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S01.E01: A Study in Pink


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A war hero, invalided home from Afghanistan, meets a strange but charismatic genius who is looking for a flatmate; it is London, 2010, and Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes are meeting for the first time. A string of impossible suicides has Scotland Yard baffled - and only one man can help.

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Awww man..  I wish the TWOP forums were still up in archival.  I love watching an older series and reading what other people thought of it when I finally get around to it.  Bummed to see there were no comments on this. I just saw the first episode last night.

 

I loved it.  I loved how they portrayed Sherlock as a "high-functioning sociopath."

 

I thought I was brilliant when I shouted, "Hey! That's Moriarty!" to my son who has already seen it.  So proud to display my sheer brilliance to my son, only to have him laugh at me at the end.  heh.. well played, show.

 

I'm convinced both pills were poisoned and he'd built up a resistance to iocane powder.

 

I'm in.

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Awww man..  I wish the TWOP forums were still up in archival.  I love watching an older series and reading what other people thought of it when I finally get around to it.  Bummed to see there were no comments on this. I just saw the first episode last night.

 

I loved it.  I loved how they portrayed Sherlock as a "high-functioning sociopath."

 

I thought I was brilliant when I shouted, "Hey! That's Moriarty!" to my son who has already seen it.  So proud to display my sheer brilliance to my son, only to have him laugh at me at the end.  heh.. well played, show.

 

I'm convinced both pills were poisoned and he'd built up a resistance to iocane powder.

 

I'm in.

Sigh.  I'm with you on missing access to TWoP discussions.  I did, however, read them shortly after this aired (or so my unreliable memory informs me) and there was quite a lot of "cannon vs this show" stuff.  Some of it interesting.  But, just to have the free flow of opinions that was TWoP..... yes, I miss it.  I hope more people embrace Previously and it becomes something like TWoP was as far as conversations go.  Damn internet "Success".  May it never happen to Previously (sorry to anyone who is banking on that).  

 

Have you seen the Pilot version of A Study In Pink?  It would be a great conversation comparing the differences between the 1st version and the extended version. I might even be "up" for that discussion.  ;-)

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(edited)

Looks like I'm going to have to fumble around a bit to figure out how that works, but thank you!!!  This will be great!

 

ETA: Got it! You're a life saver!

Edited by LadyArcadia
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I'm convinced both pills were poisoned and he'd built up a resistance to iocane powder.

 

 

I thought so too. That whole situation had a very strong Princess Bride vibe to it, which is maybe what made me think that.

 

I just started watching this as well, and wish that there was an active discussion about it. I'll just have to binge watch and catch up to the forums!

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I just started this series too and echo the Princess Bride comparison with the pills.  I definitely like the show, but I'm not terrible impressed with how Watson is portrayed.  Just seems too 'bumbling' and contrasts quite a bit with the very capable Watson played by Lucy Liu.

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The John Watson who isn't at all nervous at being kidnaped by a mysteriously powerful stranger, who leaps from building to building although he realizes how dangerous it is, who manages to follow the inexplicably vanished Sherlock to an unknown location, who shoots through two closed windows with an illegal handgun to save Sherlock's life, and who jokes about it after--this John Watson seems bumbling to you?

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I just started this series too and echo the Princess Bride comparison with the pills.  I definitely like the show, but I'm not terrible impressed with how Watson is portrayed.  Just seems too 'bumbling' and contrasts quite a bit with the very capable Watson played by Lucy Liu.

 

Hee! Perhaps not compared to Lucy Liu's Watson, which is more of a riff on a theme compared to Sherlock which sticks a bit closer to the Conan Doyle stories.

 

If you want to really see a bumbling Watson, search out previous incarnations (who aren't Jude Law).  ;-)

Edited by Anothermi
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If you want to really see a bumbling Watson, search out previous incarnations (who aren't Jude Law).  ;-)

 

I may have to reread the books (been a long time), but I don't recall the character of Watson in the books being so bumbling.  I wonder if its mostly been a choice by other shows in order to make Sherlock appear even more intellectual.

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You remember quite correctly--ACD's Watson was not at all bumbling. He was the one telling us the stories, after all! But as soon as they started making filmed versions, they went to bumbling--think Basil Rathbone's Watson in particular. The Granada Watson was reasonably intelligent, and I find this version of Watson someone who, as in the ACD stories, can't keep up with Sherlock deductively speaking, but is intelligent and highly competent in his own right.

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I just discovered this show last weekend and have binge watched whole week. Finished today. So I am going to go ahead and respond as though I just saw 1. I tweeted about it, so it makes it easier to remember what I thought at the time.

 

I think this show is genius. Everything about it is beautiful. The setting, the filming, the actors...it is all done perfectly. So well written and directed. And I didn't get the Cumberbatch affect before, I do now. He is amazing. The voice, the looks, and the acting is amazing. And whoever is the costumer behind his suits and coats is the shit.

 

I only hope Watson has more to do in the future, and is not portrayed as a dumbass. I like the actor, but Watson has gone wrong in so many incarnations of Sherlock. I haven't read the books in awhile, but I remember him as being highly intelligent, and more of a thinking mans', everyman (if u know what I mean). When translated to film or tv always thought he should be the 1 representing the audience. Voicing the thoughts the viewer has.

 

 

Awww man..  I wish the TWOP forums were still up in archival.  I love watching an older series and reading what other people thought of it when I finally get around to it.  Bummed to see there were no comments on this. I just saw the first episode last night.

 

I loved it.  I loved how they portrayed Sherlock as a "high-functioning sociopath."

 

I thought I was brilliant when I shouted, "Hey! That's Moriarty!" to my son who has already seen it.  So proud to display my sheer brilliance to my son, only to have him laugh at me at the end.  heh.. well played, show.

 

I'm convinced both pills were poisoned and he'd built up a resistance to iocane powder.

 

I'm in.

I thought I was a genius too. And I didn't have anybody to HA!!!, I figured it out to. So I hi-fived myself. I was convinced that Myecroft was Moriarty. Lucky me there was no one to tell I was wrong. Except the whole twitterverse. lol.

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Just rewatched for the severalth time. One thing that keeps annoying me is that I feel a little cheated out of the explanation as to how the pills are distinguished. How did the cabbie set things up? Was it just random which one each person selected? Is that what SH did? John's bullet saved the writers from the corner they wrote themselves into.

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I'm embarrassed to say it's taken me this long to start watching. I've heard great things and as much as I've wanted to watch, I just never found the time. But I finally got my hands on the first season and I thought this was a great start. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman play really well off each other, of course the show wouldn't work if they didn't. Sherlock has the best lines but I did love Mycroft's when he said he's the closest thing Sherlock has to a friend - an enemy. And I liked the cabbie (who was great as Miles in Whitechapel - I miss that show) but I also wish we could've found out which pill was which, though that was probably left unanswered on purpose. Still, I really liked it.

 

The DVD also had the unaired pilot but I think this one is much better.

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1 hour ago, betha said:

Is Sherlock supposed to be gay in this version?

Undetermined. What we do know is that he is pretty much uninterested in relationships and/or sex, either by nature or by choice (with perhaps the scales tipped a bit in favor of "by choice").

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(edited)
On July 22, 2016 at 1:41 PM, betha said:

Is Sherlock supposed to be gay in this version?

I don't know how far you are into the show (and whether you've seen any episodes beyond this one).  I would say that in this episode, signs that would point to Sherlock being gay include the fact that when John asks if Sherlock has a girlfriend, Sherlock says that girlfriends are not his area, but when John asks if Sherlock has a boyfriend, Sherlock just simply says no.  (So women are not his area generally, but he just currently doesn't have a boyfriend?)

Also, people who know Sherlock to varying degrees of well in this episode (Mrs. Hudson, Angelo and Mycroft) all either assume that John is Sherlock's new boyfriend or make remarks about how that must be where their relationship is heading.  Mrs. Hudson questions whether they will need 2 bedrooms when John comes to look at the flat; Angelo thinks Sherlock brought a date to the restaurant (rather than a friend or colleague); Mycroft makes a snide remark about expecting a "happy announcement" after learning that John is now helping Sherlock solve crimes.  Query why the assumption is that bringing a guest to dinner or getting a roommate would be viewed romantically by third parties who know Sherlock well if they knew him to be straight or ace.

Edited by Peace 47
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(edited)

Peace 47, people like Mrs. Hudson and Angelo could just make that assumption because they've never seen him with a woman--people DO make that assumption, and almost never assume asexuality--and while we've seen him be (reluctantly) interested by (if not in) The Woman, we've never seen him show sexual attraction to a man at all.

Edited by rereader2
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That's fair, rereader2, in terms of people's assumptions.  I just think the assumptions of his friends and acquaintances become part of the cumulative weight of evidence over the episodes, such that I can pick at any one example and find a counter argument to the overall conclusion, but when I look at it all holistically, I just end up going, "He's gay!"   I kind of outlined how some of these factors snowballed for me into this conclusion in the Sherlock character thread awhile back, and that was before the January special when I think it went even further towards what I think is an impending disclosure of his heart's desire when he stops suppressing himself (which was at its peak in S1, and I certainly did not watch this episode for the first time and come away thinking that he was gay).

I know that many people most emphatically disagree, or at the very least, think it will continue to remain an unanswered question for people to fill in the blanks as they see fit, though.

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