Reaction - A Study in Pink

[consulting_detective]

Ultimately an enjoyable episode overall, and even surprising. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but if what Moffat & co were going for was a re-envisioned homage to STUD, I'd say they got it in one.

And when it comes down to it, that's what it was, only infinitely better than anything Tim Burton has re-envisioned. It's the same characters and premise, but under a completely different setting. Setting it in the modern world makes every bit of sense though. ACD's Holmes was always at the cutting edge of science. In the very beginning of STUD, he was devising a new way of analysing blood stains. No-one had done that before, but Holmes knew it would be useful.

So why should a new series be set in a time warp? Sticking him back in Victorian England would, to a modern fan, completely negate the appearance of new technology. Holmes has to be using smart phones and GPS tracking to solve these crimes. Although, I'm very curious to see what Moffat & co do with the Baker Street Irregulars.


I particularly liked the portrayal of Holmes as a younger man. While I will always be a fan of Jeremy Brett, having him younger feels like a direct callback to STUD, where Holmes was described as being quite young. Cumberbatch manages this look quite nicely (with the blogs having Watson describe him as looking 'about twelve,' which is a fairly accurate assessment, I'd say). I was also wondering how they were going to handle the addiction aspect, and thought they did a very good job at addressing it without getting preachy. One thing I don't agree with is the sociopath thing. That very much felt like a self-diagnosis, but I can almost guarantee that the younger fans will latch onto that and play it for every penny it's worth (which isn't much). That was a defensive reaction geared at excusing his own behaviour toward the matter. I've never heard of a 'high functioning' sociopath. There are high functioning other things, but not that. But everything about him does do the part for Holmes (and aren't you lot from HC eating your words now?).

The sheer amount of call-backs and references to canon are what really cemented everything for me. The meeting at Bart's was straight out of canon, and the little things like the three patch problem and the twisting of Rache. But that's my big problem with it as well. Everything was the same (I'd put money on it that the cabbie was even called Hope in the script). And yet, through all of these minor twists, they left the killer the same. I wanted him to be the American in the back. I thought for sure Holmes had the answer when he asked 'who hunts in the middle of a crowd.' And why use the line, 'wrong country, good alibi,' if you're not going to come back to that? That isn't even shoddy deduction work; that's just Moffat being an arse.


Overall, maybe not the best adaptation. I'll wait until the mid-series break to form a stronger opinion. Far from the worst, though. I'd put it right up there with Granada.

Comments

[jumperfucker]

That's not Moffat being an arse. That's Moffat being Moffat. If you paid more attention to Doctor Who, you'd know this.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Or Jekyll. Actually, you might like Jekyll.

[not-thatbill.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains John waiting to link to your review

Nice~

[alltoseek.livejournal.com]

In the original, Hope the cabbie has two defined targets, and he was seeking revenge - he had a moral (to himself) purpose.

Here we have a serial killer with more-or-less random targets.

Hope played an honest game with the pills - he was willing to be judged by God - who presumably ultimately controlled who got the poison and who didn't. In the original only one victim went the pill route, so sheer luck (or God's will :-) is a reasonable theory for why Hope survived.

I thought the police were unreasonably stupid not to have made the cab connection earlier - the first three victims were known to have been in cabs (well, the first two at least) and very likely so in the case of the fourth, as she had just traveled to London from out of town. It shouldn't have been that hard to track down what cabbie picked up a given person at such-and-such a time and place. If they couldn't find that cabbie, that in itself would be telling.

And the using the gun as a means to convince people to try the pill seemed iffy - certainly wasn't going to work for long. Presumably Wilson hadn't seen the news since she was traveling. Because once people did, someone's going to call the bluff, knowing the game is rigged anyway. Also someone will recognize the gun's a fake.

Sherlock was pretty stupid there at the end, going to take the pill :P

And everyone was stupid at the flat when the phone showed up there coincidentally with a cabbie who wasn't called :P

But all these plot holes came afterward for me - I really enjoyed the show - the look and feel of it, the excitement. Except Sherlock being an idiot at the end; although I did like John getting to show off his marksmanship.

Oh - and bringing in Moriarty this early - I don't like that at all. Either every episode is going to be Sherlock v Moriarty, which gets tedious, or Sherlock has to defeat Moriarty right away, and then the rest is anti-climatic.

I do love the establishment of the relationship between our two protagonists, and their chemistry together is excellent. Sherlock's exoticness plays off well against John's grounded ordinariness, and vice versa.

(Not that John's so ordinary, after all, but he looks like an ordinary bloke :-)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Yes, John's ordinary-bloke appearance is a great touch, particularly coupled with Sherlock's rather unearthly appearance.

And the plot holes weren't too much of an obstacle for me; I was on the story's side, if that makes sense.

I agree with CD on the "sociopath" business - not only does it sound like self-diagnosis, it sounds like something he made up solely to screw with his annoying colleagues. He may be a high-functioning something - and I bet there will be a fandom debate over that - but sociopath? Not.

[storm-ford.livejournal.com]

I see what you did there, but I won't tell anyone.

I feel clever, now. ;)

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

I embarrassed myself watching this with friends by making unnaturally high-pitched squeaky noises of glee every time there was a callback.

Also, Watson has always been my favorite character, and Martin Freeman is *amazing*.

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, in the original script Sherlock DID know "who hunts in the middle of a crowd".
There is an unaired pilot out there, which is shorter and arguably better than the real and finished episode. Originally the plan was to have only 60-minute-episodes for the series, but the BBC decided later, after the shooting of the first episode, that there would be 90-minute-episodes. So the final first episode was completely reshot although the script being roughly the same as for the pilot (with the American in the cab and Mycroft´s first appearance being new).
Hope I told you something new there ^^