Granada Discussion Post: The Dancing Men
Jul. 7th, 2013 02:28 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 TV adaptation of The Dancing Men. 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 The Dancing Men is available in this week's canon discussion post.
- I love this episode, but it is desperately sad. Mr. SpaceMutineer doesn't always get sucked into these episodes when I have them on, but he was completely taken by this one. And like me, he was rather traumatized by it. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
- God, Jeremy Brett is fantastic in this episode. Absolutely top notch. The highs and lows he is able to express just in his eyes are amazing. I love watching his Holmes think, piecing a thought together in his mind. He's overjoyed by the complex challenge of the code, revealing it with a flourish to Watson. Later, we see him at his bottom, stressed and tense, considering the message yet again as he waits, then considering the needle. After the disaster strikes, he tries to concentrate on his work, but his pain bleeds through when he's forced to talk about poor Elise and "her despair". At the end, Abe Slaney is handcuffed and harmless, but Holmes still keeps the gun to his head. He fantasizes about vengeance, but he works for justice, no matter how much he wants otherwise.
- Good work, Watson: did you notice he could read the dancing men code at the end without help or even a key? Also, it's such a sweet and perfect moment when Watson whispers to remind a fully focused and driven Holmes to ask the woman he's interrogating to sit. Holmes may forget to think of others, but Watson never does.
- The age difference between Elsie and Hilton is the only awkward thing about this episode. The actors (Tenniel Evans and Betsy Brantley) do wonderful work here, and their love story is believable. You feel their connection together when they're on screen. But perhaps it would have worked even better with two actors of a closer age. I found myself being distracted by the thought that Hilton was easily old enough to be Elsie's father.
- Speaking of quality acting, David Ross is Inspector Martin here, and he is marvelously fun. The Inspector is just so jazzed to be working with Sherlock Holmes, watching the great detective speed through deduction after deduction. From his perspective, the case has gone beautifully: the villain was quickly apprehended and justice found, and he got to watch the best investigator on the planet work up close. His eager happiness is infectious and much needed in such a bleak story.
Canon discussion for The Dancing Men is available in this week's canon discussion post.
- I love this episode, but it is desperately sad. Mr. SpaceMutineer doesn't always get sucked into these episodes when I have them on, but he was completely taken by this one. And like me, he was rather traumatized by it. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
- God, Jeremy Brett is fantastic in this episode. Absolutely top notch. The highs and lows he is able to express just in his eyes are amazing. I love watching his Holmes think, piecing a thought together in his mind. He's overjoyed by the complex challenge of the code, revealing it with a flourish to Watson. Later, we see him at his bottom, stressed and tense, considering the message yet again as he waits, then considering the needle. After the disaster strikes, he tries to concentrate on his work, but his pain bleeds through when he's forced to talk about poor Elise and "her despair". At the end, Abe Slaney is handcuffed and harmless, but Holmes still keeps the gun to his head. He fantasizes about vengeance, but he works for justice, no matter how much he wants otherwise.
- Good work, Watson: did you notice he could read the dancing men code at the end without help or even a key? Also, it's such a sweet and perfect moment when Watson whispers to remind a fully focused and driven Holmes to ask the woman he's interrogating to sit. Holmes may forget to think of others, but Watson never does.
- The age difference between Elsie and Hilton is the only awkward thing about this episode. The actors (Tenniel Evans and Betsy Brantley) do wonderful work here, and their love story is believable. You feel their connection together when they're on screen. But perhaps it would have worked even better with two actors of a closer age. I found myself being distracted by the thought that Hilton was easily old enough to be Elsie's father.
- Speaking of quality acting, David Ross is Inspector Martin here, and he is marvelously fun. The Inspector is just so jazzed to be working with Sherlock Holmes, watching the great detective speed through deduction after deduction. From his perspective, the case has gone beautifully: the villain was quickly apprehended and justice found, and he got to watch the best investigator on the planet work up close. His eager happiness is infectious and much needed in such a bleak story.
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