Sherlock Reactions: A Scandal in Belgravia

My reaction to the first episode of the new season of Sherlock (BBC) - you can also read my reactions to The Hounds of Baskerville and The Reichenbach Fall. This will be spoilerific, so if you haven't seen the episode yet I'd suggest reading my Sherlock 2-Season Review instead.

Totally off topic, but that smiley face on the wall reminds me of an orange portal.

I feel like there's so much to say about this episode that, instead of writing a well-piece-together, flowing reaction post, the only way to give you my thoughts would be to focus on specific scenes. I hope you forgive this somewhat haphazard blog entry.

-The first thing I want to note is this: They got Sherlock into the hat! I confess to being one of maybe a handful of Sherlock fans who hasn't actually read anything by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - and ack! I can feel the fans hating me already! Though I haven't read any of them, I do know quite a bit about the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and the 'Sherlock Holmes hat' seems to be an especially iconic bit (along with the oft misquoted "Elementary...!"). I didn't actually think they'd incorporate the hat in this modernized version, primarily because it didn't really seem to fit with Benedict Cumberbatch's 'look'. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to see how they managed to pull it in as a disguise, and then popularize it for the rest of the episode.

-Favorite quote: "I always hear 'punch me in the face' when you're speaking, but usually it's subtext."

 -About a week before Scandal in Belgravia aired, I sat down with a few friends to watch the previous season (in an attempt to introduce one of our friends to the series). At the cliffhanger ending, we raved about wanting to know what happened next and wishing the second season would open directly on the same scene, and I mentioned that I doubted it would.

I was pleasantly surprised to see, however, that we were able to pick up this season on exactly the same scene we left off on. Jim Moriarty, I confess, creeps the heck out of me, and for some reason him taking that phone call and bouncing off in the middle of that tense scene is not helping his case.

-Like probably many others, I'm really enjoying how they're exploring the emotion in this new season. First there's Sherlock's obvious jealousy of the popularity of John's blog (which you can actually read here!) While he loves to distance himself from others, it feels like he's losing his ability to do so after hanging around John for so long.

There's also, possibly my favorite, the scene with Molly at the Christmas party. It's one of the few times we get to see Sherlock being an idiot, making a complete fool of himself, and I felt so embarrassed for him when he realized what he'd done. Molly finally speaking up for herself was wonderful, but Sherlock apologizing to her felt like one of the most human things we've seen him do thus far.

As much as I love that scene, however, it pales compared to the emotion shown in a later scene, after Mrs. Hudson is held hostage. Sherlock, I'll remind you, returns to the flat after learning that Irene Adler is still alive, to see that their landlady had been attacked by the Americans who are after Irene. The first thing he does went confronted by the foreigners is to make sure that Mrs. Hudson is alright, and seeing that she's been hurt, Sherlock immediately connects her wounds to the leader of the group.

This scene, in my opinion, is powerful because of the concern Sherlock shows for Mrs. Hudson, to whom both he and John usually tend to be a bit rude. Sherlock, first and foremost, gets Mrs. Hudson out of harm's way, and refuses to let her leave his sight until John returns to the flat, at which point he directs them both to leave the room. After calling Lestrade, Sherlock then proceeds to toss the man out the window.

The man is already tied to a chair, and incapable of doing them any further harm. The only gain Sherlock gets by tossing the man out of the window is revenge for the harm he caused their landlady. His concern for Mrs. Hudson's safety can be written off as concern for the camera phone he's hiding on her, but tossing a man out of a window seems an awful long way to go for someone who we're supposed to believe has no emotions.

-In a similar vein to my previous point, is was nice to see how John and Sherlock's relationship had grown since the previous episode. A Study in Pink took place in January, so they've been living together for almost a year now, and you can definitely see how they've gotten used to each others' personalities. It was funny to see them in Buckingham Palace giggling like schoolgirls after Sherlock makes a quip at his brother Mycroft.

-I noticed a lot of people online writing that they had mixed feelings about Irene Adler's character, and I'll have to agree that I had mixed feelings about her too, but reading a lot of the reviews I'm compelled to disagree with what they have to say. A major argument people have been giving is that the show's usage of her is very sexist, an argument which almost always irks me. A major reason people have for saying this is the fact that, despite being a smart, strong-willed character, she is forced to plead Sherlock for help at the end of the episode,.

This seems, to me, a very shallow argument. Virtually everyone in the entire main cast, with a few rare surprising exceptions, has had to plead Sherlock for help at one point or another (the exceptions being Molly and Sgt Sally; both, I note, female), and Sherlock himself has had to ask for help in turn. Irene Adler is different and important because she manages to outsmart and defeat Sherlock, albeit temporarily; being at least in part an antagonist, however, it goes against a fiction-writer's instinct to let her completely defeat him. No one, not even the arch-villain Moriarty, has been able to do that yet.

Picture taken from this interesting article about Conan Doyle's original Irene,
who is more similar to her modern incarnation than some might think.

There have also been, apparently, a number of complaints on the 'nudity' scene, by which I assume they're referring to the scene in which Sherlock and Irene first meet. I'm also assuming that the scene I saw was the same scene everyone else saw, and in case any of the producers are actually reading my blog I'll come out now and say that I absolutely loved that scene. Sherlock and Irene both put a lot of effort into preparing for their first direct confrontation, but Irene manages to one-up him wonderfully, totally throwing him off balance and defying all expectations by appearing absolutely naked. As long as the audience doesn't see anything, I don't see how it's any different from Mycroft pulling off Sherlock's bedsheet in an earlier scene.

My favorite part of that scene has to be the one-screen question marks that appear as Sherlock tries to figure out something, anything about her. I love how he looks over at John in comparison, instantly seeing everything there is to know, then looks back at Irene and has no idea what her story is.

-If there's anything controversial I could find in this episode, it would have to be the scene after Sherlock confirms what he thinks is Irene's dead body. For the first time in we don't know how long, he accepts a cigarette from his brother, and, I'm going to say it, the shot with Benedict Cumberbatch smoking looked pretty cool. I don't smoke, don't intend to smoke, and have never really been tempted to start; personally, I feel like myself and probably a large portion of the audience could watch that scene and focus on the emotion of the shot.

And there is a lot of emotion behind the shot; Sherlock thinks 'that woman' is dead, and it's upset him enough to break his non-smoking rule, which says quite a bit about his character. There is probably at least a small portion of the audience, however, people who have been tempted to smoke or people who are trying to break a smoking habit, for whom I felt pretty awkward. Sorry guys; you're going to have to suffer tremendous cravings just so we can get another awesome shot of Cumberbatch being cool.

I'm also a huge fan of how brotherly Sherlock and Mycroft seemed to get in this episode.

-Like many others, I was also not very impressed by the last scene, not because it depicted Irene once again needing Sherlock to come in and save her, but because it seemed unnecessarily blunt. Though Mycroft informs us that she is dead, there were enough hints that Irene might still be alive that I think the directors could have foregone the awkward flashback in favor of a more subtle scene.

These last two points are somewhat minor in the larger context, however, and if those are the only problems I have with this episode then I call it a success. I was extremely excited for this episode, and it did not disappoint, even managing to bring in some unexpected awesomeness. Sherlock was recently added to my list of favorite TV shows, and it doesn't look like it'll be leaving anytime soon.