Current Events > What was so bad about the Sherlock mind palace sequence?

(+) Yeah! (+)

hollow_shrine posted...

AsucaHayashi posted...

no more ridiculous than somebody reading in his own personal library.

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF SHERLOCK
He'd never done it before on screen. How many other times could we have just visited the ol' mind palace and just skipped whole plots? This is also the first time you as an audience are alerted to just how much information the protagonist can hide from the viewer. Jarring when much of the series up to that point has largely assumed that your perspectives are one with John and Sherlock and that key information is always given to you, whether you realize it or not.

And then there's the whole 'Hound' clue from hysterical Russel Tovey. There's no way what's-his-face knows anything about the hound program let alone it's aims. The only reason Sherlock could even know it is because of his connections to Mycroft's (apparently vast) international informational network. For Sherlock to weight that specific phrasing, as though it carries some kind of previously revealed narrative significance to the plot (it didn't BTW), and then find the actual answer to the problem in his 'mind palace' (jesus, this verbiage is ridiculous. It doesn't sound good. Fix it) purely by coincidence is absurd and breaks the shows realist interpretation of suspension of disbelief. Basically the show broke it's own rules in a way that couldn't be ignored if you bought into the show's narrative premise and tonal presentation (This is episode five. Chances are you have). And we're going to try to distract viewers here with jarring and surreal camera work? Aren't you like the Doctor Who messiah or something? Girl, please.

Compare that to the wedding episode and how it handles dissemination of information the audience doesn't know that are useful for solving the mystery. Even that isn't perfect. But at least there we see him struggle to make connections of these disparate pieces of information to arrive at a conclusion that at least feels like it could work. We broke the rules here (though at this point the rules have been broken so often there really aren't any rules), but our conclusion feels consistent with them.

Thank you for the detailed response.
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Mr_Biscuit posted...

I still love Sherlock, but after they decided the solution to the Reichenbach Fall was there is no explanation, hes just smarter than you! Get it?, the show definitely deteriorated from a thrilling mystery show with a genius but mostly plausible protagonist to a borderline superhero show that wasnt much interested in explaining HOW Sherlock knew things.

The overall performances and ridiculous screen chemistry between Freeman and Cumberbatch kept it very entertaining, but its gotten pretty silly and Im okay if theyre done and dont bring it back.

I did hate that, why couldn't they just explain it?
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hollow_shrine posted...

Sherlock has a casual knowledge of untold volumes of state secrets collected from sovereign nations around the globe, which he regularly steals from his brother (WHY?? To prove that he can?).

In fairness, doing it just because he can would be in line with the character.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

I thought that scene was cool.

The only dumb scene is when he guesses that guy's password by looking around his office

Which episode?
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Sativa_Rose posted...

I thought that scene was cool.

The only dumb scene is when he guesses that guy's password by looking around his office

This happens in everything and it's one of my least favorite cliches.
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YoshitoKikuchi posted...

Which episode?

Hounds of Baskerville, same as the mind palace scene
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I don't remember much about mind palace stuff, but the Hound of the Baskervilles episode sucked.
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I actually like that episode, it's just that little scene I mentioned earlier that is totally implausible that I find irritating about that episode.
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