I am Sherlocked

So I’ve spent the best part of this week getting really emotional about the series finale of BBC’s Sherlock. It’s been a good distraction from my exams, which are nearly done now and I don’t think I’ve failed anything so success!! But also it’s made me reflect a lot on Sherlock Holmes and what a tragedy it is that the BBC only had 3 episodes a series, because I was so excited for this and now it’s all over and just.. my emotions.

Cuz Sherlock is by far my favourite incarnation of the consulting detective, although to be fair I have only seen 3, and I have so much respect for the writers and the way they’ve updated and twisted the stories and left in so many little gags for fans of the books and also made it so impossible for us to know what they’re going to do, even when we’ve read the stories and know how Arthur Conan Doyle did it, we know that they’re not gonna make it that simple and it’s gonna be awesome and why why why is it still more than 24 hours away?? Needless to say I’m excited and worried and emotional and my tumblr is just full of reblogs of things like

or

or

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(Clicking on those images will send to you their creators)

And more but if you’re that interested you can just go look yourself (it’s here)

I’m gonna be really upset when I have to wait forever (maybe literally) for more of this fantastic tv series. It’s just remarkable, the acting, the writing, what they’ve done with the character is phenomenal and they deserve so much credit for it. Also I only found out like 2 weeks ago that Mark Gatiss, one of the co-creators and writers (along with Steven Moffat), is also the actor for Mycroft Holmes and I love his portrayal of him!! Also his tweets are fun!!

To cope with the devastating loss of Sherlock from my tv screen (after only 3 weeks, stupid short, brilliant, series) I decided that it was finally time to complete my collection of Sherlock canon by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s a collection that started in 2009 after I saw and adored the Robert Downey Jr Holmes film. I knew of Sherlock Holmes before obviously, not just for his deerstalker hat and “Elementary, my dear Watson” (Which, incidentally, he never actually said in canon) but mainly because my then favourite character (it’s now under debate) Dr Gregory House was based on Holmes. After watching the film and loving it, especially the relationship between Holmes and Watson, I decided that I’d read some of the books, since it was near my birthday it was easy enough to get Aislinn to buy me some, she hit chapters and bought me 3 collections with plenty of stories in them, although there was some overlap between them. It wasn’t an issue though, since I still haven’t read all of them, two and a half years later. I am getting very close though, with only something like 6 stories out of the 43 she gave me left to go. I’ve also picked up all of the full length novels over the years and read them.

The reason I find it such slow going to read them is mainly down to the oldness of them, the language is a bit different from what’s common now, obviously and I normally have to focus a bit more to follow the story, since it requires more concentration I tend to go for something lighter if I’m reading right before I go to sleep, so Sherlock can get shelved for a while, and it’s only when the mood strikes me that I pick him up again.

Thankfully, I now own every single one ever!! Cuz I went on hunt to find the two collections that I was missing bits of and realised that it would be cheaper to just buy everything in one gigantic volume (seriously it’s huge ) and then I wouldn’t have to go hunting round wondering which book had which stories in it for when I needed and emergency reading of The Empty House just to remind myself that the falls might not be the end. So now I have them all and it’s great and I’m really happy. Also it was only like 9 euro which is awesome

As more Reichenbach preparation, I watched The Final Problem in the Granada tv series, which my dad bought for me on DVD recently. This adaption of the books differs from the more recent ones in that it follows the books pretty closely. It does it very well, but it’s not nearly as exciting, because it’s predictable. Jeremy Brett is a very iconic portrayal of Holmes though, and I’ve enjoyed the episodes I’ve seen.

I’ve yet to delve into the Basil Rathbone films, but I think it’s only a matter of time before I investigate these as well, since Holmes *is* the most portrayed character ever it seems a shame to only see a few adaptions, when I enjoy them so much.

My favourite thing about the modern ones though is that they can go into the exploration or the bromance between Holmes and Watson, something that just didn’t happen in the books. The film captured this wonderfully with little exchanges like
“Watson: Get that out of my face
Holmes: It’s not in your face, it’s in my hand
Watson: Get what’s in your hand *out* of my face”
and also the way it showed the reluctance Holmes had to meet Watson’s fiancé and accept that his best friend, only real friend, was leaving him.

It’s also a dynamic I enjoy in House, although I am a firm House/Wilson shipper and always will be, whereas I’m not so sure about Holmes/Watson.

The BBC series addresses it most directly since it’s set in modern London and gay couples do actually exist openly, so everyone assumes they are one. I think Aislinn’s favourite quote from A Scandal in Belgravia is probably
“Watson: For the record, if anyone out there still cares — I’m not actually gay.”
Martin Freeman’s performance is totally awesome, I love how in the most recent episode, he just can’t be bothered denying it, you can see the emotions flicker on his face and the thought process when someone assumes like
“No.. we’re not actually, oh forget it no one listens to me anyway, may as well just accept their assumptions”
Apparently Freeman is strong in the Falls and will bring people to tears so I’m excited about that, if not about the tears.

With both Martin Freeman and Jude Law (Watson in the film) Watson is played as much more of an equal to Sherlock, not intellectually of course, only Moriarty and Mycroft can really make that claim, but in terms of being a real partner and not just a sidekick. Both Watsons are also brilliant at playing off their Holmes’, It’s awesome.

Speaking of Holmses, I can’t let this post go without mentioning Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch more. They both do fantastic jobs of bringing the detective to life. They make him snappy and fantastic and hilarious and they’re both really hot which helps and they’re just insane!!

Just a few more things for me to flail wildly about before I give up and just accept that I will never adequately express my love for these things with words…

1) Andrew Scott as Moriarty. This man is Moriarty as he’s never been done before, rather than the old, sedate maths professor with the fantastic brain who is secretly dealing with all his criminal stuff on the side, this is a young, manic, insane Moriarty who’s frightening and unpredictable (“Sorry boys, I’m *so* changeable !”) and intense and when he says it, you really do believe that he will “burn the HEART out of you” or “make you into shoes”
His big scene so far was amazing, heart in the mouth confrontation where he shows that he’s not just frustrated by Sherlock, but fascinated by him as well and loves messing with him
“Sherlock Holmes: What if I were to just shoot you now? Right now?
Jim Moriarty: Well, then you could cherish the look of surprise on my face. Because I’d be surprised, Sherlock, really I would, and just a little bit… disappointed. And of course, you wouldn’t be able to cherish it for very long. “
The fact that he’d be disappointed, shows that he’s expecting something from Sherlock, that he respects him.. in a weird way.
It’s creepy and unpredictable and it didn’t fade from anybody’s mind in the year and a half before the cliffhanger in it was resolved. Whatever The writers have done with the Falls, this guy is definitely the actor to do it justice.

2 Is the use of text in the show. For phone screens and blog posts to be shown to the audience, but mainly when Sherlock is doing his thing, we get a little glimpse into his thought process, all of the tiny flashes that he’s picking up while the rest of the room has gotten about as far as “okay, it’s a man” It’s fantastic and one of the cleverest things about the series, IMO. Cuz when he explains it then, you saw him noticing, rather than him just reeling off “I saw this and it meant that” which is the best that a book can do.

It’s just by far the best TV show I’ve seen in a very long time. And I feel bad for the film, because they did this new and exciting adaption of the stories, and then a year later the TV show came along and did an even newer even more exciting version, which, in my head at any rate, kind of blew theirs out of the water.
Even when I went to see the second film there before Christmas I was disappointed, because it wasn’t as good as the first and because I didn’t have as much admiration for the writers. Not that I’m trying to be insulting, I really do love what they’ve done and I have a huge amount of respect for the work that they, along with everyone else involved in it, have put into the film which I did enjoy a whole lot. it’s just that as soon as Mycroft (played by the awesome Stephen Fry, something else that would have been more awesome if not for how much I love Mark Gatiss) mentioned Reichenbach early in the film, I knew how it was gonna play out in the end, even if the plot to get to that point was completely different. Whereas in Sherlock I’ve known for months that it was going to be Reichenbach tomorrow, and I’m still completely guessing.

If I let this rest for a few minutes and then came back I’m sure I’d have thought of 500 other little details that I could mention and praise about the show, but I would definitely advise anyone to watch it. It’s fantastic if you’ve read the books like I have, or if you haven’t like Aislinn, or if you’ve seen lots of other Holmes adaptions, like my dad. It’s just amazing.
Also if you know a Sherlock fan, offer them plenty of emotional support tomorrow, and don’t even dream of interrupting them after 9.00!!

I might post again after tomorrow with my views on the finale, but it’s more likely that I’ll be in deep mourning and incapable of stringing a sentence together, or indeed successfully completing my calculus exam on Monday morning. I don’t think “All Sherlocked out” is a valid excuse though… pity.And what other way could I possibly leave this than
“Sorry, got to dash. I think I left my riding crop in the mortuary.”

Scaring Myself

So I’m like a day away from my first set of college exams and in traditional me form, I’m horribly under prepared because study and I just don’t get on.

When I was getting really stressed about because I was worried about my leaving cert, my favourite teacher spent a lot of her time talking to me and trying to stop me from panicking. I’m very lucky in that I’m smart enough to get away with being as lazy as I am, and her method of calming me down mainly consisted of reminding me that I was gonna do pretty well even with little effort and then I’d be in college doing subjects I actually want to do. I’m very grateful to her for being willing to talk to me, and also I’m grateful that she knew me well enough to know the best way to talk to me. While I was still quite worried about the exams, she did help a lot, and even when my exams weren’t going as well as I’d hoped I was never worried about getting into the college (the benefits of aiming for a fairly low points course).

Then of course it turned out that I’d been kind of worrying about nothing, I was fortunate enough to end up with a very good leaving cert. I got into my first course and I also got the thing that was stressing me out more, the entrance scholarship into Maynooth that both my sisters got and I was convinced I wasn’t gonna get and I’d be shunned from the family and it was just gonna be awful… so yeah, that went well.

But it turns out that, even after the leaving cert, the magical ability to study still hasn’t made itself known.
And it doesn’t really make sense, because the thing that *really* got to me when trying to study before was that I hated half my subjects, the ones that weren’t sciences. Now I *only* do sciences. And even then I only do ones I like: Maths, Maths Physics, Experimental Physics and Chemistry. Okay I don’t like chemistry but I had to have 4 and I got a nicer timetable with chemistry than with computer science. But still like, it shouldn’t be that bad to study now… but still I’m just like, you know what? Tumblr…

And in a way I wish that I *had* been disappointed with the LC because then the back of my mind wouldn’t be going “ah yeah, but I’ll be grand like…” like chemistry is my first exam so I’m kind of worried about it but instead of studying I’m sitting here going “I thought I knew nothing in the leaving cert and that worked out well didn’t it?” and I know it’s stupid and that college is meant to be *harder* than school so getting into college shouldn’t be my brain’s guarantee that I’ll do ok here but I can’t help it, I just don’t study, I try to start off and then just mess it up and go online or read a book or sleep or something.. it’s so irritating and I know that it’s obviously my fault but I just never change.

I do at least have the consolation of having an okay average in most things for my CA, but still. I thought I was meant to have copped on by now, but I’m still fighting with myself and being stupid and totally not following my current life motto of “Don’t Panic!”

And even now while I should be stressing the voice in the back of my head is there being all blasé and smug and it’s just great.
Hopefully since it’s only first semester I’ll get by, and then for next semester I’m really gonna try get myself to stop being such an idiot.

And attack of the ego here for a minute, but I honestly don’t get how smart people study… I mean I have a lot of very intelligent friends, not to mention intelligent family members and while my sisters are both pretty lazy, I have these super smart friends who work so hard and I’m just sitting there in the background thinking “don’t you get that you don’t need to?” and obviously I’m the one who’s messing up but still I wonder how people do it…
Anyway hopefully I’ll manage, it’s really chemistry that’s the worry, physics and maths should hopefully be grand since I’ve been doing well enough in assignments and whatever in those…
Time will tell I guess.

I have no resolutions

I realised today that I had less than 20 blog posts in 2011. That’s weird. But anyway, 2011 is over and it was a pretty good year for me. Like I said before, 2011 was mainly a year for me to get places, since it was the year when I finished secondary school. With the first semester of college finished it seems like a long time ago that the Leaving Cert was a huge deal to me, but that’s mainly because the second I got my results the exams themselves faded into obscurity. It’s weird being out of school, because I did quite like my school, I didn’t like the exams, but in general I could have had a worse 6 years there. I ran into my old chemistry teacher last night and talking to him for all of 2 minutes reminded me that I actually got on well with most of my teachers, had pretty good friends and although 6th year sucked due to that huge leaving cert thing, the bits when the exams weren’t on my mind were pretty good.

Starting college in September was really good, I absolutely love Maynooth, my course is pretty good and hopefully my exams that start in about a week will go well for me. I also had the bonus getting some scholarships were definitely appreciated…

Christmas was pretty awesome, as well as juggling clubs and House series 7 on DVD, which were expected, I got a new phone which is totally awesome and was a really nice surprise.

For most of the Christmas period I’ve been looking forward to new years day, not because of the start of 2012 but because it brought the return of the BBC series Sherlock. The first series ended on a cliffhanger and fans have been waiting anxiously since to find out what was gonna happen with the world’s favourite consulting detective and his nemesis. I really really enjoyed the episode, I love how the writers include plenty of references for fans of the books (I especially loved the titles of Watson’s blogposts mentioned early in the episode) but also differ enough that you (or I couldn’t at least) see their conclusions coming. Can’t wait for the next few episodes, I absolutely adore this incarnation of the stories, especially the Holmes/Watson relationship.

This would be the point of the post when I’d mention a resolution for the coming year, but I don’t normally do those, mainly cuz I can never seem to think of one… So that’s exciting…

Anyway 2012 should hopefully be a good year for me, I’m loving college and enjoying hobbies and stuff, I’m reading more than usual which is awesome and there’s no reason for the year not to be good. Also, no leaving cert, definitely a bonus!