A few short weeks ago, I had the pleasure of giving a Marvel HQ tour to some of the amazing folks behind the TV show “Sherlock”: star Benedict Cumberbatch and Executive Producers Steven Moffat & Sue Vertue. They were incredibly nice and it was a great visit. Much like when Danny Pudi visited Marvel, Benedict, Steven and Sue found themselves surrounded by fans at Marvel—even signging DVDs for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN writer Dan Slott!
Since coming to California to work on “Star Trek,” Mr. Cumberbatch said, there had been “a huge blogging response to me selling out to Hollywood and dating a model and become a walking cliché. That was nice.” He also discovered a Web site that juxtaposes his facial expressions from “Sherlock” with images of otters in similar poses. He said it was “brilliant” and “fantastic.”
So all of a sudden it struck me that I’ve been more successful at getting people to notice an upside-down water bottle in Scotland Yard than I’ve been at getting them to notice the mole Jim Moriarty planted in Scotland Yard.
I should probably try harder. By which I mean draw yellow circles around him like I did the water bottle.
Attention fandom: This guy is a kidnapper and a crooked cop. He messed with Donovan’s head and was going to shoot Lestrade if Sherlock didn’t jump. (Long version here.) And he probably knows how to flip the water bottle onto the cooler, but doesn’t do it because he likes to see everyone else suffer. Just sayin’.
OH MY GOD
Holy SHIT.
This fucking fandom! You guys are amazing!
I try not to reblog too many fan theories because usually they’re a little far-fetched, but after reading through the long version of this, I’m a believer.
You could stick a knife in my thigh, and I wouldn’t tell you. Pull the hair on my head the wrong way, and I would be on my knees begging for mercy. I have very sensitive follicles.
Benedict Cumberbatch on the most effective way to extract get a secret out of him (via NYTimes.com)
The third series of Sherlock will start filming in ‘early 2013’, according to Beryl Vertue - one of its executive producers.
Vertue, who is speaking at the Nations and Regions Media conference in Salford today, told Ariel that it was too early to confirm transmission times for the next series.
SHERLOCK FANS. WATCH NOW. WATCH. YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. WATCH. SHIVERS ARE AN UNDERSTATEMENT. YOU WILL JUST BECOME A GIANT GOOSEBUMP. YOU WILL CRY AND LAUGH AND SCREAM. YOU WILL BE ASKING YOURSELVES WHY HASN’T BBC PICKED THIS UP AS A PROMO FOR SERIES 3. YOU WILL BE ASKING YOURSELVES WHY YOU WERE SO STUPID TO WATCH THE SHOW IN THE FIRST PLACE, BECAUSE IF YOU HADN’T, YOU WOULDN’T GRASP THE PHENOM THAT IS THIS VIDEO AND BE ASKING YOURSELF WHY ARE ALL THE EMOTIONS WHYYYY.
Shit that is not sexist re: Irene’s portrayal in Sherlock:
She is a sexual person
She is a sex worker
She is gay/a lesbian
She is not 100% perfect 100% of the time
She does not do literally every single thing on her own
Shit that is just generally not automatically sexist:
A woman losing
A woman needing to be helped/saved
A woman being emotional, vulnerable, etc.
Shit that is problematic, if not downright sexist, re: Irene’s portrayal in Sherlock:
The fact that she is sexualised in a way that specifically appeals to straight male fantasies when lesbians have a long history of being exploited thus in the media
The fact that this is used to reinforce the harmful stereotype that lesbians ‘just need the right man’
The fact that the way she was shown as being flawed was specifically set up to make her lose to a man in a way that reflects common stereotypes about women, i.e. they are more emotionally vulnerable than men, basically reinforcing the idea that traditional femininity = weak
The fact that Moffat and co. went out of their way to add Irene being saved into a narrative where, originally, she needed no help, in a media which tends to need women to be saved disproportionately to men
The fact that, again, they went out of their way to change it from a woman winning to a woman losing in a society where dudes typically end up the best off at the end of stories
Context, people. It’s all about context. If SCAN were a different story, then perhaps it wouldn’t have been the problem it is. But SCAN is a story about one thing, and ASiB a story about another, and the discrepancy between what Moffat read and what he wrote is the real issue tbqh.
YES. This is a great summation of the problems I had with this episode.
In the original Scandal in Bohemia, it is made quite clear that Holmes does not consider Irene Adler “The Woman” because he loves her, or even because he cares for her in any real way. She is The Woman because she beat him. She beat him, taunted him, and got away scott free to live out her life how she wanted, in a story written in freakin’ 1891. That is the POINT of Irene Adler.
And in Scandal in Belgravia, Irene Adler is only able to outsmart Holmes because Moriarty gave her the Cliffs Notes, and she STILL loses because of her lady!feelings, and finally she needs to be rescued (from the scary foreign-y foreigners, I might add) by Sherlock.
Yeah, that’s bullshit. That’s bullshit, and it’s NOT THE POINT of The Woman.
But then, when has Moffat EVER gotten the point of female agency?
What’s it like with [the boys] on set? Are they naughty? Do you keep them in line? Completely naughty. And they love shocking me, but it doesn’t shock me. They’ve forgotten I was in the Folies Bergère, I was a chorus girl for years—I’m not a nun. So they wait for what I come back with, which is more disgusting, probably. [X]
Watch this. Watch it. I don’t care if you’re not a Sherlockian, just fucking watch it. This damn fandom is beautiful, and clever, and UNITED in a way I have never seen before, and I am overwhelmingly proud to be a part of it.
Moffat: I find every time watching this, in the edits and the temp versions and everything, the surging of the music and the unbeatable logic of it, it just makes me cry every time. I think it’s fantastic. Lara: It’s where you really see the mirror of the two them. Moffat: [Sherlock leans into Irene] That’s not in the script. Was that you Benedict? Benedict: That was my idea. Because I like the idea of him being in shadow, because it’s such a dark thing he’s playing with: deconstructing love into pure chemistry. Lara: And this just broke my heart. Moffat: No, it’s horrible. The idea is that you should start the scene hating her and end it hating him.
There is a trend in media for strong women who are outwardly so. They are witty, snarky, toned, and know how to hold a gun. The role model being pushed is that of the ultimate woman. It’s progress – I wouldn’t trade River Song for a hundred people from Hollywood’s past – but there’s a silent repercussion, a fortification of the idea that women have to be twice as accomplished to be considered half as good, to deserve this screen time at all. They are always extraordinary, always the one in a million. Importantly, there’s no variety – only one mould to fit ourselves into. A great mould, yes, but not if you don’t fit into it.
Molly Hooper is different. Molly Hooper is kind, thoughtful, always smiling, and intelligent in a way that you don’t really notice until you remember she’s a pathologist. She asks after people and cares about the answers, remembers little details because everything someone says is important. She probably still remembers how Sherlock likes his coffee. Her blog is pink, covered in kittens, and uses Comic Sans. She blunders her way through speaking, has serious foot-in-mouth syndrome, and can’t put on a pair of plastic gloves without making faces. She is one of the strongest women I have ever seen.
She puts up with what can only be described as “total bullshit.” You might say that makes her a bit of a doormat, but for people like Molly (like me), who like kindness and hate conflict, it takes serious guts to call someone on their behaviour and say you’re hurting me. It takes guts to carry that kind of unrequited love and still first and foremost be a friend, to ask what do you need? Molly Hooper makes Sherlock Holmes, a man who can barely articulate anything beyond the scientific, try to be kinder. In the end, Molly isn’t the woman who counts [like Irene Adler], but the friend.
![!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[@simonpegg]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3i9o7NoJb1qbrzrzo1_1280.png)
![Apparently 10,000 people entered the Sherlock screening and Q&A in NYC tonight and the line to get in started around 7 a.m.
That’s not nearly as early as the line started for the Doctor Who series 6 premiere but still.
[via @NerdYorkCity]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3f818iKEJ1qbrzrzo1_1280.png)
![What’s it like with [the boys] on set? Are they naughty? Do you keep them in line? Completely naughty. And they love shocking me, but it doesn’t shock me. They’ve forgotten I was in the Folies Bergère, I was a chorus girl for years—I’m not a nun. So they wait for what I come back with, which is more disgusting, probably. [X]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lztqfqwwtH1qb7t84o1_500.jpg)
![There is a trend in media for strong women who are outwardly so. They are witty, snarky, toned, and know how to hold a gun. The role model being pushed is that of the ultimate woman. It’s progress – I wouldn’t trade River Song for a hundred people from Hollywood’s past – but there’s a silent repercussion, a fortification of the idea that women have to be twice as accomplished to be considered half as good, to deserve this screen time at all. They are always extraordinary, always the one in a million. Importantly, there’s no variety – only one mould to fit ourselves into. A great mould, yes, but not if you don’t fit into it.
Molly Hooper is different. Molly Hooper is kind, thoughtful, always smiling, and intelligent in a way that you don’t really notice until you remember she’s a pathologist. She asks after people and cares about the answers, remembers little details because everything someone says is important. She probably still remembers how Sherlock likes his coffee. Her blog is pink, covered in kittens, and uses Comic Sans. She blunders her way through speaking, has serious foot-in-mouth syndrome, and can’t put on a pair of plastic gloves without making faces. She is one of the strongest women I have ever seen.
She puts up with what can only be described as “total bullshit.” You might say that makes her a bit of a doormat, but for people like Molly (like me), who like kindness and hate conflict, it takes serious guts to call someone on their behaviour and say you’re hurting me. It takes guts to carry that kind of unrequited love and still first and foremost be a friend, to ask what do you need? Molly Hooper makes Sherlock Holmes, a man who can barely articulate anything beyond the scientific, try to be kinder. In the end, Molly isn’t the woman who counts [like Irene Adler], but the friend.
The Real Woman: Why Molly Hooper Is The One Who Counts](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyvv413PnC1qitmgyo1_400.gif)
Rebecca. 23. New York City. Nerd. Feminist. Comedy fan. Proud alum of 
