Yeah, fooled me, too, and I also would be happy if him became a semi-regular. It's always good to see Kind.
Not a lot to say about last night's episode. The main plot had certain features of interest. The real heart of the episode, though, had to be Gregson's new relationship, and I was quite taken with Aidan Quinn's anguished performance in its final scene. And next week, Elementary does The Hound of the Baskervilles! It seems like a Holmes production has to tackle HOUN at some point, and it would have been strange if Jonny Lee Miller didn't have a take on it under his belt.
This show seems to be getting into the habit of depicting murders that accidentally cause collateral fatalities, and then largely glossing over the incidental victims. The only real purpose served by the death of the balloon guy was to allow Sherlock's crack about the murder victim also being the murder weapon; beyond that, it was irrelevant to the plot. Seems kind of gratuitous. (That was a good line, though -- but it would've been better if it hadn't been just a pointless sidebar.) I do like the way this show delves into obscure issues of law and business like air rights. And of course Sherlock even has an answer for the rhetorical question about "old people smell." The dog Eustacia Vye was named after a character from Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. That novel was originally published in the literary magazine Belgravia, which also published one of Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories, "The Great Keinplatz Experiment" from 1885, more than two and a half years before Holmes's debut. As it happens, the second-season premiere of Sherlock was called "A Scandal in Belgravia." Just as long as they go a different route than Sherlock did. Anyway, the episode will be called "Hounded" and is written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who seems to be on an adaptational kick lately, since his last episode was "A Study in Charlotte." And oh, my... the episode after that is written by Doctor Who scribe Paul Cornell, and is called "You've Got Me, Who's Got You?" Quite an interesting choice of title, considering that Cornell has written for DC Comics (notably the brilliant Action Comics "The Black Ring" storyline with Lex Luthor as the protagonist). EDIT: Oh, by the way, I forgot to acknowledge that this episode quoted one of my favorite Holmes lines from the canon: "It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data." Which is from "A Scandal in Bohemia," followed by "Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." This was one of Holmes's favorite maxims as well, used three times in the canon, second only to "When you have eliminated the impossible" etc. In A Study in Scarlet, he phrased it as "It is a capital mistake to theorise before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment." And in "The Adventure of the Second Stain," he phrased it as "It is a capital mistake to theorise in advance of the facts." It's not an entirely accurate sentiment; after all, the whole purpose of a theory is to make testable predictions that can be supported or refuted by gathering more data. But it's correct insofar as that a theory is a proposed explanation for the data/facts you already have. And it's a good reminder to be patient and gather as much data as possible before formulating an opinion, rather than jumping to a conclusion based on first impressions. Which is something that most people on the Internet could stand to learn.
I can't wait to see how they manage it in a modern city setting, with no moors for the thing to get lost in...
New York has extensive subway, utility tunnel and sewer systems. All kinds of things can hide and live down there undetected for an indefinite period of time.
True, but among those hiding things are human beings who've fallen through the cracks. All I'm saying is there'd still be more sightings of the hound in NYC than there were at Baskerville Estate.
He's a really good actor in a mostly thankless TV role after the movie offers all dried up. I'm surprised he's not starring in his own series.
Just watched this week's episode. They did a pretty good job updating The Hound of the Baskervilles. I also liked the subplot concerning Dr. Hawe. It was nice they showed that the bombing from Down Where the Dead Delight had consequences for him.
I loved how Robert Hewitt Wolfe updated Baskervilles. I was wondering how "Hounded" would do it, considering that Sherlock's version went for the genetic-experiment route already (IIRC). "Hounded" used that as a red herring and then sprung an inspired twist on us. I never saw it coming, but once the reveal shot came, it seemed so obvious. Wolfe also reused a lot of character names from THotB, though he changed Charles from Henry's uncle to his brother, and changed Rodger Stapleton's relationship to the Baskervilles as well. I'm surprised the arc with Hawes ended with him apparently leaving the series. After all, they've been building up his role so much lately. Really, though, I'm surprised he didn't transfer already. It seems really cruel for the department to expect him to go back to work in the same morgue where he experienced such a traumatic and tragic event.
Maybe he didn't want to be transfered. He obviously was in denial there, so he might have asked not to be transferred when the topic came up.
I wasn't too impressed with this updated version of Baskervilles. It lost most of the horror theme from Arthur Conan Doyle's original. Also the ending was not quite up to snuff, even if the revelation as whom the murderer was felt somewhat similar to the original. I am trying to consider how the shows creative staff could have handled it differently. I enjoyed the episode up until the moment it was revealed that the prototype robot mule was used as the murder weapon. After that the episode felt too formulaic. As much I am looking forward to Elementary every week I must say I am starting to feel fatigued with the show. There are so many great episodes that use the secondary characters well, have clever revelations and manage to hit the drama just right. I know not every episode can be like that but it does feel as if the show is out of ideas. This season was supposed to be about Morland, is he a murderer or not? I understand this plot line it has to endure the whole season but so far his character has not been the ominous shadow it ought to have been.
I thought it was a fun episode. It had some great lines: "This is the tenth issue from the 1940s and you took it out of it's bag." "Yes. How was I going to read it?" "Ugh..." And shortly after: "...and my personal favorite demise: pushed over a waterfall, locked in the embrace of his nemesis."
Yeah, this was fun. I'm thankful that they got an experienced comic-book writer, Paul Cornell, to do the episode. It made the portrayal of the comics business and culture more realistic than it might've been, including nods to the way the publishers have historically stolen credit from the creators, and the extent to which movies have come to dominate the industry.
That was a nice reference. I also liked the bit about being bit by a radioactive detective (even if we already had seen it in the preview for the episode).
I think the Midnight Ranger's other deaths were nods to various superhero "deaths" from the comics. The time-travel one suggests Grant Morrison's Batman death-and-return arc, and the robot duplicate suggests Nick Fury. I don't remember the other two. Was one an alien impostor?
"How did you do that?" "I was bitten by a radioactive detective." That was really fun. Anyone else think that comic writer looked quite a bit like Geoff Johns?