I find the next few minutes of this episode fascinating, not just because of the plot that it sets in motion, but because of the way it frames this plot and ties everything together–though coffee. If this is a wake up call to Sherlock, to NSY, to England, to the world, and to us, the audience, it’s nice that it comes with coffee.
I really adore it when Sherlock is in “dressing gown” mode. It reminds me that the writers really do understand the source material very well. It’s also a chance for us to see Sherlock at his most human and exposed. He really tends toward the childish at these moments. He’s not down to his pajamas like we saw him back in The Great Game, but he’s thrown his dressing gown on over his trousers and shirt. Vulnerable, but his guard isn’t completely down.
He tosses a newspaper on the coffeetable, complaining the whole while about the nickname the press has given him. (“Boffin” for my fellow Americans who aren’t familiar with the term, means a highly technical, usually scientific or computer-related person. A geek, really, though it’s not quite as derogatory a term from what I can tell.) John’s been following the tabloids, reading the papers, and he’s getting concerned (and not just about his own “confirmed bachelor” status).
While we’re on the subject: let’s talk about the newspapers. Continue reading
Act one officially opens by showing us three different cases that Sherlock has solved, and the media frenzy that surrounds his growing fame. It’s easy to assume that the entire reason these three cases are shown to us is just for humor and establishing Sherlock’s incredible new popularity in the tabloids. But what happens if we look a little closer?
This show often presents us with two kinds of clues. The first are in-universe clues: these are the things that Sherlock usually notices, the hints that will help him solve crimes. They make sense within the universe of the show. The second kind of clues are for the audience alone: sometimes they are specific lines, words, imagery. They are things like a room with a giant chessboard for a ceiling–something that in-universe is completely ordinary and meaningless, but to those of us watching it conveys a whole extra layer of meaning. Sometimes these serve as in-jokes, references, foreshadowing–they are clues for us, the viewer, to find. They make the entire show that much more layered and rewarding.
Reasoning Backwards 