SHERLOCK ESSAY NOTES, LOOKING AT GENRE AND NARRATIVE
2)What is Narrative?
Telling a story in a particular way. Film Education, Film Concepts: “ Each person who sees the film will interpret it in a different way, depending on what they bring to the film in terms of their investments, tastes and experiences, both first hand and through other films they’ve seen or books they’ve read.”
“The way the story is told may depend on the audience for which it was intended”
“Because of out experiences of films seen at the cinema or on a television, we have certain expectations about film narratives” “we expect to want to know what happens next” “we expect a climax which excites, terrfies or makes us laugh.” “We expect a resolution in which things are sorted out in some way”
Expectations of the programmes narrative start off with the series poster, trailer and review. They are then expanded upon in the opening titles, chosen by the editor and director. “At the beginning of the story we start to anticipate the ending and in the course of the film, various endings suggest themselves”.“The ending which the filmmaker chooses may confirm our expectations, surprise or disappoint us.”
The basic narrative for any story is:
Exposition (setting the scene and introducing characters)> Development (The situation is developed; more characters introduced) > Complication (Something happens to complicate the lives of the characters in someway) > Climax A decisive moment is reached: matters come to a head, suspense is high) > Resolution (Matters are resolved and some sort of satisfactory end is reached)
This could be told chronologically, using a parallel storyline or through flashbacks.
Narrative also looks at how the audience is postioned in terms of which character’s eyes they see the events unfold in. In Sherlock Holmes, by using Watson as the audiences point of view, we are eased into the world of Sherlock. This is because Watson’s character is also new to his world, and so what he goes through and experiences help us to understand from an outsiders point of view.
Detective programmes appeal greatly to our need of knowing the ending, and wanting discover the truth. The audience loves to do their own investigation work to figure out the murderer before it is revelaved.
“The values embodied in any film will be shaped by the sets of ideas around at the time it was made. These ideas will also shape the perceptions of the people who see the film. And every individual who sees the film will interpre it in a different way and have different opinion about it depending on their personal experiences.”
3)Sherlock, TV series:
Benedict Cumberbatch plays a modern-day version of the detective in the BBC One TV series Sherlock, which premiered on 25 July 2010. The series changes the books' original Victorian setting to the shady and violent present-day London. The show was created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, best-known as writers for the BBC television series Doctor Who. Says Moffat, "Conan Doyle's stories were never about frock coats and gas light; they're about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes – and frankly, to hell with the crinoline. Other detectives have cases, Sherlock Holmes has adventures, and that's what matters." Cumberbatch's Holmes was described by the BBC as
“brilliant, aloof and almost entirely lacking in social graces. Sherlock is a unique young man with a mind like a 'racing engine'. Without problems to solve, it will tear itself to pieces. And the more bizarre and baffling the problems the better. He has set himself up as the world's only consulting detective, whom the police grudgingly accept as their superior.” (BBC Sherlock Website)
Piers Wenger, Head of Drama at BBC Wales, describes the eponymous character as "a dynamic superhero in a modern world, an arrogant, genius sleuth driven by a desire to prove himself cleverer than the perpetrator and the police – everyone in fact".[10] He also uses modern technology, such as texting and internet blogging, to solve the crimes,[68] and in a nod towards changing social attitudes and broadcasting regulations, he has replaced his pipe with multiple nicotine patches.[69] Paul McGuigan, who directed two episodes of Sherlock, says that this is in keeping with Conan Doyle's character, pointing out "in the books he would use any device possible and he was always in the lab doing experiments ... It's just a modern-day version of it. He will use the tools that are available to him today in order to find things out".[8] Holmes now, Cumberbatch adds, "uses technology as a resource".[9]
The update maintains some traditional elements of the stories, such as the Baker Street address and the evil Moriarty.[10] Although the events of the books are transferred to the present day, existing elements are incorporated into the new characters to "ground the forthcoming tales in reality, and appease ardent fans of the classic tales"; for example, Martin Freeman's Watson has returned from military service in Afghanistan.[11] When speaking to The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and discussing the fact that the original Watson was invalided home after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880), Gatiss realised that "It is the same war now, I thought. The same unwinnable war".[6] Some dialogue in the first episode suggested that in this version the character Sherlock Holmes is homosexual. For instance, Holmes responds to Watson's query about his relationship status with "Girlfriend? No, not really my area". Their landlady apparently believes they are a couple, informing them "There's another bedroom upstairs ... that is if you'll be needing one".[17] Steven Moffat denied any sexual relationship is implied between the two,[18] while Cumberbatch says that they "do allude to the idea that there may be a 'misunderstanding' from other people who think we're a couple".[17] Moffat continued, "It's just that thing of two blokes hanging around together living together – in this nice modern world it leads to people saying, 'Oh, are they a couple?' And that's nice. I thought how the world has changed, there is no disapproval. How much more civilised the world has become".[19]
Costumes for the pilot were designed by BAFTA Cymru-award winning costume designer Ray Holman.[39] Cumberbatch wore a £1,000 Belstaff coat in the series.[40] Sarah Arthur, the series' costume designer, explained how she achieved the detective's look. "Holmes wouldn't have any interest in fashion so I went for classic suits with a modern twist: narrow-leg trousers and a two-button, slim-cut jacket. I also went for slim-cut shirts and a sweeping coat for all the action scenes – it looks great against the London skyline".[40] The writers say that they did not want to force the modernity of the world onto the story.[7] There were some creative challenges, such as the decision to include the sign "221B" on Holmes' front door. Gatiss and Moffat reflect that in the modern world the door would only display the number of the house, and there would be doorbells for each flat. The full house number is so iconic that they felt that they could not change it.[7] The writers also decided that the lead characters would address each other by their first names, rather than the traditional Holmes and Watson.[7] This is also reflected in the title of the series. Director Paul McGuigan came up with the idea of putting text messages on the screen instead of having cut-away shots of a hand holding the phone.[7] Series 1 (2010)
# | Title | Directed by | Written by | UK viewers (million) | Share (%) | Original air date |
1 | | | | | | 25 July 2010 |
The police investigate the deaths of a series of people who all appear to have committed suicide by taking a poisonous pill. They turn to their unofficial consultant, Sherlock Holmes, who deduces various elements pointing to a serial killer. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes is introduced to John Watson, and the pair immediately move into a flat in Baker Street. John Watson slowly gets to know and trust Holmes despite a police officer warning him that Holmes is a psychopath and will one day be responsible for murder. A man who calls himself "Sherlock Holmes' archenemy" kidnaps Watson and asks whether he'll spy on Holmes for money, but Watson refuses. After a series of incidents, the person responsible for the deaths, a taxicab driver, reveals that his victims took their own lives by playing a game of Russian roulette with two pills: one fatally poisonous, the other safe. Watson shoots the cabbie, who reveals as he dies that Moriarty masterminded the entire plan. |
2 | | | | | | 1 August 2010 |
Holmes is hired by an old friend to investigate a mysterious break-in at a bank in the City. He discovers that symbols spray-painted onto an office wall are a coded message intended for an employee of the bank, who is later discovered dead in his flat. The next day, a journalist is killed and the same symbols are found nearby. Holmes and Watson follow a trail of clues that link the two dead men to a Chinese smuggling ring, who are trying to retrieve a valuable item that one of them stole. Holmes eventually cracks the coded message based on Suzhou numerals and a book cipher, but not before Watson and a female friend are kidnapped by the criminals. Holmes rescues Watson's friend but the leader of the gang escapes. After escaping, the leader of gang is in communication with her superior, who is identified by the initial "M". She is then shot by a sniper. |
3 | | | | | | 8 August 2010 |
Sherlock Holmes is commissioned by his brother Mycroft to investigate the suspicious death of a government employee who was working on a top-secret defence project: the Bruce-Partington Project.[44] After apparently rejecting the case and handing it over to Watson, Holmes begins to be taunted by a sinister criminal who puts his victims into explosive vests and sets Holmes deadlines to solve apparently unrelated cases, including a twenty-year-old cold case involving the shoes of a drowned boy, the disappearance of a businessman, the death of a TV personality and the death of a guard of an art gallery at the hands of an assassin called the Golem. As Holmes solves the cases, he finds that they are all linked. After clearing up the case of the civil servant that Mycroft offered him, Holmes tries to force his unseen adversary to reveal himself. Nearing the end of the episode there is a standoff between Holmes and "Jim Moriarty", who reveals that he is responsible for the crimes. In the final seconds of the episode Sherlock Holmes points his gun at a bomb on the floor. |
4)Sherlock History:
Little is said of Holmes's family. His parents were unmentioned in the stories and he merely states that his ancestors were "country squires". In "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Holmes claims that his great-uncle was Vernet, the French artist. His brother, Mycroft, seven years his senior, is a government official who appears in three stories[9] and is mentioned in one other story.[10] Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of memory-man or walking database for all aspects of government policy. Mycroft is described as even more gifted than Sherlock in matters of observation and deduction, but he lacks Sherlock's drive and energy, preferring to spend his time at ease in the Diogenes Club, described as "a club for the most un-clubbable men in London". Life with Dr. Watson
Holmes shares the majority of his professional years with his good friend and chronicler Dr. John H. Watson, who lives with Holmes for some time before his marriage in 1887, and again after his wife's death; his residence is maintained by his landlady, Mrs. Hudson. Watson has two roles in Holmes's life. First, he gives practical assistance in the conduct of his cases; he is the detective's right-hand man, acting variously as look-out, decoy, accomplice and messenger. Second, he is Holmes's chronicler (his "Boswell" as Holmes refers to him). Most of the Holmes stories are frame narratives, written from Watson's point of view as summaries of the detective's most interesting cases. Holmes is often described as criticising Watson's writings as sensational and populist, suggesting that they neglect to accurately and objectively report the pure calculating "science" of his craft. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it ["A Study in Scarlet"] with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story ... Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it.[11]
Use of drugs
Holmes occasionally uses addictive drugs, especially when lacking stimulating cases. He believes the use of cocaine stimulates his brain when it is not in use. He is a habitual user of cocaine, which he injects in a seven-per-cent solution using a special syringe that he keeps in a leather case. Holmes is also an occasional user of morphine but expressed strong disapproval on visiting an opium den. The 2002 movie Sherlock: Case of Evil depicts him using heroin, though that never appears in the original stories. All these drugs were legal in late 19th-century England. Both Watson and Holmes are serial tobacco users, including cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. Holmes is expert at identifying tobacco-ash residues, having penned a monograph on the subject. Dr. Watson strongly disapproves of his friend's cocaine habit, describing it as the detective's "only vice" and expressing concern over its possible effect on Holmes's mental health and superior intellect.[20][21] In later stories, Watson claims to have "weaned" Holmes off drugs. Even so, according to his doctor friend, Holmes remains an addict whose habit is "not dead, but merely sleeping".[22]
5)The Dectective Genre:
Dickens's protégé, Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)—sometimes referred to as the "grandfather of English detective fiction"—is credited with the first great mystery novel, T.S. Eliot called Collins's novel The Moonstone (1868) "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe" The Moonstone contains a number of ideas that have established in the genre several classic features of the 20th century detective story: 4. A celebrated, skilled, professional investigator
5. Bungling local constabulary
6. Detective inquiries
7. Large number of false suspects
8. The "least likely suspect"
10. A reconstruction of the crime
11. A final twist in the plot
A majority of detective stories follow the "whodunit" format. The events of the crime and the subsequent events of the investigation are presented so that the reader is only provided clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced. The solution is not revealed until the final pages of the book.
6)Indentify and Examine Sherlocks use of genre and narrative tools:
Sherlock uses the “Quest” plot, from the seven recurring plots featured in ALL works, i.e. TV Drama, Game Shows, Film, Literature and Theatre. The Quest requires a person, or team of people, to go on a mission to find, or obtain some kind of prize. Along the way various obstacles are encountered which require certain skills to get past them, often
meaning some people are left behind.
7)How does the BBC show follow/change genre and narrative conventions?
Adaptions from books are usually successful, especially re-invented/modern ones, as they already have an existing audience, who will be intrigued to see a new take on a works they already know and love. It is fun to toy with the audience, including things the audience will recognize, but changing certain details, keeping them guessing on what will happen next, and then excting them with soemting totally different or pleasing them with something they know. Sherlock does this very well, and even includes some almost popular culture style references, such as the nod to the mysterious boy with the umbrella, and the Criterion coffee cups.
Sherlock Holmes and a very modern mystery: Could he and Watson be gay?
“It's the latest screen portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, but it is far from elementary.
Not only are the detective and his assistant Watson fighting crime in modern-day London, but viewers hear the pair discussing their sexuality... and are left wondering if the pair are gay.
While the scenes are meant to be comedic, they will come as a shock to viewers accustomed to the more straightforward relationship between Holmes and Dr John Watson in previous TV and film depictions.”
“In stark contrast to the classic sleuth image of deerstalker, pipe and magnifying glass, Holmes is seen brandishing a 'smartphone', using the internet and texting criminals in a bid to solve crimes. In one scene, Watson asks Holmes whether he has a girlfriend. He replies: 'Girlfriend, no. Not really my area.'
The conversation leads to Holmes saying: 'John, I think you should know I consider myself married to my work and while I am flattered by your interest, I am really not looking for anyone.”
“When Downey-does-Holmes, he was immensely likable. A lot more likable, actually, than Benedict Cumberbatch's self-proclaimed "high-functioning sociopath". His characterisation might be more accurate, but there are times when you wonder if you can root for him. The solution, of course, comes with Martin Freeman's understated Dr Watson, invalided home from the war in Afghanistan – Conan-Doyle's Watson had also returned from what Gatiss calls "that same unwinnable war we're still fighting today". By the end, their friendship brings in the tenderness the series needs if it's going to survive.” - “The title is taken from “A Study in Scarlet”, the very first Sherlock Holmes story written by his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle which introduced the character and Dr. John H. Watson. The story opened up with Watson returning from Afghanistan where he served as an Assistant Surgeon of the Army Medical Department after having suffered shoulder injury on the battlefield that shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery.”
- “One of these victims is named James Phillimore, who goes home to get his umbrella and then vanishes, only to be found dead later. In the original Sherlock Holmes story “The Problem of Thor Bridge”, Watson revealed to readers that he kept a tin dispatch box full of files on the cases that Holmes was never able to really solve. He said, “among these unfinished tales is that of Mr. James Phillimore, who, stepping back into his own house to get his umbrella, was never more seen in this world.””
- “In the original “A Study in Scarlet”, Watson ran into his old friend Stamford at the Criterion Bar. In this episode, Watson runs into Stamford during a walk and then they grab a cup of coffee together. Notice the name on the coffee cup? It says Criterion.”
- “In “A Study in Scarlet”, Watson tells Stamford he’s looking for a roommate to share “comfortable rooms at a reasonable price,” and Stamford remarks that earlier that same day, he heard Sherlock Holmes use the exact same phrase. In this episode, Watson instead asks, “Who would want me as a flatmate?” and Stamford says, “You’re the second person to say that to me today.””
- “Holmes quickly shows he is constantly using a smart phone. In the original stories, Holmes was very much a modern man who constantly sent out telegrams to contact people for basic information so he wouldn’t have to waste time physically visiting and speaking with them”
- “Sherlock shows Watson his website where he has posted up articles about the science of deduction. In “A Study in Scarlet”, he showed Watson an article he’d published about the science of detection called “The Book of Life” which had been published in a local magazine.”
- “Sherlock sees the word “Rache” on the floor, written by the victim, and considers that it might be the German word for revenge but then immediately dismisses this. In “A Study in Scarlet”, that is exactly what the word meant and it was a vital clue left by the killer, not the victim, to explain his motive.”
- “Sherlock is seen wearing three nicotine patches and explains that this is a “three patch problem.” In the original stories, when he knew he had to think and consider things for some time, he would sometimes call it a “three pipe problem””
- ““A Study in Scarlet” involved a man named Jefferson Hope who worked as a cabbie and gave his victims a choice between two pills, one of which was poison, as part of a revenge scheme. In the original story, the victims were not random but had caused the death of the woman Hope had loved. In the original story, Hope didn’t fear choosing the wrong pill because he was suffering from an aortic aneurism that could kill him at any moment.”
8)How would online or media transmission affect these tools?
In March 2010 Youtuber "Ross K" (Ross K Foad) created No Place Like Holmes,[66] a web drama comedy show based on Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. It is considered to be the only ongoing Sherlock Holmes web show. It focuses on the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson following an encounter with a malicious demonic Sir Hugo Baskerville, who freezes them in a time spell only for them to eventually re-emerge in the present day. Unlike the BBC Sherlock, this Holmes does not embrace technology or modern-day devices and remains the Victorian gentleman he has always been, dressing the same and holding the same values he did over 100 years ago. There is also a spin-off which takes place in 1891–1894 covering the Great Hiatus years where Sherlock is still on the run from Moriarty's right-hand men following the events of the Final Problem.
