Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2010, 11:00 PM BSTOne thing that does annoy me is the low opinion of the intelligence of the viewer: Holmes has to explain what the act at the Chinese circus in case you are to thick to work it out yourself, and when the meaning of a clue is revealed they throw in a montage to remind you of the plot so far just in case you fail to grasp the significance.
It's exposition. Which is obviously a bit amatuer.
It is more that it is unnecessary exposition. They assume that the audience cannot be trusted to join the dots.
I suspect that this has less to do with the writers than the contempt BBC1 programmers have for their audience.
Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2010, 11:00 PM BSTOne thing that does annoy me is the low opinion of the intelligence of the viewer: Holmes has to explain what the act at the Chinese circus in case you are to thick to work it out yourself, and when the meaning of a clue is revealed they throw in a montage to remind you of the plot so far just in case you fail to grasp the significance.
I suspect though I may be Pete Tong (see what I did there!) they have one eye on a certain country just across that there Atlantic Ocean. And I don't mean the Canary Islands.
Quote: roscoff @ August 1 2010, 11:10 PM BSTI suspect though I may be Pete Tong (see what I did there!) they have one eye on a certain country just across that there Atlantic Ocean. And I don't mean the Canary Islands.
But good American dramas don't really do that. With The Wire for instance you were expected to be able remember incidents that had happened two series ago. They did not feel the need to jog your memory about what had happened fifteen minutes previously.
Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2010, 10:44 PM BSTDid seem odd losing Lestrade after only one week. Kind of gives the impression that the first episode was originally intended as a pilot, then when they got the green light to make the remaining two Graves wasn't available.
They did do a pilot apparently, which has been said to be unsuitable for broadcast and they rejigged it. Lots of money went down the crapper to film that pilot, I can't remember how much but it makes you wonder what was in it if it was unsuitable to be broadcast.
Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2010, 11:13 PM BSTBut good American dramas don't really do that. With The Wire for instance you were expected to be able remember incidents that had happened two series ago. They did not feel the need to jog your memory about what had happened fifteen minutes previously.
I think they think this will have wider appeal. Perhaps to a younger less worldly wise audience perhaps? But they might just think we're all as thick as shit!
I fell asleep! Fuming at myself! iPlayer tomorrow.
A very feeble programme.
The problem is the plot was not only full of holes and implausibilities but it did not make any sense. It is hard to see how killing various people -including one of the gang's own sister- would lead to the recovery of the item. Far better a few brutal beatings, surely? If you happen to kill the person who took it (as happened here), you'll never get it back.
I'm surprised that such a poor story was actually made, but then quality control is not high priority at the BBC these days.
The series has also a strange obsession with embarrassing asking out for dates; we've seen 4 such in 2 episodes. Curious.
It also suffered from a poverty of imagination. If you're going to use ninjas from the mysterious east, atleast give them some funky martial arts skills or cool hallucinogenic poison. But a deadly martial artist who uses a gun, that's Steven Segal.
Infuriatingly there was a good plot hidden in there. That the whole thing was about a throw away romantic gift worth 9 million squids was genius. Genius buried in 5 minutes of exposition at the end.
That and the bit with the hoody was good.
I hope the last episode is written by someone with more of a track record in writing TV. Too much to hope that it's the Moff himself?
Quote: roscoff @ August 1 2010, 11:21 PM BSTI think they think this will have wider appeal. Perhaps to a younger less worldly wise audience perhaps? But they might just think we're all as thick as shit!
They'll probably remake it and set it in LA with Andy Garcia as Holmes and Steve Buscemi as Watson.
Quote: chipolata @ August 2 2010, 8:21 AM BSTI hope the last episode is written by someone with more of a track record in writing TV. Too much to hope that it's the Moff himself?
It's Mark Gatiss.
Quote: chipolata @ August 1 2010, 10:50 PM BSTMoffat as a producer seems to struggle to pick good writers. He was the same on Doctor Who.
His Who series used many of the same people as had been used previously, rather than Moffat picking brand new shit people. Though Neil Gaimen's epispode was apparently supposed to feature this year at first rather than next.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ August 2 2010, 8:54 AM BSTHis Who series used many of the same people as had been used previously, rather than Moffat picking brand new shit people.
He still decided who wrote for the show. And he still signed off on the scripts they handed in. I'm saying he's no Steve Bochco or David Chase, both of whom seemed better able to get the best out of the writers working on their shows.
I watched this last night for the first time. Although there were many bits I enjoyed, some parts, I thought, were terrible. The graffiti artist character was awful. Was he a meant to be a hoody? If he was then surely he would be tagging or something? The thing he was painting looked like a stencil piece but there he was just spraying away. I know It's probably stupid of me to worry about such things but it annoys me when "youth" are portrayed so one dimensionally. Also, the Chinese woman who was hiding in the museum had some truly awful lines. Wanted to like it and found many things to enjoy, but felt let down. Better than a lot of stuff though so glad it's there.
Quote: chipolata @ August 2 2010, 9:25 AM BSTHe still decided who wrote for the show. And he still signed off on the scripts they handed in. I'm saying he's no Steve Bochco or David Chase, both of whom seemed better able to get the best out of the writers working on their shows.
Well let's see how he develops, that was after all his first attempt at doing something like that, as opposed to just writing every episode of something himself.