Granada Discussion Post: The Three Gables
Sep. 21st, 2013 11:11 pm![[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 Three Gables. If you haven't seen this episode yet, you can find it at YouTube and on DVD. Follow me behind the jump for my random thoughts and impressions. Please add your own in the comments!
Canon discussion for The Three Gables is available in this week's canon discussion post.
- Oddly, this episode is like a distorted parallel version of the Illustrious Client from a few weeks ago, with one of our heroes injured in a losing fight, the case pivots on an attempt to stop a ill-begotten marriage. Isadora is described here as a "destroyer of men" and Baron Gruner is nothing if not a destroyer of women.
- Thank heavens for Granada filtering out the ugly racism in the canon! Hooray! Although, honestly, it's not as if they could keep the original text in this case.
- Mrs. Hudson is just awesome at the beginning of this episode, fearless and funny. "You were responsible for this mess," she scolds Steve Dixie, before she physically throws him out of the house, hitting and shoving the man until he's out the door. Fantastic. Holmes loves it too.
- Much appreciation for Holmes actually taking this case seriously in this adaptation and leaves Watson as Mrs. Maberley's guard for the night. Too bad Watson disobeys every instruction he is given and goes to sleep upstairs and away from his charge. By the time he knows what is happening, elderly Mrs. Maberley is on the ground, telling him to leave her and go after the thieves. She's tough in this version too.
- Watson takes a pretty serious beating here that isn't in the original story. Jeremy Brett's Holmes is rather casual about the whole thing. He doesn't even help Watson down the stairs when he only makes it halfway. The best we get out of him is an observation that Watson needs to redress his hand injury. Disappointing. In Bending the Willow, the book about the Granada series, Brett discussed his thoughts on the relationship between Holmes and Watson. He didn't seem to believe Holmes and Watson were particularly close friends or even all that fond of each other really, which is so strange to a canon reader. There is a lot of praise to be given to Jeremy Brett for the accuracy of his portrayal of Holmes, but it is hard not to wish he had understood better and delved deeper into the real friendship that drives the partnership of Holmes and Watson.
Canon discussion for The Three Gables is available in this week's canon discussion post.
- Oddly, this episode is like a distorted parallel version of the Illustrious Client from a few weeks ago, with one of our heroes injured in a losing fight, the case pivots on an attempt to stop a ill-begotten marriage. Isadora is described here as a "destroyer of men" and Baron Gruner is nothing if not a destroyer of women.
- Thank heavens for Granada filtering out the ugly racism in the canon! Hooray! Although, honestly, it's not as if they could keep the original text in this case.
- Mrs. Hudson is just awesome at the beginning of this episode, fearless and funny. "You were responsible for this mess," she scolds Steve Dixie, before she physically throws him out of the house, hitting and shoving the man until he's out the door. Fantastic. Holmes loves it too.
- Much appreciation for Holmes actually taking this case seriously in this adaptation and leaves Watson as Mrs. Maberley's guard for the night. Too bad Watson disobeys every instruction he is given and goes to sleep upstairs and away from his charge. By the time he knows what is happening, elderly Mrs. Maberley is on the ground, telling him to leave her and go after the thieves. She's tough in this version too.
- Watson takes a pretty serious beating here that isn't in the original story. Jeremy Brett's Holmes is rather casual about the whole thing. He doesn't even help Watson down the stairs when he only makes it halfway. The best we get out of him is an observation that Watson needs to redress his hand injury. Disappointing. In Bending the Willow, the book about the Granada series, Brett discussed his thoughts on the relationship between Holmes and Watson. He didn't seem to believe Holmes and Watson were particularly close friends or even all that fond of each other really, which is so strange to a canon reader. There is a lot of praise to be given to Jeremy Brett for the accuracy of his portrayal of Holmes, but it is hard not to wish he had understood better and delved deeper into the real friendship that drives the partnership of Holmes and Watson.
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Date: 2013-09-22 01:49 pm (UTC)I suppose I can sort of understand Mr Brett's point. Before I read the stories for the first time, I had the Holmes and Watson from all the films and TV series in my head. I thought of them always living together and solving each case side by side. But in the original stories both men are more self-contained. They don't immediately become friends when they start living together. They drift apart when Watson gets married. Holmes does a lot of the work for his cases on his own, or with other people. They don't need each other in the way Sherlock and John in Sherlock do, for instance.
However, there is plenty of evidence in the stories to show that the two men are fond of each other. And that Holmes considers Watson vital for his work. I certainly think of them as close friends.
I suppose I do find Mr Brett's opinions a little surprising when I think of the Granada adaptations as a whole. I always thought Holmes was fairly obviously in love with Watson in this version. (And the second Watson at least, returns his feelings. But they Don't Talk About It.) I'm not talking about slash goggles even - I thought that was the producers' intention.
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Date: 2013-09-22 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-26 11:03 pm (UTC)I also found it interesting that instead of having Douglas die abroad, we get to see him at his grandmother's house writing passionately through his pain out in the gazebo. While this certainly makes it clear that Isadora is directly responsible for his death, it makes the timing of the Dixie's attempted intimidation and the subsequent break-in messier, since the manuscript is always at the house and not recently-arrived with his personal affects.
While I like that the directors were focused on making Holmes see what he doesn't in ACD (because what film/TV version of Sherlock Holmes isn't obsessed with making Holmes seem superhuman?), it's true, his relationship with Watson suffers for it. Thanks for the perspective!