Granada Discussion Post: Wisteria Lodge
Mar. 17th, 2013 01:42 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60Let's talk telly in the discussion post for Granada's adaptation of Wisteria Lodge. If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can find it at YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video, and DVD. Follow me behind the jump for my random thoughts and impressions. Please add your own in the comments!
Canon discussion for Wisteria Lodge is available in the canon discussion post.
- The portrayal of Inspector Baynes here by Freddie Jones is... well, let's say memorable. Honestly, I found it rather creepy and off-putting. Baynes is said by Watson in canon to be "a stout, puffy, red man, whose face was only redeemed from grossness by two extraordinarily bright eyes, almost hidden behind the heavy creases of cheek and brow". That's an unkind description to put it mildly, but Baynes here is even more repellent than that, with his mouth gaped open wide and his tongue waggling around inside and out of it. He gave me the creeps every time he was on screen. The character of Baynes is a clever investigator, able to impress even Sherlock Holmes, but I never got that intelligence from him even when he was demonstrating it. All I could think was, "For the love of God, close your mouth!" Granada's penchant for unflattering extreme closeups made this bad situation even worse.
- "Thanks to this good man, I am beyond their power forever." - Granada simplifies the canon story, removing Inspector Gregson from the investigation, and more importantly completely eliminating the presence of John Warner, the fired gardener of Wisteria Lodge. In the original plot, he provides much of the initial information about the makeup and goings on of the house, and in the end, he is the one who rescues Miss Burnet from her captors at the train. Without him, those duties fall to Watson, who does an admirable job instead. He takes it upon himself to investigate when Holmes keeps him out of the loop, and although he is nearly captured himself by Murillo's daughters (and is bailed out only by Holmes' fortunate presence), he manages to see Miss Burnet from her window, confirming she was still alive. And when they track her and her captors to the train station, he is the one who pulls her to safety and nurses her back from her opium stupor. Nice work, Watson!
- It's a small thing, but the way everyone kept mangling the pronunciation of the name Garcia just drove me nuts. Spanish has very regular and predictable pronunciation. Garcia is really García, and should be pronounced that way, with the stress on the second to last syllable, as most Spanish words are said. But everyone in the episode pronounces it Gárcia, with the stress on the first syllable. I understand the Englishmen not being aware of these language subtleties, but surely Signora Victor Durando would know the difference, being married to a Spanish speaker and working as governess to two Spanish speaking children.
- "...like crimes committed on some other planet..." - I must admit, I wished at that instant we were watching an investigation by the Great Detective and the Good Doctor on some other planet. Some science fiction with my Sherlock sounds like so much fun. Holmes and Watson... IN SPAAAAACE!
Canon discussion for Wisteria Lodge is available in the canon discussion post.
- The portrayal of Inspector Baynes here by Freddie Jones is... well, let's say memorable. Honestly, I found it rather creepy and off-putting. Baynes is said by Watson in canon to be "a stout, puffy, red man, whose face was only redeemed from grossness by two extraordinarily bright eyes, almost hidden behind the heavy creases of cheek and brow". That's an unkind description to put it mildly, but Baynes here is even more repellent than that, with his mouth gaped open wide and his tongue waggling around inside and out of it. He gave me the creeps every time he was on screen. The character of Baynes is a clever investigator, able to impress even Sherlock Holmes, but I never got that intelligence from him even when he was demonstrating it. All I could think was, "For the love of God, close your mouth!" Granada's penchant for unflattering extreme closeups made this bad situation even worse.
- "Thanks to this good man, I am beyond their power forever." - Granada simplifies the canon story, removing Inspector Gregson from the investigation, and more importantly completely eliminating the presence of John Warner, the fired gardener of Wisteria Lodge. In the original plot, he provides much of the initial information about the makeup and goings on of the house, and in the end, he is the one who rescues Miss Burnet from her captors at the train. Without him, those duties fall to Watson, who does an admirable job instead. He takes it upon himself to investigate when Holmes keeps him out of the loop, and although he is nearly captured himself by Murillo's daughters (and is bailed out only by Holmes' fortunate presence), he manages to see Miss Burnet from her window, confirming she was still alive. And when they track her and her captors to the train station, he is the one who pulls her to safety and nurses her back from her opium stupor. Nice work, Watson!
- It's a small thing, but the way everyone kept mangling the pronunciation of the name Garcia just drove me nuts. Spanish has very regular and predictable pronunciation. Garcia is really García, and should be pronounced that way, with the stress on the second to last syllable, as most Spanish words are said. But everyone in the episode pronounces it Gárcia, with the stress on the first syllable. I understand the Englishmen not being aware of these language subtleties, but surely Signora Victor Durando would know the difference, being married to a Spanish speaker and working as governess to two Spanish speaking children.
- "...like crimes committed on some other planet..." - I must admit, I wished at that instant we were watching an investigation by the Great Detective and the Good Doctor on some other planet. Some science fiction with my Sherlock sounds like so much fun. Holmes and Watson... IN SPAAAAACE!
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Baynes
Date: 2013-03-19 09:23 am (UTC)Re: Baynes
Date: 2013-03-19 01:49 pm (UTC)I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thought that! He just disturbed me every single time he was on screen. I bet that fic was creepy too. I share your *shudder*.
Re: Baynes
Date: 2013-03-20 12:57 am (UTC)