January 2013 Media Thread

RobertLumley

This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. I find that exposure to LW ideas makes me less likely to enjoy some entertainment media that is otherwise quite popular, and finding media recommended by LWers is a good way to mitigate this. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.

Rules:

Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please use the comment trees for genres. There is a meta thread for comments about future threads.
If you think there should be a thread for a particular genre of media, please post it to the Other Media thread for now, and add a poll to the Meta thread asking if it should be a thread every month.

Rules:

Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please use the comment trees for genres. There is a meta thread for comments about future threads.
If you think there should be a thread for a particular genre of media, please post it to the Other Media thread for now, and add a poll to the Meta thread asking if it should be a thread every month.

The Sherlock BBC series, set in modern London, turns an astounding number of... let's go with "brainy types" into raving fans, but I'm not actually sure why. There's nothing particularly rationalist about it, they're standard detective stories with Sherlock making impossibly precise deductions. The mysteries are fiendishly clever, though; the writers come up with plots that are still surprising if you're familiar with the tropes and the particular stories they parallel.

Characterization is probably the biggest appeal. Holmes is a high-functioning sociopath (his words) and an insufferable self-centered brat (not his words) who slowly defrosts over the series; his love for showing off makes exposition very palatable. Watson is competent, and he knows it; he's solid under stress, a quick thinker, and an excellent marksman; he admires Holmes, but he doesn't hesitate to stand up for himself (a poor choice of words, since he's lame at the beginning of the series). The relationship between the two is a big focus of the series, with Watson learning to deflate Holmes's melodrama and becoming used to his putting-human-eyes-in-the-microwave antics, Holmes learning nonzero social skills and a scrap of concern for others, and way too many gay jokes. Moriarty is... not like you'd expect.

I love the way Sherlock's thoughts are shown, and the editing of the whole thing, but then again I fall over myself squeeing "The Musketeers of Pig Alley uses follow focus YOU GUYS" so take it with a grain of salt.

Overall the show is not subtle ("He's a storyteller! GET IT? GET IT?"), but the acting is (Martin Freeman has an expressive forehead. How does one have an expressive forehead?), and so are some of the references to the original stories. The jokes are funny without taking over the story, though if you're prone to vicarious embarrassment some might hurt a bit. Cumberbatch and Freeman rather cute, if you're into that, as is Pulver in the second season if you're into that.

Be wary of the fandom; it produces excellent fiction and art, but the characters are badly distorted in them, much more prone to express themselves through angsty confessions than through banter about Chinese food.

way too many gay jokes.

Eh, I enjoyed the gay jokes. There was like... one an episode? Which isn't a lot when you remember there are only six episodes, but is a lot when you realize it's one an episode.

I love the way Sherlock's thoughts are shown

I really liked this when they did it, but I also thought they did it rather inconsistently. In some of them, they highlight all the clues, and you can draw the inferences (I chided Sherlock through my screen for not getting it in A Study In Pink); in others, they don't highlight them, and it's easy to feel like Watson (Hover for spoiler.).

13arundelo13y

I like the use of captions to * show (some of) Sherlock's observations * show text messages and similar, so the camera is pointed at a person rather than a device It may seem a bit gimmicky at first but I'd like to see it become more common. (Maybe it will as more and more people become used to bits of text popping up over people and things in video games and, eventually, augmented reality.)

3Shmi13y

The show has a high-quality bromance, if you are into that. The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon/Leonard relationship could have had that, but the sitcom format gets in the way. And also the fact that American humor is generally inferior to British humour. Oh, and Moriarty providing comic relief, while still being competent and scary is a nice touch.

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