Lemon Tree

This episode really improved on second viewing, at least for me. When I first watched it, I was quite disappointed. I enjoyed several individual scenes but found the overall episode too disjointed. The best man speech felt like clip show, with the two halves of a short mystery tacked onto either end. I then surprised myself by really enjoying the episode the second time around. The episode's direction felt more purposeful and entertaining once I knew what was flying.

Agreed! I think that it's harder to write or play Watson as a character who is interesting In his own right. (This opinion applies to any Sherlock adaptation.) Freeman's Watson, however, comes across as the kind of person who have been a fun, interesting person even if he never met Sherlock.

I watched this episode because I love Martin Freeman, and I was supposed by how much I liked it, given that I had very mixed feelings about Fargo the film. A few thoughts: I found BBT's performance mesmerizing. I haven't seen him in many other performances, and never realized how much screen presence he had! However I started feeling iffy about the Lorne character about half way through when I realized that he was just messing with people to cause trouble. I preferred the character when he seemed to have a moral code, psychopathic and twisted as it was. I truly enjoyed Martin Freeman's performance, although I was thrown off a few times though when Freeman displayed certain mannerisms that seemed very Watson-esque, mainly head tilts and specific facial expressions. It was a strange feeling, a sense of, "Wait, where did that come from? How did you get here? How did you -oh wait, no, you're gone now." The bullying scene and hammering scene didn't quite work for me, as I felt both were quite over the top. The hammer scene in particular felt too sudden and horrifying. I think it would have worked more for me if the murder was less intentional- perhaps if he tried to push her away but shoved her stronger than he intended, and she fell over and hit her head. That would still give us the sense that Lester is starting to lose it but make it easier to relate to him despite having done something awful. I guess I prefer my nerds to descend into darkness more gradually. :) Finally- when Lorne shot the sherif, some of the blood got onto Lester's shirt. The blood, along with the gunshot wound on Lester's hand, and especially the bloody clothes from his wife's murder will make things tricky for Lester indeed.