hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
|
Post by hikari on Nov 6, 2017 17:34:24 GMT -5
Hi, all, How do you like my new avatar? As Adler says in 'Scandal in Belgravia', "It's more me." I have found a new cyber community that, while it will not replace our late lamented Movie Lounge, does have a bit more going on than here. It is the UK-based, Holmes-centric www.SherlockForum.com. It was started as a fan site for BBC Sherlock but there are a number of other discussions going on, too. The show stuff has just about petered out, since it is for all intents and purposes, Over, and people have such short attention spans. However, after just one week, I have run into several interesting folks from all over. The site is dedicated to All Things Sherlock, in all forms, and a couple of newer members are trying to resurrect some of the dormant topics again. So come on over if anyone is so inclined to check it out. We might be able to get some successful cross-pollination and recruit a few new faces to our little salon here.
|
|
|
Post by cavaradossi on Nov 6, 2017 19:45:55 GMT -5
Hikari
That is a nice avatar. Did I mention I like birds as well as cats? Makes for some odd juxtapositions sometimes. I had occasion twice to rescue birds from cats who were just playing with them, or perhaps that should be torturing. Anyway, both occasions were on my front stoop and neither the action nor the place sat well with me. Although both cats were friendly with me, they were distinctly annoyed with me for doing this. I just told them I disapproved of them doing this where I could see it. Both birds still had enough life in them to warrant the rescue. One of them flew away after I held it up in my open palm and jiggled it, while the other one I placed on the top of a high bush. It took a little longer for it to realize it was going to live, but then flew off. I've no doubt this scenario, sans me, took place frequently in my yards.
I have to apologize. I didn't see your Oct, 28 post until shortly before starting this one. I haven't done any checking on the internet as to whether there will be a season 5 of Sherlock, but if there isn't it will hardly be the biggest shock ever. I really think there is a very good possibility that eveyone involved is through with it. Too much money to be made elsewhere, most likely.
As to The Fisher King, yes, It's DS Scott's second outing in Midsomer Murders, and features one of the strangest stories that series ever told, in my opinion. The story revolves around an unusual take on that old favorite theme of so many British shows, incest. A married young man with a son had an affair with his sister-in-law, producing another son. He also had an affair with a young woman, not much more than a girl actually, who was employed by his wife, and had a daughter by her. As Scott put it so well: "He put it about a bit when he was young, didn't he?" I still get confused about who was the mother of the sister/wife. This isn't the daughter of the girl who worked for the scoundrel's wife. She does though seem to have more than a touch of her father's blood in affairs of the heart. Approaching early middle age, she is having an affair with a young man ten or fifteen years her junior, a fact that puzzles DS Scott no end.
When the happy newlyweds send home the news of their marriage, their shocked mothers have to tell them the truth. The two refrain thereafter from conjugal relations, but the young husband is convinced that a certain ancient Celti ritual during the Solstice with allow the old gods to make " all things new", making it possible for them to resume relations. It's passing weird, I know, but on this hangs this bizarre tale. The episode still holds several other mysteries for me, like why did the killer decide to murder the first victim? I can see no reason for it, other than the fact that he was the son of the philanderer. Also, how in the world did he carry it off? I know the episode shows him doing it near the end, but the logistics and timeline of it are my concern, and can keep my up at night turning it over in my heard. Nor is that the only mystery this episode holds. I'll post on more of them later. Hopefully, you have a clue or two about them. Maybe William remembers the episode,too.
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Nov 6, 2017 23:36:15 GMT -5
Cav: I do recall the episode, as a matter of fact. One of our PBS stations runs Midsomer on Monday nights, and I saw it a few weeks ago. As I recall, the whole thing was pretty odd, but it did hang together for me. We watched another one this evening--The Axeman Cometh, a Ben Jones outing, and one which I confess I seem to have missed my first or second go-around with Barnaby and Co. A tyhpically convoluted plot, with a few loose ends (e. g. why is the daughter so loopy?), but we get to see Barnaby in an unaccustomed light as a blues-rock fan. I don't what would possess the writers to include a throwaway line linking Blind Lemon Jefferson to Elizabethan madrigals--but I did quite like the notion of Joyce rehearsing madrigals.
|
|
|
Post by cavaradossi on Nov 7, 2017 12:35:50 GMT -5
William Smith
Your question re The Axeman Cometh is a good one that caught me short also the first time I saw the episode. I came to assume that since the mother lost her mind from excessive indulgence in drugs, it was reasonable that she was taking them while pregnant. It's my understanding that taking drugs, especially the illegal kind, can damage a baby in the womb and that might have been why the daughter was so odd. At least it worked for me. What I don't recall at the moment (it's been a while) is the killer's motive for the murders. Motive is a big thing with me in murder mysteries.
As for The Fisher King, despite it's very real oddities, it's my favorite episode of the 14 DS Scott shows. It has an otherworldly atmosphere I find danged near irresistible, one aided no end by Jim Parker's score. Well, that, and all those characters who don!t seem quite sane, when you get down to it. There is also that very odd scene early on when Barnaby is interviewing the visiting professor from Sweden, seeking answers about the ancient murder weapon used. There are several striking things about this scene, one being that the professor has no reaction to Barnaby's description of the weird murder, and proceeds, without batting a eye, to give the detective a rationale for the killing using an old book that contains a near twin of the murder. Had Barnaby been a little more on the ball, he might have at least suspected that he could have been talking to the killer right then, but no such thought crosses his mind until very near the end of the story.
|
|
hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
|
Post by hikari on Nov 8, 2017 14:51:32 GMT -5
To Cav, who selected "The Fisher King" as his favorite Sgt. Scott episode:
I call that bold choice, brutha!
IIRC, that outing doesn't have a ton for the newbie to Midsomer to do. When evaluating episodes for my own personal catalogue, a strong/memorable part for the #2 is a very important factor, and that goes for any show, any #2 . . but maybe particularly this one because Tom is so steadfastly Himself throughout, it's the changing guard of sergeants that provides the variation in color.
My favorite Scott outings are thusly:
1. Ghosts of Christmases Past 2. The Maid in Splendour 3. Bad Tidings 4. Hidden Depths 5. The Straw Woman
All but one are from Hopkins' top 8.
|
|
|
Post by cavaradossi on Nov 8, 2017 15:25:07 GMT -5
Hikari
I get what you're saying about Scott not having too much to do in The Fisher King, but I'm always amused at his inability to wrap his mind around Vanessa, 35ish, and Harry, 20 to 23ish, being a couple. He keeps suggesting to them that Gareth, the first murder victim, would have been a more logical choice for her from the age and money standpoint. It made me wonder for a moment or two just how familiar our new No. 2 was with women really. The two accept his observations with reasonable grace, I think. Actually, Harry's father is deeply suspicious of the lady's motives as it is, to his son's evident annoyance.
This is all I can write at the moment. I have an appointment with my doctor. I took a bad fall this morning onto my cement patio in the back yard in a freak accident. The thought crossed my mind as I was struggling to get up that I couldn't have been stupider than to have done what I did. All I was trying to do was set a fallen trash can back on the patio. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, apparently for anyone else it would have been. Now I've got two injured kneecaps, one sporting an egg an ostrich would be proud to claim!
|
|
hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
|
Post by hikari on Nov 9, 2017 12:40:30 GMT -5
Hikari I get what you're saying about Scott not having too much to do in The Fisher King, but I'm always amused at his inability to wrap his mind around Vanessa, 35ish, and Harry, 20 to 23ish, being a couple. He keeps suggesting to them that Gareth, the first murder victim, would have been a more logical choice for her from the age and money standpoint. It made me wonder for a moment or two just how familiar our new No. 2 was with women really. The two accept his observations with reasonable grace, I think. Actually, Harry's father is deeply suspicious of the lady's motives as it is, to his son's evident annoyance. This is all I can write at the moment. I have an appointment with my doctor. I took a bad fall this morning onto my cement patio in the back yard in a freak accident. The thought crossed my mind as I was struggling to get up that I couldn't have been stupider than to have done what I did. All I was trying to do was set a fallen trash can back on the patio. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, apparently for anyone else it would have been. Now I've got two injured kneecaps, one sporting an egg an ostrich would be proud to claim! Oh, my!! I'm so sorry to hear about your accident. I hope the doc was able to patch you up not too much the worse for wear. Could you drive yourself to the office like that?
I live alone too, and confess that taking a fatal fall down the stairs or cracking my head in a tub slip is never far from my mind. If you somehow get word that I've been found with a broken neck at the bottom of my stairs, know this: the cat did it. I have one who is very fond of parking herself in the middle of the stairs as I am descending, forcing me to side-step around her, with or without bags of laundry or other in my hands.
I really hope you are all right.
In that FK episode, Sgt. Scott is betraying not so much his inexperience with women, I don't think, but rather his inexperience with the idea that not everyone is as superficial when looking for partners as he is. A woman of a certain age with a boy toy significantly younger isn't that unusual, but DS Scott would never himself consider what he would consider 'settling for an old bag' when he's at his prime. He probably thinks the young man in the arrangement is a wimp and a sad case who doesn't have the self-respect to go after someone his own age.
Beautiful people can be cruel, can't they? I can only guess at what beautiful people think, not being one myself . . .but circa 2004, Dan Scott ticked all the boxes for tall, dark and handsome and probably cut a swath through the nubile club girls of London . . at least the ones that were like him similarly vapid and devoid of much in the personality department.
The passage of time has probably adjusted his attitude, or would, were he real. Nowadays a woman in her late 30s would be *younger* than he.
This reminds me of one of the favorite bits in one of my favorite Morse episodes, 'The Wolvercote Tongue'. The two detectives have been up all night because bodies keep turning up murdered. They are sitting in Morse's living room having a couple of beers because beer is *just the thing* for keeping one awake at 4am, innit. Robbie is struggling to keep his eyes open. Morse proposes a theory of the first death of the night, when an American tourist in her 60s is found dead in her hotel room. Morse theorizes that perhaps she'd been having an affair with the gentleman in the next room. This perks Lewis up temporarily.
Lewis (disbelieving): People that age??? Anyway, she hadn't taken her shoes off.
Robbie had the obliviousness of the young(ish) back then . . .as a strapping example of Northern manhood, aged 36. His boss knew that people over 50 were still interested in sex and now Lewis understands that too.
|
|
|
Post by cavaradossi on Nov 9, 2017 20:33:56 GMT -5
Hikari
"...people over 50 were still interested in sex and now Lewis understands that too."
To Laura Hobson's everlasting delight, one imagines.
As for the injuries, I took a cab to and from the clinic. I no longer drive because of vertigo, something not nearly so enjoyable in real life as the Hitchcock variety. I've been fortunate in learning how to control it, but there's no good reason I can see for taking a chance with it happening, such as during driving. Yikes, I don't even want to think about it.
X-rays showed no fractured kneecaps, which is good news, but today I'm sore all over, from my neck on down to my toes. I'm not really surprised at that because it really was some jar I took in that fall. I was told if the swelling in my knees hasn't subsided within two weeks, I'm to return.
Do take care with those stairs. Just exactly the sort of possibilities you describe are why I'm so glad my house is one story. BTW, speaking of the house: since I paid off my mortgage in the spring, I've been receiving numerous solicitations in the mail from realtors wanting to buy the place. I don't get this. For the first time in nearly 50 years, I'm not paying rent or a mortgage. Why in the world would I want to sell my house?
Well, now since I know I've gotten far away from this thread's subject, I see that the local PBS affiliate in their reshowings of the earlier seasons will be airing The Abominable Bride, next week, so I imagine they will be reairing Sherlock, Season Four, after that. However, they have still not given any clue as to whether there will be a Season Five. Now, I have found something ominous on TVShowsonDVD.com. They note that Sherlock: the Complete Series is scheduled for release in a few weeks. That sounds to me very like the coup de grace on any hopes for another go round with our favorite dectective and friend.
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Nov 9, 2017 23:19:17 GMT -5
Cav: what a wretched thing. I hope you feel better, and that they gave you some good drugs.
Keep an eye on anything involving your neck. I had an MRI in January following my accident last year; the doctor glossed over some swelling at C5/6. I consulted with another doctor a few weeks ago because I'm trying to resolve my claim with the other party, and it turns out that I need surgery to remove the disk and fuse the vertebrae. Fortunately, it will be outpatient--no hospital stay--but the lesson I take is if you have any doubts, get more than one opinion.
|
|
hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
|
Post by hikari on Nov 10, 2017 16:40:41 GMT -5
Hikari "...people over 50 were still interested in sex and now Lewis understands that too." To Laura Hobson's everlasting delight, one imagines. As for the injuries, I took a cab to and from the clinic. I no longer drive because of vertigo, something not nearly so enjoyable in real life as the Hitchcock variety. I've been fortunate in learning how to control it, but there's no good reason I can see for taking a chance with it happening, such as during driving. Yikes, I don't even want to think about it. X-rays showed no fractured kneecaps, which is good news, but today I'm sore all over, from my neck on down to my toes. I'm not really surprised at that because it really was some jar I took in that fall. I was told if the swelling in my knees hasn't subsided within two weeks, I'm to return. Do take care with those stairs. Just exactly the sort of possibilities you describe are why I'm so glad my house is one story. BTW, speaking of the house: since I paid off my mortgage in the spring, I've been receiving numerous solicitations in the mail from realtors wanting to buy the place. I don't get this. For the first time in nearly 50 years, I'm not paying rent or a mortgage. Why in the world would I want to sell my house? Well, now since I know I've gotten far away from this thread's subject, I see that the local PBS affiliate in their reshowings of the earlier seasons will be airing The Abominable Bride, next week, so I imagine they will be reairing Sherlock, Season Four, after that. However, they have still not given any clue as to whether there will be a Season Five. Now, I have found something ominous on TVShowsonDVD.com. They note that Sherlock: the Complete Series is scheduled for release in a few weeks. That sounds to me very like the coup de grace on any hopes for another go round with our favorite dectective and friend. Cav,
So glad nothing is broken. Take care of yourself. I hope you have a non-slip bathroom set-up.
I'm always saying my next place will be one floor. Don't know when that will be. At this rate, I may have to put in for a ranch home as my heavenly mansion.
Not shocked that Mofftiss aren't doing a 5th series of "Sherlock". However, there still may be hope for some holiday specials ala what they did with "Inspector Morse". The show proper concluded with the "Twilight of the Gods" episode, but they milked 5 more years out of the concept with yearly cast reunions for the 5 'specials'. Both lead actors wanted out of a regular series commitment but were amenable to doing one episode a year. Perhaps a similar arrangement can be worked out with the BBC pair. I think a few offerings aired during the Christmas-New Year's traditional huge viewing audience (if not actually Yuletide themed per se) might be too lucrative to pass up. Also, as we have experienced personally, just because a new DVD release says 'Complete' on the box doesn't mean they won't find a way to release new material in the future, necessitating that collectors shell out more money to *actually* own the 'complete series'.
Perhaps Ben is just sick to death of dyeing his hair black?
|
|
|
Post by cavaradossi on Nov 11, 2017 13:59:07 GMT -5
Hikari
I've actually been hoping for a while that Lewis and Hathaway might return in those one a year specials. That would be nice, and I could go with that for Sherlock and John as well. I just hope, if they do, the shows might be better than The Abominable Bride. You've said that, on reviewing, TAB is a bit better than you thought at first. I hope so, though I haven't been able to get myself to rewatch it or the fourth season.
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Nov 12, 2017 16:53:49 GMT -5
Cav: I found The Abominable Bride to be so bad that I still haven't watched the fourth season.
Talk about a promising idea gone completely off the rails.
|
|
hikari
New Member
I am the Stormy Petrel of crime.
Posts: 45
|
Post by hikari on Nov 13, 2017 12:35:07 GMT -5
Hikari I've actually been hoping for a while that Lewis and Hathaway might return in those one a year specials. That would be nice, and I could go with that for Sherlock and John as well. I just hope, if they do, the shows might be better than The Abominable Bride. You've said that, on reviewing, TAB is a bit better than you thought at first. I hope so, though I haven't been able to get myself to rewatch it or the fourth season.
I'll let you guys in on a little something . . .though Cav has already been once through with Sherlock #4: The fourth season is so excreble, it actually elevates "The Abominable Bride" into something relatively watchable. TAB had its moments. Demonic suffragettes were an unfortunate OTT device of Moffat, but was it not droll to see our modern pair transformed into Mr. Paget's rendering of Holmes and Watson? I wonder if Benedict got to keep the outfit.
Season Four, most especially the final episode, is all that is spectacularly wrong with TAB, multiplied by a thousand. Of that sad and misconceived batch, the least-bad of the lot is the middle episode, "The Lying Detective". That at least has a tie to the Canon in that Holmes grievously abuses his health in order to catch a murderer (Culverton Smith) . . and Benedict does some really fine acting of a complete mental and physical breakdown. If only this were a chapter in "Trainspotting" instead, it would have really been boffo.
The third episode is an abomination on every level. There is one scene that is quite touching between Molly and Sherlock, but as for the rest, I was internally screaming 'W.T. HELL!!!' so loud I missed a lot of what passed for the dialogue. In fact, I've seen it twice and the whole thing is a blur.
Moftiss is dead to me . . .their cards as bona fide Sherlockians hereby revoked. To not put too fine a point on it, Steven Moffat sucks. His collaborator deserves some of the blowback as well, but I have a feeling that SM was calling the shots and got his way on every conceivable point. So I hate Mark Gatiss somewhat less, but am still bitterly disappointed that he sanctioned this travesty that is S4. For shame.
|
|
|
Post by cavaradossi on Nov 15, 2017 18:34:27 GMT -5
William Smith
You didn't watch Sherlock, Season Four? Congratulations, you avoided a world of pain! There was no excuse for that travesty, in my opinion. I feel for all the other Sherlock fans who got taken in by that ill conceived season. Can one ever trust British television again?
|
|
|
Post by cavaradossi on Nov 15, 2017 18:55:52 GMT -5
Hikari
So you managed to watch Sherlock, Season Four, TWICE?! You must be a glutton for punishment! I couldn't stand a moment of the season during my one and only time through it. I'm not intending to buy it, by the way. It would just be a waste of money as I'll never watch it. I never bought The Abominable Bride either, but that one I may, I say may, buy sometime if the price drops to near giveaway. Actually, it would be overpriced at free!
I wouldn't be surprised if someone wrote a book in the future on the series Sherlock, discussing what went wrong with it and why. That I would read. Disasters, after all, have a certain draw on our imaginations, and Sherlock definitely was one. Like the Titanic, it sailed the world all shiny and new, an object of widespread admiration and wonder. Then came the iceberg, the cold blooded, not to mention cold hearted decision by its creators to destroy it in pursuit of more lucrative adventures. They might even make a movie about it!
|
|