Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2013-12-26 06:49 pm
case) wrote in 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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[Rachel Getting Married]
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[american horror story: coven]
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[Mass Effect]
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[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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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)
no subject
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 ;)
no subject
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 anonsno subject
I love these convos too. Maybe I should try to think of Holmes secrets so I have an excuse to talk about it more :Dno subject
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?
no subject
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.
no subject
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.