Maybe she's genuinely sad and just putting on a brave face for both John and Sherlock.

I mean this is the nicest possible way - and again it's discomfort with what the writers did with Mary that's my main problem here - but the excuse of it being the only way to keep John, or not wanting to be a single Parent, will never make me swallow the fact that she shot and almost killed his best friend!
Not even in TV land can I find that excusable.
Had Sherlock been planning to kill one of them, then fair enough.
But because he might land her in the divorce court? No, I'm sorry - it just doesn't do it for me.

Last edited by Tinks (February 23, 2014 4:04 pm)

She only did the typing!
Tee Hee.

In the great scheme of things Mary being a caring person, or not a caring person, is irrelevant; I doubt that Moftiss intend to have her hanging around for much longer because in the end she's dull. There's nothing behind the facade beyond the 'I want', and 'I want' gets old really, really quickly, so there will be one more twist and then exit.

Which is just as well because otherwise it would cease to be Sherlock...

mrshouse wrote:

At the moment it is hard for Mary to win, quite true. It is difficult. And I have to agree that it is a lot of the writers doing. Maybe fans don't like her to be planted into the heads as great new lead. Being a bit more careful with her character, a bit more slowly in introducing and showing her around, a supporting cast, well, who knows? And I have a feeling she had to fill in, what was needed by hand: John still grieving? Great, let's make her loveable, soft and sweet looking with her gorgeous 20style dress, soft blond waves, camera pictures all softened during Sherlock's first deductions. But she has to be funny and smart, too!! And weirdo Sherlock? Great, let's make them good friends! But she must be  clever, too! (" solve it!"). But wait, now John gets bored! Great, lets make her an ex assasin, should do for an adrenalin junkie!!! There are johnlockers still hoping? Get her lots of screen time!
it's a pity. I could do with her as a great supporting cast in the back ground. I think it was all too much too soon.

They Mary Sued her; I suspect that Moftiss know only too well that Mary Sues don't actually exist, and would have assumed that their audiences do too. Some of us were waiting for the second shoe to drop; I agree that the soft focus shots with the soft focus hairstyle and the vintage style dress were entirely calculated to invoke the sentimental reaction which was then blown to pieces in HLV.

But as I keep pointing out, the real gut punch isn't Mary shooting Sherlock; it's John not noticing that his best friend is bleeding out while he throws a hissy fit. They turned the whole relationship on its head in that scene, and somehow they have to walk back from that, if only to establish the John Watson of canon.

Of course, in canon, Sherlock is the grown up; it may be that HLV is the way Moftiss have chosen to reach that point. Now all they have to do is give us the John Watson who would walk off a cliff if Sherlock asked him to, trusting Sherlock absolutely to know what's best.

I think I'm going to read some canon to cheer myself up
 

Willow wrote:

mrshouse wrote:

At the moment it is hard for Mary to win, quite true. It is difficult. And I have to agree that it is a lot of the writers doing. Maybe fans don't like her to be planted into the heads as great new lead. Being a bit more careful with her character, a bit more slowly in introducing and showing her around, a supporting cast, well, who knows? And I have a feeling she had to fill in, what was needed by hand: John still grieving? Great, let's make her loveable, soft and sweet looking with her gorgeous 20style dress, soft blond waves, camera pictures all softened during Sherlock's first deductions. But she has to be funny and smart, too!! And weirdo Sherlock? Great, let's make them good friends! But she must be clever, too! (" solve it!"). But wait, now John gets bored! Great, lets make her an ex assasin, should do for an adrenalin junkie!!! There are johnlockers still hoping? Get her lots of screen time!
it's a pity. I could do with her as a great supporting cast in the back ground. I think it was all too much too soon.

They Mary Sued her; I suspect that Moftiss know only too well that Mary Sues don't actually exist, and would have assumed that their audiences do too. Some of us were waiting for the second shoe to drop; I agree that the soft focus shots with the soft focus hairstyle and the vintage style dress were entirely calculated to invoke the sentimental reaction which was then blown to pieces in HLV.

But as I keep pointing out, the real gut punch isn't Mary shooting Sherlock; it's John not noticing that his best friend is bleeding out while he throws a hissy fit. They turned the whole relationship on its head in that scene, and somehow they have to walk back from that, if only to establish the John Watson of canon.

Of course, in canon, Sherlock is the grown up; it may be that HLV is the way Moftiss have chosen to reach that point. Now all they have to do is give us the John Watson who would walk off a cliff if Sherlock asked him to, trusting Sherlock absolutely to know what's best.

I think I'm going to read some canon to cheer myself up
 

Great comment, and I hear you. I had to go watch a Millenium Marathon to cheer myself up, last night. Oy Flipping Vey!

Gut punch. Yeah, that about sums it up. :-)

Last edited by RavenMorganLeigh (February 23, 2014 7:17 pm)

Zatoichi wrote:

Willow wrote:

Of course, in canon, Sherlock is the grown up; it may be that HLV is the way Moftiss have chosen to reach that point. Now all they have to do is give us the John Watson who would walk off a cliff if Sherlock asked him to, trusting Sherlock absolutely to know what's best.

I really hope that happens in S4! Coming from canon I feel that´s the way their relationship is supposed to be, the only way that feels natural and will work over time. Watching this parent-child-thing going on between the Watsons and Sherlock in TSoT was horrible for me, it felt so against everything I associated with Holmes.. 

If HLV is the way Moftiss chose to reach that point "it was worth the wound", to quote canon..
 

 
I must confess that I really didn't like that in TSoT either; it's yet another of the illusions which is shattered in HLV. Mothers don't, on the whole, shoot their children, even if they want to and when Mary pulls the trigger that's gone.

Moftiss have set up opposing views of what family is, and I think we can reasonably deduce that they prefer the warmth which is so much a feature of the Holmes' home to the cold, almost sterile atmosphere of John's place in the suburbs; the person who dressed that set obviously had very clear guidance from the writers and director, and it is, to say the least, uninviting.

But I do think that S3 could be fairly characterised as the season where Sherlock grew up; in some ways it's painful, but growing up usually is. The task for S4 is to get John to do some of the same, even though we know that he will remain a sucker for a pretty face and a sob story, as he does in canon; John is always going to be naive.

But to paraphrase Lestrade on Sherlock, if we're lucky he will become the John Watson we love in canon; he will have to make some headway on that if he's going to persuade Mycroft that he is not a liability who needs to be kept a long way away from his brother...

Willow wrote:

Zatoichi wrote:

Willow wrote:

Of course, in canon, Sherlock is the grown up; it may be that HLV is the way Moftiss have chosen to reach that point. Now all they have to do is give us the John Watson who would walk off a cliff if Sherlock asked him to, trusting Sherlock absolutely to know what's best.

I really hope that happens in S4! Coming from canon I feel that´s the way their relationship is supposed to be, the only way that feels natural and will work over time. Watching this parent-child-thing going on between the Watsons and Sherlock in TSoT was horrible for me, it felt so against everything I associated with Holmes.. 

If HLV is the way Moftiss chose to reach that point "it was worth the wound", to quote canon..
 

 
I must confess that I really didn't like that in TSoT either; it's yet another of the illusions which is shattered in HLV. Mothers don't, on the whole, shoot their children, even if they want to and when Mary pulls the trigger that's gone.

Moftiss have set up opposing views of what family is, and I think we can reasonably deduce that they prefer the warmth which is so much a feature of the Holmes' home to the cold, almost sterile atmosphere of John's place in the suburbs; the person who dressed that set obviously had very clear guidance from the writers and director, and it is, to say the least, uninviting.

But I do think that S3 could be fairly characterised as the season where Sherlock grew up; in some ways it's painful, but growing up usually is. The task for S4 is to get John to do some of the same, even though we know that he will remain a sucker for a pretty face and a sob story, as he does in canon; John is always going to be naive.

But to paraphrase Lestrade on Sherlock, if we're lucky he will become the John Watson we love in canon; he will have to make some headway on that if he's going to persuade Mycroft that he is not a liability who needs to be kept a long way away from his brother...

OH! Ohhhhhhhh! 

The line about shattering illusions. 

Pegged it. 

Wouldn't be much of a show...

Willow wrote:

mrshouse wrote:

At the moment it is hard for Mary to win, quite true. It is difficult. And I have to agree that it is a lot of the writers doing. Maybe fans don't like her to be planted into the heads as great new lead. Being a bit more careful with her character, a bit more slowly in introducing and showing her around, a supporting cast, well, who knows? And I have a feeling she had to fill in, what was needed by hand: John still grieving? Great, let's make her loveable, soft and sweet looking with her gorgeous 20style dress, soft blond waves, camera pictures all softened during Sherlock's first deductions. But she has to be funny and smart, too!! And weirdo Sherlock? Great, let's make them good friends! But she must be clever, too! (" solve it!"). But wait, now John gets bored! Great, lets make her an ex assasin, should do for an adrenalin junkie!!! There are johnlockers still hoping? Get her lots of screen time!
it's a pity. I could do with her as a great supporting cast in the back ground. I think it was all too much too soon.

They Mary Sued her; I suspect that Moftiss know only too well that Mary Sues don't actually exist, and would have assumed that their audiences do too. Some of us were waiting for the second shoe to drop; I agree that the soft focus shots with the soft focus hairstyle and the vintage style dress were entirely calculated to invoke the sentimental reaction which was then blown to pieces in HLV.

But as I keep pointing out, the real gut punch isn't Mary shooting Sherlock; it's John not noticing that his best friend is bleeding out while he throws a hissy fit. They turned the whole relationship on its head in that scene, and somehow they have to walk back from that, if only to establish the John Watson of canon.

Of course, in canon, Sherlock is the grown up; it may be that HLV is the way Moftiss have chosen to reach that point. Now all they have to do is give us the John Watson who would walk off a cliff if Sherlock asked him to, trusting Sherlock absolutely to know what's best.

I think I'm going to read some canon to cheer myself up
 

Which point was that? All I saw was John bending down over his friend, realising he'd been shot, then saying "oh my God, what happened, who shot him?" etc to Magnussen. Really didn't see anything wrong in that. Just a normal reaction.