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not the same but better
Somehow Elementary became my actual favourite show. I spent so long approving of it in a somewhat distant way, I can't even remember when that turned into genuine delight at each and every thing it does. The finale - every part of the finale, even before the central reveal - made me so happy that I'm not even sad about the long wait for more.
Anyway, spoilery stuff for 'The Woman'/'Heroine':
* Honest to god I think that final scene, with the watsonia, might be the most satisfying declaration of love I've ever seen on television. The thing that kept me feeling most distant in the first third or so of the season was feeling like Joan and Sherlock didn't like each other enough, and not trusting that that was building towards something. I don't think I'd considered properly that Elementary's setup allows for a much slower build in the relationship than any other adaptation I can think of, because Sherlock and Joan didn't choose to be together. In every other version there had to be some immediate recognition of appealing qualities in the other, or they would never have moved in together. Whereas Elementary could do Familiarity = Respect = Affection, and familiarity takes time, knowing somebody takes time. Anyway that was a longish aside when all I actually wanted to say was that it delights my soul that now that the show's got them to the affection stage, it's taken off all the breaks. There is so much love and respect and admiration in that relationship it fucking kills me, and the fact that both participants are standoffish and undemonstrative and tend towards clinical language makes the depth of their regard that the show's managed to so clearly convey really wonderful.
* An-y-way, gosh feelings, but fucking Moriarty holy shit show show show, consistently giving me things I didn't even know I could ask for. I started idly imagining Moriarty as Irene or another woman halfway through the episode, when it started seeming like people were avoiding pronouns when Moriarty's name came up, and then I dismissed it. Because Watson, because I'm used to the things I watch doing the bare minimum and receiving backpats for it, because Irene as Moriarty is a wistful tumblr post with a thousand WOULD WATCH notes on it.
* The only, the only possible thing I could find to complain about would be that by conflating the two characters, we have one less ACD character to potentially introduce. Although somebody - I can't remember who? - did point out that that's not necessarily true. There could still be an Irene Adler whose name and identity were appropriated by Moriarty. She couldn't be The Woman, because Moriarty already got that speech (oh my god, sorry, delightsplosion for a sec), but she could have other elements of the Adler character.
* And she's great. Moriarty, she's so great. The way she holds herself with Sherlock, the way she talks. The way she and Joan talk. (The way Sherlock knows what Moriarty said to Joan at lunch about being a mascot and Joan knows what Moriarty said to Sherlock in the house about being a work of art because they tell each other these things, these belittling things that Moriarty said specifically to undermine each of them, they share them openly with each other fuck.)
* I have a rant that I like to bring out periodically about evil queens/enchantresses/supervillainesses, and the way they are almost always sexy, in a specifically seductive way; they often explicitly seduce the male hero and if not they behave as if they're thinking about doing it. And how that makes no fucking sense because seduction is a weapon of the disempowered, it's borrowing the power of somebody with more than you to get things done. It's a feminine weapon because women usually have less power than men. There is no reason for somebody who is the most powerful person in the room to employ seductive sexuality.
So I had to think for a little bit about why Moriarty's long con on Sherlock didn't ping that rant in me. And the thing is that the seduction, which isn't about the sex in any case since it's his emotions she takes him out with, isn't about power either. The point of the long con is to get him out of the way so she doesn't have to kill him. She doesn't lose strength in their dynamic when the Irene Adler illusion is broken, it wasn't about her maintaining a precarious position of power over somebody else the way a seducer does. Nothing could make that clearer than Sherlock supine on the floor while Moriarty sits at her ease, knees akimbo, gun resting between them. Revealing herself as Moriarty only forced her to show some of her strength.
* Honestly, I like this better than if Sherlock were a woman too (or instead of Watson). A woman whose nemesis is a woman has been done, and it could certainly stand to be done again a lot, but this is more refreshing.
* I feel like the resolution is less "Watson is the one who outwits Moriarty", even though that's how Sherlock sees it, and more "Sherlock and Moriarty are distorted mirror images of each other, evenly matched, but the difference is that Sherlock has Watson and Moriarty doesn't even understand what the value of that would be."
Anyway, spoilery stuff for 'The Woman'/'Heroine':
* Honest to god I think that final scene, with the watsonia, might be the most satisfying declaration of love I've ever seen on television. The thing that kept me feeling most distant in the first third or so of the season was feeling like Joan and Sherlock didn't like each other enough, and not trusting that that was building towards something. I don't think I'd considered properly that Elementary's setup allows for a much slower build in the relationship than any other adaptation I can think of, because Sherlock and Joan didn't choose to be together. In every other version there had to be some immediate recognition of appealing qualities in the other, or they would never have moved in together. Whereas Elementary could do Familiarity = Respect = Affection, and familiarity takes time, knowing somebody takes time. Anyway that was a longish aside when all I actually wanted to say was that it delights my soul that now that the show's got them to the affection stage, it's taken off all the breaks. There is so much love and respect and admiration in that relationship it fucking kills me, and the fact that both participants are standoffish and undemonstrative and tend towards clinical language makes the depth of their regard that the show's managed to so clearly convey really wonderful.
* An-y-way, gosh feelings, but fucking Moriarty holy shit show show show, consistently giving me things I didn't even know I could ask for. I started idly imagining Moriarty as Irene or another woman halfway through the episode, when it started seeming like people were avoiding pronouns when Moriarty's name came up, and then I dismissed it. Because Watson, because I'm used to the things I watch doing the bare minimum and receiving backpats for it, because Irene as Moriarty is a wistful tumblr post with a thousand WOULD WATCH notes on it.
* The only, the only possible thing I could find to complain about would be that by conflating the two characters, we have one less ACD character to potentially introduce. Although somebody - I can't remember who? - did point out that that's not necessarily true. There could still be an Irene Adler whose name and identity were appropriated by Moriarty. She couldn't be The Woman, because Moriarty already got that speech (oh my god, sorry, delightsplosion for a sec), but she could have other elements of the Adler character.
* And she's great. Moriarty, she's so great. The way she holds herself with Sherlock, the way she talks. The way she and Joan talk. (The way Sherlock knows what Moriarty said to Joan at lunch about being a mascot and Joan knows what Moriarty said to Sherlock in the house about being a work of art because they tell each other these things, these belittling things that Moriarty said specifically to undermine each of them, they share them openly with each other fuck.)
* I have a rant that I like to bring out periodically about evil queens/enchantresses/supervillainesses, and the way they are almost always sexy, in a specifically seductive way; they often explicitly seduce the male hero and if not they behave as if they're thinking about doing it. And how that makes no fucking sense because seduction is a weapon of the disempowered, it's borrowing the power of somebody with more than you to get things done. It's a feminine weapon because women usually have less power than men. There is no reason for somebody who is the most powerful person in the room to employ seductive sexuality.
So I had to think for a little bit about why Moriarty's long con on Sherlock didn't ping that rant in me. And the thing is that the seduction, which isn't about the sex in any case since it's his emotions she takes him out with, isn't about power either. The point of the long con is to get him out of the way so she doesn't have to kill him. She doesn't lose strength in their dynamic when the Irene Adler illusion is broken, it wasn't about her maintaining a precarious position of power over somebody else the way a seducer does. Nothing could make that clearer than Sherlock supine on the floor while Moriarty sits at her ease, knees akimbo, gun resting between them. Revealing herself as Moriarty only forced her to show some of her strength.
* Honestly, I like this better than if Sherlock were a woman too (or instead of Watson). A woman whose nemesis is a woman has been done, and it could certainly stand to be done again a lot, but this is more refreshing.
* I feel like the resolution is less "Watson is the one who outwits Moriarty", even though that's how Sherlock sees it, and more "Sherlock and Moriarty are distorted mirror images of each other, evenly matched, but the difference is that Sherlock has Watson and Moriarty doesn't even understand what the value of that would be."