Okay, on my second viewing of Sherlock…
aka “Why Won’t You Let Irene Adler Be Great?”
[Spoilers for Sherlock]
Palaceoffunk articulated all of this better than I think I could! And while I too really did enjoy this episode and thought lots was cool and clever, well…. these thoughts, they are mine, too. Why couldn’t she end with the upper hand? Why have her vulnerability be emotionally based? Also, why imply that the lesbian is interested in more than his mind?
And… asexual visibility in media aside (not that I think the writers have given us that much from Sherlock this episode, but I know he’s often thought of that way) why are so many Sherlock interpretations afraid of making Holmes/Watson subtext into text? I mean, the books are pretty clear that Holmes doesn’t like women. Even Irene in the story is respected for her mind, for besting him, only. And hey, before I was into the idea of Holmes/Watson I loved the idea of Irene and Sherlock together. But when my gay goggles came in the mail I noticed that Watson seemed to be his true bond and the one he loved (in whatever way) most. I’m totally open to Sherlock/Irene interpretations, mind you but his connection with John is obvious. And that can be friendship, that’s cool, but where’s the harm in REALLY going there? That is assuming you aren’t reading Sherlock as asexual which I know many people like to, and that’s fine too, but where’s the harm in cannonizing Holmes/Watson, especially in modern interpretations? I know, I know, Watson had a wife in the novels— novels that did represent the times. Lots of gay men had wives back then, there weren’t a lot of gay options. To say NOTHING of the possibility of making one or both of these men bisexual which is an option that people love to stick their fingers in their ears and say LALALALA about. Yes I know, gay jokes about Holmes and Watson abound, and I will eat up every subtexty joke they give me, whether it is in Moffat’s Sherlock, or Sherlock Holmes with Law and Downey Jr, or whether its the subtext that had been given once upon a time between House and Wilson (haven’t actually watched that show in ages). But someday, someone, please give me a cannon Holmes/Watson pairing? Please? For all the liberties we take with these stories, that’s one place that writers still refuse to go. Yay 2012.
Ok, that got off topic. Um. So glad to have Sherlock back, is good show?
