(no subject)

[fadeaccompli]

Apropos of nothing, I should probably watch Sherlock at some point.

I mean, I watched the first season. I rather liked it. It had some misogyny and racism issues, and weird traces of homophobia, but it's not like I'm going to find a current major-budget television program that doesn't, right? This sort of stuff pervades media. So I sigh a little at the flaws, remind myself that nothing is perfect, and move on. Life is good.

...except that then I started running into people hyping the show as the Best Thing Ever, a rather standard and entertaining rendition of Holmes as the Most Awesome And Sexiest Character Ever, and the whole show as the pinnacle of perfection that totally had no flaws really ever. Because a show that gives them tingly pants feelings couldn't possibly have issues. Mrf.

As such, I still haven't watched the second season, because every time I'm going, "Oh, hey, I rather liked the first season, I should watch the second, that'd be fun," I run into another round of "OH MY GOD SOCIOPATHS ARE SO SEXY did you notice the way he was totally callous about murders and finds them cool that is SO HOT" and I start edging away slowly and looking for the door.

Or I end up staring in baffled wonderment at someone indignantly claiming that there was nothing problematic at all in the first season, no, not one thing, it was all PERFECT, why do I need to be some sort of white knight super-sensitive asshole looking for things to be offended at, when it did NOTHING WRONG EVER? Which ends up with me sitting there trying to explain every problem in the show, and let me tell you, nothing convinces me faster to watch more of a show than trying to explain every single flaw of it ever to a hostile audience!

Dammit, fandom. Why you gotta ruin so many things for me? (It took me years to get into Avatar: The Last Airbender because people pushed it on me so hard as the Best Thing Ever. And while I still like that show quite a lot, most things pressed on me as the Best Thing Ever are...not.)

Anyway, I should watch the second season the next time the spouse is back in town. He's been wanting to watch it for a while. I think it's pretty short, so we could get through during a weekend visit, and if I religiously avoid discussing it with any fans at all until then, I'm pretty sure I'll even still be looking forward to it.

Comments

[fadeaccompli]

See, I love Watson! Because I think it's a really fascinating dynamic where someone with minor problems is getting sucked in by a charismatic personality with MAJOR problems, and having their minor issues therefore magnified and made worse, while sometimes remembering to fight against it. Sherlock Holmes is a bit of a cipher; he's as perfect as the plot requires, only ever emotionally affected when it's Cool and Edgy and Sexy and Interesting. Watson feels much more like a real person, being seduced by that sort of empathy-free approach to life, but he's still enough of a good person to try to be otherwise.

And yes, I'd love to chat about the second season some time, when I get a chance to watch it.

[neogrammarian]

Oh yes let's do chat. I have Thoughts about Watson's combat experience and the ways you notice he gets sucked into Holmes' disorders. I think he's by far the most honestly-realized combat veteran I've seen in recent media- both the good and the bad. PLUS it's a fascinating thing for the Mary Sue character to be so completely out of reach of most people- most of us have not experienced combat.

[fadeaccompli]

I know very little about combat experience and its aftereffects, but did read some interesting comments by those who do about Watson's PTSD issues in the first episode. So, yes, we should chat about it some time! Possibly after I have seen the second season, so that we can discuss that too without spoilers issues, but either way.

[neogrammarian]

Yeah the ptsd in Ep 1 was obvious, but I think it goes deeper. In any case, whenever you see the 2nd season just poke me. Overall I was impressed by both seasons- I don't expect TV to be that good. Never perfect, often far from it, but very good.