BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Review of S3 on Decoding the Subtext Blog (Blog focused on Johnlock)

**Posted by SherlocklivesinOH** January 24, 2014 11:34 pm

Decoding the Subtext is a blog that is ALL about Johnlock. The author, known as Nekosmuse, decodes EVERYTHING Sherlock, from canon on out, for evidence of a romantic/sexual relationship between Holmes and Watson. And she finds plenty, especially in canon.

She has done reviews of all of the BBC series so far, now including Season 3. She was enthusiastic about the series at first, but now...not so much:

http://www.nekosmuse.com/withlovesh/

**Posted by silverblaze** January 25, 2014 3:25 pm

Her liking of a production seems to be directly related to the amount of gay subtext she can find. Good writer but that got tedious after a while.

**Posted by SherlocklivesinOH** January 25, 2014 8:49 pm

silverblaze wrote:
Her liking of a production seems to be directly related to the amount of gay subtext she can find. Good writer but that got tedious after a while.

That's probably a fair enough thing to say about the blog overall. But the criticisms she makes of Empty Hearse aren't really related to subtext.

**Posted by silverblaze** January 25, 2014 11:42 pm

True, and she's a good writer too. I just think she's coloured becaue of that. Her points could be totally valid, I just stopped taking it seriously because of the subtext thing. I think she dislikes it because of the subtext and then rationalises her reasons. That doesn't mean that you can't like it because of those reasons, people can and do, I just don't think she did, really.

**Posted by Willow** January 26, 2014 2:14 am

Yes. It seems to be someone who is a super special snowflake who believes that it should be written the ways she wants it to be written, and if it isn't then she will 'scream and scream til I'm sick!' This doesn't really work in the 21st century; she's not Violet Elixabeth Bott.

**Posted by SherlocklivesinOH** January 27, 2014 4:45 pm

I didn't read her review of TSoT until after I saw the episode...and then I couldn't believe she didn't squee more over the MANY ways John and Sherlock showed in that episode how much they loved each other...not to mention waking up on top of each other on the stairs.

**Posted by Marva** January 27, 2014 4:53 pm

there is another blog that deals with (mostly johnlock) subtext in BBC Sherlock: http://loudest-subtext-in-television.tumblr.com/
It's quite interesting, but sometimes over the top.

This is a very detailed analysis of ASiP which I really like: http://loudest-subtext-in-television.tumblr.com/post/74442263466/subversion-and-sherlock-a-study-in-pink

**Posted by SherlocklivesinOH** January 30, 2014 11:52 pm

Nekosmuse also complains a lot about how women are portrayed, both by Moffit and Gattis and in canon - some of which I agree with, but she considers the original, canon, Irene Adler a "deplorable character" that shows Doyle's misogyny...but that involves taking the King's description of Irene and her agenda at face value. I think Irene is pretty clearly shown in that story NOT to be a villain, a blackmailer, or a criminal...and perhaps not even much of an adventuress. I wrote about that in the Book Club thread for SCAN.

**Posted by SherlocklivesinOH** February 25, 2014 4:01 am

In reviewing this season, she really gets away from focusing on Johnlock...when there is so much she could have said.

And I CAN'T agree that the series is "catering to people who don't want to think about their television." If ever there was a series you HAVE to think about..and think about...and think about! Obviously she hasn't been over here to read us over-analyzing ever sentence!

They don't give us real answers to anything..and I think they raise a lot of moral questions, too. Including, "What makes Sherlock and John still worth rooting for when they'll stop at almost nothing?"