Yes to all that. Everyone should be free to post their opinions, popular or not. It gets difficult the moment other opinions are not accepted or the writers of Sherlock insulted for not doing what people expect them to do. 

I think it's a problem of arrogance, rudeness and a sense of entitlement.
Horrible asepcts of modern living.

I think I may have missed ' ignorance' from my list!

Mary Me wrote:

... with Reichenbach we could all come together and share our grief. Disagreements were mostly about logic when discussing how he faked his death and how he will return etc. Disagreements now are about whether a character deserves something or not, whether you should empathize or not, morally condemnable or not and this is all getting too personal for me.

I cannot let this stand because issues of morality were discussed very hotly back then too: when is it OK to kill, who 'deserves to die' (what an abhorrent inhumane way of thinking!)  and related issues were debated before. For example, in regards to the taxi driver.

We also discussed the issue of not-follwing-up, e.g., when the young and beautiful Soo Lin Yao is killed, and no real impact of this is shown on screen. Can this be an OK thing to do for writers? Many different opinions on that one..

sj4iy wrote:

I feel the same way.  I don't mind people debating plot elements or discussing the characters' actions.  But when people start making statements about the writers, that's when it crosses the line for me.  They have their vision of the show and it won't always conform to ours..

It is interesting though that this show, too, decided to break down the Fourth Wall.

And there are many concessions to the modern fandom, like the beating of Sherlock, return of Anthea and Irene, the drug stag night, the drug den, brotherly moments and Xmas at the Holmeses', etc. Probably most telling, the solution to Reichenbach had been filmed and yet the makers got cold feet and decided to do more about this scene. I think you can tell the pressure is really on now, having gone from an unknown show to superstar.

I had to explain to press how to spell B. Cumberbatch when Smaug premiered - despite Star Trek and all. And these moments are now over, judging by the sheer numbers of viewers of season 3. The world is changing... and many of us on this message board are not sure if they are ready for it...

Seeing that this is where we rant, I might as well admit that I have very mixed feelings about the massive media and social media resonance Sherlock has nowadays. And do not get me started on that Fourth Wall - anyone seen the BBC shirt slogans? Clever and funny or neoliberal product placement?




 

@The Doctor (11:42),  I agree with most of what you said.
Let me start with this: I've always have been a fervent advocat of a polite tone and being respectful towards everybody. Each opinion counts, and tastes are wildly different. As are our head canons. But I don't get the argument "why go to a fan forum, if you don't like the show'. That argument only cuts, if you never liked the show to begin with. Then, indeed, why come here? But those of us, who disliked a lot about season 3, and voice that criticism, are here because we care for the show and want it to succeed in the future (though there is certainly no danger right now). Why should criticism of Mofftiss be off limits? It's their show, and they can take it , where ever they want, but why should the minority of us, who didn't like the directiion, the show has taken, be silent? And believe me, there are many people out there, who didn't like season 3. Most of them just don't post here.I just had a long phone conversation with my son, who, together with his friends and room mates used to be a more than casul fan of 'Sherlock'. He basically said, that it's still better than most tv shows, but that he and his friends saw a steep decline in comparison to the previous seasons, and didn't like the change from a detective show to a show about a detective.  And he blamed it on the superstar status of the show. I know, it's an unpopular opinion, but why shouldn't we voice our disappointment? We are disappointed, BECAUSE we are great fans of the show. And criticism doesn't imply, we don't respect the opinion of those, who liked most of season 3. That would be arrogant indeed. As I said, tastes are different.
As to the heated moral discussions: Personally, I think, they are great. If a tv show inspires these kind of discussions, it's certainly not pop corn tv. The makers must've done something right. Maybe, they even wanted to inspire discussions about moral values. The discussions should stay respecful, of course. And if someone feels uncomfortable or upset (totally understandable)  with these kinds of discussions, one doesn't have to jump into this particular shark tank. There are many threads, I stay away from.
I say 'cheers' to many diverse and friendly debates in the future.
 
 

Last edited by sherlocked (January 17, 2014 12:22 pm)

Thanks, stoertebeker! I'm glad, that you see it this way, too. And overall this is a really polite forum with a good atmosphere. That the level of disagreements rises after a season's end episode, is to be expected.
And just for the record: I didn't dislike everything in season 3. The acting was still great, and the dialogs were as witty and intelligent as ever. I really liked the way, the whole Janine episode was handled. Since I knew the plot around Doyle's original story, I expected something like that, though I always thought, that Conan Doyle really had gone a step too far with that plot point. But in HLV, they really pulled that off well, IMO. I just really disliked the overall story arc and plotting.  But again, that's just my personal opinion.

I don't get that, Susi. Just as an example: If someone starts a thread about, what worked in season 3, I should be allowed to disagree. If I start a thread about what didn't work, I should be prepared to face disagreement, as I would. And I would respect different views. It happened actually: Hanka opened a thread about how she disiked HLV. The majority of answers came from people, who liked HLV. Should they have respected the negativity of that thread? Should this thread have been reserved for posters, who agreed with Hanka? I don't think so.

Last edited by sherlocked (January 17, 2014 2:41 pm)

Words of wisdom form the north of Germany
I agree wiith swanpride on this: I find it a bit premature, to say the least, to decry things, which haven't even happened, yet. Like: 'I will never watch the show again, if they bring Moriarty back'. First of all, we don't know, if they will bring him back. And if they do, we don't know, how they will handle it. As I said above, I never expected, that they would handle the Janine thing so well.  So, let's not get too excited about things, we don't know yet.  And, maybe, we all judge season 3 a bit differently, when we know, how the storyline continues.

Last edited by sherlocked (January 17, 2014 2:50 pm)

I think it was me who said that I would leave the show, the forum and the fandom if Moriarty is still alive. But this wasn't meant really seriously as one maybe can see when looking at it IN the context.
1. I love Moriarty/Andrew (just in case if anyone here still doesn't know  ) and
2. I fully agree with NOT getting too excited about things we don't know, yet.

Mattlocked wrote:

I think it was me who said that I would leave the show, the forum and the fandom if Moriarty is still alive. But this wasn't meant really seriously as one maybe can see when looking at it IN the context.
1. I love Moriarty/Andrew (just in case if anyone here still doesn't know  ) and
2. I fully agree with NOT getting too excited about things we don't know, yet.

 Mattlocked, I wasn't aiming at you, lol!
Now, if it turns out, that Moriarty created horcruxes, and that John and Sherlock will entertain us hunting them down and try to find the off switches of said horcruxes... yes, then I will never watch the show again and never come back here

Last edited by sherlocked (January 17, 2014 3:26 pm)