Ying and Yang -Blog 2

The modern Netflix series of Sherlock Holmes defines curiosity, eccentricity, energy and intellect. The pilot for the modern version of Sherlock Holmes merges extremely well with any version from the past. The expectation of delivering an adventurous ride through the criminal investigation in “A Study in Pink” is immediately confirmed after the character of Sherlock, played by  Benedict Cumberbatch is introduced. The series is world renowned and is know for a dynamic partnership between Sherlock Holmes, a British consulting detective  and fellow countryman assistant John Watson.  In this commentary, I will address how I see the perfect magnetic attraction between Holmes and Watson.

The character development for John Watson begins immediately with the opening scene. The camera close-up shots during the dream sequence signify a personal and intimate value of insight into Watson’s past. Watson is dreaming about a military battle that he himself is in.  His facial gestures are of angst and fear. He is tossing and turning signifying discomfort with that sequence of events in the dream.  John Watson wakes up from his uneasy sleep. The uneasiness is clearly depicted by his facial expressions caught by the camera, the tossing and turning signify that he is plagued by these memories.  As he wakes, the camera angle changes to a wider view allowing  the audience is to see how he lives alone, hanging on to personal items such as his weapon and coffee mug with what looks to be a military insignia upon it and a cane, a signifier that he has been wounded in battle and is either healing from an injury or permanently handicapped. He seems lonely depressed, and utterly bored to me.  Later he actually says the words to his psychologist(another signifier in the movie), “Nothing happens to me.”  Allowing the audience another clue that he is bored and possibly depressed.

In contrast Sherlock Holmes is depicted with as a vibrant astute tall fellow, full of energy and curiosity and attentive to detail. When Watson arrives and is introduced by a mutual acquaintance (who also had interesting facial gestures signifying to me that introducing Watson to Sherlock was purposeful). Sherlock is attracted to Watson. He interacts with him immediately  and asks  him only a few personal question alluding to already sizing up his new acquaintance.  The camera angle is busy giving the audience wide angle  and close-ups perhaps to let us know that is how fast Sherlock processes his thoughts.  Sherlock reads Watson like a book! His hyper state of speaking and revealing what he thus far understands about Watson, to me, signified a childlike quality in Sherlock. His verbiage affected my  cognitive abilities and required full attention to be able to understand the process of thought he was literally vocally downloading within 60 seconds.  Watson is dumfounded, amazed and intrigued. Ahhh, there it was, the magnetism needed for the start to a perfect relationship, ying and yang. The perfect connection between Sherlock and Watson!

Works Cited:

Berger, Arthur Asa. Media Analysis Techniques. 5th ed. N.p.: Sage Publications, 2014. Print.

"Sherlock Quotes from A Study in Pink (1.1)." Planet Claire Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June

      2015.

All in The Detail

For starters Sherlock was a perfect show for this chapter over semiotics, because that is just the kind of thing that Sherlock himself is so in tune with and uses to solve his mysteries/crimes. The best part of Sherlock is that not only does Sherlock pay attention to detail, but the viewer must as well. It is a show that if you are not paying attention, you will miss something and get lost along the way or miss an important clue.

“A Study in Pink” starts out with us meeting Watson who is having a dream about his war days. From here we see what Watson's life is like and as he says to his therapist “nothing happens to me”. From this part of the episode we can already tell that Watson's past haunts him and clings to him, and I believe that the cane he uses is a symbol of this past that is in a sense handicapping him still. This gives us a good sense of his character, and puts him on the serious side.

Our first introduction to Sherlock in the episode we do not see him at all. We are introduced to him at the press conference when the police are briefing the tabloids of what is happening with the “suicides” that have been plaguing the city. Sherlock is the mysterious man behind the 'wrong' texts. Before we ever see the man behind the texts we already have a sense of his mischievous and tongue in cheek personality.

This begins the comparison between the two characters.

Watson	Sherlock
Neat	Messy
Serious	Tongue in cheek
Subtle	Harsh
Inattentive (less attention to detail)	Heeding

 Interestingly enough these characters are both after the same thing, some sort of adventure because although they are total opposites they are both bored and looking to fill some sort of a void. There is already growth between the two as we see when Watson forgets his cane at the dinner to join in on the action. Between this and the meeting in the garage with the mysterious man we come to find out that Sherlock might have been just what Watson was needing and it brings a certain irony to his statement at the very beginning of the episode where he states “nothing happens to me”.