Blog #2: Anathema – Self-Destruction by Brilliance

Sherlock, Episode 1: “A Study In Pink”

This show has been in my Netflix queue for some time now; it is exciting to have a reason to begin watching. As I began to watch, it immediately became a game for me; watching the show for pure entertainment versus an analytical viewpoint. The game ensued: what would I find, interpret, and analyze in my assessment in terms of semiotics?

As the show began, I enjoyed the small bit of history concerning Watson. In previous adaptations, I recall little to no references to his past. I learned of his loneliness, his injury, what he lost and how he came to be where he was living.  As the show progresses and the mystery takes hold, Watson and Sherlock meet in a lab and the relationship ensues. What is fascinating to observe is how the relationship between the two almost immediately took hold.

Sherlock is cold, uncaring, headstrong, reckless, obsessive, brilliant, psychotic, weak, lonely and in pain. Watson is warmer, concerned, cautious, gentle, protective, simple, strong, lonely and also in pain. A symbiotic relationship is formed and the qualities that would seem to repel most of us — such as North-North of two magnets — seem to bind the two together.

The two feed off of each other gaining strengths neither had before meeting. The most interesting were my observations of Sherlock’s weakness and Watson’s strength. While Sherlock is brilliant, a sign of his weakness took shape in the form of how he jumped into situations without thinking; his intellect pushed aside in order to reach an obsessive goal. Is this his Kryptonite? Watson moves slowly and decisively, he longs to be active yet is kept weakened by his limp, his cane and his symbol of strength — his gun.

Thankfully, he becomes the sidekick superhero he needs to be in the end to save Sherlock from his own destruction. The pink pill became a symbol of the destruction they both faced and which they both overcame. The two will now be inseparable in order to stay alive.