I only have one Amy Winehouse album, Back To Black, but it is really good. Too bad she succumbed to addiction; really a sad loss. *makes mental note to Youtube Janelle Monae*
re: xmas/holiday music, I'd much rather listen to the entire Nutcracker Suite symphony by Tchaikovsky, or a CD of old xmas carols, than pop-xmas music. I never go to church, I'm rather dogmatically agnostic, lol -- but I like old songs like Silent Night, Little Drummer Boy, etc. It's the relentless repeating of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Santa Baby, etc. that drives me nuts. At least I haven't heard Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer yet -- not even once, thank god/s.
My Netflix queue is hugely long. I actually had to delete stuff because I couldn't add anymore, lol! I loved The Fall; I, too, impatiently await S2. Top of the Lake was harder to get into. I wasn't sold on it, but I saw it recced on a few DWs/LJs; I liked most of Jane Campion's stuff; and I like Elizabeth Moss on Mad Men; so I gave it a chance. Took me a few eps to get into it. Overall I like The Fall better. Top of the Lake is not very rewatchable, kind of like The Killing for me.
Can't recommend Archer enough. Through Archer, I've really come to love Aisha Tyler (she voices Lana Kane, Archer's ex-gf and rival top spy at the spy agency), although I don't watch her on anything else except American Whose Line Is It Anyway. I don't go out of my way to watch WLIIA, but when it's on and I catch it, I usually laugh my butt off.
I'm fine with TPTB not pairing Holmes/Watson romantically on Elementary. I also really liked the Irene/Moriarty arc -- thought it was radical, inspired, and supplied a huge jolt of angst, which pretty much pushed all my buttons, yay. I too was watching Elementary live then (though I pretty much always have, unless I miss an ep due to pre-empting or conflict w/RL engagement). You're right on both counts: Mycroft was a great foil to Sherlock, and the Joan/Mycroft romance was unnecessary and a big mistake. It was established that Sherlock and Mycroft didn't get along; they didn't need that angle at all. Mycroft's and Sherlock's friction is canonical, iirc.
I like Kitty now, though initially I didn't, and my early liking of her was more in spite of what TPTB did rather than because of it; her introduction and insertion into the Holmes/Watson partnership seemed pretty forced. I rewatched the last few eps over the weekend, and the parental angle now is quite obvious, yet it seems unnecessary and almost clumsy now.
Initially Sherlock's assertion near the beginning of S3 -- that he found he could replicate the mentor/protege relationship he'd had with Joan, with Kitty -- seemed both kind of insulting to the partnership, yet also a great admission that he has a need for that kind of connection. The recent AI ep, where Sherlock keeps questioning Bella about human emotion, was also quite revealing, though (again) rather clumsily done. Sherlock obviously can care, emotionally, but we already knew that via S1 and his relationship with Joan (btw, of course TPTB didn't need to make Joan the damsel in distress at the end of S2, which kind of pissed me off; another huge mistake); he just comparmentalizes.
The way Jonny plays him, Sherlock seems somewhat Asperger's-ish or maybe on the spectrum, say, high functioning autist or at the very least non-neurotypical, though it's hard to say if A) Sherlock actually lacks social skills/can't read social cues, or B) has mastered them/can read them, and merely dispenses with social niceties as an extension of his known/existing rejection of hoary sentimentality and conventional social mores. Irene seems to have been the only exception he's been able to make to any of that, and whether or not he considered her the exception that proved the rule, or was too wounded by it to open up again, still remains to be seen (I can go either way, or both).
I too was glad they didn't sink Kitty into a predictable rivalry with Joan, so mistake sidestepped, there. I hope not, but I agree; I also fear Kitty being used as a device/set-up for nastiness later in S3. Given her abduction/torture/rape, there is the chance she is a Moriarty plant, as you suggest; maybe she'll have some post-hypnotic 'sleeper' agenda that gets awakened.
If that happened, I would be disppointed, as not only would it not be plausible (we have yet to see Kitty exhibit the supposed personality instability that goes with such fictionalized PTSD/recovered memory tropes), it would also seem like lazy and predictable writing, imo. I wouldn't be surprised if they did something like that, but I sure hope they don't.
My only objection to telling vs. showing is that it's not very effective storytelling via a visual medium. I too hope we do get to see how Sherlock and Kitty met, eventually; I guess I'm less trusting of TPTB than you, lol.
I have to be in the right mood to read Conan Doyle. I'm curious, now: Why was BBC Sherlock a no-go for you? I was initially into it, but Stephen Moffat's take on it, especially the way things went in S3, started to really piss me off. But then that's what happened when he took over Dr. Who for me, too. Grrrr. Which is odd; I really liked Coupling (which he also wrote for).
Initially I liked Sherlock and the slash practically emanated off the screen; it was all-but-canonical to the show. At first I found the device of Irene-as-femdom-mistress a bit offputting -- Irene didn't need the edge; she was whole and complete in and of herself (in Conan Doyle's canon, she was the only criminal mastermind Holmes had ever failed to defeat). Then I thought, I guess it's kind of naughty "in a night time telly sort of way."
But then what Moffat did with Sherlock's treatment of the ME Molly and with Watson's fiancee Mary in S3 -- I despised that. There are aspects to what Moffat's done in Dr. Who and (especially) Sherlock that struck me as very misogynist, almost like he viewed Holmes' (Conan Doyle's) canonical avoidance of women as a perfect vehicle for his own misgoyny. Ugh.
But that's me; most everyone who watches Sherlock seems to love Sherlock and all its obvious slashiness; S3 got higher ratings than even the 2 previous seasons.
Yes, I hope the same thing for S3 of Elementary: focus on the Holmes/Watson partnership. Maybe that's why they set up all the devices that split it up (Sherlock to London, then back with Kitty, etc.) -- to shake it up, dust it off, shine it up, and set it back on its rails. We can hope, lol.
I don't ship Holmes/Watson either, though I can totally see sub!Sherlock/dom!Joan, and -- as you describe -- there was plenty to ping that interpretation. But I can also see them both as switches. Choosing Joan's clothes could also be kind of dom/top, too; there's a control aspect there. Suffice to say there's enough there in the show to ping any version of a B/D Sherlock/Joan interpretation, lol -- for me, anyway, even though I don't ship them!
Yeah, the Marcus/Sherlock conflict in S2 was when I saw the slash -- it added my favorite necessary ingredient: angst, lol. I must have missed that Sherlock comment on Marcus' attractiveness, though it sounds vaguely familiar... must rewatch S1, lol.
I read hardly any Elementary fic. I read one short ficlet from a Porn Battle, maybe last year or the year before, that I liked; Joan was handcuffed blindfolded to a chair by Sherlock and pleasured her orally or manually, maybe both. But it didn't quite read as sub!Joan/top!Sherlock, to me, though that was obvs the intent. (I tend to see BD with different colored goggles than most; it doesn't always follow for me that the restrained/inflictee person is bottom and the nonrestrained/inflictor is top; some top from below, some sub from the top, which I can totally see with Sherlock &/or Joan).
If a fic's premise ships Sherlock/Joan, I usually can't read past the first couple sentences or paragraph, not because it's non-canonical (though it is) but because... I dunno, I just can't. First off, most of what I find is OOC fluffy romantic crap, which, No. Just. No. Plus the Sherlock/Joan partnership is both so much more and yet somehow also less than that, like their partnership inhabits all spaces except that conventional space.
And as you accurately point out, Sherlock is very hard to write well; I just can't buy most portrayals of Sherlock I've started to read. Throws me right out of the fic.
I've heard of Ripper but haven't watched it. Didn't know Alfredo's actor becamse a regular on Ripper. Is Ripper any good? Speaking of Netflix originals (not that we were, lol), have you watched Hemlock Grove? Supernatural horror, very cheesy and OTT -- and yet I loved it, plus Famke Janssen is so eeeevil on it. I dig the slashy angst (or angsty slash), of course, but it's got more going on than that. Good mindless supernatural fun I guess.
Yes, the wait for S2 Penny Dreadful will be way too long! More reality-based, but close to the same era, have you watched The Knick w/Clive Owen? I haven't seen all of S1, only a few eps, but I really liked what I saw; great world-building by Soderberg, there. (I originally put Fincher, duh; dunno what I was thinking)
And thanks for the True Detective Marty/Rust fic rec! I'm always up for such if the characterizations are true. Will bookmark and check out.
it's ok, I always talk to much, lol
re: xmas/holiday music, I'd much rather listen to the entire Nutcracker Suite symphony by Tchaikovsky, or a CD of old xmas carols, than pop-xmas music. I never go to church, I'm rather dogmatically agnostic, lol -- but I like old songs like Silent Night, Little Drummer Boy, etc. It's the relentless repeating of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Santa Baby, etc. that drives me nuts. At least I haven't heard Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer yet -- not even once, thank god/s.
My Netflix queue is hugely long. I actually had to delete stuff because I couldn't add anymore, lol! I loved The Fall; I, too, impatiently await S2. Top of the Lake was harder to get into. I wasn't sold on it, but I saw it recced on a few DWs/LJs; I liked most of Jane Campion's stuff; and I like Elizabeth Moss on Mad Men; so I gave it a chance. Took me a few eps to get into it. Overall I like The Fall better. Top of the Lake is not very rewatchable, kind of like The Killing for me.
Can't recommend Archer enough. Through Archer, I've really come to love Aisha Tyler (she voices Lana Kane, Archer's ex-gf and rival top spy at the spy agency), although I don't watch her on anything else except American Whose Line Is It Anyway. I don't go out of my way to watch WLIIA, but when it's on and I catch it, I usually laugh my butt off.
I'm fine with TPTB not pairing Holmes/Watson romantically on Elementary. I also really liked the Irene/Moriarty arc -- thought it was radical, inspired, and supplied a huge jolt of angst, which pretty much pushed all my buttons, yay. I too was watching Elementary live then (though I pretty much always have, unless I miss an ep due to pre-empting or conflict w/RL engagement). You're right on both counts: Mycroft was a great foil to Sherlock, and the Joan/Mycroft romance was unnecessary and a big mistake. It was established that Sherlock and Mycroft didn't get along; they didn't need that angle at all. Mycroft's and Sherlock's friction is canonical, iirc.
I like Kitty now, though initially I didn't, and my early liking of her was more in spite of what TPTB did rather than because of it; her introduction and insertion into the Holmes/Watson partnership seemed pretty forced. I rewatched the last few eps over the weekend, and the parental angle now is quite obvious, yet it seems unnecessary and almost clumsy now.
Initially Sherlock's assertion near the beginning of S3 -- that he found he could replicate the mentor/protege relationship he'd had with Joan, with Kitty -- seemed both kind of insulting to the partnership, yet also a great admission that he has a need for that kind of connection. The recent AI ep, where Sherlock keeps questioning Bella about human emotion, was also quite revealing, though (again) rather clumsily done. Sherlock obviously can care, emotionally, but we already knew that via S1 and his relationship with Joan (btw, of course TPTB didn't need to make Joan the damsel in distress at the end of S2, which kind of pissed me off; another huge mistake); he just comparmentalizes.
The way Jonny plays him, Sherlock seems somewhat Asperger's-ish or maybe on the spectrum, say, high functioning autist or at the very least non-neurotypical, though it's hard to say if A) Sherlock actually lacks social skills/can't read social cues, or B) has mastered them/can read them, and merely dispenses with social niceties as an extension of his known/existing rejection of hoary sentimentality and conventional social mores. Irene seems to have been the only exception he's been able to make to any of that, and whether or not he considered her the exception that proved the rule, or was too wounded by it to open up again, still remains to be seen (I can go either way, or both).
I too was glad they didn't sink Kitty into a predictable rivalry with Joan, so mistake sidestepped, there. I hope not, but I agree; I also fear Kitty being used as a device/set-up for nastiness later in S3. Given her abduction/torture/rape, there is the chance she is a Moriarty plant, as you suggest; maybe she'll have some post-hypnotic 'sleeper' agenda that gets awakened.
If that happened, I would be disppointed, as not only would it not be plausible (we have yet to see Kitty exhibit the supposed personality instability that goes with such fictionalized PTSD/recovered memory tropes), it would also seem like lazy and predictable writing, imo. I wouldn't be surprised if they did something like that, but I sure hope they don't.
My only objection to telling vs. showing is that it's not very effective storytelling via a visual medium. I too hope we do get to see how Sherlock and Kitty met, eventually; I guess I'm less trusting of TPTB than you, lol.
I have to be in the right mood to read Conan Doyle. I'm curious, now: Why was BBC Sherlock a no-go for you? I was initially into it, but Stephen Moffat's take on it, especially the way things went in S3, started to really piss me off. But then that's what happened when he took over Dr. Who for me, too. Grrrr. Which is odd; I really liked Coupling (which he also wrote for).
Initially I liked Sherlock and the slash practically emanated off the screen; it was all-but-canonical to the show. At first I found the device of Irene-as-femdom-mistress a bit offputting -- Irene didn't need the edge; she was whole and complete in and of herself (in Conan Doyle's canon, she was the only criminal mastermind Holmes had ever failed to defeat). Then I thought, I guess it's kind of naughty "in a night time telly sort of way."
But then what Moffat did with Sherlock's treatment of the ME Molly and with Watson's fiancee Mary in S3 -- I despised that. There are aspects to what Moffat's done in Dr. Who and (especially) Sherlock that struck me as very misogynist, almost like he viewed Holmes' (Conan Doyle's) canonical avoidance of women as a perfect vehicle for his own misgoyny. Ugh.
But that's me; most everyone who watches Sherlock seems to love Sherlock and all its obvious slashiness; S3 got higher ratings than even the 2 previous seasons.
Yes, I hope the same thing for S3 of Elementary: focus on the Holmes/Watson partnership. Maybe that's why they set up all the devices that split it up (Sherlock to London, then back with Kitty, etc.) -- to shake it up, dust it off, shine it up, and set it back on its rails. We can hope, lol.
I don't ship Holmes/Watson either, though I can totally see sub!Sherlock/dom!Joan, and -- as you describe -- there was plenty to ping that interpretation. But I can also see them both as switches. Choosing Joan's clothes could also be kind of dom/top, too; there's a control aspect there. Suffice to say there's enough there in the show to ping any version of a B/D Sherlock/Joan interpretation, lol -- for me, anyway, even though I don't ship them!
Yeah, the Marcus/Sherlock conflict in S2 was when I saw the slash -- it added my favorite necessary ingredient: angst, lol. I must have missed that Sherlock comment on Marcus' attractiveness, though it sounds vaguely familiar... must rewatch S1, lol.
I read hardly any Elementary fic. I read one short ficlet from a Porn Battle, maybe last year or the year before, that I liked; Joan was handcuffed blindfolded to a chair by Sherlock and pleasured her orally or manually, maybe both. But it didn't quite read as sub!Joan/top!Sherlock, to me, though that was obvs the intent. (I tend to see BD with different colored goggles than most; it doesn't always follow for me that the restrained/inflictee person is bottom and the nonrestrained/inflictor is top; some top from below, some sub from the top, which I can totally see with Sherlock &/or Joan).
If a fic's premise ships Sherlock/Joan, I usually can't read past the first couple sentences or paragraph, not because it's non-canonical (though it is) but because... I dunno, I just can't. First off, most of what I find is OOC fluffy romantic crap, which, No. Just. No. Plus the Sherlock/Joan partnership is both so much more and yet somehow also less than that, like their partnership inhabits all spaces except that conventional space.
And as you accurately point out, Sherlock is very hard to write well; I just can't buy most portrayals of Sherlock I've started to read. Throws me right out of the fic.
I've heard of Ripper but haven't watched it. Didn't know Alfredo's actor becamse a regular on Ripper. Is Ripper any good? Speaking of Netflix originals (not that we were, lol), have you watched Hemlock Grove? Supernatural horror, very cheesy and OTT -- and yet I loved it, plus Famke Janssen is so eeeevil on it. I dig the slashy angst (or angsty slash), of course, but it's got more going on than that. Good mindless supernatural fun I guess.
Yes, the wait for S2 Penny Dreadful will be way too long! More reality-based, but close to the same era, have you watched The Knick w/Clive Owen? I haven't seen all of S1, only a few eps, but I really liked what I saw; great world-building by Soderberg, there. (I originally put Fincher, duh; dunno what I was thinking)
And thanks for the True Detective Marty/Rust fic rec! I'm always up for such if the characterizations are true. Will bookmark and check out.