Episode 314: 52 Weeks | 52 Sherlock Holmes Novels

<h4 style="text-align: center;">“a case for personal investigation” [SUSS] </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DqG4kSwkCnL-7DcZCeXjeV5mLjxpnPWPpBGF4qlk60hgW7MaCdjcnZok0tib7_T2xavi9gXlQDDGBXnGt48l-_33kv0G7wH2ZXX_oux-Um3oZasT1KlxUHPnghLNdG2nxyo-0XIt6EdvrEpx_vQhoRHeh1rPS0aD7CrSX37wjzS9o-NMXnkN4YUac_KB/s2400/ihearofsherlock314-header.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2400" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_DqG4kSwkCnL-7DcZCeXjeV5mLjxpnPWPpBGF4qlk60hgW7MaCdjcnZok0tib7_T2xavi9gXlQDDGBXnGt48l-_33kv0G7wH2ZXX_oux-Um3oZasT1KlxUHPnghLNdG2nxyo-0XIt6EdvrEpx_vQhoRHeh1rPS0aD7CrSX37wjzS9o-NMXnkN4YUac_KB/w640-h480/ihearofsherlock314-header.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><p>The number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches is endless. They include stories and novels set in any era, any place, and any time. They all bring the Great Detective to new audiences — so how do you go about selecting (just) fifty-two to explore? Join our conversation with Paul Bishop as we explore his new book, <b><i><a href="https://amzn.to/3Ixva0x" target="_blank">52 Weeks | 52 Sherlock Holmes Stories</a></i></b>. Paul is the author of 15 novels and numerous TV and film scripts — and also a 35-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department.</p><p>Paul’s new book is a selection of Sherlockian pastiches chosen and recommended by the individual essay writers themselves. Beyond the plots and author bios, Paul’s writers give personal perspectives on why these stories were important to them, and the connection Sherlock Holmes has played in their lives. </p><p>Paul also discusses his writing career, which spans multiple genres including screenplays, westerns and other novels. He discusses his journey as an author, and how storytelling has shaped his life. We also talk about connecting with fellow writers, and the remarkable variety of people drawn to Sherlock Holmes.</p><p>Some of those remarkable people will be gathering in person and virtually in the weeks ahead, so you will want to hear about August events in “<b>The Learned Societies</b>” segment. Madeline Quiñones is back with “<b>A Chance of Listening</b>,” and the Canonical Couplet quiz tests your Sherlock Holmes knowledge, with <b>a copy of Paul's book </b>for the winner. Send your answer to comment @ ihearofsherlock.com by July 29, 2025 at 11:59 a.m. EST. All listeners are eligible to play.</p><p><br /></p><p>Don't forget to become a <a href="https://ihose.co/ihosepatron" target="_blank"><b>supporter</b></a> of the show on the platform of your choice (<a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/122378915" target="_blank">Patreon</a> | <a href="https://ihearofsherlock.substack.com/p/episode-305-bonus-content" target="_blank">Substack</a>). </p><div><div><div style="margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://traffic.libsyn.com/ihearofsherlock/ihearofsherlock314.mp3" target="_blank">Download</a> [Save As] | File size: 71.2 MB, 58:12</h3><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" data-dashlane-classification="other" data-dashlane-frameid="1198" data-dashlane-rid="d9a4482afaa861b5" height="192" mozallowfullscreen="true" msallowfullscreen="true" oallowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" src="https://play.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/37423015/height/192/theme/modern/size/large/thumbnail/yes/custom-color/2484a4/time-start/00:00:00/playlist-height/200/direction/backward/download/yes/font-color/FFFFFF" style="border: none;" title="Embed Player" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="100%"></iframe></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; text-wrap: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; text-wrap: nowrap; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; text-wrap: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://www.episodes.fm/258126625" target="_blank">Listen to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere anywhere you get podcasts<br /></a></span><br /></h3><h3 style="text-align: center;">Leave I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere a five-star rating on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-hear-of-sherlock-everywhere/id258126625?ls=1">Apple Podcasts</a> and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/30WtRn1mnXfAtX7YaeRY5Y">Spotify</a>; listen to us <a href="https://www.episodes.fm/1198869691">wherever you listen to podcasts</a>.</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div><h2 style="margin: 0px;">Sponsors</h2><div style="margin: 0px;"><ul><li><a href="https://mxpublishing.com/" target="_blank">MX Publishing</a> has a number of new Sherlock Holmes books out by various authors. You'll want to check out the breadth of their offerings by <a href="https://mxpublishing.com/" target="_blank">visiting the site</a> to learn more.</li></ul></div></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;">Would you care to advertise with us? You can find <a href="https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/p/contact.html#.Vc1Qx7JViko" target="_blank">more information here</a>. Let's chat!<br /><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><div><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><ul></ul></div><h2><b>Links</b></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><ul><li><i><a href="https://amzn.to/3Ixva0x" target="_blank">52 Weeks | 52 Sherlock Holmes Novels</a></i> (Amazon)</li><li><i><a href="https://geniusbookpublishing.com/collections/sherlock-holmes" target="_blank">52 Weeks | 52 Sherlock Holmes Novels</a></i> (Genius Books)</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APTEIY/about?ccs_id=7b73a956-57d6-4a4c-96d6-bcc9ed116c9c" target="_blank">Paul Bishop's Amazon author page</a></li><li>Paul's newsletter: <a href="https://sherlockadjacent.substack.com/" target="_blank">Sherlock Adjacent</a></li><li>Paul opines on <a href="https://sherlockadjacent.substack.com/p/the-future-of-sherlock-holmes" target="_blank">The Future of Sherlock Holmes</a> (Substack)</li><li>Other episodes mentioned:</li><ul><li><a href="https://ihose.co/ihose252" target="_blank">Episode 252: The Devil's Blaze</a> </li><li>The Learned Societies: <a href="http://www.sherlockiancalendar.com/" target="_blank">Sherlockian Calendar</a></li><li>A Chance of Listening: <i><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sherlocked-podcast/id1562549543" target="_blank">The Sherlocked Podcast</a></i></li></ul><li>Find all of our relevant links and social accounts at <a href="http://linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock">linktr.ee/ihearofsherlock</a>.</li></ul><div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="align-items: center; display: flex; flex-direction: column;"><a href="https://goodpods.com/leaderboard/top-100-shows-by-category/fiction/mystery?indie=false&period=month#37883168" target="_blank"><img alt="goodpods top 100 mystery podcasts" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/leaderboard_badges/fiction_mystery_top50_month.png" style="height: 77px; width: 250px;" /></a><a href="https://goodpods.com/leaderboard/top-100-shows-by-category/fiction/mystery" style="color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 4px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Goodpods Top 100 Mystery Podcasts</a></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>And would you consider leaving us a rating and or a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Goodpods? It would help other Sherlockians to find us.</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px;">Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email (comment AT ihearofsherlock DOT com), call us at 5-1895-221B-5. That's (518) 952-2125.</div><div style="font-family: "times new roman";"><div style="margin: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><br />

Episode 314: 52 Weeks | 52 Sherlock Holmes Novels

“a case for personal investigation” [SUSS]  The number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches is endless. They include stories and novels set in any e...

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by Scott Monty

No Ticket! Dear Me, Watson

<h4 style="text-align: center;">"Square-toes had hopped over" [STUD] </h4><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihCMxQifRtNpKU7egYZjk9WckYOjO0cQT_2n2Q_Q67lCLWVrWR4BXbTlNOBR6jLNqhwKIEIIZXdbzeXax2LgSMp4s4oHvs0zZark96_xXGiIkxbpSblYxT87ba_d1xiURWVo8_cE28SxH3/s1274/No+Ticket+-+Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="1274" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihCMxQifRtNpKU7egYZjk9WckYOjO0cQT_2n2Q_Q67lCLWVrWR4BXbTlNOBR6jLNqhwKIEIIZXdbzeXax2LgSMp4s4oHvs0zZark96_xXGiIkxbpSblYxT87ba_d1xiURWVo8_cE28SxH3/w640-h270/No+Ticket+-+Indiana+Jones+and+the+Last+Crusade.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Source: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0vNsH81YeA&ab_channel=Movieclips" target="_blank">YouTube</a> screengrab </i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br />When Sherlock Holmes hears about the discovery of Arthur Cadogan West's body, early in the events of "The Bruce-Partington Plans," he is told that no ticket for an Underground train was found in West's pockets. </div><div><br /></div><div>His immediate response: </div><blockquote><div>"According to my experience it is not possible to reach the platform of a Metropolitan train without exhibiting one's ticket. Presumably, then, the young man had one."</div></blockquote><div><br /> It should be obvious to a Watson — even to a Lestrade — that this deduction is simply wrong. Indeed, it turns out that West never had a ticket, for the simple reason that he never was a passenger. Holmes can be forgiven for not immediately realizing that the young man's body had been placed on the roof of a train, not a proceeding that happens every day, but it seems extraordinary that he does not consider a much more commonplace explanation.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtMMIiHpsd0k6bztwWPFG2KKIJD7LAw-HPZ2nOZFeoVTmw023jjNlm2XjnpVMr9O2Bg2IT0dOf6NhgxE9Qj8f_6kCcqyg1mkY1cdggthadvDzOudpS6d8Rp03wmdaVml7Nl6JAIB-HBNA/s622/Ticket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtMMIiHpsd0k6bztwWPFG2KKIJD7LAw-HPZ2nOZFeoVTmw023jjNlm2XjnpVMr9O2Bg2IT0dOf6NhgxE9Qj8f_6kCcqyg1mkY1cdggthadvDzOudpS6d8Rp03wmdaVml7Nl6JAIB-HBNA/s320/Ticket.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Metropolitan Railway ticket from 1901, now in the <a href="https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/tickets/item/2011-1553" target="_blank">London Transport Museum</a></i></span></span><br style="text-align: start;" /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>   </div><div><br /> How might a passenger get to the train without buying a ticket? Through the trick known nowadays in New York as <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/#">turnstile-hopping</a>, or through corruption by a friendly and negligent employee. </div><div><br /></div><div>Regardless of the Metropolitan Railway's security measures and the vigilance of its guards, there must have been many attempts every day, some of them successful, to sneak onto a platform, and thence onto a train, without buying a ticket.</div><div><br /> Is it possible that Holmes, whose usual fare included jewel thefts, murdered baronets, and vanishing steamships, remained blissfully unaware of petty crime and twopenny fraud? The man who claimed to have "an exact knowledge of London" must surely have had some knowledge of pickpocketing, prostitution, drunkenness, random violence, and the thousand little cheats by which the poorer classes got by. </div><div><br /></div><div>No doubt Watson's delicacy excised these phenomena from the records of Holmes's cases. The acute observer will notice "a little knot of roughs" and a broken window at the corner of Goodge Street in "The Blue Carbuncle," and of course the fraudulent beggar Hugh Boone in "The Man with the Twisted Lip," but it is difficult to think of many other examples. </div><div><br /></div><div>The official police had to pay attention to such matters, but Holmes was in a position to overlook them, or at least to delegate them to his ragamuffin Irregulars, and Watson clearly did not wish to bring them to his readers' attention. <br /><br /> The remarkable discrepancy between London crime (and London life) as a whole, and the more affluent and sanitized portion of it that was of interest to Sherlock Holmes, has of course often been noticed. Mostly we attribute it to class bias. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Holmes who airily commented in "The Noble Bachelor" about the quality of his incoming correspondence — "the humbler are usually the more interesting" — did not generally walk the talk: his known cases involve, if not royalty and aristocracy, at least the respectable members of the middle class. If they are financially embarrassed it is frequently because they have spent their fortunes, like Sir Robert Norberton of "Shoscombe Old Place."<br /><br /> Admittedly, Hall Pycroft of "The Stock-Broker's Clerk" has never been wealthy, but he is a self-respecting member of the clerical class, who probably read Watson's narratives in the <i>Strand </i>magazine once he had caught up on the day's stock market news. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even while employed, he might have found it expedient to join a goose club like Henry Baker, paying so many pence a week toward the year-end luxury of a Christmas dinner, and once out of a situation he quickly found it difficult to make ends meet, but he would never have fit with that knot of street-corner roughs. <br /><br /> Cadogan West, the young man who died on the Underground without even the solace of a ticket on his person, was of a similar occupational class, though more financially secure. In the <i>Baker Street Journal</i> for Autumn 2013 ("Short Sentences: Deductions from a Few Words in 'The Bruce-Partington Plans'"), I noted that his fiancée, Violet Westbury, was telling Holmes no more than the truth when she described his salary as "ample." </div><div><br /></div><div>Judging from available information about the pay scales for government clerks, West probably earned about £300 a year, or 50 percent more than Hall Pycroft's £200. In current US dollar buying power, the equivalent would be about $40,000. <br /><br /> In other words, at the age of 27, he was earning close to the median annual income currently enjoyed in the United States, and he had it tax-free since British income tax in the 1890s did not touch middle-class earners. </div><div><br /></div><div>If West's needs were indeed "simple," as Violet Westbury also tells Holmes, he must have been well able to support himself and comfortably anticipate taking a wife. Sherlock Holmes did not have most of this information at the time of his exchange with Watson about the missing ticket, but perhaps he jumped to a conclusion from the simple knowledge that Cadogan West was a government employee. <br /><br /> Apparent respectability, however, is no guarantee, as Britain's Financial Conduct Authority discovered in December 2014 when it was found necessary to ban a London hedge fund manager from the finance industry <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/#">after he was found to have evaded £42,000 in commuter fares</a>. <br /><br />--</div><div><br /></div>

No Ticket! Dear Me, Watson

"Square-toes had hopped over" [STUD]  Source: YouTube screengrab  When Sherlock Holmes hears about the discovery of Arthur Cadoga...

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by Chris Redmond

Where Did I See That Sherlock Holmes Quote?

<div style="text-align: center;"> <h4> <b>"what a blind beetle I have been" [PRIO]</b> </h4> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznyZcf9Vyt1HCEO7_4ktzlmd8d5tvdhmiaxkR63syK9TCWDdGejVDwLVJ1TYaeLN_YiryWQLuBwLSGyuvVV9k91D-ST5QiHCG1k4QMlf0qDls_-1hqPQ250TIDra6uYGhFZk5_hfmDURo/s1600/Stumped.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="940" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznyZcf9Vyt1HCEO7_4ktzlmd8d5tvdhmiaxkR63syK9TCWDdGejVDwLVJ1TYaeLN_YiryWQLuBwLSGyuvVV9k91D-ST5QiHCG1k4QMlf0qDls_-1hqPQ250TIDra6uYGhFZk5_hfmDURo/s640/Stumped.gif" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Did you ever have a moment when you were trying to remember the origin of a Sherlock Holmes quote, but you just couldn't quite place it?<br /> <br /> Maybe you remember the quote exactly. Or perhaps just the gist of the quote, but not the exact words. And you go to your favorite source for searching the stories, putting in a variety of search terms, but nothing comes up.<br /> <br /> Then you spend some time trying to recall if you got the quote just right, and where you may have come across it. Was it something Holmes said? Was it an exchange with Watson? Or with a client? Was it uttered in Baker Street, or out at the scene of an investigation?<br /> <br /> Where did I see it? Where did I see it?<br /> <br /> I had one of those moments recently. I wanted to source this (ostensibly) Canonical quote and insert it into some conversation thread on Facebook or Twitter, and in those instances I like to have the story from which the quote is taken.<br /> <br /> The quote in question was was:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "A small occurrence perhaps, but only small I think in a way that a vibrating needle may signal an earthquake."</blockquote> <br /> But I just couldn't find it.<br /> <br /> I remembered the quote vividly. I searched every iteration of how I seemed to remember it. And still, nothing.<br /> <br /> And then it hit me.<br /> <br /> The quote wasn't from the Canon at all. It was from one of the Granada episodes with Jeremy Brett. It was from the opening scene with Dr. Huxtable coming to after having passed out on the hearth rug. Here's the context:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "In speculating what storm had blown you here, I took the liberty of searching your person, I hope you will forgive me."<br /> "Oh yes, yes of course."<br /> "Your watch. Unblemished for at least thirty years, suddenly this morning scratched—when you thrust those coins, unthinkingly into your waistcoat pocket. The stern habit of a lifetime trampled under foot.<br /> A small occurrence perhaps but own small think in a way that a vibrating needle may signal an earthquake."</blockquote> It's a testament to the team at Granada that they were able to adapt a scene from the original story, but add their own details and dialog in such away that it fit perfectly with what we would expect to read on the page.<br /> <br /> That was certainly the case with the writing team for BBC Radio when <a href="http://bertcoules.co.uk/">Bert Coules</a> was the head writer for the project that resulted in the entire Sherlock Holmes canon being dramatized for radio. There were instances when the team had to create situations for listeners that were not expressly written out by Watson. The writers had to infer and invent. Bert explains the entire process in <i><a href="http://wessexpress.com/html/221bbc.html">221 BBC: Writing for the World's Only Completely Dramatised Canon and Beyond</a></i>.<br /> <br /> <br /> When a writing team is fully invested in the project and has an intimate knowledge of the characters and style of the original material, it's more likely that a new scene or dialog will be just as believable (if not more so!) than the source material.<br /> <br /> It certainly has fooled me more than once. How about you?<br /> <br /> <script type="text/javascript"> amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "scottmonty-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links"; amzn_assoc_asins = "B002PXFY3I"; amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "dc9dc9702c846838469223fdc5a0c4b8"; </script><br /> <script src="//z-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/onejs?MarketPlace=US"></script><br /> <br /> <h3> <b>Bonus Content</b></h3> We had occasion to speak with Bert Coules about radio adaptations over the course of two episodes of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere: <a href="https://ihose.co/ihose68">Episode 68</a> and <a href="https://ihose.co/ihose69">Episode 69</a>.<br /> <br /> <iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/170049424&color=ff5500" width="100%"></iframe><br /> <br /> <iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/172682315&color=ff5500" width="100%"></iframe><br /> <br /> <br /> We also spoke with Arielle Lipshaw and Jeremy Latour about adaptations in <a href="https://ihose.co/ihose160">Episode 160</a>.<br /> <br /> <iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/559275243&color=0c69a5" width="100%"></iframe><br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /> <br />

Where Did I See That Sherlock Holmes Quote?

"what a blind beetle I have been" [PRIO]   Did you ever have a moment when you were trying to remember the origin of a Sher...

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by Scott Monty

Elementary — His Last Bow

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> <b>“this seven years and never a word of complaint” [HOUN]</b></h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnk9OfDhK7J2swbDPp5BWDqCv5-IXQvbyVUdTulfSuaC78VFqE4Bx92vAlHZEZ8D_LaJsPXz6r4uk3HCvy7yhRmoZLez1S-OCSwA9A6WUVxxx92YqZoz7T4ASGsW-AY1DZbVryKJCKdUMf/s1600/Elementary-S7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="601" height="638" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnk9OfDhK7J2swbDPp5BWDqCv5-IXQvbyVUdTulfSuaC78VFqE4Bx92vAlHZEZ8D_LaJsPXz6r4uk3HCvy7yhRmoZLez1S-OCSwA9A6WUVxxx92YqZoz7T4ASGsW-AY1DZbVryKJCKdUMf/s640/Elementary-S7.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div> [<i><b>Editor's note</b>: When the author refers to Sherlock he means Jonny Lee Miller's (or occasionally another actor's portrayal) of Doyle's original; when he refers to Joan he means Lucy Liu's (or John meaning another actor's portrayal) of Doyle's original doctor. When the author writes Holmes or Watson he refers to the actual personages.</i>]<br /> The seventh and final season of <i>Elementary </i>will premiere on Thursday, May 23, 2019 for a 13-episode season, taking its run to the end of August barring any interruptions. <br /> <br /> In <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i>, John Clayton lamented,"seven years and never a word of complaint." This could just as easly be an ironic counterpoint to <i>Elementary</i>’s final season. <br /> <br /> When CBS first announced the show in the shadow of BBC <i>Sherlock</i>’s worldwide fame seven years ago, the hue and cry was largely negative from the fandom: crass corporate exploitation for money not love was the prejudgement. (I will not point out that the BBC is a corporation which also does nothing for love and that the lucre raked in from Benedict Cumberbatch’s curly locks puts CBS to shame. [<i>Insert wink here.</i>]) <br /> <br /> But instead of being the pale rip-off of its British cousin that some proclaimed it would be, creator Robert Doherty and company have given us a mostly fresh re-imagining of both the pop culture Holmes and Watson and the Doylean canon. So much so that the same critics who were afraid of a Sherlock-copy now decried <i>Elementary </i>as not being Sherlock Holmes at all. (Of course, now that BBC <i>Sherlock</i> has shot itself in the foot and limped off screen, HBO Asia’s carbon copy <i>Miss Sherlock</i> is beloved exactly for its crass corporate exploitation of the BBC series. Go figure. <i>Wink wink</i>.)<br /> <br /> From the beginning Doherty has stated he wanted to tell his own Sherlock Holmes stories, not to rewrite Doyle. At the TCA press tour in the summer of 2012, he said:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "I think that’s actually one of the upsides to the character. If so many people couldn’t put their own spins on it, I don’t know that he would exist in the popular culture, in the way he does. So, I was intrigued, but also wanted to make sure that, if we were going do this, I could have my own take on it. It took a little time. For me, it was absolutely about his drug use, which I know has been mentioned and acknowledged, once or twice, outside of the books. One of the things that jumped out at me from the books was that it never really dictated plot. It never really informed or altered the course of the story. Some of them are just throwaway lines. And his relationship with women was not great. It was very complicated. Understandably, he’s a very complicated guy. The more handholds I could find, the more excited I got about our take. Everything came together quite nicely."</blockquote> <br /> What if Holmes did not have the stabilizing influence of Watson at the beginning of his career? “The original Sherlock dabbled with cocaine and opiates. Our Sherlock had those same problems, but one of the big differences is that our Sherlock hit a serious wall,” said Doherty in 2012. “Something terrible happened to him in London, and he spiraled out of control.” <br /> <br /> Sent to rehab in New York City, Sherlock is paired with former surgeon and present sober companion Joan Watson. This premise—Holmes without the stabilizing influence of Watson—is explored in the second season episode “<a href="https://youtu.be/H87E4KI9DbA?t=78">The Marchioness</a>” with Sherlock addressing a support group (in a sly bit of meta and one of my favorite non-Canonical "canonical" scenes):<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <b>Sherlock</b>: I often wonder if I should have been born in another time. Sorry, my name is Sherlock, and I'm an addict.<br /> <b>Group</b>: Hi, Sherlock.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: My-my senses are unusually—well, one could even say unnaturally—keen. And ours is an era of distraction. It's, uh, a punishing drumbeat of constant input. This-this cacophony which follows us into our homes and into our beds and seeps into our—into our souls, for want of a better word. For a long time, uh, there was only one poultice for my raw nerve endings, and that was…copious drug use. So in my less productive moments, I'm given to wonder if I'd just been born when it was a little quieter out there, would I have even become an addict in the first place? Might I have been more focused? A more fully realized person?<br /> <b>Member of Group</b>: What, like Ancient Greece?<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: You any idea what passed for dental care in the Hellenic era? No, no, I'd, um, I'd want some of the wonders of modernity. Just before everything got amplified. </blockquote> <br /> Season One saw the evolution of the friendship between Sherlock and Joan, something that’s not present in the Canon and very rarely shown in films and television to the extent that <i>Elementary </i>did it. That of course, is where it stays: as a friendship. <br /> <br /> As Doherty has remarked on more than one occasion, Holmes and Watson never slept together in the books; Sherlock and Joan never will either. While having its ups and downs, theirs is a deep platonic love, with each sacrificing for the other. This wouldn’t work as well if Sherlock were depicted as gay or asexual. <i>Elementary</i>’s Sherlock is actively heterosexual. <br /> <br /> This aspect of the character is handled less successfully, in my opinion, as Sherlock considers sex as exercise, while the Canonical Holmes eschewed exercise for its own sake. Having Sherlock engage in sex for it <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/how-sex-affects-intelligence-and-vice-versa/282889/">scientifically posited</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-018-1193-8">cognitive enhancement</a> would have been more in line with the character. Also, Sherlock’s frequenting of prostitutes posed ethical questions the series ignored, especially when the series has been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_(TV_series)#Awards_and_nominations">nominated or won</a> awards for its portrayal of drug addiction or LGBT characters.<br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <br /></div> <br /> <h3> <b>The Returns </b></h3> Season Five ended with the cliffhanger of Sherlock suffering memory loss and hallucinations and the closing scenes of him on an MRI scanning table without alerting Joan of his condition and her concern for his wellbeing after seeing the delusion-induced destruction wrought in the spare bedroom. This was a bold move of faith on the showrunner’s part as the series had not been renewed for a sixth season. <i>Elementary </i>was not on CBS’ May 2017 lineup of new and returning 2017-18 shows. It wasn’t until late summer when fans found out it was coming back as a 13-episode midseason replacement series. <br /> <br /> At the time, <a href="https://tvline.com/2017/08/23/this-is-us-season-2-spoilers-jack-kid-young-flashback/">Doherty said</a>:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> “There’s always a chance we could [return] earlier. If we were, it stands to reason there might be additional episodes ordered. We are in ‘wait and see’ mode at the moment.” [This] “could be our last season. We’re not sure yet. We want to do everything we can do to keep it from being the last season. But we’ll see where we are in a few months.” </blockquote> <br /> Season Six aired on April 30, 2018 and the series story arc centered around two plots points. One concerned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-concussion_syndrome">post-concussion syndrome </a>(PSC). At the end of Season Five Shinwell Johnson hit Sherlock over the head with a bottle and gave him a severe beating. <br /> <br /> In "An Infinite Capacity for Taking Pains," the opening episode of Season Six, Sherlock said:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> “But many of my life choices leading up to this moment are likely factors—the boxing, the continually putting myself in harm's way, heroin. All of them have likely contributed to this moment. So, as for what to expect, the doctor is loath to make any promises. Things could get worse before they get better. He's putting together a regimen to aid in my recovery, but, uh whether that recovery takes weeks or months or, uh if I'll even get better at all he couldn't say.” </blockquote> Usually a blow to the head is little more consequential that a stubbed toe in the TV and literary mystery and private eye world. Take for example the nearly indestructible PI Joe Mannix (Mike Connor) on CBS’s 1967-1975 TV show <i>Mannix</i>.  “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/mike-connors-brawny-star-of-mannix-tv-detective-series-dies-at-91/2017/01/27/50e8feee-e4a2-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.af5086582e94">[A]ccording to one count, he was shot 17 times and sustained 55 concussions during the series’ 194 episodes</a>.” Ironically, Mannix made a TV appearance in a 1997 episode of <i>Diagnosis: Murder</i> (“Hard-Boiled Murder”) suffering from a life-threatening cardiac risk not CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). The seriousness of brain trauma is all-too familiar to the public these days through the stories of athletes in contact sports and military veterans. The showrunners of <i>Elementary</i> again deserve some credit for highlighting a serious ailment with sensitivity and humor rather than just another TV trope.<br /> <br /> The second plot point; serial killer Michael Rowan (Desmond Harrington) encounters Sherlock at support group meetings and has his own twisted ideas for Sherlock’s PSC therapy and unfortunately puts them into action.<br /> <br /> In late November 2017, CBS ordered up eight more episodes of <i>Elementary </i>on the heels of the cancelation of <i>The Wisdom of the Crowd</i> following star Jeremy Piven’s sexual harassment allegations. This was well into the filming of <i>Elementary</i>. In fact, “it became this very unique challenge once we finally did get an additional order to tell stories that could be placed in front of the finale that we had already written and produced,” <a href="https://tvline.com/2018/09/17/elementary-recap-season-6-finale-sherlock-joan-move-to-london/">Doherty said.</a> <br /> <br /> The finale and the whole of Season Six was produced to be the series’ swan song, bringing the main characters to a satisfying (or not) evolution point. Serial killer Michael is murdered and Joan becomes the prime suspect in FBI Special Agent Malik’s eyes. Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) is ready to move to the U.S. marshals. Sherlock uncovers the fact that Hannah Gregson actually killed Michael in revenge for murdering her roommate and that her father, the once incorruptible Captain Thomas Gregson (Aidan Quinn) manipulated evidence to protect his daughter. <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <b>Gregson</b>: And that's when [Hannah] told me everything.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: You have to tell the FBI.<br /> <b>Gregson</b>: I can't. No. Hannah's a cop. She can't go to prison.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: And Watson can?<br /> <b>Gregson</b>: You gotta understand—everything I did, I did before I knew that the Feds were trying to pin this on Joan.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: Are you under the impression that that makes it okay?<br /> <b>Gregson</b>: Malik's got nothing. Her whole case is circumstantial. It's going to blow over.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: Let's just imagine for a moment that it does. What about the damage to Watson's reputation? Do you think she'll ever be able to consult for law enforcement ever again? What about the families of the women who Michael murdered and then disposed of? What about the mothers and fathers who are never going to be able to find their daughters, never going to be able to give them proper burials? Is this gonna blow over for them as well? Or do you think perhaps they might start bringing civil lawsuits against Watson? How exactly do you imagine her quality of life moving forward?<br /> <b>Gregson</b>: You're the door that this lunatic walked through, okay? Not me! He cozied up to you. He got to know everything about you, including the fact that I have a daughter. He killed her friend to get your attention.If it weren't for you, Maddie Williams would be alive today and my little girl wouldn't be a killer. [Sherlock gets up and starts to walk out. Gregson pleading.] She's my daughter.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: She's my best friend.<br /> [S6 E21 "Whatever Remains, However Improbable"]</blockquote> <br /> Sherlock confesses to the murder to protect Joan and through a deal with MI6, who both Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) and Sherlock had worked for in the past, a proxy from the consulate relays Sherlock’s confession. MI6 confirms that Sherlock killed Michael while working for the British government. Sherlock is now in England. <br /> <br /> Joan finds this out when agent Malik calls her to her office: “The Brits won't extradite him. They made that very clear. And he isn't allowed to set foot in the U.S. ever again. Not without being arrested and tried for everything he alleges he did. Your little partnership—it's over. Cheer up, Joan. You just got away with murder.” However, Sherlock is at the brownstone when Joan goes home.<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <b>Joan</b>: Thought you were supposed to be in England.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: I am. Supposed to be, that is. The terms of the deal I agreed to are quite binding. There's a plane waiting for me at Kennedy. But couldn't leave without saying good-bye. You surprised me last night. Your willingness to protect the captain. Then I was surprised that I was surprised. Helping others before yourself is your nature. Always has been. And yet, in this instance, I found the risk to you unacceptable.<br /> <b>Joan</b>: You thought I was throwing my life away, so you decided to throw your life away instead.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: Well, in point of fact, I've sacrificed very little. With respect to my freedom, that is. MI6 owed me. Not you, not the captain, certainly not his daughter. Me. I'm the only one who could confess without going to prison….<br /> <b>Joan</b>: We could have fought this together.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: We could have failed.<br /> <b>Joan</b>: That doesn't sound like us.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: I wanted to thank you.<br /> <b>Joan</b>: —Don't.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: —I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me over the last six years.<br /> <b>Joan</b>: Sherlock—<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: I was dying when we first met. I mean, I looked well enough. Just got out of rehab and all that. Thought that I knew everything, but I didn't. I didn't realize how much how much work I would have to put in and how much time it would take. But most of all, I—I didn't realize that things could get better. And that I could actually be—Yes, I was dying. And no one could see it but you. You saved my life, Joan.<br /> <b>Joan</b>: We’re partners.<br /> <b>Sherlock</b>: No. We're much better than that. We're two people that love each other. We always have been. [S6 E21]</blockquote> <br /> The show ends with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVMQpIkoiW8">perfect coda</a> for the whole series; Sherlock back at 221B Baker Street in London and Joan next door at 221A. (<i>Note: one of the things I like about Elementary is that they did not give their Sherlock a stated address, just the nickname "the brownstone" for his residence, respecting that Holmes’ address will always be 221B Baker Street, London. There is a shot of a letter from Jamie Moriarty to Sherlock sent to 42 Stamford Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, 11209</i>) <br /> <br /> Doherty says of the finale: <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> “I have lifelong friends that I love like family, and yet it’s not so often I put it to them that way. If I thought it was the last time I was going to see someone I cared about, I think I would say that with great ease. It’s why Sherlock was able to say it in that moment. He really thought it was goodbye, and you don’t walk away from even a platonic relationship without telling your partner how you feel. I wish there was an even more appropriate word than ‘platonic.’ It’s fraternal. There’s great love, and there’s great respect, but there’s no romance.”</blockquote> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> <br /></div> <br /> <h3> <b>"The curtain rings up for the last act"</b></h3> Two weeks after Season Six premiered and the finale was in the can CBS renewed the series for a seventh season. “A lot of parties came together and talked about their positions on the show — both in terms of business and in terms of creative — and we all decided that this was an opportune time to say goodbye to a show that has been very, very good to us,” CBS Entertainment President <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/12/elementary-to-end-7-seasons-cbs-canceled-1202521292/">Kelly Kahl said</a>.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/sherlock-holmes/273434/elementary-season-7-news-cbs">Den of Geek</a> offered the business reasoning behind the seventh season renewal:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Well, for one thing, <i>Elementary</i>'s ratings have never really been up to the level of a lot of the other shows CBS airs. CBS, a network that specializes in middle of the road procedurals and shows that are allegedly comedies and bad spinoffs of those alleged comedies does tremendous numbers. And while <i>Elementary </i>ratings would be considered great by other networks' standards, on CBS, it's perpetually on the bubble, despite being the best thing they air."</blockquote> But <i>Elementary</i> is a consistent earner for CBS, especially overseas. It's also old-fashioned in that the network owns the series itself, which makes it extra profitable. So its ratings only tell half the story. <br /> <br /> <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/12/elementary-to-end-7-seasons-cbs-canceled-1202521292/">Deadline</a> also mentioned a few pieces of the renewal puzzle:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "... the series has remained a solid utility player for CBS, airing on Thursdays, Sundays and, most recently Mondays. While the bulk of Season 6 aired over the summer, it still ranked No. 21 in viewers. <i>Elementary </i>also has been a solid gainer in delayed viewing, with the most recent sixth season growing 65% in viewers and 80% in adults 18-49 from Live+same day to Live+7 ratings."</blockquote> <br /> Of course, <i>Elementary </i>does not make Cumber-bucks for the network. In 2016 former CBS Corporate CEO Les Moonves <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/elementary-gets-picked-season-7-cbs-2680469">told an investor conference</a> that <i>Elementary </i>made $80 million in profit for the corporation in 2015. For “The Abominable Bride” (2016), the limited theatrical release of BBC <i>Sherlock</i>’s Christmas special, international box office alone was<a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Sherlock-The-Abominable-Bride#tab=international"> $39,111,922</a>; just about half CBS’ 2015 profit. <br /> <br /> <i> The Financial Times</i> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3cc9afc4-2d0e-11e4-911b-00144feabdc0">in August 2014 wrote</a> that while the BBC will not break down specific numbers for each series, it did concede that Sherlock made a “huge amount of money.” <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Nevertheless, Sherlock’s global success has broken many records. The BBC says the third series – where Mr Cumberbatch’s detective miraculously returns to sleuthing after seemingly plunging to his death from the roof of Bart’s Hospital at the end of series two – has received more than 70m hits on the Chinese digital platform Youku. The DVD of the third series received the most pre-orders ever for a BBC series yet to be broadcast – at a time when the format is dying – and the final episode was the most tweeted about television programme when it was first aired on UK screens."</blockquote> <br /> <a href="https://tvline.com/2018/09/17/elementary-recap-season-6-finale-sherlock-joan-move-to-london/">Doherty talked</a> about the challenges of writing a finale and then having to tell more stories:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "You’re talking about a scene that killed me to write because it was my goodbye, too. I had to assume this was the end for the series. So I thought it was time for Sherlock to stop beating around the bushes and let the subtext be the text for once. When you look at any of our seasons, what you see or feel between them is love. I think that’s the way it is for all Watsons and Holmes, or Holmeses. I don’t know what the plural is… Yes, there’s respect and friendship, but I think a Watson loves his or her Holmes, and vice versa. It’s underneath everything we do, and yet I didn’t want the show to end without somebody making that explicit. The challenge, of course, now that there’s a seventh season, is continuing to explore that and expand upon it. I don’t think it was any great revelation to Joan that Sherlock felt that way, because she feels the same. There’s nothing embarrassing about it. I don’t think it’s anything Sherlock regretted saying. But it’s something that they’ll both compartmentalize, and put away as they continue to move forward together."</blockquote> <br /> Some of the <a href="https://elementarystan.tumblr.com/season7"><i>Elementary</i> Season 7 episode titles</a> are known and they are:<br /> E1 The Further Adventures<br /> E2 Gutshot <br /> E3 The Price of Admission<br /> E4 Red Light, Green Light — directed by Jonny Lee Miller<br /> E5 Out of The Woods <br /> E7 From Russia With Drugs<br /> E9 On The Scent — the 150th episode of the series<br /> E11 Unfriended — directed by Lucy Liu<br /> E12 Reichenbach Falls<br /> <br /> <br /> Episode Five will introduce the nemesis for this series arc, Odin Reichenbach (James Frain), an evil tech billionaire. A rich corporate baddie on <i>Elementary</i>? Who'd have thunk it? Actually, <i>Elementary</i>, like Doyle's canon, is set in the world's capital (then London, now New York City) and tells stories touching on government, the military, class and finance and uses this setting as a secondary character to explore how the protagonists react to the challenges of ethics and family with society and with each other. The Canon also presented those challenges to Holmes and Watson in a number of cases (CHAS, BRUC, ABBE, SCAN, SIGN and others).<br /> <br /> <br /> So how will the show deal with Gregson's descent as the mostly-moral center of the <i>Elementary</i> unit? Joan had forgiven Gregson for protecting his daughter at the cost of Joan's reputation and possible freedom, but will Sherlock? “Sherlock, Joan, Gregson and Bell form this very non-traditional family unit, and as the seventh season begins, there’s going to be a ‘family’ crisis. Events will transpire that will force them to put smaller problems behind them and really come together again as that unit,” <a href="https://tvline.com/2018/09/25/chicago-med-colin-donnell-leaving-connor-rhodes-season-4/">Doherty opined</a>.<br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 5;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Spoilers:</b> <i>The following are from published sources about Season Seven and may contain information you may not want to read if you want to go into the series with a blank slate</i>.</span><br /> <br /> <i>Elementary </i>started filming in New York City-dressed-as-London in July 2018, but do not expect any episode to be entirely set in England as both Sherlock and Joan will be heading back to the Big Apple as one of their "inner circle" is gravely wounded. Bell, who was set to be a U.S. marshal “will be on a certain path as the seventh season starts, and by the end of the first episode, a lot will change for everybody,” <a href="https://tvline.com/2018/10/02/sarah-drew-greys-anatomy-season-15-april-returning/">according to Doherty</a>.<br /> <br /> Ophelia Lovibond will be making an appearance as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BldWuddD04G/">Kitty Winter</a> with son Archie in tow. <br /> <br /> As with the last episode of Season Six and the first episode this season, the second series finale will also have a time jump. As Doherty said,<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Something that I knew I wanted to do was move forward in time a bit with the characters by the very end. There was a period [in the Canon] when Sherlock and Watson were not together; they went down very different paths, and their lives were very different from having been apart. We felt that would be appropriate for our show. A lot was Season 7 working towards that: How can we tell a larger story that would allow us to devise a finale that sets in not-so-distant future?” </blockquote> Which makes the naming of the series seven badman "Reichenbach" appropriate. <br /> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>MAJOR SPECULATIVE SPOILERS!</b> <i>If you've been with me so far, you may want to reconsider as the spoilers will be huge</i>.</span><br /> <br /> The Liunatic Fringe Tumblr, in a post called "<a href="https://liunaticfringe.tumblr.com/post/181060249245/things-we-knowsuspect-about-elementary-season-7">Things We Know/Suspect About #ElementarySeason 7</a>," posted a screen shot from the scene list of the Lucy Liu directed episode “Unfriended” that states Morland Holmes’s dead body is found at the brownstone. This should not come as too much of a surprise to careful viewers as Morland’s mortality was discussed in various episodes in Season Six. In E6, Sherlock came to cease-fire agreement with Moriarty on her attempts to assassinate Morland that will last, as Sherlock told him, “Until you die of old age. I persuaded her that won’t be long.” However, nature may have had a helping hand.<br /> <br /> This spoiler is speculation on my part. In <a href="https://tvline.com/2019/01/18/sarah-drew-greys-anatomy-season-15-april-returning-2/">TVLine’s Ask Ausiello</a> there was posted this interesting item: “ELEMENTARY: Rumor has it that a pivotal deceased character will loom large-ish in the forthcoming series finale. Guesses?!”<br /> <br /> <a href="https://en.businesstimes.cn/articles/110211/20190404/elementary-season-7-surprisingly-renewed-might-arrive-on-cbs-with-all-new-plot.htm"><i>The Business Times</i></a> made this interesting slip in an April 4, 2019 post: “Also, it has been recently revealed that Rhys Ifans will return as Detective Bell and Aidan Quinn as Captain Gregson.” Of course, Jon Michael Hill is Bell, Ifans is Mycroft. <br /> <br /> And in a since deleted post on the <a href="https://elementarystan.tumblr.com/">Elementary|Natterings</a> Tumblr a picture of an empty brownstone room was captioned by the <i>Elementary </i>writers as “Mycroft—you were at Reichenbach Falls?” It was revealed in S6 E9’s “Nobody Lives Forever” that Mycroft had died at Leffen Trust Hospital, Timaru, New Zealand, ten months previously. “Apparently,” said Sherlock, “an intracranial hemorrhage is not unheard of in leukemia survivors. They say it was instantaneous. One minute he was all right, and the next minute, he wasn't.” <br /> <br /> The next two episodes seemingly confirmed the reality of Mycroft’s death (but only through conversations, not physical evidence). So, is Mycroft dead and only being seen on the show in flashbacks? Or like Holmes after the Canonical Reichenbach Falls, had faked his own death?<br /> <br /> <br /> <h3> <b>A Terrace View</b></h3> </div> The cast of <i>Elementary </i>has moved on. Jonny Lee Miller on stars on Broadway in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/theater/ink-review.html"><i>Ink</i></a>, Lucy Liu continues on with episodic directing, most recently <i>Law and Order: Special Victims Unit</i>, and starring in the upcoming CBS All Access series <i>Why Women Kill</i>. Her recent honor of having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was no doubt given a boost by Joan Watson. Robert Doherty is an executive producer of <i>Alive II</i>, a TV movie in pre-production about a dead San Francisco cop brought back to life. In sum, it's highly improbable that <i>Elementary</i> will be back for an eighth season.<br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;"> I suspect that Season Seven will not be <i>Elementary</i>’s <i>The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes</i>, a collection of weaker Holmes stories written in Doyle’s twilight (although I think it’s a much stronger batch of stories than is popularly perceived). </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;"> Rather, Season Seven will be as strong as any of the previous seasons. I look forward to this second Last Bow. </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;"> [<b><i>Editor's Note</i></b><i>: We're aware that "His Last Bow" occurred not in The Case-book, but in <u>His Last Bow</u></i>.]</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;"> --</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;"> <br /></div>

Elementary — His Last Bow

“this seven years and never a word of complaint” [HOUN] [ Editor's note : When the author refers to Sherlock he means Jonny Lee Mi...

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by James C. O'Leary

To Be a Sherlockian

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "a family mannerism can be traced" [REIG] </h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuYcdzFkS5hM0ip-ShADqlJTgIg1E_UI1EKzbq4AJ_7QyvqWdRNS68Zfr0OfwDSGNX-Rv-DN048hknn7UETNOsNF_f5ZVbCGD9Wq3yT-AIjoP1DvizY5te1_SAPaCwpTrdX5APNCmJN4Mm/s1600/Rex+and+Rusty+Mason.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1171" data-original-width="1600" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuYcdzFkS5hM0ip-ShADqlJTgIg1E_UI1EKzbq4AJ_7QyvqWdRNS68Zfr0OfwDSGNX-Rv-DN048hknn7UETNOsNF_f5ZVbCGD9Wq3yT-AIjoP1DvizY5te1_SAPaCwpTrdX5APNCmJN4Mm/s640/Rex+and+Rusty+Mason.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> As we celebrated Father’s Day this year, I thought it was the perfect time for me to reflect on being a Sherlockian.<br /> <br /> But unlike many others, I don’t consider “being a Sherlockian” as being a person… for me, “being a Sherlockian” is a reminder of past events. <br /> <br /> Every time I pick up the Canon, a pastiche, or literary criticism; or view part of a collection of my own or others; or share experiences with other Sherlockians, I think of my father. Because without him, I would not have become a Sherlockian. <br /> <br /> Let me explain. <br /> <br /> Every year or two, I would take the summer sojourn to my grandparent’s farm in rural Indiana. There I would stay in my dad’s boyhood room. And each year, waiting patiently for me, would be a set of books: a few Lone Ranger adventures, six or seven Hardy Boy mysteries, and <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i>. And yes, it was the 1949 Bantam paperback edition, <a href="https://pulpcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Bantam-366-1949.jpg">with the steamy cover</a>. <br /> <br /> It wasn’t until junior high school I actually learned there were 59 other stories awaiting me. <br /> <br /> But once I was bitten by the bug, I soon found out my dad had been a “closet” Sherlockian for most of his life. For years, if I had a question on anything concerning Sherlock Holmes or Victorian life, all I had to do was ask him. He either had the answer in his vast memory bank, or loved researching the issue and providing the answer. <br /> <br /> As an aside, my dad did not push myself or my siblings to be, or do, anything. That includes our education, career, or leisure activities. He had three simple rules for the three of us though… pay your bills on time (I had to have that pointed out a few times in my younger days); respect what others believe, are, or do (even if you don’t necessarily approve of it); and whatever you do in life, do it right. As a career navigator in the United States Air Force, it was in his nature to everything well, and right. <br /> <br /> Just before he passed away, he finally finished his own pastiche, which had been in his mind for years. Everyone who has read it believes it to be very good, as well as historically accurate. <br /> <br /> My father did not push me to become a Sherlockian… he let me find it on my own… but once I did, he was there to support it. <br /> <br /> Today, I feel extremely lucky my son has also been bitten by the same bug. He has become the webmaster for two different Sherlockian societies, as well as the illustrator of <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2017/02/new-feature-baker-street-elementary.html#.WZPUjlGGPb0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a popular Sherlockian comic strip</a>. I hope I followed my father’s pattern… I did not push or coerce. I was simply there when he wanted me there. <br /> <br /> So, I can sum up my feelings on what “being a Sherlockian means” this way. A Sherlockian is not how much “stuff” you collect, or how many papers you write, or how many times you have read the Canon. <br /> <br /> To be a Sherlockian means you are lucky enough to be able to share your world with the next generation when they ask, whether it is your offspring, students, or even complete strangers. <br /> <br /> After all, for us, it is always 1895.<br /> <div> <br /></div> <div> --</div> <div> <br /></div>

To Be a Sherlockian

"a family mannerism can be traced" [REIG]  As we celebrated Father’s Day this year, I thought it was the perfect time for me ...

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by Steve

Sherlock and the Infatuation with Fashion

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "all London was interested, and the fashionable world dismayed" [EMPT] </h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxCux0-5CnL58EGc0JvlT4jP3hCLdkLTmg3ywBFJZw-mijzcX5KsRRMVUU-VCIhXK0NCJgPugvMASWxQCYM9Pjlpoh3h5dOOTaZdKHHtBFY852jBQD9nR73_TtRehfiDNWrcsa3a5KP92U/s1600/sherlock_bbc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="768" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxCux0-5CnL58EGc0JvlT4jP3hCLdkLTmg3ywBFJZw-mijzcX5KsRRMVUU-VCIhXK0NCJgPugvMASWxQCYM9Pjlpoh3h5dOOTaZdKHHtBFY852jBQD9nR73_TtRehfiDNWrcsa3a5KP92U/s640/sherlock_bbc.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> I was thinking about <i>Sherlock</i> the other day (as I so often do), and suddenly my muse poked me in the tummy (as she often does). The realization dawned on me that fashion actually plays a fairly large role in numerous episodes of <i>Sherlock</i>, and often in quite a negative way. I am not sure what to make of this trend, but take a look at some of these examples and see if you can find a deep, underlying message.<br /> <br /> Maybe Gatiss and Moffat hate the fashion world. Maybe there is an even deeper meaning that hasn't even occurred to me yet because I'm still recovering from my muse punching me in the belly. Anyway, take a gander and see if anything occurs to you.<br /> <br /> <h3> <b>A Study in Pink</b></h3> The title of this episode plays right into my hands, doesn't it? Actually this is what started my pondering. Even though several other "suicides" occur in the episode, much of the focus is spent on the woman in pink. Her pink outfit and the pink bag are discussed in detail as they give Sherlock ideas about her story. Beyond that though, Sherlock analyzes her wedding band and finds bad news (she takes the ring off a lot).<br /> <b><br /> </b> <br /> <h3> <b>The Great Game</b></h3> This episode concentrates on a pair of shoes tied to a very old murder case. Even more pertinent to this argument, however, is that Sherlock makes a rapid and in the end distracting evaluation of Moriarty's character based on how Jim is dressed. Sherlock assumes that Molly has managed to find herself tied up with a gay man based on Moriarty's hair styling and way of dressing. Later we find out that in fact Moriarty did that on purpose to capture Sherlock's attention. Are Gatiss and Moffat playing with fashion to capture our attention or distract us from something else?<br /> <br /> <h3> <b>The Sign of Three</b></h3> Although one of the sweeter and more suspenseful episodes, I'm afraid to tell you fashion also plays a dreadful role here. In this case, belt buckles associated with military uniforms do the damage. Fashion does not seem to be a neutral player, now does it?<br /> <br /> <h3> <b>The Hat</b></h3> Perhaps all of this is a revolt against Sherlock's hat. Along with a pipe, most people, when they picture Sherlock Holmes, probably picture that cute little hat (I'm a big hat fan). In a way, it has come to define the character in our societal lexicon. In the show, Sherlock of course hates the hat and only wears it at John's pressing (and because the crowds are expecting it). Maybe the whole point is that fashion alone should not be expected to tell the whole story. The hat certainly does not tell the whole story of Sherlock, just as Moriarty's style certainly did not tell the whole story about him.<br /> <br /> On the other hand, maybe this is all just a big coincidence. Maybe my muse was a little drunk the other day, or maybe she is feeling vengeful.<br /> <br /> What do you think?<br /> <br /> --<br /> <br />

Sherlock and the Infatuation with Fashion

"all London was interested, and the fashionable world dismayed" [EMPT]  I was thinking about Sherlock the other day (as I so...

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by Margie Clayman

Molly Hooper and the Romanticizing of Emotional Abuse

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "You have been cruelly used" [SPEC] </h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVmLHK7ko7WMYDpvzZBHuYPTyBTqYEPsef_xI-W7GY3_VYIsCAJfwtut7sDvRXwPPolHdbFkrUUmdQ5tcP9sI8XEKiJnQFNNBeti4BgU-_eJpVTYN3-ZhmjMcjORozs8Hysrgwrpz-d06/s1600/Baker+Street+skul+and+wallpaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVmLHK7ko7WMYDpvzZBHuYPTyBTqYEPsef_xI-W7GY3_VYIsCAJfwtut7sDvRXwPPolHdbFkrUUmdQ5tcP9sI8XEKiJnQFNNBeti4BgU-_eJpVTYN3-ZhmjMcjORozs8Hysrgwrpz-d06/s640/Baker+Street+skul+and+wallpaper.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> When I first started watching <i>Sherlock</i>, I was of course taken by Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal. Sherlock was mysterious, outwardly a jerk, and otherwise unappealing, but there were little touches, little hints, that indicated he might be redeemable, at least on the inside. I was able to completely gloss over his obviously manipulative treatment of Molly Hooper, and I think that was the desired effect. Molly was a sort of awkward little mouse of a woman, Sherlock was conniving and an admitted sociopath, so their interaction was bound to not be ideal. <br /> <br /> <div> After watching "The Final Problem," however, I began to reconsider the treatment of the character of Molly Hooper from the beginning of the series to the unsatisfying and dismal end, and I realized that in effect, Gatiss and Moffat created a scenario in which viewers were tricked into lusting after what was actually an emotionally abusive dynamic between Sherlock and Molly. <br /> <br /> <h3> "Holmes had, when he liked, a peculiarly ingratiating way with women" [SECO] </h3> Throughout the first season, you can see clear evidence of this facet of emotional abuse between Sherlock and Molly. In case you are not well-versed in the verbiage of emotional abuse, “love bombing” (which can also be called the honeymoon stage) is when the abuser will offer compliments, often directly tied to wanting something. After they get what they want they cycle back to devaluing/demoralizing their victim.<br /> <br /> Perhaps the best example of this occurs in the episode “The Blind Banker.” Sherlock asks Molly to “wheel out” Eddie Van Coon and Brian Lukis so he can reexamine the cadavers, but Molly informs him the paperwork on the bodies has already been completed. At that point, Sherlock notes that Molly has changed her hair and he encourages her by saying, “No it’s good. It suits you better this way.” Molly then proceeds to do what Sherlock wants.<br /> <br /> Sherlock perpetually insults Molly as part of the devaluing cycle. He tells her, for example, that talking is not her strong suit. In “The Great Game,” the episode directly following “The Blind Banker,” Sherlock insinuates that Molly has gained weight since she started dating her new boyfriend “Jim.” This, incidentally, is another tact emotionally abusive people use to keep their victims off guard. Sherlock drops little treats for Molly but never fulfills her wishes. However, he gives her an equally hard time when she tries to form relationships with other men.<br /> <br /> <h3> "no ghosts need apply" [SUSS]</h3> Another aspect of emotional abuse that appears in Sherlock is what is known as ghosting. In “The Empty Hearse,” Sherlock asks Molly to work with him, but throughout almost the entire time they work together, he continues to call her John. One could argue that this simply is to re-establish how close he is with John, but in the context of the entire dynamic between Sherlock and Molly, that feature in the episode takes on more disturbing undertones.<br /> <br /> <h3> “I am bound to say” [WIST] </h3> This all takes us to that now much-discussed part of the finale, where Sherlock must make Molly tell him she loves him. There are almost too many problems with these scene to explain. To put it succinctly, Molly is encouraged by Sherlock to finally make herself fully vulnerable, even though she knows, after all of the abuse he has heaped upon her and all of the manipulation he has done, that she will not get anything out of it. He forces her to voice her feelings, but she gets no reward for being emotionally brave. Instead, he hangs up, and she is left with the final proof that he does not have the same feelings for her. Her hopes are crushed as just a minor part of the episode, which almost feels like emotional abuse from the writers themselves.<br /> <br /> <br /> Molly Hooper is an obviously clever woman, sweet, thoughtful, and caring. She is the perfect target for a sociopath like Sherlock, but viewers are led to be forgiving, and even sympathetic, of Sherlock. “That’s just how he is.” In the process, we are saying that treating women in this manner is acceptable and something to be shrugged off, especially if the abuser is attractive and clever.<br /> <br /> Do we really want to perpetuate that way of thinking?<br /> <br /> <br /> <i>Image credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/FEftYi" target="_blank">Zuza Ritt (Flickr)</a></i><br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /></div>

Molly Hooper and the Romanticizing of Emotional Abuse

"You have been cruelly used" [SPEC]  When I first started watching Sherlock , I was of course taken by Benedict Cumberbatch’s...

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by Margie Clayman

The Lying Detective — It Is What It Is

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "what it is worth" [THOR] </h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLP8V7BmrWjUjtlKyUt_EnLWbTjJJHEZIMYJXx3S-ONVzo2PubBLzANoNxhNMqhHz6ax7TUzlehf0zEoP6x6GJ-9qfIkvC6SYTQlGA4TIY48icqTpLrrpeBwXQsfNYcJQFte5VkVqI1OQ/s1600/CumberbatchbyMacBird.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggLP8V7BmrWjUjtlKyUt_EnLWbTjJJHEZIMYJXx3S-ONVzo2PubBLzANoNxhNMqhHz6ax7TUzlehf0zEoP6x6GJ-9qfIkvC6SYTQlGA4TIY48icqTpLrrpeBwXQsfNYcJQFte5VkVqI1OQ/s640/CumberbatchbyMacBird.png" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /> [<b><i>Editor's Note</i></b>: this is the sixth in a series of reviews we'll be sharing on Series 4 of <i>Sherlock</i>. And as is our custom, there are <b>spoilers</b> ahead.]<br /> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">And I love what it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That sums up <i>Sherlock</i> for me. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Before I begin, I respect your right to “not like” some creative work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s your prerogative and criticism is the risk that any creative person takes when putting their work out. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">But if you happen to be one of the vocal types hurling vitriol about <i>Sherlock</i>, exclaiming how violated and disappointed you are, may I offer some thoughts to consider. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">As many of you know, I love <i>Sherlock</i> for exactly what it is <i>— </i>a very creative riff on canon, written and performed by some immensely talented guys.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I will never tire of watching the innately likable Martin Freeman as John Watson struggle with his decency, his desire to be a good man, his<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>bravery,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>his addiction to adrenaline, and his very debilitating PTSD </span><i>—</i> not to mention the love he feels for his friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which is from time to time tried to the limits due to his own, and especially to Sherlock’s flaws.</div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Many found John to have crossed some line in "The Lying Detective" in a supposed affair and his attack on Sherlock. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I was very sympathetic to John’s struggle with his attraction to the girl on the bus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So very human, so very poignant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An army surgeon married with a baby and craving adrenalin… well, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My heart ached for him watching this. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">John is a man who examines his actions regularly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And suffers<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>tremendous guilt for his mistakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>To me that is human and heroic.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">There is, by the way, canonical inspiration to be found in the way Watson describes women with more than a touch of longing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>And of course, a parallel exists with ACD who enjoyed many social occasions with Jeanne Leckie while still married to the ailing Touie. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>A human being, yet still worthy of our admiration.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Would Dr. John Watson of the original Sherlock Holmes stories have had an affair?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not likely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But would he </span><i>—</i> if he were alive now <i>— </i>perhaps flirt a bit via text?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I buy it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three continents, folks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> He didn't do more than text. That showed restraint. I love him for it.</span><br /> <span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Are you so above such a thought, such a desire, such a gesture?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, I do not find the world so black and white as you do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Bigger question:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>would John Watson beat the up an ailing canonical Holmes? That set off some of you. Not in the Canon, surely. But<i> Sherlock </i> ratchets up both the rawness of these characters’ emotions and the extremity of Sherlock’s hubris and John’s PTSD to a point that, to me, became  believable and tragic and moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It brought me to tears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could understand both points of view so well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, both.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Those characters, those vulnerabilities, have been carefully constructed, consistently built throughout the series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not the Canon, it’s a version of these characters which is consistent within the longer arc of the <i>Sherlock</i> series. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">And Sherlock himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like his canonical counterpart, this Sherlock is damaged goods with a fragile and inflated ego (it’s all in the stories), manic behavior and the propensity<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to self medicate to alleviate depression and boredom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Except </span></span><i>— </i>Sherlock goes farther than the canonical Holmes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much, much farther, and suffers all the more from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, I feel sympathy, not derision. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is an extreme man living in extreme times.</div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I will never tire of watching Benedict Cumberbatch play the genius of immense intellect and emotion – and yes, Mrs. Hudson was dead on right about this – for all his reasoned brilliance and passion for the scientific method, Sherlock is primarily an emotional man, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and I hold him to be so in the Canon as well.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though in the spirit of the Victorian era, this element is very much understated on the page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>But it peeks through the words, most definitely.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">In both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories and <i>Sherlock</i> this character is hurting, alone, somewhat of a tragic figure, and all the more heroic for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world applauds his achievements while he privately collapses. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">In the show, for John and Sherlock, bad stuff happens when their lesser natures briefly overcome them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To me, that is the stuff of powerful storytelling. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I think some haters, particularly those who have only recently switched sides to Camp Vitriol where </span><br /> <span lang="EN-US"><i>Sherlock</i> is concerned, come to the show with expectations <i>—</i> expectations that it cleave more closely to the Canon, that it show John and Sherlock as very much who Watson and Holmes were in the original stories, that it mimic the Conan Doyle formula they think they remember (and are almost always wrong) concerning the amount of deductions, how accurate was the logic, how active/ inactive, physical/emotional, etc.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Several problems come with that expectation.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">First, many get these breakdowns, percentages, perceptions wrong (though granted, fewer of you who are reading IHOSE).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2017/01/to-sherlock-critics-discerning-and.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gatiss’s recent rhyming rebuttal</a> to “there’s too much action” in <i>Sherlock</i>.  Hell, no, it's quite canonical. Just depicted in the style of its current medium. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Second: recreating the Canon is not what the creators set out to do, or ever promised. This is a riff, not an adaptation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> A pastiche, not a faithful retelling. </span>They are creative, imaginative, inspired, and did what they wanted to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is so much ego ascribed to their work by the haters?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are artists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>This is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their </i>portrait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I went into an exhibit of Expressionist painting recently in London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t much care for this genre; it does not speak to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My companion was riveted and spent an hour and a half studying these while I did a quick tour and sat down to write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had a fascinating takeaway and couldn’t wait to try some things in her own painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was unimpressed but I can assure you that I did not find myself thinking – what an utter a^*hole for using that much yellow in the corner of the painting, how is <b><i>that</i></b> a bridge, and how dare he call that f%^-ing  blob a human being?</span><br /> <br /> <span lang="EN-US">No. This painting is that artist’s take.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can partake, admire, savor, or move on to what we like better.  </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I will never paint in this style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t hate or deride these artists for doing so. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">To punitively ascribe "ego" to an artist for daring to disagree with you by virtue of their choices is just plain wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The act of writing, performing, any art form requires ego, requires a point of view, and requires the creator <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to reveal him/herself by<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>appearing on the page or canvas or screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The work itself <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has a form – to a greater or lesser degree – imposed upon it.</i> That’s the challenge of art.</span><br /> <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Putting out your "take" on an idea, an image, a story — that is what artists do, and it is the height of vulnerability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of you know this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You put your work out there and then stand naked before the crowd.</span><br /> <span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span> <span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">All creative art forms have rules and guidelines. Some tight, some loose. </span>A classical sonnet is a tight form, an expressionist painting a loose one, but both are forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you put yourself and your ideas and your story and what it is you want to say into this form, you also help define the form. And you speak your piece. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">It's a leap of faith to do this. </span>That’s not ego, that’s what creating is. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">A long form drama series is long form film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A novel is long form print.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They require very different things in terms of plotting and character development than short form. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moffat and Gatiss took a pass at their creative riff on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">longform </i><i>filmed</i> Sherlock Holmes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Conan Doyle wrote <i>short form print</i> Sherlock Holmes. </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I frankly love <i>Sherlock </i>though not every minute of it. Sometimes there is a little too much yellow in the corner of the painting: dialogue too fast, and less inventive villains than I’d like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But do I need to write angrily about this, detailing with outrage what they woulda, shoulda, coulda done? </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">I’ve been a screenwriter and a producer and a development executive for 30 years in Hollywood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have written one movie that’s been made and sold many scripts and won Emmys for TV writing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am published in longform print Holmes. (<i>Art in the Blood,</i> and the upcoming <i>Unquiet Spirits</i>)  <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>So maybe I’m somewhat “qualified” as a critic, but I will not take the bait and second guess Moffatt and Gatiss and Cumberbatch and Freeman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">This is an artwork.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>And I have too much respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span><br /> <br /> <span lang="EN-US">Let me reiterate: you don’t have to like any given artwork, I’m not saying that. But don’t be like that nurse in "The Lying Detective," casually dissing John’s blog in passing, almost as an afterthought. Maybe she glanced at it on the Tube.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe she would have written it differently. Please. Don't be that woman.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">A final word on the phrase “it is what it is ”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> which tags this episode.This was derided as a platitude by some critics. </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">This is not a platitude. “Everything happens for a reason”is a platitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Say that to me and don't stand too close. </span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">"It is what it is" …<i>is </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i>zen.  </i>It is the hard won lesson of the adult</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the serenity prayer<i>,</i> the part about <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>knowing what “things you cannot change” and understanding and accepting those things.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Mary is dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sherlock and John are flawed human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Horrible people who kill others exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is what it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Now, that being said, the other part of the serenity prayer about knowing the difference between what you can and cannot change is crucial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> At this precise moment there is a rising panic about what is happening in our country, a malaise that is difficult to endure. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">We are hoping and praying that "what it is" can be changed. </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">Some things  require action. They require battle gear and courage and resilience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despots and liars must be confronted. Murders must be investigated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Criminals brought to justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Children must be taught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Babies must be nurtured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Art must be created to shine lights into dark corners and open us to beauty and truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is hard, scary work.</span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">And some things require acceptance and accommodation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like illness. Like death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are what they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <br /></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-US">When friends join hands and agree on these painful things, there is love. And understanding. I love these two men, this particular John and Sherlock,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and their expression in this crazy form in our crazy times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I can’t wait for "The Final Problem."  </span><br /> <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span> <span lang="EN-US"><br /></span> <i><b>Editor's Note:</b> Bonnie MacBird recently received her investiture "Art in the Blood" in the Baker Street Irregulars. The watercolor portrait above is her work.</i><br /> <br /> --<br /> <br /></div> <o:p></o:p>

The Lying Detective — It Is What It Is

"what it is worth" [THOR]  [ Editor's Note : this is the sixth in a series of reviews we'll be sharing on Series 4 ...

+ Read more »

by Bonnie MacBird

Year-End Summary: We Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

<h4 style="text-align: center;"> "to take stock of the situation" [CREE]</h4> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiXzI9DMhU5QqxQTvCxwGGHCC1ACuALTSl3u-O4iX3waB5xjM9J7YbcE3XSROuQfIrWEakL3HAKsfH_79mRDPRhnQ_MV14RKsVdaQe1czQuZFOSyxYGX7zCl2mEZxwlqJFOiB_q2E-nq0j/s1600/TWIS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiXzI9DMhU5QqxQTvCxwGGHCC1ACuALTSl3u-O4iX3waB5xjM9J7YbcE3XSROuQfIrWEakL3HAKsfH_79mRDPRhnQ_MV14RKsVdaQe1czQuZFOSyxYGX7zCl2mEZxwlqJFOiB_q2E-nq0j/s640/TWIS.jpg" width="594" /></a></div> <br /> Somehow, another year has managed to slip past us seemingly in the blink of an eye. Current geopolitical rumblings, from Brexit to the U.S. presidential election may have left the world in tumult, but here in the world of Sherlock Holmes, things remain constant. In the words of Vincent Starrett, BSI ("<i>A Study in Scarlet</i>") in his storied poem "<a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2013/10/celebrate-national-poetry-day.html#.WGdkovkrLb0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">221B</a>,"<br /> <br /><h3 style="text-align: center;"> Here, though the world explode, these two survive,</h3> <h3 style="text-align: center;"> And it is always eighteen ninety-five.</h3> <br /> At I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, we had another successful year, thanks in no small part to our contributors and to you, our readers. We thought we would take a look at just what made up that success, by breaking things down into a few different categories.<br /> <br /> <h3> By the Numbers</h3> <i>"numbers visible to my lens" [SIGN]</i><br /> <br /> It's always difficult to take the passion and emotion behind a hobby and convert it into numbers, but numbers are data points and when viewed properly, data can tell a story. After all, Sherlock Holmes himself said "Data! data! data! I can't make bricks without clay," in "The Copper Beeches." So let's have a look.<br /> <br /> <ul> <li><b>1,244:</b> The number of posts that have been published on IHOSE since our inception in 2005.</li> <li><b>142:</b>  In terms of the number of posts we published, 2016 will place a very respectable third, with 142 entries for the year. Only 2007 and 2015 had more, with 160 and 199 entries, respectively.</li> <li><b>45%:</b> Our contributors (more about them below) accounted for 45 percent of those 142 entries on the site.</li> <li><b>19:</b> We had occasion to be in Sydney, NSW, Australia in late April, marking 19 years since we had last visited. As any such visit should include, we connected with <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose97" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Sydney Passengers</a>.</li> <li><b>24:</b> The number of new episodes of the IHOSE podcast, published the 15th and the 30th of every month.</li> <li><b>8:</b> We published eight "terraces," or obituaries in 2016. While a number of members of the BSI passed away again this year, most of the terraces we published were celebrities, an editorial decision on our part, to avoid making the site too morbid.</li> <li><b>5:</b> We counted five sponsors to the show this year, from our faithful two, <a href="http://wessexpress.com/" target="_blank">Wessex Press</a> and <i><a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/" target="_blank">The Baker Street Journal</a></i>, to newcomers the <a href="http://johnhwatsonsociety.com/" target="_blank">John H. Watson Society</a>, Paula Berinstein's <a href="http://amandalester.net/" target="_blank">Amanda Lester series</a>, and <a href="http://bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com/p/dans-books.html" target="_blank">Dan Andriacco</a>.</li> <li><b>4:</b> We were asked by MASTERPIECE to host the #SherlockPBS live tweet for a fourth time, for the premiere of <i>Sherlock: The Abominable Bride</i> in January. We'll reprise that role <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/12/join-us-as-we-live-tweet-sherlock.html#.WGdzVvkrLb0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">for a fifth time tomorrow night with Series 4</a>.</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> <h3> Our Contributors</h3> <i>"it may contribute something to the common cause" [VALL]</i><br /> <br /> If anything, we have learned that this site is more of a community than a destination. And our many contributors make that possible. In 2016, we had 15 separate authors who contributed when the mood struck them. We're grateful to them for their hard work and passion, and we have a few highlights below. Click on their names to see the entirety of their work.<br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Anastasia#.UvOhfPldV8E" target="_blank">Anastasia Klimchynskaya</a> - We were treated to an international journey as Anastasia <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/07/sherlock-holmes-and-doctor-watson-in.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">took us to Moscow</a> and shared her Sherlockian discoveries there. </li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Chris%20Redmond#.VGlLfPnF-AU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chris Redmond</a> - We never know what to expect from Chris Redmond, but we know that every topic will be of high quality. Chris led the pack with 17 separate entries this year.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Cory%20Howell" target="_blank">Cory Howell</a> - Who better to look at an analysis of the popularity of Tarzan versus the popularity of Sherlock Holmes over the years?</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Crystal%20Noll#.Uucu28Qo5w0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Crystal Noll</a> - The role of international correspondent is never easy, and Crystal came through with her reporting on the re-opening of the Sherlock Holmes Pub.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Derrick%20Belanger" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Derrick Belanger</a> - Our second most prolific contributor is always at the ready with an interview or book review.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Gordon%20Dymowski#.UuctKMQo5w0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gordon Dymowski</a> - a stalwart reviewer for us, Gordon put his talents to work again at the connection of Holmes and comics.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/James%20O%27Leary#.Uucu28Qo5w0" target="_blank">James O'Leary</a> - the editor of the John H. Watson Society's publication <i>The Watsonian</i> found time to contribute thoughtful essays here once more, many centered around <i>Elementary</i>.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Katie%20Magnusson#.Uv7eU8RDuSo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Katie Magnusson</a> - Katie is always ready and willing to help out with book reviews, and she did her fair share again this year.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Leah%20Guinn#.WGeAvvkrLb0" target="_blank">Leah Guinn</a> - In her first essay with us, Leah turned to friendship — an enduring theme of the Sherlockian world.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/M.M.%20McMahon#.VGlK5fnF-AU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Margaret McMahon</a> - Margaret turned her sights on <i>The Abominable Bride</i> this year, and found a curious parallel.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Mattias%20Bostrom#.VOp5bfldWSo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mattias Boström</a> - We can always count on Mattias to create a controversy or fact-check the wider media world. And he didn't disappoint this year.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Rachel%20Gosch" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rachel Gosch</a> - Rachel is a new contributor, but she didn't let that stop her, with a number of reviews already to her name. </li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Rob%20Nunn#.Uucu28Qo5w0" target="_blank">Rob Nunn</a> - From New Year's resolutions to an obscure animated program, Rob brought us a variety of insights this year.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Robert%20Stek#.VGlLfPnF-AU" target="_blank">Robert Stek</a> - Some might say Bob is as mad as a hatter for pursuing his interest in Lewis Carroll the same way he does for Sherlock Holmes, but we're just fortunate to have the inveterate punster with us.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/search/label/Tim%20Greer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tim Greer</a> - Theatrical is a word that could describe Tim's pursuits and his demeanor. And he's an excellent source of fodder.</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> <h3> Our Show</h3> <i>"now then, listen to this" [SIGN]</i><br /> <br /> This was the first full year of the new show schedule, which we revamped in October 2015. The clockwork-like release of our podcast episodes on the 15th and 30th of every month, alternating one interview and one commentary show, mean predictability for our listeners. It also means stretching for topics for those commentary shows and scrambling to record, edit and post episodes when work, travel or family commitments are looming over us.<br /> <br /> Some of the more notable episodes this year included:<br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose89" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 89</a>: in which we interviewed Evy Herzog and Susan Rice about The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes. We heard from many listeners about this episode, particularly of the emotional re-telling of the first female investitures in the Baker Street Irregulars.</li> <li>Book shows: we interviewed a number of authors about their books, including <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose91" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Maria Konnikova</a>, <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose93" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bob Katz and Andy Solberg</a>, <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose95" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leah Guinn and Jamie Mahoney</a>, <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose99" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chris Redmond</a>, <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose101" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rebecca Romney</a>, <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose105" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger</a>, and <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose109" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lyndsay Faye and Ashley Polasek</a>.</li> <li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose100" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 100</a>: our centenary was a celebration of the people, voices and memorable moments in IHOSE history. We're looking forward to our next milestone episode.</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> <h3> Passings</h3> <i>"stand with me here upon the terrace" [LAST]</i><br /> <br /> In the wider world, a number of celebrity deaths made 2016 seem like a particularly cruel year. Partially because some of them were icons in their industries, like David Bowie or Alan Rickman; and partially because some of them were particularly young, like George Michael (53), Prince (57), Carrie Fisher (60). And the tragic two day span in which both Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds died left an indelible mark in 2016.<br /> <br /> In the Sherlockian world, we felt the impact as well:<br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/01/remembering-alan-rickman.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alan Rickman</a>: this one took many people by surprise, and occurred during the BSI Weekend, leaving us scrambling to cover it.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/02/remembering-frank-finlay.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Frank Finlay</a>: occupying non-consecutive decades of Sherlock Holmes association, Finlay was a staunch performer.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/03/remembering-douglas-wilmer-bsi.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Douglas Wilmer</a>: not only did Douglas Wilmer portray Sherlock Holmes on film, television and audio books, but he was also a member of the BSI. And your editor hosted him in Boston.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/08/remembering-gene-wilder.html" target="_blank">Gene Wilder</a>: another surprise to many, Wilder was fondly remembered for his manic peformances, of which <i>Sherlock Holmes's Smarter Brother</i> was an underrated one.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/11/remembering-fritz-weaver.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fritz Weaver</a>: we were fortunate to have interviewed Weaver on Episode 26 of our program. He was a delight.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/12/remembering-andrew-sachs.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Andrew Sachs</a>: following in Michael Williams' footsteps on the BBC radio series with Clive Merrison would have been daunting for any actor. Sachs was not only up to the task, but he gave a solid and believable performance.</li> <li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/12/remembering-peter-vaughan.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Peter Vaughan</a>: more widely recognized of late because of his Game of Thrones role, we can say, "we knew him when..."</li> </ul> <div> <br /></div> <br /> <h3> The Future</h3> <i>"Ah! my dear Watson, there we come into those realms of conjecture" [EMPT]</i><br /> <br /> Before we discuss what the future holds, please make sure you check out our Archive. The right rail here on our site contains a box with the categories Popular / Comments / Archive. Click on that to display posts from any given timeframe.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, what will the future hold for IHOSE? It may not be all that far away, actually. As Bill Watterson wrote, "The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present." We'll continue to cover the news of the Sherlockian world and its intersections with popular culture, as we've been doing for a decade. We'd like to make it easier for Sherlockians everywhere to discover events near them, and we're working on a solution for that.<br /> <br /> On our show, expect to discover some familiar names and some newcomers as well, as we continue to bring you the most interesting and relevant interviews. Given the lineup, we may be required to eliminate our every-other episode schedule of interviews and simply produce as many of them as needed in our 24-episode schedule for 2017.<br /> <br /> And finally, we'll be launching a companion audio program that will have its own site and identity. We have a name and a theme picked out, but we're not at liberty to share it yet. All we can tell you is that this will be a weekly audio show that delves into the Sherlock Holmes stories. We'd appreciate your support when it launches. Stay tuned!<br /> <br /> <br /> Thank you so much for being part of our little world here, whether you're a long-time subscriber or a first-time visitor. If you haven't already, please <a href="http://forms.feedblitz.com/4s0" target="_blank">sign up for free email updates</a> from us. And if you're so inclined, help support the future of this site by <a href="http://patreon.com.ihearofsherlock/" target="_blank">becoming a patron</a>.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://patreon.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="54" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUdWwR1bfFZ6ZG19mA65Jr30OBQB3oyLygm_VNXIWPNFLQ027PTMJVqE8l-5hAPTkOOwGFsbazSCZ-mME2eZmLzBdChEoDzA_VTto-Iax4QBDgPoiyaz1S7dqzxwWHphm9tkVf788lewbX/s320/IHOSE+Patreon.png" width="320" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <br /> --<br /> <br />

Year-End Summary: We Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

"to take stock of the situation" [CREE] Somehow, another year has managed to slip past us seemingly in the blink of an eye. C...

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by Scott Monty