Blog Post 2

The first episode of Sherlock Holmes was very interesting. I knew of the show and the main characters but I had never actually sat down and watched the show. After watching the first episode, A Study in Pink, I could see why people like it so much. The story was capturing, has interesting characters, was nicely shot and accompanied by music that really set the tone. Though there was more than a handful of semiotic characteristics and detail, I was only able to catch a few of them. You could say I was distracted by the exciting plot. From my perspective, I was able to catch signifiers and signified, syntagmatic events, paradigmatic relationship, and a synecdoche.

Signifier & Signified:

From the very beginning of the episode we see a pill bottle with four capsules in it. Of course anyone would think that pills are for taking if you are ill. However, the music that accompanies the scene of the pills notifies the viewers that these pills are not for curing or remedying. The ominous music lets the viewers know that the pills are related to the concept of death. Without the music to cue to the viewers what kind of emotion we should be feeling while seeing these pills, we may have not known that they were used to kill the victims.

Another instance that I really enjoyed and that caught my eye was when Sherlock sees that there has been a fourth victim death. Once he realizes this, the viewer can see that he is thinking. Then there is a scheming type of music that starts to play. This was seamlessly partnered with the image of Sherlock finally realizing the answer that he has been looking for. It the “Ah-Ha!” moment and the music perfectly portrayed this.

Syntagmatic Events:

I felt that syntagmatic events were constantly happening in this episode. One victim lead to another victim and so on. There is a chain reaction to the way Sherlock thinks and top the way that her solves things. For example, when he is viewing the fourth victim’s body, he touched her wet coat which lead him to touch the underside of the collar. He looked at the outside of her wedding ring, then the inside, then he looked at the rest of her jewelry. These series of events and clues lead Sherlock to his conclusion of her background story.

Paradigmatic Relationship:

As discussed in class, one recognizable paradigmatic relationship seen in this episode is Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. While Holmes is a bit rude when he speaks to other characters, Watson tends to be polite and keeps to himself. at the beginning of the episode we see that Watson has a very well kept and simple apartment. In contrast to Watson, in the scene of entering Holmes’ flat we can see that he is very messy with things all over the place. Watson even makes a comment about how Holmes has his stuff everywhere and that his flat could look better. Another example if Sherlock notices everything about his surroundings and the people in it and he analyzes them. Watson on the other hand does not notice the little details at first and was usually confused about what was going on.

Synecdoche:     

As discussed in class, it is said that Watson’s cane is literally his crutch. It was also mentioned that he used it to stay in his own little world. However, the way that I see it is that the cane is Watson’s mask. I felt like he used it as a mask to hide his true feelings about the war and his hunger for danger. As stated in the episode, Watson missed the danger. I could tell that when he left his cane at the restaurant that he had shed his mask that was hiding his true feelings. He was running with full speed and when he and Holmes got back to their flat he looked very exhilarated and I remember him saying something along the lines of “that was fun.” Even Holmes had Watson figured out and knew that the cane was just covering up Watson’s true feelings.