Watching Sherlock (Series 1, Episode2)

It seems that some people like The Blind Banker (written by Stephen Thompson) a bit less than the first and third episodes, but not I. It’s an episode that allows us to discover more about our two heroes with a different backdrop. I’ll even go farther because the creation of Dr Sarah Sawyer (Zoe Telford) was a brilliant idea (more about her when she’s on screen).

Let’s have a look at that episode, shall we?

Fair warning: as usual, I’ll be over-analyzing everything.

The opening scene takes us to a museum where a charming Asian lady, Soo Lin Yao (Gemma Chan), is performing a tea ceremony for some visitors. She looks really enthusiastic about the task, but the art of making tea is something very special and her dedication is understandable.

When she’s done and she’s putting everything back into a box, she’s joined by one of her colleagues, Andy Galbraith (Al Weaver). He’s a perfect cliché of a geek, and he’s obviously got a massive crush on his colleague. If there’s one thing to say about Andy it’s that he’s brave, and even though he’s completely clumsy, he tries to invite Soo Lin out on a date (it’s a predictable fiasco, but Andy’s an interesting character: I think he’s supposed to be appear somewhat dull, but he is not).

Since we’re dealing with a Sherlock Holmes mystery, it’s obvious that Soo Lin is avoiding Andy because of some dark, if yet unknown, reason… and we don’t have to wait too long for a clue; after the museum closes, Soo Lin goes to put away her tea ceremony box and, after a few sound effect to induce fright, she reacts to something off-screen, and as the opening credits roll, we’re left to discover what’s so frightening at a later time.

That’s going to be much later apparently, because the next scene takes us to John and Sherlock and their domestic arrangement: John is fighting with a chip and PIN machine at the supermarket, doing the shopping for Sherlock and him whilst Sherlock is fighting a masked man armed with a sword in the living room (incidentally, a mirror is back above the mantelpiece, which adds the illusion of space and is rather welcome).

John’s fight is hilarious, and I want to bet the writer has been observing people at his own supermarket or having a fight of his own (those machines can be really useful, but they have a slight tendency to do odd things, and here we’ve got a collection of almost all the possible malfunctions).

When John gets back home after leaving his shopping bag with the machine, he thinks that Sherlock hasn’t moved a muscle since he left. John sounds utterly frustrated for various reasons: Sherlock's lack of participation in daily chores, the machine that refused to obey him, and most of all, money problems. It seems that what annoys John the most is that Sherlock is refusing perfectly good work for reasons John doesn’t deem good enough, and this is how we discover that the earlier attacker was sent in order to convince Sherlock to find the Jaria diamond, which is just too boring for Sherlock.

It’s obvious that John is very preoccupied because he notices that the kitchen table is scratched, but he doesn’t ask Sherlock what caused that, which would force Sherlock to mention the visitor. As well, he doesn’t react when Sherlock hides the tip of the broken sword that his assailant left behind.

In this domestic scene, there’s something very, very important about the relationship between Sherlock and John because when John asks if Sherlock could lend him some cash, Sherlock offers his debit card (now, I don’t know about you, but I’d have to trust someone deeply to hand him, or her, my card). Sherlock trusts John (then again, John Watson is profoundly honest).

Yet, in spite of this friendly trust, Sherlock cannot be bothered with domestic things (when John finally comes back with their shopping, he doesn’t help), and he borrowed John’s password-protected laptop.

In the original stories (see my post on the topic there), Sherlock Holmes is from a family of country squires. I think we’d all love to see the bible the authors are using to update Sherlock, but he’s certainly still from a rather wealthy and well-educated family (after all, Mycroft didn’t become the “government” only thanks to his brain; the family must have extremely good connections) [Confession time: I started writing this two years ago, and we now know that my last statement is most probably off about the connections. Interesting twist]. As well, if we imagine Sherlock coming from a wealthy family, it might explain why he acts with Mrs Hudson as if she were the housekeeper and why he lets John do everything in their flat (if there was always someone to clean and cook, then Sherlock doesn’t have such things on his brain… and how he survived between university and moving to Baker Street could be explained with some elder brother intervention at regular intervals – or Sherlock just doesn’t care).

The fact that Sherlock borrows John’s properties must be annoying for John, especially if he’s trying to blog in peace, or date online, but it reveals how much John is a part of Sherlock's life. [I’d warned you that I’d be over-analyzing, hadn’t I?]

Apparently, John’s pension isn’t enough to afford life in London, even with a flatmate (his post seems to be mostly bills, which he puts down, and he tries to borrow money from Sherlock, who immediately announces that he must go to the bank).

What John briefly takes for his flatmate and friend helping him was in fact Sherlock being fully focussed on the e-mail from an old mate he’d received and read on John’s laptop. Since the university mate, Sebastian Wilkes (Bertie Carvel), seems to have some interesting mystery on his hands, Sherlock decides to answer to Sebastian’s invitation (since he’s a banker, that allows John to follow Sherlock for completely wrong reasons).

When they arrive at the bank, Martin Freeman’s expression is absolutely brilliant; it seems to say, “Ah, so that was absolutely not about my problem; Sherlock's onto something”.

What’s also interesting about Sherlock's character is his reaction to Sebastian. He probably came to keep showing off and to get a potentially interesting case. From what Sebastian tells John, Sherlock's life must have been semesters of bullying at university (the fact that Sherlock introduces John as his friend is to show his old mate that he’s not alone, that he’s got a friend, someone who cares). But, of course, Sherlock ignores the possible double meaning of friend (it’s good that the writing team decided to keep having fun with the sexual ambiguity – it works and brings fun), John feels the need to clear things up (perhaps one day, he’ll just add “and colleague” to Sherlock's “friend” reference), and Sebastian doesn’t care one bit.

Finally, after teasing Sebastian, Sherlock gets his mystery: someone got into Sir William’s office, and the shrine to the former boss has been tagged with yellow paint (one symbol on the wall and a single line over the eyes of Sir William’s portrait). Since the bank has cards for every door, Sebastian knows that no one walked through the office’s door, and the office is at the top of a huge building (in real life, I’d ask Sebastian to check his computers because good hackers can do a lot of things, and if he were sure that the doors stayed locked, I’d tell him to look at the roof: if it’s not the door, it must be the window, or as Sherlock would say ‘when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. It may well be that several explanations remain, in which case one tries test after test until one or other of them has a convincing amount of support.’ [The Blanched Soldier]).

Sebastian writes a cheque for Sherlock that he hands to John; what is not much for Sebastian is quite a lot for John (and it doesn’t help that he knows Sherlock doesn’t care about the thousands of pounds).

Sherlock starts working on the mystery and takes pictures of the symbols on the wall (they’ve got to have a meaning), and then he launches himself in a very funny sort of dance in order to assess from where the tag can be seen (the scene’s quite funny as the background music’s highly amusing, and Sherlock's dance makes him look like a human prairie dog). Luckily for him, there’s only one office from which it’s visible, Edward (Eddie) Van Coon’s (Dan Percival).

As they leave the bank, Sherlock seems pleased that John understood that his friend’s behaviour was meant to annoy Sebastian. Since John saw the trick, Sherlock proceeds to explain how he knew what Sebastian had recently been doing… and if one thing’s for sure, it’s that he’s got really sharp eyes to have spotted that the watch was a very recent model.

The investigating duo goes looking for Mr Van Coon, and we get to see how cunning Sherlock can be since he manages to convince Van Coon’s upstairs neighbour (a new addition in the building) that he’s Van Coon and needs to hop down onto his balcony because he’s locked himself out. Either Sherlock is very convincing, or Mrs Wintle’s really gullible… or a bit of both. It’s extraordinary, but if one stops to take into account the number of scams in real life, that’s not impossible.

Once he’s in, he starts an inspection of the flat (the Champagne-filled fridge is a delightful cliché), and then John starts ringing the bell (waiting for Sherlock to open a door is going to be an important twist in the plot – and that shows that Sherlock's still mostly in his bubble; he likes having an audience, but he’s not really making sure that he’ll keep that audience).

Van Coon’s dead on his bed, and we go straight to police work with the Forensic Services buzzing with activity around the flat: Sherlock's got to be really convincing since he and John have been allowed to stay even though the officer in charge of that case isn’t present yet.

Just before Sherlock demonstrates that John and DI Dimmock (Paul Chequer), just like in most of the canon stories, have been jumping to conclusions and thought that a City man just committed suicide, he makes a mistake when he thinks that the DI he doesn’t know is a mere DS, who answers to DI Lestrade (none of them’s perfect, and that keeps showing us that Sherlock does make mistakes now and then).

Sherlock's always ready to do whatever’s necessary to gather clues, and he happily checked Van Coon’s suitcase full of dirty laundry. That allows him to have a better, clearer view of the entire situation: he knows that Van Coon was killed (and that he knew he was in danger since he’d locked himself in and had a gun), and he knows that the killer had to be quite extraordinary to find a way to actually get in.

Sherlock leaves Dimmock to his investigation, and he goes to report to Sebastian, who treats him like a servant, but then again, he’s been written to look like a typical rich bully who’s used to be obeyed (good job!).

Sebastian doesn’t want to hear anything about Van Coon’s murder, which the Police reported to the head of the bank as a potential suicide, and he reminds Sherlock that he’s paying him to find the person who vandalized Sir William’s office. Sherlock doesn’t look ready to follow that order because he knows that both have to be linked.

The focus shifts to a new character, who seems to be running as if he had the Devil after him. He runs to his flat, but the camera zooming in on his frightened expression informs us that he was too late… but we’ll have to wait a bit to discover what happened to him exactly, as we head back to the museum from the opening scene. There, our lovely geek is informed that he’s to go to Crispians in order to appraise two Ming vases made during the reign of Emperor Chenghua; that cannot be random (so how do we tie everything together, um?) and that's how he learns that Soo Lin quit, which doesn't make any sense since she loves her job (he's very concerned and goes to her - deserted - flat and leaves her a note asking that she contacts him).

Since John’s pension’s not enough, we find him looking for a day job – something that’s going to pay a few bills.

If he may get some locum work, the interesting point is Dr John Watson flirting like hell with Dr Sarah Sawyer. This interlude could be there merely to add some fun, or to follow the long tradition of Watson always being a gallant man looking for a potential Mrs Watson; I think it’s more than that because Sarah is quite a lovely and interesting character.

For the moment, we don’t get to see anything else about the two doctors, and John dives back into his Sherlockian life, a life where his flatmate is so absorbed by the mystery about the signs that were painted in Sir William’s office that he hadn’t really noticed that John was gone, which tells us how focussed and unaware at the very same time Sherlock can be.

Even though John slips and reveals that he’s quite interested in Sarah (and he tries to pretend that he was talking about the job at the surgery), Sherlock can’t be bothered because there’s been another murder that shows similarities to Van Coon’s (the flat was bolted from the inside): and we’ve got the tie with the frightened man who was running for his life, only to fall into the claws of his assassin. The second corpse is a freelance journalist: Brian Lukis (Howard Coggins).

Not being a huge fan of coincidences, Sherlock goes to Scotland Yard with John to see Dimmock (who’s forced to admit that Sherlock was right, and Van Coon didn’t kill himself).

Sherlock coldly growls ‘So this investigation might move a bit quicker if you were to take my word as gospel.’ Arrogant, but that works, and Sherlock gets five minutes in Lukis’s flat.

First, Sherlock understands that their killer’s someone who can climb walls, because that’s the only logical explanation to what happened at the bank, and to the way two men were killed on the fourth floors in bolted flats. The next question is to connect the two victims… which takes Sherlock and John to the West Kensington Library (the fact that Sherlock spotted the one book that Lukis borrowed the day he died can be attributed to the writer handing Sherlock the clue or luck – since we’ve established that Sherlock can sometimes rely on different things). By following the book trail, they find the exact same sign than the one at the bank, and that’s when the graffiti becomes a mystery cipher (that was borrowed from The Adventure of the Dancing Men). Since Sherlock's not a specialist, he needs help and heads to the National Gallery. Well, on the side of the museum to meet a street artist, Raz (Jack Bence).

When Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman cross the square and head towards the museum, just when they walk past the fountain, we can notice something that Cumberbatch mentioned in an interview (somewhere on the BBC, I think; probably The Graham Norton Show): since they had to shoot that scene several times, three girls can be spotted waiting for them and walking behind them in an attempt to be in the scene. That’s a bit odd.

Once they’ve found Raz, he can help about the kind of paint that was used, but the meaning of the tag escapes him (we even have a spot of red herring when he says that he doesn’t think it’s a proper language; he may be gifted in his field, but he isn’t a linguist). When the announced Community Support Officer arrives, honest-John doesn’t run (for good measure, Raz even give a kick to his bag of paint cans to have it closer to John), and John ends up being the one in trouble.

Whilst John’s probably invited to meet more police officers, Andy, at the museum, is trying to convince his boss that there’s something definitely fishy about Soo Lin quitting, she prefers to suggest that he might have been bugging Soo Lin instead of listening to his very valid objections: that serves the plot, and that’s probably how most people would react.

And John finally goes home after a meeting with a Custody sergeant (and after getting a court appointment on Tuesday: he’s being given an ASBO) and Sherlock’s totally unconcerned. He’s decided that they need to retrace the two murdered men’s steps to see where their paths intersect.

Just before John takes a cab to Scotland Yard to get Lukis’s diary, he’s photographed by an Asian lady; she could be any tourist in London, but since Sherlock learns from Van Coon’s PA, Amanda (Olivia Poulet), that he was just back from Dalian, this is not just a tourist – she’s a clue.

There’s a gap in Van Coon’s schedule for the day he died, but Amanda’s got all his receipts, so Sherlock will be able to get clues, and speaking of clues, after having Dimmock mildly insulting Sherlock, we see Lukis’s plane ticket from Dalian: there are no coincidences, indeed.

Sherlock and John finally bump into each other in front of the Lucky Cat Emporium (Sherlock understood that Van Coon had come in the area to deliver something, but it’s John who got the final info from Lukis’s diary, and he shares that with Sherlock once Sherlock lets him say a word). The place is a charming (if a tad expensive) shop where Sherlock realizes that his cipher is numbers, in Hangzhou (incidentally, since they were filming in Chinatown, they could have asked someone how to pronounce it, which would have avoided some bad mandarin pronunciation, à la Kill Bill).

For a very brief moment, John sees again the Asian lady who was in front of their house, but she disappears like a ghost (he should sometimes listen to Sherlock and to his instinct and mention this kind of oddities, then Sherlock could add the data to his brain file on the current mystery).

Sherlock comes to the logical conclusion that both murdered men were smuggling things from China and were delivering the goods to the Lucky Cat Emporium, but it’s John’s wondering why they were killed after delivering whatever they brought back that makes Sherlock understand that one of them must have stolen something from their boss.

Right then and there, Sherlock spots an unpicked directory across the street and he rushes to investigate (John can kiss his lunch goodbye; if that’s not friendship…).

And all the chips start to fall into place: the directory was for Soo Lin, and it’s been there for at least three days – and she’s left the rear window open, which is a bit odd. Sherlock manages to reach the fire escape, but John doesn’t follow (that’s a part of the plot, and he really needs to be quicker and learn to follow Sherlock, too).

The flat only looks empty, but Sherlock notices that the carpet by the window is already wet when he nearly drops the vase next to the open window: someone’s been there. Being used to operating mostly alone, he starts his tour of the flat, and he talks to John, who’s downstairs, on the street, as if he could hear him clearly. Sherlock realizes that he’s made a dire mistake as the killer’s still in the flat, and John’s anger and rant outside is going to come back and bite him somewhere painful very soon.

Sherlock's nearly strangled, but his clumsy attacker doesn’t finish the job and puts an origami black lotus in his pocket: this could be meant as a warning, but what would that mean to a Westerner? That’s just another clue to bring us closer to the bottom of the mystery, and the note to Soo Lin that Andy had left on a convenient envelope with their workplace’s name leads Sherlock to the next connection (not impossible, and rather plausible given the circumstances).

Once at the museum, they retrace Soo Lin’s steps before she disappeared, and we finally get to see what frightened her and made her flee: she was sent the same code Van Coon and Lukis got, and she knew she had to run.

They leave the museum, and Raz miraculously finds them there; a spot of explanation (a quick text or something) would have been nice, but let’s say we believe in sheer luck.

On their way to the thing Raz wants to show them, John focuses on his impending court date (he’s too much of a man of honour if he believes Raz’s going to come and admit the paint was his!), and he never spots the third appearance of the Asian lady.

Raz has found bits of the cipher that have been tagged over; they go looking for more. Sherlock finds empty cans of paint (and one poster seems so interesting for some still obscure reason that he tears off a part of it and keeps it). John finds a whole wall covered with the Chinese cipher; since Sherlock wasn’t answering his phone (if he was focussed, that’s plausible; by now, we know how he is), he had to go looking for him. The wall’s been painted over when they reach it again (in ten minutes! Either they had a horde of painters on stand-by, or I need these guys in my flat for some work that needs to be done); that generates a hilarious scene as Sherlock wants John to maximise his visual memory and doesn’t give him time to mention that he was cunning enough to take a picture of the wall with cipher.

Their night out allowed Sherlock to understand that they need Soo Lin to crack the code, and back at the museum, the fact that there are two shining teapots where there was only one the day before tells Sherlock that Soo Lin’s hiding somewhere in the museum; he’s proven right that night.

Then, we get a lot of background info through her story: she shows them the black lotus on the sole of her foot (great idea to hide the mark of a Tong, a variety of Chinese mafia, but… not all members would be able to withstand the pain, as that’s said to be the most painful place to get a tattoo – and it fades after a few years, as well. Once more, we could imagine that they’d be knocked out or something, but that’s a tad too romantic an idea… or a bit of a cliché… or a telly thing). So, we’re dealing with the Chinese mafia, and one of their assassins, Zhi Zhu, is looking for Soo Lin because she’s tried to escape her former life and she refused to help their boss in their quest for what either Van Coon or Lukis stole.

There’s an odd thing when she mentions Zhi Zhu: first, he’s someone she met back in China, and then she says he’s her brother. If she didn’t plan to confess as much, kind-hearted John could have pointed out that she didn’t have to be ashamed of what she’d had to do to survive. That detail’s strange.

When we see a black lotus being folded, it signals that Soo Lin’s about to die. The general of the Black Lotus controls Zhi Zhu, and he’ll kill even his sister.

Sherlock asks her about the cipher, and she can just mention a book before the power’s cut (needing a book to decipher a code is borrowed from The Valley of Fear), and we know Zhi Zhu’s about to attack. Sherlock runs out and is shot at by Zhi Zhu; somewhat stupidly, John leaves Soo Lin (yes, he tells her to bolt the door after him, but that’s not going to stop her brother). This could be seen as John wanting to protect his best friend, but it’s somehow a good thing that he was a very good army doctor, not a strategist: one stays with the potential victim! And on that head, Sherlock's just as stupid: they could have tried to take Soo Lin to safety all together… but then she wouldn’t get killed, and we need that in the plot. Okay.

That’s still poor strategy. Just sayin’… Oh, and the brother, shooting with almost no clear view of Sherlock? Bit not good, as well, but that allows Sherlock to be witty about the respect the museum items should elicit in his would-be assassin.

As well, it’d have been nice to actually translate what Soo Lin tells her brother (‘Liang. Elder brother; you’re here’) because not everybody’s fluent in Mandarin – and even less in Cantonese. That doesn’t add any pseudo-exoticism; that’s just an annoying, frustrating detail.

Our dear DI Dimmock’s being a bit thick about all this, but… it’s true that there are people like that in real life. Since he’s asking for some proof, Sherlock takes him to Barts, where poor Molly’s being nastily tricked by Sherlock (it’s scary, and incredibly well done, to see that Jekyll/Hyde side of Sherlock). As well, Sherlock's coldness and clumsiness and utter lack of social skills show again when he discourages Molly from choosing the pork, as she’s probably about to slice up cadavers – very efficient to show us how weird he can be, and how besotted she is.

When Dimmock’s been given the proof he was asking for, he agrees to have Sherlock help him, and since Soo Lin said the cipher was based on a book, Sherlock asks for Van Coon’s and Lukis’s.

Whilst waiting to get his greedy hands on those, Sherlock realizes that Soo Lin’s former boss needed her knowledge in Chinese antiquities, and that takes him to Crispians’s Auction website where he makes the connections with what the two dead smugglers brought back from China (the vases that Andy was to appraise instead of Soo Lin) – everything’s beginning to tie together nicely. Incidentally, the imaginary “Quest search” search engine is back (that’s consistent, and no one had to come up with another design for another fake page).

Mrs Hudson is portrayed as particularly disconnected: she asks Sherlock if the young man (a police officer, incidentally with colleagues in uniform carrying the boxes!) at the door is bringing boxes of books for a charity collection. Knowing Sherlock, that’s more probably work – and guess what? It is.

Odd portrayal, but after all… why not?

In order to delay the discovery of the right book to decipher the cipher, it turns out that City-boy Van Coon seem to have been either an avid reader… or merely book-buyer; anyway, he seems to have owned as many books as Lukis (incidentally, I think the dead boys beat me in the amount of book they owned; perhaps I should point that out the next time Mother hints that my flat’s going to collapse onto the one below because of the number of books I own).

Dimmock gives them back their copy of the picture of the wall taken by John. For the sake of the plot, and in order to show us that Sherlock's definitely not perfect, neither John nor Sherlock looks at the document, which is going to prove being a mistake the very next day.

This is supposed to be team work, but Dimmock is sent home, and John’s efforts are practically ignored. The next morning, they haven’t found the right book, and John’s watch beeps in order to inform him that he’s expected at work even though he hasn’t slept at all.

John’s first day is rather a fiasco, as the practice’s receptionist has to try to reschedule the patients John’s not calling in. Here, Dr Sawyer steps in and saves the day (either she’s super nice, or her crush on John’s done something to her brain – or both) after catching John napping at his desk.

What I like about Sarah is that she does save John’s hide, but she does tell him it was unprofessional, but the next moment, she straightforwardly asks if his girlfriend’s to blame in any way for his lack of sleep, and right after John proclaims himself girlfriend-free, he invites Sarah. These two work well together (and I admit that I’m a fan of Sarah).

Sherlock's all frustrated at home, not finding the book he needs, and when John gets home, he announces that, since he needs a change of scenery, they’re going out tonight. When John mentions that he’s got a date, Sherlock keeps focussing on an outing with a friend whilst John has in mind something that could hopefully end up in a bed: slight communication problem on Sherlock's side, but that keeps the theme of “What’s Sherlock and John’s relationship exactly?” quite alive, and that’s still funny, thanks to Sherlock's level of clumsiness. Even funnier, John does follow Sherlock's dating advice though he should know that:

a – Sherlock's completely at sea when it comes to dating – whatever he pretends to know,

and b – Sherlock must have some hidden agenda.

John falls into Sherlock's trap and gets his date hijacked in the process: they’re investigating a Chinese circus that’s in London for one night only (that is a tad farfetched: a week wouldn’t have hurt, and it’d give the Tong a better alibi). Of course, when John spells out to Sherlock that he’s not happy to have Sherlock around as he’s trying to ‘get off with Sarah’, the lady joins them again (John should really know better – even if Sherlock's driving him nuts – but that is funny).

Both boys should pay attention to Sarah because whilst they argue about the exact kind of performance they’re going to see, she is avidly listening to them.

If Sherlock's smile when the scorpio’s revealed is any indication, that simple accessory was enough to tell him what they’d be seeing that evening (and after the first shot, he becomes the audio commentary for John and Sarah: he shows off, they don’t mind, and we get some info about what’s going on; everybody’s happy).

Sarah may be quite surprised by the gong, but she keeps holding John’s arm, and he’s not bothered one bit. These two prove to be quite a good audience, and they’re mesmerized by the alleged show. Sherlock being Sherlock, he sneaks out in order to investigate what’s going on backstage. That was a good plan since the so-called artists are supposed to be occupied elsewhere, but making the hangers rattle as the lady’s come to take something, that’s rather clumsy, but since we’re then surprised by the fact that there’s a hidden guard in the room, that can be overlooked (he was clumsy, but he was toast anyway).

Sherlock and his masked assailant fight (sword against a can of yellow paint, and the sword’s not the most powerful, and Sherlock seems to have a way against swords). When they both end up landing directly on “stage”, the audience starts fleeing, except John, who rushes to help Sherlock, and Sarah, who actually is the one who rescues Sherlock by knocking out the bad guy (that was properly awesome).

Dimmock still doesn’t get it, and he’s not helping Sherlock much, and Sherlock, John, and Sarah head to Baker Street, where she ends up staying for diner (or something). The mention of food’s always something good in John’s book, but the state of the boys’ fridge and cupboards is simply appalling. Mrs Hudson may not recognize police officers delivering Sherlock's homework, but she can spot a date needing help a mile away, and she brings a tray up to her tenants’ flat.

When John was looking for anything still edible, Sherlock was working on the cipher, and Sarah was busy investigating on her own and being completely unfazed with Sherlock (which is something he needs a lot more of in his life!). She’s the one who finally notices that Soo Lin had already translated two words on the photo Dimmock had brought back from the museum. That gives Sherlock a vital clue, since the book he needs in order to be able to read the cipher had to be at the museum, right where Soo Lin started working on it, and he rushes there, leaving the lovebirds alone at last.

The timing’s absolutely perfect when Sherlock exits 221B, since he collides with German tourists (his German’s better than his Mandarin by the way) who are consulting a London A-Z; he doesn’t catch the passing-by cab, but the delay allows him to realize that the A-Z is the key. Of course, Sherlock might look completely barmy so the tourists surrender their A-Z, but he’d be kicked somewhere painful if he tried that with me (Oi! That’s £5.99 for a new one!).

Sarah and John are really getting along beautifully (she doesn’t seem too traumatized that she had to rescue Sherlock from Chinese smugglers, and they’re both hungry).

As John goes to order some takeaway, we go back to Sherlock and his purloined book; he’s so obsessed (focussed? Nah. He is obsessed) that in spite of the cold, he starts deciphering the thing right where he is. We’re being teased as the message begins to be revealed: ‘Nine mill for…’ and we’ll have to wait a bit.

John’s somehow too trustful, as he goes to answer the door to get their dinner even though ‘that was quick’ (deliveries can be on time, but they’re seldom early). Unfazed with the general state of the flat, Sarah doesn’t mind eating off trays.

We get confirmation that Sherlock's obsessed and not paying attention because he’s not that far from his own door when John gets knocked out (as well, abducting John and Sarah must have required more than just one man, and probably involved one vehicle – and the curious Mrs Hudson, who knew that Sarah was staying with them didn’t hear a thing. Whatever was on telly must have been really good, then!).

When Sherlock runs home to John because he now knows that the full message is ‘Nine mill for jade pin. Dragon Den, black tramway’, he and Sarah are gone, and they’ve been sentenced to death with a tagged 15-1 (London A-Z, page 15, first word: deadman) on the windows.

John and Sarah have already been taken to the Dragon Den, and General Shan, who was the lady from the fake circus, isn’t really gifted since she does believe that John is Sherlock (yes, the fact that John has Sherlock's debit card, his £5000 cheque, and the theatre tickets bought in his name, plus the fact that John attempted an impression of Sherlock outside Soo Lin’s flat doesn’t help, but he’s got to have some “Watson” items in his pockets, too, and Shan could have made an inquiry about Sherlock in Chinatown, or even in the Chinese restaurant that Sherlock likes so much down Baker Street!). It was a good idea to fail to kill him on purpose so that he’d look for the treasure for her, but she had the wrong man targeted.

Sherlock's nervous to locate the Tong, and he points towards Holborn on his map; from Baker Street, that’s an about 8-9 minutes taxi ride – rescue in 15 to 20 minutes at best (he needs to find a cab, and then find the den). I know, it’s telly (and not linear, real-time 24), but I do find myself wondering if a different editing of the sequences or a different location for Sherlock to point at might have been better for the plausibility of the plot… I know; I’m demanding.

Shan and her men have retrieved their scorpio (they’re really good, or the police are silly, or the police left the theatre because Dimmock didn’t want to be in trouble with his bosses), and they’re going to use it on Sarah if “Mr Holmes” doesn’t help them find the empress’s jade pin. We can wonder why they’ve gagged Sarah; then again, if she wasn’t knocked out like John, she was probably shouting like a banshee when they took her.

Of course, Sherlock arrives right on time; he manages to knock out of of Shan’s men who was silly enough to walk too close, and he cleverly tells Shan that firing the kind of weapon she’s got (awesome eyes that man!) would be too dangerous in that kind of tunnel – true or not, that makes her think again.

Sherlock may be a clumsy and clueless person, but he rushes to Sarah, who’s still right in front of the scorpio (there’s no telling how anyone would react, but now that Sherlock's here and that things are about to get lethal, she could, at least, try to get out of the way by making her chair fall or something). Sarah’s paralyzed… probably because she had to wait for John to move the bloody thing and save her (and kill Sherlock's attacker). Okay, that sucked. Big time. She and John could have worked together: she falls to the floor, he move the scorpio that kills Sherlock's attacker, and then the two bound people are the heroes; now, that would have been better. Sarah knocks out a guy at the circus, but she sobs and waits to be rescued? Not buying that scene, boys; it could have been better for all three characters – all the more since she’s not running away from John once she’s untied.

The one good thing is that Sherlock's very nice when he frees her.

And at last, Dimmock has seen the light (it’s always nice to see someone locating the brain “on” switch).

There’s still one mystery to solve: where’s the hair pin worth £9 million? That’s Sherlock and John’s morning job as they head back to the bank.

As usual, Sherlock answers, but very cryptically: he knows it was Van Coon who took the hairpin because of… the soap (an expensive brand that he spotted in the smuggler’s flat and that’s also in cream form on his PA’s desk: Sherlock's connects the dots and understands that Van Coon and his Pa were having an affair). Since the smuggler had to obey Shan, he annoyed his lover one too many times, and he tried to make amends by giving her a jade pin (that man was a real idiot, but there are people like that). Knowing how Amanda’s going to react, Sherlock puts his Cheshire-Cat smile on to tell her how much it’s worth (Olivia Poulet’s reaction is simply awesome).

There’s a form of poetic justice when Sebastian has to pay the rest of the promised wage (£20000) whilst all he has to do is lock the window so no one can climb to the balcony and waltz in.

At least a day later, breakfast-time in Baker Street sees our protagonists with at least one fishwrap devoting its front page to the discovery of the jade pin (with lousy pun and all). John’s convinced that the fact that Shan escaped is bugging Sherlock, but as the latter points out, the whole network’s quite vast, and there’s no point in worrying about one general (with or without Shan, the Black Lotus will go on, and they’ll use another book from now on).

Right then, “Innocent” (or “quite silly”) John comes back as he doesn’t tell Sherlock that a young Asian bloke is painting an eye in front of their flat. Now, I’m no tag specialist, but if something that can be read as “observe”, “watch” or “monitor” is made right after their adventure with the Black Lotus and their tagged cipher, I think I’d point that out to my genius flatmate, at least. Let’s imagine that John needs his tea to be fully aware of what’s going on (that’s the charitable deciphering of the scene).

The last scene sees Shan contacting the person who helped her get out of China (she’s a Tong, and she’s got no way to be smuggled out of the country? Perhaps her contact had cheaper rates or something).

Whilst “M_” only types (in capital letters, which is highly annoying, but fits the character!), Shan’s on video with him (let’s face it, even before we got to watch the third episode of that series, I was already shouting ‘Moriarty!’).

It was obvious that Shan would be shot. Moriarty’s a tad less clumsy than she was.

And fade to black.

[Music] Waltz, for Mary & John by Sherlock Holmes

Hello, and Happy New Year, my sweet (mostly silent!) readers!

First, I'm recovering from a stay out of town, and I'm planning a lil' something for the new year (in the continental tradition... so I've got until January 31st to cook that).

Then... I've been happily feeding my Sherlock addiction.

I'm (extremely slowly and clumsily) learning to play scratch the violin (all that because Mother wanted to buy a wheelbarrow, but that's another story), and I must say that Sherlock is kindly providing me with things to fight with learn to play.

On Sunday night, we got a glimpse of the score of the waltz Sherlock wrote:

I went looking for a complete score of it, hoping that good musicians fans of the series would upload one somewhere.

I've found a few now, but a few notes in what I found where bothering me (that's the compulsive palaeographer in me speaking: I kept looking at the screencap I'd made!). Being stubborn (and a tad OCD), I did this:

As usual, if you spot something wrong or... something... whatever... TELL ME! I swear that I won't bite.

Merry Clicks

T'is the season to be merry... and to make a list of things that I 'recently' discovered and that cheered me up tremendously.

This is when I'm quite happy that my odd habit to hop from link to link and to follow the works of artists I like turns into a very good thing.

When you start learning to fly and you look for... well, everything about planes, you wonder why there are so many things on YouTube about 'cabin pressure'. You click a link, and you start listening to an awesome radio show. Created by John Finnemore, Cabin Pressure is funny, witty, moving, and I love it... even if I do have to keep in mind that "M" is Mike, not - I repeat NOT - Molokai. ;)
Mr Finnemore is very funny, and he sounds quite nice - and he's got many other talents (I'll admit that I'm quite fond of his brain, and the man can draw, too. What's not to like? Seriously... I'd give a lot to be half as funny as he is!). [Note to self: you're good with another style. Deal with it.]

The day I was looking for info about Mark Gatiss (more films or series to watch), I discovered that he's written several novels, and I must say that I often read again his three novels featuring Lucifer Box. I highly recommend The Vesuvius Club (first in the series, and with quite a few - absolutely delicious - twists), but do read them all.

I'm definitely looking forward to some more Sherlock next year.
I did 'click' twice on that one: first, when I opened a friend's e-mail where she very strongly suggested that I watch it, and when I ordered the DVDs of Series 1 (same thing happened for Series 2, minus the e-mail: I now pre-order the DVDs).
Sherlock is so good that it rid me of depression for a few months (before another Real Life explosion made me go back to my plant pills). Just for that, I'd love it, but it's so incredibly good (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes's novels and short stories - in two huge volumes - were among the very first books I read, and they're in my brain forever) and it's made with so much love that it's become very dear to me.
Sherlock is having Holmes and Watson beamed over to our century and updated by a team of fans and devoted people who make it look astoundingly good.

Then, there's CBBC.
Completely by chance, I discovered two series that are very good. The titles caught my eyes, and it turns out that both are quite nice to watch.
Not taking things in order, the second that caught my eye is Leonardo. The plot is completely improbable, but who cares? It's entertaining and good (seriously, I wish the series had been this good when I was a teen... a few aeons ago).
And then, there's my current new addiction. The best surprise (for me) of the end of 2012 was Young Dracula.
I caught Series 4 on the telly, just because I wondered what that was about, and I thought 'Hey, why not give it a try?' (I was hooked before the end of the first episode I saw), and thanks to a cousin who'd saved her old iPlayer files, I was able to catch up on Series 1 to 3 (bless her!).
I discovered this series right after Auntie Beeb decided to release Young Dracula's Series 1 DVDs. I wasn't done watching Series 1 at my cousin's that I was already ordering the DVDs.
Now, our lovely "auntie" needs to wake up in marketing and get the other series on DVD, too; there seems to be a devoted audience - teens and older viewers (*cough* I'm not the only older viewer who finds it really good), and producers need to learn to feed the fans properly - and before the next millennium!
[Note to readers: if you've got an e-mail address to contact Auntie Beeb, share it with me. My hunt on the net was fruitless between CBBC and BBC Worldwide (which was indicated as the site to contact in order to know what DVDs are going to be released)]
So... if you like witty vampires and a stellar cast --> Young Dracula. You're welcome. Enjoy!

Watching Sherlock (The Translation Edition)

I am still angry with the translation into French of Sherlock Series 2.

First, I'll be honest and point out that the faulty translation of the second episode was due to a massive typo on the broadcasting channel's website. They properly translated The Hounds of Baskerville.

However... there are many disappointing translations throughout the episode (tough job translation, yea, I know, but...).

I'm still convinced that they're dumbing it down, and I can prove it.

When Sherlock and John meet Gregory at the pub, there's an exchange that goes:

Gregory: I suppose he likes having all the same faces back together. Appeals to his...his...

John: Asperger's?

Now, if I retranslate the French version, John's line becomes: Autism?

Of course, this condition is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but there is the exact same word in French; the condition wasn't given another name.

Since John says "Asperger's?" in the original version, and there's the same word in French, the translation into the more generic "autism" cannot be justified by lip movements.

It's dumbing down that explains it. Because the audience is too stupid to know what it is, or to grab a dictionary to look it up.

Good job, guys! /end sarcasm



Watching Sherlock (The Translation Edition - Updated)

After a quick poll in town (yea, I'm that kind of weird. Why?), it turns out that most people don't seem to mind that the titles for Sherlock Series 2 are poorly translated.
Well, I'm awfully sorry, but I do mind. This dumbing down is atrocious.

Now...
The dubbing in French...
I'd promised an update.
Here it is: *distributes ear-plugs* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The choice of voices is odd. I didn't like the dubbing for Series 1, and the new characters' voices are utterly disappointing (not the fault of the actors and actresses, though).
A few references are completely lost in translation. If you don't know the original, the final result's decent, but if you do know the original, it's really disappointing.

I know that most French viewers won't mind, but it really could have been a sharper work...

Watching Sherlock (The Translation Edition)

All right.

Some people really don’t get marketing.

Some people should not translate anything.

I am angry furious.

I love Sherlock, and the series keeps getting better and better.

Since I’m “caught” between several cultures, I can watch the series dubbed in several languages.

Since I’m working across the small pond for the moment, I’m going to be able to watch the second series dubbed in French tonight on France 4, and seriously, I want to use a riding crop on whoever translated the titles.

If the one for the third episode is vaguely possible (The Reichenbach Fall into La chute du Reichenbach); Chute de Reichenbach (drop the first article and keep Reichenbach a place that doesn’t need a contracted article) would have been slightly better, I think.

However, the translations for episode 1 and 2 are, in my book, appalling.

The short story A Scandal in Bohemia was transformed into A Scandal in Belgravia. Apparently the average French viewer is just too stupid to know (or grab a dictionary, or even Google it) that Belgravia’s a district of London, because the translation is Un scandale à Buckingham (A Scandal in Buckingham). All right, not that (geographically) far, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut… What a disappointment!

Sherlock is a very intelligent, witty series, and dumbing down the titles doesn’t bode well for the dubbing.

From the novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, we got The Hounds of Baskerville. What’s the translation into French? Le chien des Baskerville, which gives (except if we’ve got a repeated massive typo throughout the France 4 website)… The Hound of the Baskervilles. Weirdly enough, translations on the Internet give the correct Les chiens de Baskerville.

Do they think that everybody will watch in French, and then swap to the English version? If people were that good in English here, I’d be out of a job!

Yes, translation is a tough job (been there, done that), but just seeing the translations of the titles is making me very afraid about the rest of the work (and yes, I’m aware that the translation for episode 1 could be seen as an adaptation – or even a shift of focus towards the ‘sweet little posh thing’, but I really think it’s a dumbing down of it. Sorry).

I’ve been a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for too long to be nice about inaccurate, lazy, disappointing versions.

And since I’m the DVD-buying audience, I’m allowed to be growly.

I’ll post another message after the broadcast (either an apology, or a frustrated yell)……….

Watching Sherlock (Series 1, Episode1)

A year after the first episode (the one that became the pilot) was shot, the team was back to work on a new version of A Study in Pink.

From the start, the tone is different. We land in a noisy nightmare; Dr John Watson (Martin Freeman) is reliving the moment he was injured. Even if you don’t know what’s going on because you’ve never read the original A Study in Scarlet, the war scene gets your attention.

When John wakes up and frees himself from the nightmare, the camera makes him look younger, lost, afraid (and I always wish he could get a hug because he seriously looks like he needs one). It’s a very moving scene.

The bed, made with military precision tells us that sleep was gone for good, and once the bed’s made, there’s nothing for John to do but wait for dawn.

John’s breakfast is very interesting because his mug informs us that he was not just a soldier, he was an army doctor, and the doctor is eating an apple (all right, that can make a quick and un-messy breakfast, but I see this – and I might well be smoking the lawn, I know – as a tiny sign that John’s done dealing with his colleagues because to be invalidated from Afghanistan, he must have been thoroughly probed by his fellows. It wouldn’t be the first time that an apple’s turned into a doctor joke) – or he can’t afford real breakfast.

When John takes his laptop from his desk drawer, there’s his gun in it, which is quite odd, but I’m sure some administrative mistake could well explain why the good doctor is still in possession of his weapon.

Once the computer is on, we get to see an empty blog, but a blog that looks like something that could really be found online. I’d like to pause one tiny moment here in order to thank whoever had the idea to create the webpages for John’s blog (http://www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk/), Sherlock's website (http://www.thescienceofdeduction.co.uk/) and the few other pages that are referenced on the BBC’s Sherlock page. It’s quite a lot of work to entertain us, fans, and it’s really nice. I’ve never seen such a thing done for any other series I follow, and I think it’s a part of the huge dedication of the ones who work on Sherlock (so if one of you working on that ever reads this… Thank you!!!).

Next, we catch John attempting to lie to his psychotherapist, Ella (Tanya Moodie), but she’s not to be fooled. Their scene together is now very slightly expanded to show John’s distrust and possible paranoia, but she’s encouraging and tries to find a way to help John.

Of course, forced-to-civilian-life John utters his own version of famous last words; he’s not going to die, but boring life is about to become a thing of the past. He doesn’t have to be on a battlefield to feel alive – all he needs is Sherlock.

The definitive opening credits are superb. From that opening onwards, music almost becomes a character in itself (David Arnold and Michael Price did an astounding job).

Then, the next scene isn’t about John, or Sherlock. “October 12^th” appears on a background that tells us that we’re in London where a woman, Helen (Siobhan Hewlett), is telling her boss (and lover), Sir Jeffrey Patterson (William Scott-Masson), to ‘get a cab’ since the company’s car went to Waterloo and can’t pick him up. Immediately afterwards, the man is seen in a building, opening a bottle filled with odd-looking pills (transparent capsules with white and red tiny beads – now, my sweets, that might well be mint and sugar inside, but it looks scary), and he takes one whilst looking really distraught. We see him convulse and die in some empty office space overlooking the city as the voice of his widow (Victoria Wicks) takes us to the statement she’s making to the press after the event.

One journalist seems interested in the crying Helen. As we see her tears fall, the scene moves to a street, at night, in the rain, on “November 26^th”. There, two young men are being soaked in spite of their shared umbrella, and one of the two, James Phillimore (James Duncan), decides to head home to get another umbrella. However, he ends up killing himself in a sports centre; he used the same pills we saw earlier.

We move to “January 27^th” and Beth Davenport’s (Katy Maw) birthday party, where two of her political advisors take her car keys to prevent her from attempting to drive after too many drinks. She ends up taking one of the infamous pills, too.

For the moment, the pills seem to be the only clue, but as in any well-planned mystery, we were given more than that: in fact, later in the episode we’ll get to see the full connection, with each victim falling into the clutches of their murderer. The main clue we had was the reaction of each victim as he, or she, swallowed the pill; they looked too afraid and sad for it to be done willingly.

Since the poison’s the same, the Police caught on (well, when I say “caught on”, I mean that they’ve noticed that there was something fishy, but the cases are still called “apparent suicides”).

Sergeant Sally Donovan (Vinette Robinson) is introducing a press conference. DI Lestrade (Rupert Graves) is trying to answer the journalists’ questions, but they’re genuinely (and rightfully) puzzled by the concept of serial suicides. As Lestrade tries to explain that, basically, there has to be a connection between the victims, we get all the mobiles in the room getting texts at the same time – a text, the same text, declaring to all that Lestrade’s “Wrong!”.

This moment brings us to pure genius, with the texts received on mobiles (and later data from computer, as well) seen directly on screen. Whoever came up with that idea to avoid focussing on mobile screens (that were too small anyway) deserves a prize or something (or a pound of Belgian pralines at least). It was brilliant, and it works beautifully!

Donovan, who knows the texts must come from Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch), tries to have the journalists ignore the texts – yet, she’s quite concerned about what the Daily Mail might have to say about the inquiry. In the pre-Leveson UK, this was a glimpse of the power of the press, where a Scotland Yard DI can’t tell journalists to use their brains (and not start a town-wide panic, thank you very much).

Since he’s somehow disrupted the meeting, Sherlock can send Lestrade a private message to offer his help, and Lestrade might be annoyed, but he knows he needs Sherlock. Right after the conference, Donovan complains about the one who makes them look like idiots and asks her superior to make him stop, but Lestrade points out that no one knows how he manages to orchestrate his little demonstrations of disdainful brilliance.

Since the opening credits, the scenes had been rolling the one into the next, and we’ve got at last a true transition as we go back to John, walking fast through a park. He definitely looks as if he’s got to get somewhere (or is in a hurry to avoid being out amongst people), but he’s recognized and stopped by his fellow, Mike Stamford (David Nellist).

In the novel, Stamford was a dresser under Watson at Barts, and he’s been upgraded to doctor status now, which gives him more freedom – and probably a quicker access to Sherlock.

In Conan Doyle’s work, the two acquaintances meet at the Criterion bar and have lunch on the spot; now, they meet in a park and share a cup of coffee there, but the name we can read on the cups is Criterion (in twisted ways sometimes, we’re never far from canon in this series).

Mike asks John about his plans (the whole situation makes John so tense that his dominant hand painfully goes into spasm), and “Harry” is mentioned for the first time.

Mike mentions a flatshare, which John thinks impossible to find since he’s a grumbling ex-army doctor who’s got to live on an army pension and who’s disillusioned. John’s lucky that just earlier that morning Sherlock had told Mike he thought he could never find a flatmate.

John’s fate is sealed: he’s going to go meet a potential flatmate.

The one who was talking with Mike earlier is still at Barts, in the spacious and modern morgue, opening a body bag and giving its contents an expert sniff: we’re meeting Sherlock at last. Apparently, he needs to test a theory about some crime on the body of a former employee, whom the pathologist, Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey), knew.

Sherlock's use of a riding crop in the morgue is definitely one of the details that catches everybody’s attention in A Study in Scarlet. Now, the weird factor goes through Molly’s facial expressions (we don’t get to see what Benedict Cumberbatch hit for real, but, behind the morgue’s window, Louise Brealey makes faces that make it look as if the act’s really violent – and she’s supposed to be a pathologist! Ah… an enthusiastic Sherlock shall not be stopped).

Molly’s got a particular (morgue-y?) sense of humour that Sherlock isn’t equipped to detect and appreciate, but even if she’s doomed to fail at getting Sherlock's attention for real (for the moment, at least), there’s one thing she isn’t: she’s no coward, and she does try to invite him on a date (and Sherlock's too socially inept to understand the actual question). Her crush on Sherlock might lead her nowhere, but she’ll keep trying (and she’ll keep being a great friend).

She’s a strong, witty, caring and fascinating new addition to the plot.

In his exchange with Molly, Sherlock speaks very fast when he’s got something to share; in this revision of the episode, be it for time or for artistic reasons, our dear Sherlock now has his lines delivery on fast forward. Sherlock's brain’s a supersonic, and his speech follows suit when he’s got something he deems important to say; that works very well.

Sherlock's counting on Molly to text the results of the riding crop whipping, and he went to a lab in order to experiment on something; Mike and John find him there.

Simply by walking into the room, John’s already revealed a lot to Sherlock, and when John lends Sherlock his mobile, the latter’s ready to gloat and tell John what he’s deduced about him.

We have a short Molly interruption when she brings the ordered coffee and she gets a critic of some sort for having got rid of the lipstick noticed by Sherlock in the prior scene. Disappointed, but unfazed (she must know Sherlock and his ways by heart by now), she leaves.

Out of the blue – for John – Sherlock wants to know how he feels about violin playing. Mike, as the mutual friend, has a great little smile that says “Yes! I did it! Sherlock and John are going to be flatmates!”.

Sherlock's really not fully connected to the real world sometimes because he agrees to become John’s flatmate, but the average mortal’s not a Sherlock (or a seer!) and as John rightfully points out, he doesn’t know his future flatmate’s name or where they’re to meet the next day to see their flat.

Sherlock's slight coat swirling is very nice in this scene when he turns back to John to explain all the things he’s gathered about him in a couple of minutes and before giving his name and the address.

John heads to his place, reads Sherlock's cryptic message sent with his mobile (we can see John navigate to it. Did I say it was a brilliant idea to have the text on screen?); it’s a reference to a case explained on Sherlock's website (did I already say that I really appreciate those pages?), and he starts investigating his future flatmate on the Internet (on a fictitious search engine: Quest search).

Then, the lady-in-pink, Jennifer Wilson (Louise Breckon-Richards), comes on stage as we see her pick the bottle of poison pills from the floor. She’s shaking, and we know she’s going to die.

Up to now, the bottles have always contained several pills.

John’s walking to 221B Baker Street as Sherlock arrives in a cab. Next to their door, there’s Speedy’s Sandwich Bar & Café (if, like in the pilot, the place had still belonged to their landlady, Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) perhaps she’d have been able to feed the boys more easily, but it’s funnier to have Sherlock and John having to fend like true modern bachelors).

The director, Paul McGuigan, filmed this scene with more space between the camera (us) and John and Sherlock. That way it doesn’t look crowded and as if there was a third person involved.

The original Holmes and Watson are brought to the 21^st century and will start calling each other Sherlock and John: logical update.

Wardrobe dropped the dress from the 1960s for Mrs Hudson, but I’m still not sure about that colour though...

Now, the living-room wallpapers (plural in the new version) look as if they exploded over several decades (there are typical examples of designs that were popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s – I should know, my living-room is a time-capsule of its own). The set’s very different and we’ve lost the mirror above the mantelpiece, which is a real pity because that poor room needs all the light and depth it can get now.

When Mrs Hudson asks John if he’ll want his own bedroom, the poor doctor is completely at sea. The idea that in today’s London two bachelors moving in together might share a lot more than the rent isn’t farfetched at all and it’s good fun that the writers decided to keep that misunderstanding and to play with it. Mrs Hudson whispering that her fellow landlady next door has a gay couple for tenants is a good way to show that she doesn’t care what Sherlock and John plan to do behind closed doors at night, and it helps John spot the beginning of a very long line of misunderstandings of the same nature (Martin Freeman briefly looks at Benedict Cumberbatch as if to say ‘Care to enlighten me and share something, Mr Holmes?’).

Mrs Hudson will keep claiming that she’s not the housekeeper, but with Sherlock around and his natural tendencies towards mess, she starts cleaning up – a bit.

When John announces that he’s found Sherlock's website and looks utterly dubious about his flatmate’s ability to decipher so much about people, Sherlock looks lost for a second.

John doesn’t seem to believe that Sherlock can identify a software designer by his tie and an airline pilot by his left thumb. Apart from the fact that it’s exactly the kind of thing one can expect from Sherlock Holmes, we’ve got an airline captain and his thumb now where we had a retired plumber and his left hand in the pilot; I can’t help thinking that this might be a reference of some sort to John Finnemore’s Cabin Pressure in which Benedict Cumberbatch plays Captain Martin Crieff (I’m probably over-analysing, but I want to believe the change is a reference and a nod).

Here, we reach a tiny detail that really gets my neurones in a twist (and we already have it in the pilot). I may be wrong (and there are times when 221b will look like an open space in the coming episodes), but how does Lestrade get in?

If the door is locked (no one leaves a street door open in a capital city. Well… maybe in Tokyo, but we’re in London here) and Mrs Hudson is with Sherlock and John on the first floor, there’s no one to open the ground floor door. [I know it’s telly and that’s a fiction, but I’m not saying I believe it’s real, I’m just saying there’s a tiny plot-hole, or there’s something we don’t know and Lestrade was a burglar in another incarnation]

Apparently, the lady-in-pink just broke the serial suicides’ pattern by leaving a note, and Lestrade needs Sherlock's brain.

When Sherlock leaves, he orders food from Mrs Hudson and ignores her when she reminds him that she’s not his housekeeper. He puts his coat on and takes his scarf – and his burglar kit (essential tool to go to a crime scene with police officers who hate you).

John shouts at Mrs Hudson for mentioning his leg (and his uselessness in his mind), but good education takes over and he apologizes. He and Sherlock are a bit “birds of a feather”, because he asks for biscuits with his tea while Mrs Hudson only offered to make a cuppa.

In the meantime, Sherlock's brain finally registered that he doesn’t have to suffer through exposure to the Yard’s coroner, Anderson (Jonathan Aris); he now lives with a very good ex-army doctor.

You know, my saying that our boys are a bit “birds of a feather”? Scratch that. They tick the same way, but in different languages, and John agrees to follow Sherlock to Merlin-knows-what just for the sake of not staying home, having tea with their landlady.

Thanks to the commentaries on the DVD, we discover that when Sherlock and John exit their home they froze for a moment in order to have the shoulder-held camera put on a crane. We get a splendid view of the street as the cab that Sherlock just hailed drives away.

While on their way to the crime scene, Sherlock tells John how he made his deductions about him the day before. This time, Benedict Cumberbatch’s line delivery is much quicker than in the pilot and it’s got a nice violin music theme that works very well in this scene. Right in the end of his longest explanation, Benedict Cumberbatch exhales (because after such long lines he’s got to be in serious need of oxygen); it’s becoming a Sherlock trait: important information requests to roll off the tongue as fast as possible.

John’s deeply impressed with Sherlock, and Sherlock's deeply surprised that John’s not telling him to “piss off”. They were made to be flatmates.

However, Sherlock's in for a surprise since the Harry he thought was John’s brother is his sister, Harriet (Sherlock's not always right, which makes him a tad more human).

Once they reach the crime scene, they’re welcomed by Donovan, who shows her hatred for Sherlock.

The coroner, Anderson, looks much better shaved (it was a pity to hide him under a beard in the pilot).

John’s none too discreet look at Donovan’s knees right after Sherlock outed the illegitimate couple is absolutely hilarious (it’d be nice if we could get to read how that was described in the script).

It’s very clear that in a real crime scene, Anderson wouldn’t allow Sherlock to walk around without a forensic suit, but it looks much better to have everybody in suits, but Sherlock.

Now, we get to read Sherlock's ideas as he analyses the scene (by the way, did I say how great an idea this is?).

Now that the story is expanded, the lady-in-pink helps get a great plot-twist. Before dying, she scratched on the wooden floor “Rache”, which Sherlock dismisses as being at attempt to leave a message in German since it means “revenge”. Anderson drops by to gloat and show that he can deduce things about a case, but Sherlock closes the door to his face, puzzling Lestrade in the process. Sherlock has deduced that the victim was trying to write “Rachel”, and he considers that they must find whoever that is (because Lestrade has to believe that it’s Sherlock's who’s right). What’s really interesting in the writing is that it’s inverting the original plot where the inspector in charge thinks that his Lauriston Garden’s victim wanted to write “Rachel” in order to incriminate a woman, while Sherlock points out that the German word for revenge is connected to crimes that have been committed in the United States. Our dear writers are complete fans, and they use canon data in their updates in a beautiful, twisted way.

There are two surprising things: first, the victim’s got a white umbrella now (who misplaced the pink one from the pilot?!), and then Sherlock's theory about the wedding ring is slightly disappointing (the inside of mine looks shinier because I keep turning it, not because I entertain a string of lovers and need to work it off my finger). If you’re going to point out the state of cleaning of the various pieces of jewellery, grimes on a wedding ring with stones would work much better.

There’s one thing in the room that I absolutely love, and it’s one barmy detail. The house’s practically empty, but there’s a statue on the floor by the fireplace in the room with the victim. It’s a white rabbit (I call it the “Brixton plot bunny”).

Sherlock realizes that they’re dealing with a serial killer who must have left with his victim’s suitcase. He abandons John to go hunt for the suitcase, and Donovan tells John that Sherlock's a psychopath who’ll start killing when helping in investigations will no longer be enough. Vinette Robinson’s absolutely astounding, and she makes her character’s disgust for Sherlock very efficiently clear.

John hops away from the crime scene, looking for a cab…

And the phones started ringing.

It’s a very good thing that John’s not a cat (and that he’s one of the two heroes), but he definitely needs to watch more films! However, John really had to meet someone who’s powerful enough to control the street cameras and who’s been following John.

The whole situation is deliciously mysterious. We have a big, black luxury car; we have a beautiful lady pretending that her name’s Anthea (Lisa Mcallister) and she’s glued to her blackberry as they drive to some mysterious destination.  We’re deliciously left wondering what’s going on.

The mysterious man who’d phoned John has staged everything to have a quiet talk with him in a deserted hangar. He’s standing, waiting for John, and there’s just one chair that’s offered to John (if he agreed to sit down, he’d find himself in an inferior position; his leg might hurt, but he’ll stand, ready to fight).

Out mystery man’s got a very specific speech pattern – in fact… he could be a Professor. He sounds nearly as good as Sherlock, and he’s got more resources than him, though.

Even that man seems to think that there might be something intimate brewing between John and Sherlock because our dear John seems to have changed a lot since he met his new flatmate – and that was just the day before.

The mysterious man tells John that he’s got to be careful because Sherlock would probably describe him as his arch-enemy (a fact that shan’t be denied by Sherlock when John reports the encounter, and something that we must keep in mind plot-wise).

Things become scarier when Sherlock's arch-enemy somehow reveals that he’s read Ella’s file about John (yet… he’s right about the fact that John misses the war and isn’t suffering from PTSD).

John’s a man of honour who can’t be bought, and he turns down Sherlock's arch-enemy’s bribe.

During this talk, John’s been getting texts from Sherlock, asking him to come to Baker Street.

As he leaves, Sherlock's arch-enemy declares that it’s “time to choose a side” just when Sherlock texts John that joining him “could be dangerous”. Sherlock's offer’s better, and John asks Anthea to drive him to Baker Street (after a quick stop). There, we’ve got a very smooth edition from the hangar to John opening his old flat’s door where he’s stopped to get his gun.

John tries to cover his track, but from Anthea’s reaction he deduces that she’s already told everything to her boss. Before he leaves the car, we get a glimpse of John “I-need-a-girlfriend” Watson as he tries to get a date with Anthea (it fails entirely).

Right there, I’ll be clinging to my aforementioned closed front door plot-hole because John has to knock to get in (yes, I’m a stubborn lil’ creature).

As a doctor, John’s got to be appalled that Sherlock's using three nicotine patches to feed his addiction (this mightn’t be morphine or cocaine, but it should have given John a clue of some sort about Sherlock's odd habits).

After explaining why he’s the one with Jennifer Wilson’s case now, Sherlock explains that her phone has to be with her murderer, and it seems that the text he’d made John sent to her phone puzzles the serial killer.

Even if Donovan’s words got John’s brain cells in a twist, Sherlock points out that he announced it’d be dangerous to come to Baker Street, and John came nonetheless. They both crave action.

With one of John’s very few curse words, he follows Sherlock to the place where they’ve set a trap: 22 Northumberland Street (which is still not possibly just a five minutes walk from their flat).

On their way to the trap, Sherlock hasn’t made the connection yet; he doesn’t know who could be able to abduct people from busy streets without being caught.

The address that Sherlock had John text is across a restaurant that belongs to Angelo (Stanley Townsend). Before turning to food, Angelo was a small criminal who ended up needing Sherlock's help three years ago. This Angelo’s very different from the one in the pilot; he’s a tall, strong, typically British man (Italian mummy? “Inglese italianato” parents? Chosen name?). What’s important for us is that Angelo’s grateful, and Sherlock could date a Martian, he wouldn’t care and would welcome the alien from outer space (as well, that big bloke’s a big romantic who brings a candle to the table).

John goes back to the arch-enemy thingy, which starts a talk about people, friends and girlfriends, and John’s told that girlfriends aren’t really Sherlock's “area”. John concludes that “boyfriend” might be Sherlock's area, and he points out that it’s fine. Then it’s Sherlock's turn to mis-read the message and he starts telling John that he can’t date him because he’s married to his job (Sherlock's socially completely clueless, but he’s certainly not bigoted).

At last, something happens across the street and they dash out of the restaurant. Once more unto the breach… and John no longer needs his cane.

The next scene’s a brilliant chase through buildings, on roofs (the red light/green light when John hesitates to jump after Sherlock are a good addition to the on-screen information we get) and through various kinds of streets.

Sherlock and John intercept the taxi they were chasing, only to find that the man’s in it is just a tourist from the US (Peter Brooke). Apparently, the taxi was just at the trap address because the cabbie was taking advantage of the fact that the poor tourist didn’t know the city. There’s one very interesting thing about the casting choice; in American series, when a character’s supposed to be a foreigner, they hire an American who pretends to be alien (usually, it does not work – at all), but here the American bloke’s played by a tri-national actor, which gives an authentic result.

We learn that Sherlock pickpockets Lestrade when he finds him annoying (apparently, that’s often), and they start sharing jokes and laughing together (they’re really instant friends).

Once at home, Sherlock's really happy that John’ no longer limping (and that’s not only because he was right about it being psychosomatic!). John’s got to be high on adrenaline because he notices it only when Angelo actually brings him the cane back.

Our heroes can’t even relax for a minute because as soon as Mrs Hudson joins them in the hall, she announces that there’s something wrong upstairs. Since Lestrade’s not stupid, he’s planned a fake/not fake drugs bust in order to be able to search the flat (having Donovan helping is normal, but Anderson’s presence’s a sign that this character’s supposed to really hate Sherlock).

Sherlock and Lestrade comparing patches is a really funny moment.

Still over-analysing, but I think it’s to make the terms familiar to the audience that Anderson calls Sherlock a psychopath, which prompts Sherlock to answer (and I love that line) ‘I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research’. Sociopath is a description that’s no longer used by professionals and has been replaced with antisocial personality disorder; this may be the accurate phrasing, but the public’s not used to it yet. The old term’s certainly being used for the benefit of the viewers and in order to make an immediate association.

As Sherlock wonders why Jennifer Wilson’s still mourning Rachel, the stillborn daughter she’d lost over a decade ago, he puts his foot deep in his mouth. The others must be used to such kind of weirdness from Sherlock, but it’s John who states that it’s a “bit not good” (John’s still trying to be kind and very polite).

We knew that John had been injured, and it was serious enough to force him out of the army, but we realize in this scene that he nearly died. Sherlock, being his usual self, and since John’s not dead and obviously getting better, goes on with his deductions about Jennifer Wilson, after being interrupted by Mrs Hudson about a cabbie asking for him and after insulting Anderson, Sherlock's got an epiphany: clever Jennifer planted her phone on her murderer. The smartphone can be located, thanks to the password: her daughter’s name – the name she painfully scratched as the poison was killing her.

Just like the search engine from the beginning, the smartphone reference is to a non-existent company (the address’s supposed to be: jennie.pink@mephone.org.uk).

Having the cabbie, with Jennifer Wilson’s phone, downstairs really was not in Sherlock's equation. Once he stops being surprised (and while the police team starts searching for the phone in the flat), he connects the dot: the cabbie’s the murderer (Phil Davis).

Sherlock fully relies on John as he trusts him to start a new search of the phone, and he goes downstairs to meet the serial killer.

It’s very interesting to see the cabbie play Sherlock and use his curiosity (that can be a dangerous, even fatal, weakness).

The ones in the flat finally realize that the phone’s not in the flat, and since Sherlock's left, Lestrade calls the drugs bust off (but not before we get to witness the depth of Donovan’s hatred for Sherlock).

On their way to some secluded location, the cabbie gets too confident, and he tells Sherlock that he was warned about Sherlock by some criminal mastermind who’s a fan of Sherlock.

Lestrade’s known Sherlock for five years, and he puts up with him because he needs his brains. ‘And because Sherlock Holmes is a great man and I think one day, if we’re very, very lucky, he might even be a good one.’

What Lestrade couldn’t begin to imagine is that now that John’s around, Sherlock's beginning to become good.

The imaginary Roland-Kerr Further Education College is one camera trick since there was only one building in Cardiff turned into two supposed to be in London (the DVD commentaries are full of interesting information).

The cabbie really counts on Sherlock's massive curiosity in order to have him follow him inside the college – and it works.

Whilst John goes about the flat (and is about to go archive his cane), the laptop searching for Jennifer Wilson’s phone has finally located it again. This time, we don’t get to see where the phone’s supposed to be exactly, but the results promptly send John after the phone – and Sherlock.

There’s an original transition (again) when we have in the background 221B and John rushing downstairs with the laptop (on the left) and the cabbie opens a door in the school (on the right) – and Baker Street fades off.

When the cabbie starts his poison game with Sherlock, this times the bottles contain a single pill. We can wonder if it’s supposed to be the last murder or if it’s a teeny, tiny plot-twist because we can’t have several pills around that could later prove Sherlock right (or wrong?). The way the cabbie presents the bottles really makes it look as if he’s playing chess.

As John’s in a cab, trying to contact Lestrade and basically rushing to save Sherlock, the cabbie’s taunts are going to get him some talion law from Sherlock, who turns the tables and starts analysing the serial killer’s motivations.

The cabbie may have been told that he’s going to die of aneurysm, but Sherlock sees that it’s not bitterness that’s the cabbie’s motivation - ‘Love is a much more vicious motivator’.

This conversation about the serial killer’s reasons leads to a fantastic plot-twist because it turns out that Sherlock's fan’s the one sponsoring the serial killings (right then, thanks to the expanded episode, we’re given an evil criminal mastermind who’s giving money to promote crimes; as well, the cabbie’s description make Sherlock think that there might well be a whole organisation behind his odd fan).

We catch a glimpse of John running and calling Sherlock, but he doesn’t seem to be close enough for Sherlock and the cabbie to hear him.

Since he’s an expert, Sherlock saw that the cabbie’s gun’s a fake, and he plans to leave and have the cabbie arrested, but he cannot resist when the cabbie asks him if he’s figured out which bottle contains the non-poisonous pill. Sherlock's ready to do anything to prove that he’s right, and he’s considering swallowing the pill that the cabbie had intended to take (by the way, because of the possibility that the cabbie might have offered Sherlock the safe pill in the first place because he thought that Sherlock would take the other one, and because there’s the possibility that he’d planned that, too, I wouldn’t have known which pill to choose. As well, both pills might have been lethal…).

We’re given another efficient plot-twist next because John’s still running, and he opens a door. We see Sherlock, but… the camera takes us behind Sherlock, through the window, and to the other building: John’s on the right floor, but in the wrong part of the school.

The music really adds to the tension as the cabbie keeps taunting his potential next victim. Sherlock looks particularly pale as he observes the pill (it’s got to be the lightning and make-up, but it adds something dramatic to the scene).

Right after the shot, Sherlock rushes to the window, but he doesn’t see who fired, and since the cabbie’s not dead just yet, he’s got time to ask him a few things; he doesn’t want to say if Sherlock was right about the pill he’d chosen, but, because Sherlock hurts him, he spills the fan’s name: Moriarty. This episode shows us that Sherlock's ready to do anything to get answers.

The upgraded version of Scotland Yard is much less respectful of Sherlock than in the books.

Of course, he can be arrogant and unpleasant, but instead of telling him that he’s unkind and wrong to behave that way, they all gang together to bully him. When Lestrade says that his colleagues want to take photographs of Sherlock as he’s wearing a blanket in an ambulance, it’s quite unkind, in fact.

Lestrade declares that they don’t know a thing about the man who shot the cabbie, and Sherlock focuses on that and starts showing off. However, when he realizes that John’s the one who saved him, he tries to leave and he clumsily manages to go to John, who he wants to protect (but he should have mentioned getting rid of the powder traces on John’s sleeve, too!).

Before they can go eat something, Sherlock’s arch-enemy arrives (all right… It’s confession time: the first time I saw the episode I really thought it was Moriarty!).

It turns out that Sherlock’s arch-enemy is his brother Mycroft (Mark Gatiss), who was written in a way to confuse us and look like a criminal mastermind. The one who pretends to be just a civil servant is in fact the British government, which was the original description (Cf.: The Bruce-Partington Plans); this time Sherlock adds that his brother’s the British secret service and the CIA on a freelance basis – the Holmes brothers are quite extraordinary.

Before leaving, John bravely tries again to have Anthea notice him, but she doesn’t even seem to remember him (I’ve seen some people suggest that she’s got prosopamnesia, but I think John’s just not high enough in her food chain to have her register him; later, the way she looks back at her phone when her boss mentions John seems to confirm that).

From then on, John, who seems to have deciphered how Sherlock ticks, counters him each time he exaggerates (Sherlock can’t always predict the fortune cookies, and it might be out of sheer luck that he can tell that John was shot in the shoulder). Since Arthur Conan Doyle made a mistake about Watson's injury (considering the number of pages, it was more or less bound to happen) once mentioning a shoulder injury and then a leg injury, our updating writers used both (a shoulder wound combined with a psychosomatic limp).

As Sherlock and John walk away together, we shouldn’t be surprised to discover that Mycroft  is spying on Sherlock and decides to have the surveillance upgraded to ‘grade three, active’ (whatever that means, it sounds good).

The final words belong to Mycroft, who declares that there’s a new crime-fighting duo: ‘Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson’.