It's a bust!

It's speculation time.
I must admit I am not one to follow closely the news about upcoming episodes of 'Sherlock'. Feels to much like watching the news and the info you really want is not till the very end of the broadcast.

That doesn't mean I don't catch some of what is going on.

Two of the upcoming episodes have supposedly been named and the names released to the public.

They are; "The Lying Detective" and "The Six Thatchers".

While the web site, The Blog of John Watson has already done a piece on a broken statue mystery, we probably should not expect that to be the same story coming to us as "The Six Thatchers".

And, it would be very un-"Sherlock" to allow 'The Six Thatchers" to follow to closely the story line of "The Six Napoleons."

So what else could it mean?

Are Thatcher look-alike's being knocked-off?
Are roofing thatchers being knocked-off? Perhaps due to a thatcher strike.
Is there really something hidden in statues of the former Prime Minister? Probably something like a flash-drive or clues to who Moriarty really is.
Or maybe clues to when Natalie Dormer is coming back to 'Elementary'? (Oh, please, Oh, please, Oh, please!)
Or are six people being targeted, belonging the an organization called 'The Thatchers'?
Or (which is more than likely) am I not even close to what it could be?

What do you think?

'Sherlock' and whales . . . . . . I mean Wales.

Set to film in Wales?

I have yet to see the episode myself, but I am finding some of the reviews very interesting. . .

Sherlock's 'mansplaining' wasn't the worst thing about The Abominable Bride

Under Steven Moffat, the great detective has become trapped in an endless hall of mirrors reflecting on his own cleverness

Critics of the latest episode of Sherlock Holmes have attacked the show for "mansplaining" feminism. For fear of actually mansplaining, that is a word used to describe the patronising way that men sometimes explain things, particularly to women (did you get that, dear?). It’s the neologism which birthed this tedious trend of adding "man" to the front of words – see "manspreading" – as a way of criticising those of us with a Y chromosome. If a man is bad at being in charge of a group of people or defending a fortification is he manmanaging or manmanning?

Still, as a show directed by a man, co-starring two men and written by two other men, Sherlock ought to have avoided making jokes about the sometimes token presence of women, or styling feminists as similar to the Klu Klux Klan. On the other hand, it’s good of the BBC to give a nod to the existence of women from time to time: of the eight latest dramas to be announced by the BBC, all of them are written by men. That’s a mystery worthy of a private detective.

Yet this was not even the most egregious thing about the episode entitled "The Abominable Bride" (hereafter TAB), Arthur Conan Doyle once wrote that “mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself," and if this installment had one problem, it’s that it thought that it was much smarter than it was. It was the Douglas Carswell of holiday television: a dim person’s idea of what a clever story would look like. I ought to warn that the rest of this will include spoilers, but that would imply that I believed that there was much enjoyment to spoil.

"This was an over-indulgent guitar solo, showing off talented strumming and fingering at the expense of the song"

Of course Cumberbatch, Freeman, Stubbs, Gatiss, Brealey, Scott and co are all brilliantly good in their respective roles. The sets, costumes and lighting are all shown off by adept direction. The emperor has good posture, but you can still see his noble bachelor shivering in the wind.

For one thing, the BBC has become a little obsessed with people who don’t die but do fake it. This was interesting the first time, but pretend deaths are no match for real ones, and the increasingly well-trodden territory of people who aren’t actually dead didn’t advance the plot of the overarching Sherlock storyline. “Sherlock gets off a plane” would have been a more accurate title. In an episode which drifted away from any pretence of focusing on the solution of crimes, or advancing the overall plot of the series, this drama was an over-indulgent guitar solo, showing off talented strumming and fingering at the expense of the song.

The three pipe problem here is that Sherlock’s writers clearly thought their work was exceptional. Perhaps Christopher Nolan is to blame for making the slick, highly successful but ultimately only half-clever Inception. TAB makes Inception look like it was written by a committee of Nobel Laureates. Sherlock eked out the "it was all a dream" twist –the end of every seven-year-old's creative writing homewrk – like a vehicle running on just the vapours of an idea. Where Inception revelled in the complexities of the dream state, Sherlock held it back as the great surprise. Gasp – the fake death was fake on two levels. Three if you count the fact that it was all a turgid TV drama. It was all so incessantly meta, so self-referential, that you couldn’t be distracted from the emptiness.

Like Mendes’ Bond in Spectre, Steven Moffat’s Sherlock has strayed too far from the source. It’s as if Moffat pointed at an ocean and bet someone that he could water-ski over a shark. Lazy references to Holmes stories like The Five Orange Pips are stretched over a canvas designed to satisfy the particular aims of the creator. When Holmes is ganged up on by versions of women he has mistreated in the past, it has nothing to do with Sherlock, nothing to do with the plot – just the preoccupation of an author trying to defend himself from his feminist critics.

It took great skill to reimagine Sherlock Holmes in the modern day and to successfully tell its stories for a new generation of viewers. I admire the episodes of Sherlock which preceded TAB, and I am still excited for the next series. With any luck, and a dose or two of humility, the show’s creators will go back to telling detective stories. Until then, we’ll just have to keep telling ourselves that this episode of Sherlock just happened in our mind palaces.

source

I look forward to seeing this one.

‘Arthur & George’ Makes Sherlock Holmes’s Creator the Detective

By KATHRYN SHATTUCKSEPT. 2, 2015

In the time it took to puff on his pipe, Sherlock Holmes would have discerned everything: the eavesdropper at the private club as well as his name, political persuasion and place of birth — all from the dust on his shoes. But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Shockingly oblivious, a detractor declares in “Arthur & George” (Sundays on PBS). “If you pursue your interest in the Edalji case, you’ll be judged by his high standards, and judged harshly,” the man chides Holmes’s creator. “But if you fall short, as you are bound to do, you’ll taint not only yourself but the world’s favorite consulting detective.”

Edalji is the titular George, an Anglo-Indian solicitor imprisoned for mutilating livestock — and threatening schoolgirls with worse — in 1903 Staffordshire. He longs to be exonerated for crimes he maintains he did not commit, and Arthur wagers his reputation that George’s conviction was racially motivated. Martin Clunes and Arsher Ali star in this mist-shrouded adaptation of Julian Barnes’s factual novel, which unveils Arthur’s personal life as he contemplates a future with his true love following his wife’s death. Charles Edwards plays Arthur’s secretary, Alfred Wood — in other words, his Dr. Watson.

Source

A nicer Holmes?

Sherlock Season 4: Holmes All Set to Go "Classic with A Nicer Image"

"Sherlock" is known for having long intervals between seasons. Hence, it has been a delight for the fans to know that a special episode of "Sherlock" is all set to air during the Christmas prior to season 4.

The last season of "Sherlock" also had a special episode during Christmas. However, this time, the episode will be different from the others as it will take back fans to the original era of Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Holmes will be a much nicer, decent person before he became the well-known cynical "sociopath".

In an interview with the Entertainment Weekly, "Sherlock" co-creator and co-writer Steven Moffat said that the reason they will release the special episode is that they wanted to showcase Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in their original costumes for once.

"The episode will showcase Sherlock as a nicer person and a proper polished Victorian gentleman. He will not behave like a brat and like his usual sarcastic self," he said.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the titular role, is reportedly happy with the idea. However, Cumberbatch also expressed concern that if it doesn't work well, fans will be disappointed.

Given that it will be just one episode, there should not be much to worry about it.

"Sherlock" season 4 is scheduled to start filming in early 2016 and will be released in 2017. The exact dates are yet to be announced.

source

Here are my comments to Starky Tour Guides rant about PBS. . . since he hasn't accepted my comments for a while.

'You probably hate puppies and kittens also.
Why blame PBS for providing something people want?
Why not blame BBC America for not providing it sooner?
Yea, it sucks to have to wait, but isn't that someone else's fault, not PBS? You think they own that big of a share in the production?

Well, at least we have Elementary till then.'