I don´t know anybody who was drawn out of social media. There was first the deciding TV moment, maybe triggered by a newspaper article or a friend, than come the social media. At least I would never go into a Sherlock forum (or tumblr) without knowing what´s that about. Neither do my friends. Maybe we are special but I would bet it´s the normal way. And yes, not the whole show, but TEH seems to be written for people who actually watch it. That exactly is my concern.
And I don´t agree with that: It didn´t survive because of the fanbase, it´s quite the opposite. It has such a big fanbase because Sherlock is exceptionally well written, has outstandingly filmed episodes with great writers and actors and everything. That´s why the fandom is so big. One should never forget that. They should not risk that, long running TV shows always exchange their viewers from time to time, that´s normal.

I didn´t get really what you wanted to say: Which people watch what or what not? Sorry, my brain cells strike.
But according to the question of what kind of people watch Sherlock: As we can see here from the forum it´s quite a big mix. According to age at least, nationalities, sexual orientations also etc. Outside of forums and therefore the majority: My 11 year old son likes it as well as my brother-in-law, who is an accountant, and my former uni-prof. I would say the viewers are widespread and diverse. Neither of them join any forums but remember well TRFe.g.

Last edited by anjaH_alias (January 3, 2014 4:53 pm)

I actually didn't feel that way. My father who actually doesn't know a thing about the craziness of the fandom could understand all the references and felt entertained - same with me.
We should all be thankful that the fandom means so much to the writers and don't feel laughed at.

Mary Me wrote:

I actually didn't feel that way. My father who actually doesn't know a thing about the craziness of the fandom could understand all the references and felt entertained

Ha, that was my question in the beginning: Does somebody know somebody who saw TEH and has never watched Sherlock before. That makes me feel well, maybe the percentage of insider jokes is not so high as it felt while watching.

Last edited by anjaH_alias (January 3, 2014 5:10 pm)

I watched TEH with a lot of family members and one of them-a brother- had not watched Sherlock before. I laughed at the inside jokes-he didn't.  10 minutes into the show-he was annoyed at the show? me for laughing?  It was not a lot of fun for him.  He didn't get it.  You cannot watch TEH without context.  Anyone who just found this episode would have been confused by the excessive amount of fandom references.

Mattlocked wrote:

But.... .don't I have problems to understand ANY series if I jump in somewhere in the middle?

Of course you do, at least with the more progressive TV shows. Imagine watching Game of Thrones, Boradwalk Empire or Lost starting with Season Three...

Mattlocked and Schmiezi, you are right, of course. "Boardwalk Empire" and "Lost" are good examples, you'd really be lost if you started to watch them somewhere in the middle.

But I still think it might be a little different with TEH (and I say "might be", because I'm not entirely sure about this yet). A bit like anja, I started Sherlock not with ASiP but with Scandal. And as we all know, Scandal starts where TGG left off - which might be pretty confusing for someone who hasn't seen TGG. But Scandal was so well-done, that I was hooked immediately. Yes, I was slightly confused at the beginning of the episode, but it worked. I dare say this had to do with brilliant writing and with the way in which the relationship between Sherlock and John was portrayed right from the start.
Now, I know that at the beginning of TEH Sherlock and John practically don't have a relationship (anymore). But for someone who is totally new to Sherlock, the very first scene must be so very confusing...! In Scandal they at least make clear right from the start that something has happened at the pool before and that this gets picked up now. But in TEH... don't get me wrong, I love how TEH starts, you're right in the middle of the action... and for us fans that's great. As are lots of other things in the episode, that 'normal' viewers just won't get mostly.

So, what I'm trying to say is this: Sherlock can work fo new viewers - it worked for me with Scandal being my very first episode - but I doubt that TEH will work that way. Which is a shame, because I think that as many people as possible should get to know the show...!

Last edited by SolarSystem (January 4, 2014 10:52 am)

But they showed what has happened in the last scene of TRF: Sherlock jumped.
The rest was fiction which was explained directly afterwards by the conversation between Anderson and Lestrade.

Edit: Hubby read about Sherlock in an online magazine and that's how we noticed it. We watched TGG, got hooked and bought the dvd.
So we already got an IDEA it might be a great show by reading that article in advance. This is how people get to notice the show, too. Reading about it and give it a try. Just saying.

Last edited by Mattlocked (January 4, 2014 10:57 am)

But then again if you wouldn't have any idea, how would you know that it is fandom reference?
After all in the show it was imagined by Anderson and the girl in the club!

@mattlocked: You could be right. I think it will get really exciting when the show comes to Germany. I am looking forward to the reviews, I think these people are really far from knowledge about fandom stuff, so we will get an independent impression of how it works. The critics loved Sherlock last time, although it was not such a paramount success here. Let´s see what they say.
And there is a good friend of mine with whom I watched the show more than once. She loves it, but she is also far from fandoms of any colour. She´s on travel now, so we can only watch it when the dvd is out. This could be also an independent judge for me concerning how it works without fandom knowledge.

Last edited by anjaH_alias (January 4, 2014 11:04 am)