BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Moriarty: The only character that didn't work for me in the BBC series

**Posted by zydeholic** January 26, 2014 2:22 am

To me, Moriarity's body type was all wrong. He just didn't menace physically. Supposedly he did mentally, which is one of the points, but, seemed there should have been more physicality at play too. The pathology coming off of him didn't quite work as a result. But maybe they were trying to keep the focus on the mental part.

**Posted by besleybean** January 26, 2014 8:29 am

I think so and it defiintely worked for me.

**Posted by SolarSystem** January 26, 2014 10:26 am

zydeholic wrote:
To me, Moriarity's body type was all wrong. He just didn't menace physically. Supposedly he did mentally, which is one of the points, but, seemed there should have been more physicality at play too. The pathology coming off of him didn't quite work as a result. But maybe they were trying to keep the focus on the mental part.

Well, I suppose the exact same thing can be said about Magnussen. Physically he's not menacing at all (to me), he looks like the perfect gentleman. But the second he opens his mouths and starts talking...

In my opinion both of them, Moriarty and Magnussen, are great villains in the context of the show. Yes, I laughed about Moriarty at times, and sometimes I just smiled and thought 'oh, he is so good, I just love to hate him'. And it totally works for me. But I suppose that if you expect something else from a villain, then it's just like it is with any other expectation: you might just be disappointed because the writers don't give you what you want.

**Posted by sw2963** February 8, 2014 10:55 pm

Listening to Staying Alive now/ Love Moriarty. Scott's portrayal was unhinged and erratic - in a great way

**Posted by SherlocklivesinOH** February 24, 2014 4:23 am

Magnussen had a lot in common with the Moriarty of canon, in the way he controlled people while maintaining a facade of respectability.

**Posted by Tinks** February 24, 2014 7:46 am

He didn't work for me at all to begin with simply because I thought Andrew Scott was too theatrical (I thought the same about BC in the early episodes, too, and it's interesting that both actors have done a lot of stage work; I wondered if they both brought some of that to the small screen to begin with, which sometimes made things seem a bit overdone).
Having watched the episodes more than once though, I've got used to this version of Moriarty as an insane, over the top character - I still don't want him brought back from the dead though!

**Posted by Be** February 24, 2014 8:21 am

saturnR wrote:
SteveNJ wrote:
Moriarty has to have some gravitas. Must be a professor.
Everyone's been youthfied so that Benedict & Martin are both younger than Holmes & Watson in the books. They tried to keep this trend & make Moriarty younger as well. I realise that there are many very young & intelligent professors out there, I'm not sure that it would work the best with Moriarty.

There is always the possibility that there is another Moriarty in the background. Perhaps an older brother or a father who the professor. According to some scholars there were three Moriartys. Just a possibility.
But I don't think that we need another one right now. I think Sherlock is happy that Moriarty is gone and we should give him some time without a Moriarty.