The first episode of Sherlock
is dense. It faces a number of challenges, not only as a pilot, but also to
meet (and hopefully exceed) expectations that are bound to come with recreating
something as heavy as “Sherlock”. Its plot has to hook the audience enough to
keep them coming back episode after episode, as well as introduce a new version
of something already created and make us fall in love with it.
Personally, I think one of the
strongest pulls of interest the show has is the beauty and intricacy of Holmes’
mind and life. The show does an excellent job in helping us understanding how
it works despite our inability to relate to it. It uses Holmes’ flat as a
perfect metaphor for this. The flat is a disaster. Everything is so scattered
that there appears to be no room to fit anything else, even if you wanted to.
Yet Holmes is as able function perfectly within it. He knows where everything
is, and is able to recognize immediately if even one thing is missing, like the
skull. In the same way, his mind is seemingly just as scattered. It is so full of
knowledge and observations, yet he is able to string together everything he
needs to in order to come to his ingenious conclusions. However it is too full,
just like his flat. This parallels his absent social life. He has allowed his
work to consume his life to the point that it can’t “fit” friends.
The
second pull is that against all odds, Watson somehow fits. At first he seems
too “black and white” to fit into the inherent grey life Holmes lives. His gun,
clean-cut look, and more quiet nature are all signifiers to his military
background. With that comes the expectation that he is rule follower. Yet is
whenever he is indulging with Holmes in his schemes that he doesn’t need his
cane. It is clear then that his cane actually symbolizes the emotional crutch
he needed to endure the mundane life outside of what he truly craves: danger.
No comments:
Post a Comment