case: (Default)
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2013-12-26 06:49 pm

[ SECRET POST #2550 ]


⌈ Secret Post #2550 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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02.
[Rachel Getting Married]


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05.
[american horror story: coven]


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08.
[Mass Effect]


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09.
[Rules of Engagement]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 010 secrets from Secret Submission Post #363.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
ext_759735: (Default)

[identity profile] visvang.livejournal.com 2013-12-27 02:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, thank you for the information! (Now I need to go watch Granada version)

I kinda agree with you about The 20th Century Begins, it seems a little bit off but I can't articulate why. Maybe that's because actors became older and they tried to make characters older as well but didn't manage to do it well and convincing. Or maybe that's because of problematic relationships between the director and the actors (I heard about it a lot but had absolutely forgotten what was the problem).
dreemyweird: (austere)

[personal profile] dreemyweird 2013-12-27 02:39 pm (UTC)(link)
My opinion is that the writing of The 20th Century... sucks. For example, in the first episodes we see Holmes and Watson being epic BFFs, but here Watson is suddenly ready to arrest Holmes for treason?? Not only that, but he shows strikingly little emotion at this unexpected development? He doesn't give Holmes any benefit of doubt?

I think it might have something to do with the influence of the official Soviet ideology - Pavlik Morozov and all (yeah, sure, the Pavlik Morozov legend was mostly an attribute of the first half of the twentieth century, but you get the idea. State>individual, arresting your friends for treason is OK, watch out for enemies of the Party).

And of course it might be an issue of Maslennikov's relationship with the crew... He has been very bitter about it as of recent.

Oh, you didn't watch the Granada Holmes yet? How about Ronald Howard? If you are one for watching a ton of adaptations of the same thing and a Holmesian, I'd advise to check these two out. my sect is gaining new followers. The Granada adaptation is the English-speaking Holmesian community's absolute favourite, so chances are you'll like it. Personally, I have a few problems with it (its bland version of The Copper Beeches, for one, and some aspects of Brett's interpretation of Holmes), but overall I consider it an excellent production. The only real trouble everyone has with it is watching the last seasons - Jeremy Brett became increasingly ill at the time (bipolar disorder+health problems associated with medication), and looking at him... hurts. I always get this uncanny feeling of watching a living person suffer in front of me.
intrigueing: (Default)

[personal profile] intrigueing 2013-12-27 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I really like Granada, but I never quite understood why everyone is SO ga-ga about it. And it sort of irritates me a bit that they say it's basically interchangeable with canon because...like...no?

My biggest quibble with Granada is that I read the stories long before I saw any Holmes adaptations, and therefore I pictured Holmes and Watson in their 30s for all the pre-Hiatus stories -- because that's how old they WERE. So whenever I see a Granada adaptation of a pre-Hiatus story my knee-jerk reaction is OMG WHY ARE THEY SO OLD.

Which I wouldn't care about that much in pastiche-style adaptations, but Granada is story-to-episode adaptations, not pastiches, and so my brain parses those episodes as, like, fifteen years too late.

I think most people don't have this problem because most of them see adaptations first, and nearly every damn Holmes adaptation portrays them as old for some inexplicable reason.
dreemyweird: (austere)

[personal profile] dreemyweird 2013-12-27 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
YES to all of this. YESYESYES. The Granada=ACD mindset irritates me immensely.

I think they were in their late twenties when they met, and my little self always pictured them as very young-looking, so, yeah, I get the sentiment, though I kind of reconciled myself with the fact after watching a bazillion adaptations where Holmes and Watson are middle-aged. Still, it pleased me to see that they are young in the Ronald Howard series - AFAIK, that's the only version that got their ages right.

My main problem is that many of the Granada episodes are so like each other as to feel like one overly long film. Some stories deserve more individual treatment. (but it is something that happens to TV series very often, so IDK if to complain)
intrigueing: (happy nine)

[personal profile] intrigueing 2013-12-27 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Not only did I picture them as young, but the first story I ever read was "Charles Augustus Milverton" so I also pictured them as...well, the type of men who could/would do all the stuff they did in that story. Especially, like, everything about Watson.

re: your second paragraph. That's true too. I guess the fact that all the episodes have to be a standardized length, or double-length, means that they have to give them all similar pacings, which is a little weird when the stories vary in length and amount of action so much. Basically, some stories adapt to the Granada style much better than others do.

The Ronald Howard series is so cute! It's not exactly my thing (a bit TOO light-hearted for me, I think) but it...I don't know, scratches an itch, I suppose, that other adaptations don't -- the goofy good-natured genuinely fun-having side of the Holmes stories. Kind of the way the Ritchie series scratches an itch that other adaptations neglect, even though those movies aren't exactly my thing either. I'm not sure it's possible to do a perfect Holmes adaptation -- I just watch different adaptations for different angles ;)
dreemyweird: (austere)

[personal profile] dreemyweird 2013-12-27 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess the fact that all the episodes have to be a standardized length, or double-length, means that they have to give them all similar pacings, which is a little weird when the stories vary in length and amount of action so much. Basically, some stories adapt to the Granada style much better than others do.

Ah, good point, it did not occur to me before. That would certainly explain it to some extent.

I'm not sure it's possible to do a perfect Holmes adaptation -- I just watch different adaptations for different angles ;)

And this is very true. Though I've seen what you'd call "perfect" adaptations of books before - Treasure Island being a notable example - I've yet to see a Holmes that would be anywhere close to the ACD canon version. That's why I mind neither the ever smiling Richardson!Holmes nor the goofy young Howard. They are all great.

I'm always so happy about these Holmesian threads on f!s. It feels good to talk to you, tweedisgood, and all the cool anons
intrigueing: (Default)

[personal profile] intrigueing 2013-12-27 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I think there is so much space for interpretation in between the lines in the stories it would be impossible to please everyone. But also...IMO the fact that it's Watson writing the stories is a big part of the stories' flavor, and that's just not translatable across mediums. No matter --more opportunities for more adaptations!

I love these convos too. Maybe I should try to think of Holmes secrets so I have an excuse to talk about it more :D
Edited 2013-12-27 23:03 (UTC)
tweedisgood: (Default)

[personal profile] tweedisgood 2013-12-27 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Seeing, perhaps not. Hearing? Well, there is BBC Radio Holmes, which hits canonical heights so nearly perfect that I've yet to find anyone who doesn't like it.

OTOH I personally adore Granada and think it is by far and away the best TV adaptation, so clearly our mileage varies. Being middle aged myself, the ages of the actors bothers me a lot less perhaps?
dreemyweird: (austere)

[personal profile] dreemyweird 2013-12-27 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, you're right, I totally forgot about the radio adaptation. Unfortunately, I'm not yet qualified to venture an opinion on this one - I've only heard a couple of stories so far (though I liked them a lot).

I like the Granada version, too! Love it, even. Just not quite as passionately as many other Holmesians seem to. I'd definitely say it is in my top three. And, as I mentioned, the ages of the actors don't really bother me anymore; they make it less canonical, more like.
intrigueing: (Default)

[personal profile] intrigueing 2013-12-28 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
No. Not that either. Not that it isn't great, because it is, but nope.

Anyway, I wouldn't like a perfect canonical Holmes adaptation if such a thing was possible. The very concept sounds soul-crushingly boring and mastubatory. Granada, for example, was good, but the episodes where they just tried to follow canon line by line were the dullest eps. I liked the ones where they interpreted cryptic or telling-not-showing parts of canon with some imagination. Like, what's the point when I could just read the story?

And it's not like there's anything wrong with middle aged characters, it's just that I've seen a dozen middle aged Holmeses and Watsons and so there's no novelty in it. Which therefore means that there's nothing new about the idea to justify the fact that they were decidedly NOT middle aged in the pre-hiatus stories, so it just doesn't fit with the otherwise very faithful-to-canon episodes. Just like an adaptation where 20 year old actors are playing out stories that you read about 35 year old characters would feel odd unless it was interpreted creatively enough to make the change cool. Totally subjective as far as being *bothersome*, of course, but real enough to make it a bit annoying when people say ACD is just like Granada.
ext_759735: (Default)

[identity profile] visvang.livejournal.com 2013-12-28 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, maybe you're right about the writing. I think I lost the ability to judge it because I've seen the movie don't know how many times since I was a kid and still have a part of that first impression with me (and a five-year-old-me is an even worse judge of writing then grown-up-me).

Thank you for the recs!
I am definitely the one for watching a ton of adaptations! And I was slightly wondering what I was going to do in the upcoming ten days long New Year vacations starting tomorrow. It seems I now know the answer :)
tweedisgood: (Default)

[personal profile] tweedisgood 2013-12-27 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Now I need to go watch Granada version

You certainly do :-)