Granada Discussion Post: The Second Stain

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Let's talk telly in the discussion post for Granada's adaptation of The Second Stain. If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can find it at YouTube (in 6 parts), Netflix, Amazon Video, and DVD. Follow me behind the jump for some of my random thoughts and impressions. Please add your own in the comments!

Note: Canon discussion is available in the canon discussion post. Thanks!



- I was pleasantly surprised by the actor playing Trelawney Hope, one Stuart Wilson. He does marvelous work with the original dialogue. His distraught desperation is very real and palpable. In fact, the entire episode does a good job conveying the tension involved. There is so much at stake, and so little to go on.

- Hardwicke!Watson nearly gives the game away here, telling Lady Hilda that "you presume correctly" when she asks if they know the true facts. Thanks a ton, Watson. You do realize you're working with state secrets, right? Notice that later on, Holmes shushes Watson with his finger to his lips when they're on their way to the murder scene with Lestrade. The doctor needs to keep his trap shut this time!

- The scene where Watson finds the story of Eduardo Lucas' murder in the newspaper is great. How can you not love as Watson reads from the article:
"'Valet out for the evening.'"
"They always are."
"'Housekeeper heard nothing.'"
"They never do."

- Granada makes the return of the letter to the dispatch box into a clever challenge with the Prime Minister and Hope both there at the time. We don't get to see Holmes use slight of hand to get the letter back into the box while Hope is looking through it, but we do get to see Jeremy Brett cautiously sneaking up behind them, silently readying the letter in his hand and then we see him lighting a celebratory cigarette as they discover it. Delicious.

- Any feeling about the last shot, with Brett jumping in the air excitedly? It's a bit silly, but Holmes has every reason to be thrilled -- he spared his country a war, many soldiers their lives, and performed a terrific magic trick in the process to do so.

Comments

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Patricia Hodge is just wonderful here - properly aristocratic in her hauteur when Holmes "breaks the rules", cracking so believably when her marriage is at stake. Plus I deeply covet her clothes.

But who else is angry that she dare not let her husband see a saucy letter she once wrote without putting her marriage at stake? I'm willing to bet that as a 'man of the world' Hope did far, far worse in his youth. Now, having done this, she added an impossible layer of secrecy to the whole thing and must always be left wondering if hs really is that sort of unbending, judgemental pr%%%k. I'd find a man like that hard to love, myself.

My favourite interaction is, as always, H/W and Lestrade. The way they play the little trick on him with the rug and the concealed compartment under the floor (snorting Jeremy!) by appealing to his professional vanity is so mischievious and adorable and you really feel the tension whether they will put things back before he returns.

The last shot was, of course, Jeremy's idea. Holmes is often much more puckish than people make credit for, so for me, it works.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Or maybe the letter wasn't as innocent as she claimed?

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Possible, but Lucas didn't see that shocked by it. I think we're talking Double Standards here...

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I don't dispute the double standards that were prevalent in Victorian society (and continue). However, if Lucas was as good at his job as his reputation would lead us to believe, would he have shown that he was shocked?

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

Perhaps not, but I usually prefer to give the woman the benefit of the doubt, given said double standards. I could see it go either way in 'reality'.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I would too normally, but in this case I just don't quite believe her. She's an intelligent woman, and although her husband does not discuss politics with her, she cannot fail to be aware of the importance of what she has taken. Even knowing how serious the loss is she refuses to trust Holmes. I'm going for an affaire with a married man.

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

But, before her marriage, so unless it was one of his friends or political enemies, still none of his business. Hmm, well, you never know.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I always enjoy watching the horses in the Granada series. On this occasion there are a pair of black horses, where one is clearly objecting to the other. We see them first pulling a cab and later pulling the police wagon.

My favourite line (since I discovered I could quite happily ship Watson/Lestrade in this version as well) is when Watson says "I have got to know Lestrade quite well." Of course you have.

I thought Holmes' leap was totally in character.

[bwblack.livejournal.com]

I caught that line as well. I thought it was grand!

[flawedamythyst.livejournal.com]

I loved how excited they are about this case the whole time. It really gives the impression of 'solving cases is completely exhilarating and shedloads of fun even when it's deadly serious'. I think the leap at the end was part of that.

(Nice contrast to last time's utter direness, with all the 'must solve this case, getting nightmare visions about it' and the sense that no one was having any fun, least of all the viewer.)