Rewatching "A Study in Pink"

[marta_bee]

I’m rewatching Sherlock with an eye for non-shipping stories the showrunners might be trying to tell, and because --yes-- I am on Tumblr, I’m thinking about that snippet from Gatiss’s interview making its way around Tumblr: that by the end of S4, John and Sherlock are comfortable in their own skins. It seems to imply this is a new thing, that they weren’t that way before. Like in earlier series, they’d be uncomfortable in their own selves.

And you know what? They’re just... not.

Pardon my language here, but: Sherlock is an asshole in ASIP, not just a “bit of a a”, we’re talking full out; but he’s the king of the assholes. Watch that press conference. He’s showing Greg and Sally up, completely needlessly, but he owns it. This is being a jerk raised to an artform. Or again the “four suicides and now a note” moment in 221B, right after that awkward hasty tidying up of the flat where he’s so clearly trying to appear normal for John? Normal people do not jump in the air at the prospect of a really interesting murder. This is not normal, but it is Sherlock, and he exults in that moment.

There are other examples. The look of glee when his deductions don’t drive John off. The simply not caring about how inappropriate it was to call John from across London. The more-than-slightly-cruel way he plays the game with the cabbie. I could describe this Sherlock many, many ways, but “not comfortable in his own skin” is not one of them.

John’s a little harder to paint that way. He’s clearly suicidal which does bring a whole level of discomfort, even self-disgust, with it. He’s alienated from his therapist. He’s itching to get away from Mike Stamford, visibly distressed by how thoroughly he doesn’t fit in to the kind of civilian life he represents. But there’s also this easy lethality about him. John Watson with a gun in his hand is (again pardon my language) fucking art, it’s a grace and self-possession I aspire to on my best days. And the race after the cab is that, too, to a lesser extent. So too with the people he meets: hitting on Anthea, standing up to Mycroft, running off to Lauriston Gardens after Sherlock. He’s a man of action, and when he’s given a context that allows that, it’s really something to behold.

What I am noticing, though, is there are huge parts of their characters that they’re a bit too comfortable with. Sherlock makes an art out of causing pain. Anderson embarrasses him? He’ll call Anderson out, but in the process he’ll humiliate Sally Donovan, who as a black woman police officer is bound to suffer more for the perception of sleeping around on the job. Or take John. He’s beautiful when he shoots Jefferson Hope, there’s a skill and even aesthetic to it that always takes my breath away; but I actually think he should regret the need for it, and the fact that he kills him not to save other lives but to save Sherlock specifically who put himself in this situation does bother me. I think it should bother us all. If I let myself think about it instead of getting swept away by the romance* of it.

(*Not necessarily the erotic, more just the idealism of it, the faerie.... I’m grasping for words here a bit, but I mean romance more in the sense of Le Morte d’Arthur than Romeo and Juliet, if that distinction makes sense.)

When I first watched these first two series, I saw Sherlock and John on a path toward something like Aristotle’s virtuous friendships (whatever other components their relationship might have). Sherlock has this daring quality, a kind of courage of the intellect, and John envies that. He wants to be more like that again. And for his part, Sherlock is drawn to John’s ability to care. It awakens a realization that maybe this is something he’d like to grow into. That means he has to be more aware of what he’s lacking - not a bad thing, it’s the first step toward actually acquiring that virtue. You can’t become more generous if you don’t realize right now, you’re more stingy than you should be.

But this is the great tragedy of the show, as I remember it. It breaks them of this false comfort in their own skin and while it does end with them being comfortable again in what’s supposed to be a better way (that lovely montage at the end of TFP!), I don’t see how it was really earned. It does feel a bit boop, and they’re fine. Which makes the comfort and self-awareness feel a bit tenuous to me, certainly it’s not well-earned or any more secure than what they had at the first meeting. That may be shipper’s frustrations shining through, so it will be really interesting if I can see that journey back to self-comfort better as I rewatch.

My point, though: rewatching ASIP, I want John and Sherlock to get back to this point. I want them to be as home in their own selves as they were here, but I want it to be a self that's better, less driven by cruelty and violence and more by justice and knowledge and standing up for the oppressed, and I want their unique friendship to be what gets them to the other side. Then again, that may be my inner Aristoteian setting up an unrealistic standard. Like I said, it will be interesting to see if I can find this arc as the show unfolds again.

Comments

[marta_bee]

To be clear, I'm not bothered because they aren't perfect yet, or haven't reached a kind of fully-actualized character. I mean they're (what?) thirty-five at this point. I'm thirty-five, and I really hope I'm not finished yet!

Here's what does bother me: by the plot-climax of TLD, there's at least three major "tensions" or conflicts in John's relationship. None of which have been really addressed in any satisfactory way to me.

(1) Family obligations/normalcy vs the "romantic adventure" Sherlock represents. The show has emphasized at least twice that rushing into danger makes him less able to account for normal familial duties. John's essentially torn between two loyalties here because when he puts himself in danger he's not the only one who's going to suffer.

(2) Sherlock as ubermensch: John has a tendency to excuse the inexcusable because Sherlock's superhuman so normal rules don't apply. But not only does that keep them from developing any kind of trusting relationship -- Sherlock repeatedly can't live up to the standard anyway. Magnussen, TRF, Sherlock's failure to "deduce" Mary, all of these create rifts precisely because John (IMO unfairly) trusts and expects Sherlock to handle them.

(3) Related: Sherlock has a history of leaving John behind when adventures get truly dangerous. TRF again, but also TGG/the pool scene, and smaller examples as well. This causes big problems with John's trust issues, and also throws doubt on his status as professional protector. Sherlock's gotten better at this (though not entirely) in S4, but there's still a lot of past baggage to address, and John still needs to learn how to relate to Sherlock outside that dynamic a lot more than he has.

So there's a lot of damage heading into that brief conversation at the end of TLD. Multiple faultlines. And aside from John making it clear he doesn't blame Sherlock for Mary's death, they've not directly addressed any of it. Then in TFP, they seem to be functioning quite smoothly as a team again, without all the divisions and ill-at-ease-ness (for lack of a better term) all these faultlines would have to cause. It seems the two of them would have to do quite a lot more work to get back to this place of working smoothly together and not doubting each other, past the end of TFP. I suppose we shouldn't expect to see all that onscreen, but I'm at a loss for ow they'd even begin to do that. It's less about the boring details not being portrayed on screen, with even the general trajectory not being established.

That's what I mean when I say their refound ease with each other and with themselves feels unearned. It's just a bit too much hand-waving to feel earned and "real," at least for me.

[donut_donut]

I guess we're just destined to see this differently! I for one find it amazing that in a series that had Sherlock going to therapy, John talking openly about his feelings, both of them crying, and then sharing a deeply emotional hug, many fans still feel like the emotional growth wasn't sufficiently addressed.

(1) Family obligations/normalcy vs the "romantic adventure" Sherlock represents. The show has emphasized at least twice that rushing into danger makes him less able to account for normal familial duties.

I feel like this was resolved by his relationship with Mary? With Mary, John didn't have to choose between family obligations and adventure, because his family obligations *were* an adventure (i.e. tracking his own wife halfway around the globe).

(2) Sherlock as ubermensch:

But they literally had a conversation in which Sherlock said "We're all human" and John said "Even you?" I'm not sure how much more directly they could have addressed that.

(3) Related: Sherlock has a history of leaving John behind when adventures get truly dangerous.

It seems to me that the big shift in S4 is that John doesn't expect to be included all the time anymore, because he has his own life. And when Sherlock wants John there, John abandons him, and Sherlock has to beg and wheedle and manipulate to get John to join him. But ultimately, when it comes to the unpleasant work of sitting with Sherlock through his withdrawal, John steps up, even though it's difficult and uncomfortable for him.

*shrug*

just a different perspective. if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work. sometimes there's not really any why or wherefore to these things, I know.

[marta_bee]

I feel like we're still talking past each other, a bit. I do think the show has addressed these as themes. I don't think John and Sherlock as characters have. If I was John and Sherlock was a friend, I'd be walking on eggshells around him at the end of TLD, even after that conversation, and I would need so much time, so much reassurances to get back t anything like the well-functioning pair they are at the beginning of TFP. It's an interesting place, actually: it feels like as viewers we have a lot of the pieces to move us back to TFP-level friendship, but John and Sherlock as characters don't. And that really interferes with my ability to "buy into" the relationship.

On the other hand: I'm much more a literary fan, and I'm not used to working with TV shows as a fandom member. I really may be expecting something from the genre it's not set up to provide. Truly!

Thanks for your opinion, in any event. Not sure I agree (which is fine), but you've definitely challenged me in a good way.

[donut_donut]

well, tbh... I will defend everything in TST and TLD to the death, but when it comes to TFP, there's only so much I can defend it, lol.

The best I can do is point out that there are little hints of time passing, and maybe we can assume that some of that hard emotional work happened behind the scenes...?

but basically, when it comes to TFP... yeah. I think they were exhausted and tapped out and on a very tight schedule, and what they came up with is basically a rough draft of an episode. There are some very cool ideas, some good lines, but... yeah. Basically, I don't disagree that there is definitely some stuff that needed to be better fleshed out. I have my own list of about a hundred things. :P

[marta_bee]

Ha! Something we can agree on. And thanks for talking through a bit of this with me, it does help.

(I am more mixed in my opinions on TST/TLD than you, but there really is so much to love there! TLD in particular is just gorgeous. That's a big part of why I'm rewatching, as an attempt to experience those great parts with new eyes.)