantine replied to your post: The Five Orange Pips

I recently finished S1 of Elementary and find that I prefer JLM’s portrayal of Sherlock over Cumberbatch’s, mainly for reasons that you have listed. CBS Gregson is better established as well.

Yeah, I really like what they’ve done to develop the characters beyond a formulaic crime procedural show! There are aspects of each Sherlock characterization that I like better than the other, and I like the variety of interpretations because they make me think about character motivations and narrative and people in different ways. I really do appreciate JLM’s Sherlock’s more human moments.

The Five Orange Pips

[Belated as usual. Classes are getting me down.]

[…] others have no offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of these papers to illustrate.

I like how Watson’s reasoning for sharing their cases with the public is essentially “my friend is awesome and I want everyone to know it!” And it’s quite reciprocated as well:

“Some friend of yours, perhaps?”

“Except yourself I have none.”

And one last note:

“I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me with some details as to your case.”

“It is no ordinary one.”

“None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of appeal.”

Fond as I am of BBC Sherlock, this is one aspect where I prefer CBS Elementary’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and his attitude towards cases. The montage of rejected cases at the beginning of A Scandal in Belgravia is pretty damn amusing, but it’s used to emphasize his scorn for other people and their petty human problems. Elementary’s Sherlock can be scornful and tactless, but he hasn’t refused to take a case because he finds it beneath him. I like the thought of Sherlock Holmes appreciating all the cases that reach his consideration because they would not have come if they weren’t unique.

The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot

For the first time, I can sympathize with Sherlock Holmes’s criticisms of the sensationalist manner in which Watson records their cases. It’s a devils-foot root, but of course “The Adventure of the Devil’s-Foot Root” sounds much less exotic and interesting than the current title. Well played, Dr. Watson.

I adore the description of Holmes energetically scouring the scene of the crime because I can perfectly visualize both Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller playing out this scene fantastically.

I stubbornly skip over Doyle’s/Holmes’s ridiculous opinion of women as “the more sensitive organism” and arrive at Holmes being a terrible scientist. You may be in the Cornish countryside far away from anything resembling a chemistry lab, but even with your limited tools, you could have come up with a better plan than placing both yourself and Watson in a closed room with a substance you suspect of being a deadly poison and no observers. At least Holmes realizes this afterward:

“I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for one’s self, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry.”

“You know,” I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen so much of Holmes’s heart before, “that it is my greatest joy and privilege to help you.”

Holmes recovers enough from the effects of the devil’s-foot root to show some sass:

“How do you know that?”

“I followed you.”

“I saw no one.”

“That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.”

What intrigues me most is Holmes’s justification for letting Dr. Sterndale walk free. “I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I love had met such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion-hunter has done. Who knows?” I can picture JLM’s Sherlock saying this but not Cumberbatch’s. But then, JLM’s Sherlock loved Irene Adler, while Cumberbatch seemed to come out on top and mostly unscathed (open to some interpretation) versus Irene. Will we see any vulnerability from him in season 3? I’d like to, and I hope that his return after he said all those lies to John on the rooftop will be some sort of catalyst.