The Ho and I finally sat down and watched the first “episode” of Sherlock series 3 tonight. It’s crazy that it air all the way back at the end of January, but that’s the life of a household going through pilot season 😛
It was pretty much what I expected – tons of fun, not the best it can be because it wasn’t written by my favorite writer on the show, Steven Moffat, but rather his co-creator, and also actor playing Mycroft, Mark Gattis. I’ve found Gattis’ episodes to be consistently entertaining, but lacking in the real dramatic oompf that Moffat brings to his scripts.
But, that’s not all entirely the appeal of Sherlock, the writing, simply because Cumberbatch and Freeman are so incredibly good on the show. In just their six episodes, they built a loyalty in me (and I’m certainly not the only one) that I’d almost watch them do anything together and have a fun time. It’s literally one of the most genius pairing of actors ever on screen.
We also watched another episode of (last season’s) Shameless tonight, too, trying to make a dent in that pile-up as well. It was a bit of a slog this particular season, to be honest, but it’s FINALLY picking up. Emmy Rossum was particularly fantastic in this episode, pleading her case to have custody of her brothers and sisters. William H. Macy, too, was wonderful, as was Joan Cusack when her daughter returns home. The shenanigans were also particularly entertaining in this episode as well.
I guess, it’s just the more TV I watch, the more I see how hard it is to put out such a high level quality of material, at least for serialized shows, week in and week out for American television. I mean, even Shameless isn’t a full-blown “traditional” network season of 25/26 episodes…I think they 16, or something like that, but even they have issues with filler material, or just story-lines that aren’t as interesting as the meat of what the season should REALLY be about. Sherlock is the complete opposite of that. Three episodes. You’re in and you’re out, with 90 minutes of excellent story-telling. They make three movies and call it a season of Television.
On the one hand, that just intrinsically makes more sense: you can keep the pacing, tension, humor, EVERYTHING so much higher and cleaner with so much less time to fill. On the other, you do have to admire our “traditional,” again with the quotes since it is changing these days, American production schedule that just operates on a whole other level from any other entertainment industry in the world. As someone wanting to join the industry and make a living, getting a paycheck for 25 episodes looks a helluva lot better than making a paycheck for 3.
The only show I can think of that pulled off a solid full season of wall to wall amazingness and (with very few exceptions) airtight story-telling in the broadcast TV format was Battlestar Galactica. Yes, yes, I know they weren’t a “Broadcast Network” show, but they did operate that way and with a virtually broadcast network schedule. Man, season one of that show was so fucking good. It hurts my brain how good that shit was. Mad props for all time to Ronald D. Moore for what he did with that show.
Anyway, that’s all for tonight. Tomorrow, it’s back to work, and I’m sure you’ll hear about it on these very pages 😉