Given that the show is produced by the same guy who did House I assumed that Wilson thing was a reference to that.
Spoilers Houdini and Doyle
- Thread starter Christopher
- Start date
I thought it was a reference to Tales from the White Hart as well, perhaps and indication (albeit an obtuse one) that the tales told in the series are tall ones and so not meant to be taken too seriously.
As I said earlier, White Hart or similar, such as The Olde White Harte, is a very common name for pubs in the UK, the wikipedia article puts it as the firth most common pub name. It does also mention Arthur C Clarke and the fact the pub in his story is fictional and he based it on one called The White Horse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Hart
So I suppose it is possible that it's a reference given that The Red Lion and The Crown would be more common pub names.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Hart
So I suppose it is possible that it's a reference given that The Red Lion and The Crown would be more common pub names.
http://www.fiawol.org.uk/fanstuff/then archive/Horse/HorseTales.htm
Yes, I don't have any evidence that the reference is anything other than accidental.
Yes, I don't have any evidence that the reference is anything other than accidental.
Yeah, it's probably just a coincidence.
I see. I never watched House, so I wouldn't have picked up on that.
Well House is based on Holmes, transposed to investigating illness rather than crime. Dr. Wilson was House's best friend and ally at the hospital. So I took it as a joke based on that.
^^ Makes sense.
This week's episode was a cute idea -- bring in another famous figure from the period, Bram Stoker, and do an episode about vampire cultists. But I can't say I found it all that effective. It took rather enormous liberties with the facts. When Stoker was proving he wasn't a vampire, he cited the fact that he didn't turn to dust in sunlight, but that isn't from Dracula. In the book, Dracula could function in daylight; he simply disliked it. The trope of vampires disintegrating in sunlight was invented by the movie Nosferatu in 1922. Also, the episode inaccurately associated the symptoms of porphyria (a condition often mistaken for vampirism) with tertiary syphilis (which some biographers allege to have been the cause of Stoker's death). And Stoker wasn't a childhood friend or mentor of Doyle; they met in London as adults (though they were distant relatives).
Also,
Aside from anachronisms and factual liberties, it was predictable too. As soon as Doyle went to see the vampire expert Havensglin (which is a clumsy attempt to create a "real" name that could be anagrammed into Van Helsing) and the expert asked where Stoker was, I immediately went, "He's the real killer. It's always the friendly expert."
Also,
they seem to have killed off Houdini's mother, but in reality she lived until 1913, a dozen years after this.
Aside from anachronisms and factual liberties, it was predictable too. As soon as Doyle went to see the vampire expert Havensglin (which is a clumsy attempt to create a "real" name that could be anagrammed into Van Helsing) and the expert asked where Stoker was, I immediately went, "He's the real killer. It's always the friendly expert."
Poor Houdini. 
I knew that was coming, but he'll be inconsolable. Especially now that he knows how homesick his mother was.
I got a kick out of all the wannabe vampire and wannabe vampire killers. Taking cosplay a little too far there, kids.
And I don't really bother enumerating the anachronisms on this show anymore, but the "living in your mother's basement" line was jarringly modern.
I don't know that much about Bram Stoker, so his medical diagnosis may have been true. But what bugged me was when he escaped to go to the butcher shop to drink cow blood. Now I can believe that he could be anemic, i can believe that he would crave blood, I can believe that he would escape protective custody, and I can believe that he would break into a store-- but I cannot believe he would be such a messy eater. Why do vampires always let the blood drool down their chins like that? For one thing, it's very wasteful of something they need to survive, and for another, people generally aren't that messy when they drink, no matter how thirsty they are. There's no reason why vampires can't have manners.
And it looks like this is all leading up to something with Adelaide (or Penelope) and her dead husband. Allegedly dead husband. Was he working for the Anarchists or against them? And what will be the pseudo-supernatural twist? Only a couple of episodes to go.
I knew that was coming, but he'll be inconsolable. Especially now that he knows how homesick his mother was.I got a kick out of all the wannabe vampire and wannabe vampire killers. Taking cosplay a little too far there, kids.
And I don't really bother enumerating the anachronisms on this show anymore, but the "living in your mother's basement" line was jarringly modern.I don't know that much about Bram Stoker, so his medical diagnosis may have been true. But what bugged me was when he escaped to go to the butcher shop to drink cow blood. Now I can believe that he could be anemic, i can believe that he would crave blood, I can believe that he would escape protective custody, and I can believe that he would break into a store-- but I cannot believe he would be such a messy eater. Why do vampires always let the blood drool down their chins like that? For one thing, it's very wasteful of something they need to survive, and for another, people generally aren't that messy when they drink, no matter how thirsty they are. There's no reason why vampires can't have manners.
And it looks like this is all leading up to something with Adelaide (or Penelope) and her dead husband. Allegedly dead husband. Was he working for the Anarchists or against them? And what will be the pseudo-supernatural twist? Only a couple of episodes to go.
I looked into it some more, and apparently syphilis can have the symptoms described after all, though it also has a bunch of other symptoms that Stoker was lacking here. There have been attempts to link Stoker's syphilis to his writing of Dracula before.
Given that this series was apparently filmed in Manchester and Liverpool, I was surprised to see a couple of familiar Canadian actors in this Canada-set episode -- The Expanse's Elias Toufexis as one of the suspects and Orphan Black's Peter Outerbridge as Thomas Edison. I see in the credits that it's a Canadian co-production, so I was a little confused about where it was made, until I checked Wikipedia. Apparently just about all the guest cast here was Canadian, which shows an interesting commitment to authenticity (although Edison was from Ohio).
Apparently Edison did propose a device to communicate with the dead, though it was around 1920 that he alleged to be working on it, and he never published or demonstrated an actual design. Apparently Houdini and Edison never met, though Houdini did critique Edison's gullibility regarding spiritualism, and in 1914 Houdini recorded his voice on Edison wax cylinders.
Anyway, aside from the setting, it's your usual ambiguous stuff that has a rational explanation but just maybe not. I was surprised it took Houdini so long to figure out the electromagnet-under-the-floor trick. Although until Edison's assistant was killed, I thought it would turn out that he was the killer and that his motive would involve Edison stealing the necrophone idea from him, although now that I think back on it, my reasoning didn't quite make as much sense as I thought it did at the time.
Apparently Edison did propose a device to communicate with the dead, though it was around 1920 that he alleged to be working on it, and he never published or demonstrated an actual design. Apparently Houdini and Edison never met, though Houdini did critique Edison's gullibility regarding spiritualism, and in 1914 Houdini recorded his voice on Edison wax cylinders.
Anyway, aside from the setting, it's your usual ambiguous stuff that has a rational explanation but just maybe not. I was surprised it took Houdini so long to figure out the electromagnet-under-the-floor trick. Although until Edison's assistant was killed, I thought it would turn out that he was the killer and that his motive would involve Edison stealing the necrophone idea from him, although now that I think back on it, my reasoning didn't quite make as much sense as I thought it did at the time.
One of the companies involved in the production is Shaftesbury are also involved in producing The Murdoch Mysteries (which if you're not familiar with it, is a mystery series set in 1900s Toronto). Rebecca Liddiard appeared in one episode back in 2013
Well, looks like Houdini escaped from the Friend Zone.
Just in time for the allegedly dead husband to show up.
Poor Houdini. He isn't and won't take the death of his mother very well. The real Houdini was quite devoted to his mom. I thought it was very touching that even he, the ultimate skeptic, was seduced by the necrophone when faced with his greatest loss. And now he has seen his mother's ghost. The poor guy is cracking up.
So now Adelaide's husband has returned and is somehow involved with Anarchists. Hmm. Anarchy in the USA. In 1901. I wonder if President McKinley will put in a brief appearance.
Just in time for the allegedly dead husband to show up.
Poor Houdini. He isn't and won't take the death of his mother very well. The real Houdini was quite devoted to his mom. I thought it was very touching that even he, the ultimate skeptic, was seduced by the necrophone when faced with his greatest loss. And now he has seen his mother's ghost. The poor guy is cracking up.
So now Adelaide's husband has returned and is somehow involved with Anarchists. Hmm. Anarchy in the USA. In 1901. I wonder if President McKinley will put in a brief appearance.
Your prediction was right on the money, RJ!
Okay, that was weird... Our Heroes save President McKinley from assassination on September 2, 1901, and it's conveniently not mentioned that McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901 and died of gangrene 8 days later? So basically they bought him less than two weeks of life. Some victory. That's just strange.
The mystery about the whole town dying was ridiculously easy to solve. As soon as I realized the reverend had been in the steeple, it was obvious that it had been a cloud of carbon dioxide or methane. The only thing I couldn't figure out was how the girl survived, though I should've remembered the acidosis thing, because I've heard of that situation before (either in some work of fiction where the same thing happened or in reading about some real event). And the whole thing was handled half-heartedly, with barely any attempt to posit a supernatural explanation (at least not one that Doyle was advocating for).
It's a myth that you can't read in dreams. I used to have recurring bookstore dreams, back when going to the bookstore was something I did more regularly, so reading in my dreams was something I did quite often. It's just that whatever I read in a dream is rather stream-of-consciousness, and if I go back and re-read it, it will say something different.
The mystery about the whole town dying was ridiculously easy to solve. As soon as I realized the reverend had been in the steeple, it was obvious that it had been a cloud of carbon dioxide or methane. The only thing I couldn't figure out was how the girl survived, though I should've remembered the acidosis thing, because I've heard of that situation before (either in some work of fiction where the same thing happened or in reading about some real event). And the whole thing was handled half-heartedly, with barely any attempt to posit a supernatural explanation (at least not one that Doyle was advocating for).
It's a myth that you can't read in dreams. I used to have recurring bookstore dreams, back when going to the bookstore was something I did more regularly, so reading in my dreams was something I did quite often. It's just that whatever I read in a dream is rather stream-of-consciousness, and if I go back and re-read it, it will say something different.
Cool.
I haven't seen it yet, but I should be able to watch this morning before work.
10 webisodes.
^^ Sweet.
Fox has, for some reason, failed to put the last episode up on On Demand, so I haven't been able to see it yet.
Fox has, for some reason, failed to put the last episode up on On Demand, so I haven't been able to see it yet.
Episode 10.
Found legally here.
https://www.youtube.com/user/VervegirlMagazine
(I may have ####ed this up?)
Rebecca Liddiard stars in a webisode series for these people (Vervegirl/Kinda TV (they rebranded) makes Carmilla which is excellent.) called MsLabeled which is like a fluffier happier version of Ugly Betty.
Found legally here.
https://www.youtube.com/user/VervegirlMagazine
(I may have ####ed this up?)
Rebecca Liddiard stars in a webisode series for these people (Vervegirl/Kinda TV (they rebranded) makes Carmilla which is excellent.) called MsLabeled which is like a fluffier happier version of Ugly Betty.
The last episode was OK. I figured it was some kind of gas that killed the people in the valley right away, but I wasn't sure what kind or how it got there.
I was pretty surprised by where they went with all of the stuff with Adelaide's husband. I was a bit confused though, was there no anarchist group at all, or did he just make it look like they were the ones doing everything? Was he part of a bigger conspiracy or was he working alone?
I was pretty surprised by where they went with all of the stuff with Adelaide's husband. I was a bit confused though, was there no anarchist group at all, or did he just make it look like they were the ones doing everything? Was he part of a bigger conspiracy or was he working alone?