So I've now read all the comments in this thread -- Wow.  And they made me think of something that I just want to throw out to see what you all think:

1) Euros/Euros: She's a genius but hyper-emotional.  In fact, her emotions override everything. 
2) If you say her name out loud, it comes out as, more or less -- Yer ohs (phonetically speaking).  Or -- Yourohs.  Tweak it slightly and it could be -- You're Us.
3) Extrapolating...  Euros/Eurus/You're Us is all the emotions that Mycroft and Sherlock have subjugated in themselves.  She, the sister, is the flip side or the mirror opposite to the brothers.  She has enough emotion for the two of them.
4) Euros/Eurus is what happens if emotions escape.  Euros/Eurus is emotions.  You're Us is the enemy.  Emotions are the enemy.
5) Sherlock and Mycroft have subsumed their emotions and focused on their intellect because they know what can happen if they let their emotions get the better of them.  Like they more or less said in ASiB (I think it was that episode).  They have seen what their sister does/is and, even if Sherlock doesn't remember it, they didn't want any part of it.  Perhaps because they know that if they do allow themselves to feel emotion, they know they'll have a hard time controlling themselves, as witness Sherlock's destruction of the coffin.  And they both have too much humanity to want to become like their sister.

It's late and maybe I'm just rambling or maybe there's something to this theory.  You decide! 
 

I've only watched it once and will definitely watch it again.  Some initial impressions:
* I liked the first half much better than the second half.
* I really liked Mycroft and Sherlock arguing about his phone.
* The pacing was very fast; too fast, in my opinion, because many scenes seemed like they were too short and disjointed.
* I enjoyed Sherlock lecturing the baby about the rattle.
* Where was John???
* Hard to believe John would initiate an extra-marital affair, since he expressed such deep love for Mary in HLV.
* I think that woman on the bus has to have a more significant role in the show -- there's just got to be more to things than a simple affair.
* Felt the scenes showing Mary and her disguises as she flees went on way too long.
* Was confused by the beginning in the aquarium -- that location seemed rather out of character for the show, to me anyway.
* Sherlock's fight in the kitchen and the pool went on way too long for me.
* What's with Mycroft's office?  In prior episodes, he had a huge and airy office that looked like it was in some government building -- here, it looks like he's in some basement dungeon.
* I think the text overlay technique was overdone in this episode; a more sparing use of it would have made it more effective.
* Next time, I'll watch it with subtitles because, even though English is my first language, I still missed a lot of the dialog.
* Mary sacrificing herself the way she did was admirable, even though I don't like the character.
* I wasn't impressed by Martin's acting when John grieved Mary's death at the aquarium -- it seemed over the top to me and not completely real.
* Molly's look at Sherlock when she had to tell him what John said was heartbreaking -- that was excellent acting!
* I didn't really care for this episode -- it didn't seem like previous episodes -- but I couldn't really put my finger on why...
* ...Until I read this article, which now I realize is exactly what I felt about what was wrong with the episode: [u

Thank you, Phantom Lady!

KeepersPrice wrote:

Tobe and I saw it last night at the cinema. This made it our 3rd viewing - two on the TV screen and now the big screen. The show was supposed to start at 7:30 but after two rounds of the same Sherlock trivia questions and some Fathom Events and BBC ads it finally started around 8:00. (BTW, one of those trivia questions was incorrect and it drove us nuts. Did any of you see the one concerning the Blind Banker and the song on Moriarty's phone?).

Happy to be going again tonight. Last night I caught more references to lines found in the first 3 series. Sure to catch more tonight!

Wait -- What Sherlock trivia questions?!?  I saw it in a theater last night (Jan 5) but the only special features were the 221B tour before the movie and the interviews afterwards.  Did the theater here not show something?  Because, actually, I thought for some reason there was supposed to be three special features but when I only saw two, figured I'd been mistaken.

Anyway, I very much enjoyed seeing it a second time on a big screen.  I'll be watching it again on a large-screen TV this weekend as someone DVR'ed it for me and she and I will watch it together.  It's really helpful to read all the comments on this board and then go watch it!

After reading all the posts here about what took place in the real present and what was just in Sherlock's mind palace, I keep having this niggling thought: What if the entire episode, all the action, every scene, was in his mind palace? 

Hear me out here!

There's a lot of discussion about when Sherlock took whatever drugs he took -- Was it on the plane or before???  No one knows.  But I have a theory, crazy though it seems.  I'm not sure I even believe it but, hey, it's just as bizarre as the special was. 

I'm thinking that Sherlock never got on the plane.  I'm thinking he's still in prison somewhere in England.  That he managed to get some drugs somehow and everything we saw in the special was his way of dealing with the fact that he is incarcerated somewhere because of what he did at the end of HLV.  That everything we saw him doing and thinking was wishful thinking on Sherlock's part.  None of it actually happened.  Maybe he's in his mind palace or high on something but it doesn't matter which.  The result is that he is looking back at his life through a filtered lens and the events we saw in the special are what Sherlock has magnified in his mind as being important.  It's his way of dealing with the predicament he is in. 

Moriarty is dead but he is not dead as long as he is stuck in Sherlock's mind.  "Miss me?" is Sherlock's brain saying he misses having the freedom to go and do whatever he wants whenever he wants.  The strong female thread throughout is just Sherlock acknowledging that he prefers dealing with strong and capable women to meek and malleable ones, and Mary is the epitome of that. 

I predict that Series 4, when it begins, will show Sherlock walking out of a dark and overbearing-looking building.  Mycroft will, ultimately, get him a pardon because he does always look after his little brother and can get Sherlock out of any and all his little fixes.

Hey, if this episode was all about Sherlock dreaming, I c

Yeah, I definitely need to see it again!  Just finished watching the US broadcast and reading this entire thread for the first time.  I'm slightly annoyed because I tried to stream it from my computer to my TV, as I don't have a cable TV subscription, and it kept buffering so I discontinued that and then in the first half, the live stream on my computer winked out a few times.  So I missed short bits of dialog here and there. SO ANNOYING!  Fortunately, I am going to watch the movie screening on January 5th, which ought to be really cool and give a different perspective from watching it on a laptop.  And I'll watch it when it's rebroadcast and someone DVR'ed it for me and I can't wait to see it again!

Anyway,  the first time the setting shifted into the present time, all I could think was: Oh, Moftiss, you did it again and fooled us all!  But I really liked how the episode kept on time-shifting back and forth.  As for Moftiss saying this special was a one-off occurrence, I'm thinking what that means is that they will only do one show with this kind of time travel in it. 

I totally didn't get the purpose of "the list" until reading the comments here.  I don't think Sherlock was high all throughout HLV; it just doesn't realistic to me, for some reason.  Someone mentioned that Sherlock was high when he got on the plane on the tarmac, though, which seems more plausible.  But I wouldn't have known because I certainly couldn't tell (not that I have any experience in that kind of thing, however) and I'm kind of wondering why many if not all of you are so sure he was high when he was saying good-bye to John.  I can see that it makes sense but I'm just wondering what clues make you so sure.

On the other hand, I did recognize Dr. Hooper as Molly right away.  The voice was the giveaway: It was too high-pitched to be a man's voice, in my opinion.

I thou

PBS just started showing Poldark in the US last Sunday.  I've been eagerly waiting for it because I loved the 1970s version with Robin Ellis and I've read most of the books.  (Just found out the latest was published in 2002 and I haven't read that since I didn't know it existed.) 

However, I wasn't thrilled with Ep 1.  It was too truncated and there are way too many shots of people riding a horse or walking along the cliff edge by the sea.  And the way the camera kept closing in on the scar on Poldark's face was annoying.  But, the atmosphere and production design were great!

I was curious if any scenes were cut from the American broadcast and I discovered that, yes, unfortunately, about six minutes were deleted.  So I found a way to watch the British version online and I liked it better the second time around. 

The show has grown on me.  I just finished watching Ep 5.  The pace has picked up and I was hooked after Ep 3.  The plot is just as familiar but more condensed than the original TV version.  It would be interesting to watch the first version again.

Here's an article about the show from the Wall Street Journal:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-merits-the-remake-of-tvs-poldark-1435179972

 

Just read it in today's paper and came here to post the link but saw you'd already done so.    It's a great profile!  As always, BC had interesting things to say.

I heard it and...is there a thread for people who've already listened to it to discuss particulars?  I have some specific commens but don't want to spoil it for others.  If there isn't a separate thread, shall I start one or just wait a few days until people have had time to hear it???  I sort of feel all the comments should remain with this particular thread but I'm dying to talk about it! 

My uncle had Time magazine with him when he came to visit for Thanksgiving so I got to read the interview in the original print version: Nice!  BC was his usual erudite self; I enjoyed reading his thoughts about the characters he's played.