I don’t know about you, but when I write my rough drafts, I’m staggering around in the dark. There are plot holes, dropped story lines, and unanswered questions—all the good, gnarly stuff that goes into the early part of the writing process. The key for us writers is—when the time is right—to find the answers to our own riddles. Easier said than done, right?
That’s why I love watching Sherlock Holmes crack a case. Even the smallest details never evade him, and he never fails to detect the pattern within a sea of chaos. So let’s take a few tips from this master of problem solving. The BBC adaptation of this well-loved character and his sidekick John Watson isn’t only entertaining to watch, it’s surprisingly insightful when it comes to the labyrinth of revision. Here are my favorite quotes and inadvertent writing axioms, Sherlock-style.
“Don’t make people into heroes, John. Heroes don’t exist.”
I wrote about the idea of the fallible hero (and villain) in a recent post. But for revision purposes, I like to think of it this way: first drafts speak in extremes, and revised drafts speak in nuances. When we first begin to sketch a story, we tend to rely on prefabricated binaries—right and wrong, yes and no, good and evil—as a scaffolding. Once that scaffolding is built, it’s time to revisit what we’ve done and ask ourselves where we’ve relied on simple, rather than complex explanations.
Right now I’m reading Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois, a psychological whodunit inspired by the Amanda Knox story. Told from varying points of view, the novel never allows the reader to settle for any foregone conclusions. Lily Hayes may be the suspected culprit in Katy Kellers’ murder, but for much of the novel (I haven’t finished it yet), Lily’s guilt seems as likely as her innocence.
- Mycroft needs Sherlock's help, but a remorseless criminal mastermind puts Sherlock on a distracting crime-solving spree via a series of hostage human bombs through which he speaks. Season 1 Season 2 ».
- Mycroft needs Sherlock's help, but a remorseless criminal mastermind puts Sherlock on a distracting crime-solving spree via a series of hostage human bombs through which he speaks. Season 1 Season 2 ».
'The Final Problem' is the third episode of the fourth series of the British television series Sherlock and the thirteenth episode overall. The episode was first broadcast on BBC One, PBS, Channel One and 1+1 on 15 January 2017.
What duBois is teaching me through her smartly crafted novel is that stories often work best in webs. Emotions, relationships, and motivations are usually much more tangled than they are straightforward, and during the revision process, we must ask ourselves if the knots we’ve tied for our characters are too easily undone.
“Get at the stuff that matters.”
![Sherlock Sherlock](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWY3NTljMjEtYzRiMi00NWM2LTkzNjItZTVmZjE0MTdjMjJhL2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQ4NTc5OTU@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg)
The wisdom here is twofold, and it comes from Sherlock’s attempt to explain the way his brain operates. “Listen,” he says, pointing to his head. “This is my hard-drive, and it only makes sense to put things in there that are useful. Really useful. Ordinary people fill their heads with all kinds of rubbish, and that makes it hard to get at the stuff that matters.”
First, Sherlock warns us against the cluttered mind. It’s the detective’s—and the writer’s—worst enemy. Writing is a contemplative act, and the noise of everyday living can counteract our best efforts to let the quiet of our minds lead us deeper into our own creativity. A writing teacher once told me that every new creative project invites the writer to give something up for its sake. That sacrifice, however small, is a way of marking your commitment to the new endeavor. For some, it may mean signing off Twitter or Facebook for a while. For others (like me), it could mean clearing your desk of bills, old drafts, and post-it notes to provide literal space for a new project to expand.
Second, Sherlock’s quote reminds us that revision is a time to eliminate what doesn’t matter to make room for what does. Unnecessary “rubbish” (i.e. excessive description, straying plot lines, and ineffectual auxiliary characters) can squelch the moments of genius in a manuscript in the same way the constant “ding” of social media notifications can squelch your creativity. A scattered mind can’t help but produce a scattered draft.
“Bitterness is a paralytic. Love is a much more vicious motivator.”
It’s impossible to write a good novel using only your head and not your heart. This mantra can become our revision’s true north by answering two questions:
Who, or what, do your characters love?
What will you, the writer, not spare your characters from, despite your love for them?
These questions bring to mind Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, in which a family bands together before, during, and after the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. The characters care for each other in complicated ways, which I consider an outgrowth of Ward’s strong connection to her own creations. While writing the book, Ward says she realized she couldn’t “dull the edges and fall in love with my characters and spare them. Life does not spare us.”
Ward calls this “narrative ruthlessness.” I think Sherlock would approve.
“The rules are wrong.”
This line comes to us from a moment when Sherlock tries to goad Watson into playing a game of Clue:
Watson: Ah, no. We are never playing that again.
Sherlock: Why not?
Watson: Because it’s not actually possible for the victim to have done it, Sherlock, that’s why!
Sherlock: It’s was the only possible solution!
Watson: It’s not in the rules. Diskcatalogmaker 7 2 8 – catalog your disks will.
Sherlock: Well, then the rules are wrong!
As a creative writing teacher, I have students who love rules and students who hate them. In my mind, they both suffer from the same failure of imagination. Or, as Sherlock might put it, “You’ve got a solution that you like, but you’re choosing to ignore anything you see that doesn’t comply with it.”
Many famous writers break all kinds of rules taught in Creative Writing 101—use lots of dialogue! Create likeable characters! Don’t mix metaphors! It’s always good to be conscious of the rules you break and why. Every effort should help solve the case, and for us, the case is always a manuscript that hasn’t reached its full potential. Instead of considering the rules you’re following or breaking, take it a step further and ask yourself—what do I need to pull this off? In answering that question, sometimes you’ll find the rules are irrelevant.
“All that matters to me is the work! Without that, my brain rots.”
Sometimes revision can feel like poking yourself in the eye with a fork, so we must remember that we thrive on work that needs to be done. Sherlock takes equal joy in having solved and solving, much like we find joy in having written and writing. Just when we’ve found our way out of the maze we’ve written for ourselves, it’s time to get lost once again.
'The Final Problem' | |||
---|---|---|---|
Sherlock episode | |||
Episode no. | Series 4 Episode 3 | ||
Directed by | Benjamin Caron | ||
Written by | |||
Produced by | Sue Vertue | ||
Featured music | |||
Cinematography by | David Luther | ||
Editing by | Yan Miles | ||
Original air date | 15 January 2017 | ||
Running time | 89 minutes | ||
Guest appearance(s) | |||
| |||
Episode chronology | |||
| |||
List of Sherlock episodes |
'The Final Problem' is the third episode of the fourth series of the British television series Sherlock and the thirteenth episode overall. The episode was first broadcast on BBC One, PBS, Channel One[1][2] and 1+1[3] on 15 January 2017.
Plot[edit]
A panic-stricken little girl wakes up on an aeroplane and finds everybody asleep. She picks a mobile phone up and hears Jim Moriarty announce 'Welcome to the final problem'.
Mycroft Holmes is at home, where Sherlock and Watson disable his home security to trick him into revealing that his sister, Eurus, exists. At 221B Baker Street, Mycroft explains that Eurus was an era-defining genius on a par with Isaac Newton, with abilities far greater than Sherlock's and Mycroft's, coupled with a total lack of normal sensation and emotion. Mycroft reveals that their parents sent Eurus to a mental institution after she kidnapped and drowned Sherlock's dog Redbeard, and after she burned their home down. Mycroft withheld this from Sherlock because Eurus had psychologically traumatized him as a child, taunting him with an enigmatic song, and leading ultimately to Mycroft having his memories 'rewritten', he'd also been lying to their parents about Eurus not surviving the blaze she had set. An adult Mycroft then sent her to a Government 'Black site' and maximum-security facility a quote 'Prison within a prison', in the North Sea, Sherrinford, unknown to anyone outside very high ranking government officials and only on a need to know basis. When Mycroft insists that she is secured, a quadcopter carrying a motion-activated grenade flies into Sherlock's flat. John, Sherlock, and Mycroft flee as the bomb detonates, blasting Holmes and Watson out of the windows.
Later, John and Sherlock hijack a fishing trawler to travel to Sherrinford, carrying out a diversionary plan so that Sherlock can reach Eurus' cell. Mycroft and John corner the prison governor, discovering that he has explicitly disobeyed Mycroft's protocol and has allowed Eurus to interact with prison staff. Using her skill to 'reprogram' everyone she speaks with, Eurus has effectively taken full control of the prison. Meanwhile, Sherlock talks to Eurus, but she attacks him and knocks him unconscious. The guards lock Sherlock, John, Mycroft, and the governor together in Eurus's old cell.
Mycroft reveals that five years before, he granted Eurus an unsupervised interview with Moriarty as a Christmas present in exchange for detecting national security threats to Britain. During that time, Moriarty agreed to record video messages for her. After forcing the governor to commit suicide, Eurus torments Sherlock, Mycroft and Watson in a series of psychological ordeals, forcing Sherlock into sinister games to save their lives while videos of Moriarty heckle him. Although Eurus forces Sherlock onward with the prospect of saving the girl on the aeroplane, he eventually stops the games by threatening to shoot himself when she orders him to shoot either John or Mycroft. Furious, Eurus uses tranquilliser darts on the three of them.
Sherlock wakes up near the burnt-out wreckage of his family's old house. He speaks to the girl in the aeroplane to try to guide her in landing safely. John wakes up chained at the bottom of a well. As Eurus raises the water level in the well, John finds a human skull there, and Sherlock realizes that what he thought was his dog Redbeard was in fact his childhood friend, Victor Trevor. Eurus threw him into the well and left him for dead because she felt left out of Sherlock's attention as a child. Backgrounds 3 0 – dynamic desktop wallpapers desktop. Sherlock then deciphers the real meaning of the song that Eurus originally taunted him with when Victor went missing, which reveals that she wants him to find her. Sherlock deduces that the girl in the plane is actually Eurus's mental metaphor and that the game has been a cry for help. With Eurus' puzzle solved, Sherlock is able to send her back to Sherrinford after rescuing John.
Mycroft explains to his and Sherlock's parents, who are angry that they had been told that Eurus was dead, that she refuses to speak to people anymore. Sherlock visits her and they play the violin together, giving performances for their parents and Mycroft. While helping Sherlock repair his destroyed flat, John receives a video sent by Mary before she died, encouraging him to continue working with Sherlock.
Sources[edit]
Privacy cleaner click & clean 1 2. The title of the episode is a reference to 'The Final Problem' (1893).[4] The episode was partially based on 'The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual' (1893), which it directly references.[4][5] Watson's mention of the east wind and the name of Eurus Holmes are a reference to 'His Last Bow' (1917), where Holmes says, 'There's an east wind coming, Watson.' The three Garrideb brothers seen in a puzzle sequence are an adaptation of 'The Adventure of the Three Garridebs' (1924).[4] The character Victor Trevor is a reference to 'The Adventure of the Gloria Scott' (1893), where he appears as Holmes' first ever close friend, albeit in university rather than in childhood.[4] Jim Moriarty's brother is mentioned as a broadcast station master, a reference to The Valley of Fear (1915), where James Moriarty's brother is noted to be a railway station master.[4] The message on the coffin lid is a reference to 'The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax' (1911). The closing shot shows Holmes and Watson exiting 'Rathbone Place', a reference to Basil Rathbone, who played Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films and a radio series.[6] In the final sequence, 'The Adventure of the Dancing Men' (1903) is referenced with the following cipher seen on a chalkboard,[4] which reads 'AM HERE ABE SLANEY':
Production[edit]
The setting for Sherrinford, the high-security prison, was filmed at St Catherine's Fort, St Catherine's Island off Castle Beach in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales.[7]
Musician Paul Weller made a cameo appearance, in a non-speaking role as a man lying on the floor in a Viking costume, seen near the end of the episode.[8]
Leak and investigation[edit]
On 14 January, one day before the episode's broadcast, it was released online with Russian dialogue.[9] Both the official SherlockTwitter account and members of the Sherlock team acknowledged this and asked people to not share it and keep the Internet free of spoilers.[10]
On 16 January Channel One Russia, the network holding the rights to the broadcast in Russia, issued an apology, having determined that the material had been hacked from their system.[9][11] Channel One Russia announced it was conducting an investigation,[9][12] while BBC, through BBC Worldwide, announced its own full-scale investigation of the leak.[13][14]
Broadcast and reception[edit]
Sherlock 1 1 15 Esv
'The Final Problem' received mixed reviews from critics. Among the more positive reviews was Sean O'Grady of The Independent who gave the episode four out of five stars, stating that 'Benedict Cumberbatch and Tim Freeman [sic] are their usual accomplished double act' although suggesting 'Maybe Sherlock needs a little more reimagining'.[15] Meanwhile, Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph gave the episode five out of five stars, praising that 'the dazzling script delivered laughs, excitement, and emotion . we were left with a wiser Holmes and Watson.' He also commented about the possibility of series 4 being the last series for Sherlock, stating 'if this was the last-ever episode, which it surely won't be, it worked well as a sign off.'[16] Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek wrote 'this was fun to watch. Fun and ultra-tense with a terrific, whooshing sense of momentum. It went like the clappers, held its breath, went like the clappers again, held its breath some more until you thought you might pass out with the dizziness.'[17] Neela Debnath of the Daily Express was also positive, writing 'I can't fault the thrill ride that The Final Problem takes viewers on from the beginning to the end. Sherlock has clawed itself back from the edge.'[18] Two separate reviews in The Observer or The Guardian were positive, with one describing it as too byzantine, but 'much better than it looked'[19] and the other writing 'with a visual swagger far beyond the budget – and including an eerily beautiful high-security violin duet for Sherlock and Eurus – this was a fine way to go.'[20]
However, some reviews were more critical. A third Guardian review was negative, stating Holmes had 'become a parody of himself'.[21] Kaite Welsh of IndieWire scored the episode a grade of B-, writing 'Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss wrap up their 13th episode on an elegiac note, musing on the legend that is Sherlock and Watson. It's just a shame the rest of the episode was such a mess, really'.[22] Ian Hyland of The Daily Mirror stated that he preferred it 'when Holmes and Watson were just solving fairly believable mysteries. If it went back to that I'd welcome another series or two with open arms.' He compared the series to the BBC series Taboo, suggesting that the latter would be a better television series for those who love Sherlock.[23] Aja Romano of Vox also criticized the episode, praising the usual drama of Sherlock, but being critical of the fact that the episode 'collapses into a muddled mess of melodrama and confusion .. there is even less logic.' Romano considered the episode to be an anticlimax, saying 'the episode feels like a window dressing on a completely different story.'[24]
Issues of representation within the episode were raised by some commentators. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw of The Daily Dot called the episode the 'most sexist' of the TV show. She noted that Eurus, a stereotypical female villain, 'ticks every box for the kind of madwoman who gets locked up in an asylum in a 19th century melodrama' and commits crimes only motivated 'by a desire for male attention.'[25]
References[edit]
Sherlock 1 1 15 Esv
- ^Moskvitin, Egor (1 January 2017). ''Шерлок': что мы знаем о четвертом сезоне' [Sherlock: what do we know about the fourth series]. Meduza (in Russian). Retrieved 9 January 2017.
- ^Soshin, Dmitry (1 January 2017). 'Первый канал начинает показ нового сезона британского сериала 'Шерлок'' [The fourth series of Sherlock on Channel One]. Channel One (in Russian). Retrieved 9 January 2017.
- ^'Шерлок – 4 сезон – 3 серія – онлайн' [Sherlock - Season 4 - Series 3 - Online]. 1+1. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
- ^ abcdefLouisa Mellor (17 January 2017). 'Sherlock: 38 Things You Might Have Missed in The Final Problem'. Dennis Publishing.
- ^'Moriarty Unmasked: Conan Doyle and an Anglo-Irish Quarrel', Jane Stanford, Carrowmore, pps. 87,88.
- ^Moreland, Alex (16 January 2017). '4 Sherlock easter eggs you might not have noticed in The Final Problem'. MetroUK. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
- ^Williams, Kathryn (15 January 2017). 'Revealed: Sherlock's Sherrinford is Tenby landmark St Catherine's'. Wales Online. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^O'Connor, Roisin (16 January 2017). 'Sherlock season four: Paul Weller makes cameo appearance in The Final Problem with friend Martin Freeman'. The Independent. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- ^ abcDowell, Ben (16 January 2017). 'Russian broadcaster at the centre of Sherlock leak believes it may have been hacked'. Radio Times. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
- ^'Sherlock series finale leaked online'. BBC News. 15 January 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
- ^Yelistratov, Vadim (14 January 2017). 'В сеть досрочно утекла финальная серия 'Шерлока' в переводе Первого канала' [Final episode of 'Sherlock' with translation by Channel One prematurely leaked]. DTF (in Russian). Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^'Первый канал расследует слив серии 'Шерлока'' (in Russian). The Village. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^'Sherlock finale ratings hit all-time low'. BBC News. 16 January 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^Yelistratov, Vadim (16 January 2017). 'Финал 'Шерлока' показал на родине самые низкие рейтинги со времён первого сезона' [Final 'Sherlock' has shown in his homeland lowest ratings since the first season]. DTF (in Russian). Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^Sean O'Grady (24 November 2016). 'Sherlock season 4 episode 3 review: 'The Final Problem' maybe needs reimagining'. The Independent. Retrieved 16 January 2017.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^Michael Hogan. 'Sherlock episode 3: The Final Problem, review: 'an exhilarating thrill-ride''. Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^'Sherlock series 4 episode 3 review: The Final Problem'. Den of Geek.
- ^Debnath, Neela (15 January 2017). 'Sherlock The Final Problem review: Exhilarating from start to finish'. Express.co.uk.
- ^Ferguson, Euan (22 January 2017). 'The week in TV: Horizon: Clean Eating – The Dirty Truth; Sherlock; Endeavour; A Series of Unfortunate Events; Antiques Roadshow'. The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
- ^Lawson, Mark (15 January 2017). 'Sherlock finale trumped by Russian leak online' – via www.theguardian.com.
- ^Heritage, Stuart (16 January 2017). 'Sherlock: how the TV phenomenon became an annoying self-parody'. the Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^Kaite Welsh. 'Sherlock Review: 'The Final Problem' Is A Problematic Season Finale'. IndieWire. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^, 16 January 2017Updated10:33, 16 January 2017. 'I preferred it when Sherlock and Watson were just solving fairly believable mysteries - Ian Hyland - Mirror Online'. Mirror.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2017.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^Romano, Aja. 'Sherlock season 4, episode 3: 'The Final Problem' might be the series finale. If it is, it's a huge disappointment'. Vox. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^Gavia Baker-Whitelaw. ''The Final Problem' is season 4's most entertaining 'Sherlock' episode—and its most sexist'. The Daily Dot. Retrieved 19 January 2017.
External links[edit]
- 'The Final Problem' on IMDb
Sherlock 1 1 15 Torrent
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Final_Problem_(Sherlock)&oldid=984676687'