Last week we all had the great pleasure of watching an editor squirm as one of his writers did something he found to be quite abhorrent. I fear I might draw the ire of the esteemed Dr. Kronner once again because dare I say it? I enjoyed this week’s episode as well. [Dr. Kronner – I did not.]
However I did not like the title of the episode because “While You Were Sleeping” will always and forever make me think of this, not of a crime procedural.
(in case you don’t remember the mid-90’s, this is from the Sandra Bullock movie, While You Were Sleeping)
I felt there was so much to enjoy in this episode. It started off with a new title sequence which reminded me of yet another thing from years gone by, the game Mousetrap. While watching though, I had to wonder- is it possible to shoot a marble out of a gun?
Of course I turned to the internet and discovered that it is a common practice for people (delinquents?) to shoot marbles out of paintball guns. Because apparently those paintballs don’t hurt enough.
Moving on- the episode provided a moment of pure Sherlock Holmes canon with the “brain attic” thing, but of course Watson pointed out that it was completely ridiculous, and the entire world agreed with her. Come on Sherlock, let the attic thing go. Another thing I really did not like was a classic procedural move, the “repeat for the dumb audience because they can’t remember what happened five minutes ago”. Sherlock asks that the victim’s neighbor sit with a sketch artist, a scene or two later (if even that many) he meets up with the detective who says “we’ve got the sketch”. Of course he responds with “oh the sketch from the description of the lady the neighbor gave?” I don’t know if they are trying to suggest that the character Sherlock would say that, but it just gets under my skin. Dear writers; we aren’t stupid.
We met the new detective, Detective Bell, who I thought at first (I hadn’t put my glasses on yet) was the same guy as Detective Frost over on Rizolli and Isles, but alas, it was not. Rather it is Jon Michael Hill who has been most recently seen on the always funny, Eastbound & Down. Also new to this episode was Watson’s old boyfriend, Ty Morstan, played by Bill Heck.
Best part, for me at least, was the back and forth between Sherlock and Watson. She says there is coffee, he holds out his cup fully expecting to get a refill, and she gives him the perfect “eat shit and die” look. Fabulous. When she threatened to stab him in the “soft part of the thigh”, hearkening back to Sherlock’s method of verifying a coma state, I couldn’t help but laugh. There is a very good chance I relate to her so well because I’m married to a man who can be equally ass-ish at times so I recognize the coping skills.
Sherlock’s one-liners were the highlight though: the zipper-mask, the two cheeks- one leathery, the other smooth as a baby’s bottom, telling Holmes that she should sleep with the ex-boyfriend, “Ampersand, not a dash”; they all combined to make for an enjoyable hour of TV.
Playing the world’s smallest violin as opposed to going into a trance- it’s impossible to not laugh at that.
If you are like me, you enjoy knowing what songs are played during an episode. If you are also like me, you googled lyrics from the last song (not the one played by Sherlock) and ended up here. Let’s just hope that my husband doesn’t go perusing my search results, he might start to get a little nervous. If anyone can tell me what the song was, I would be grateful.
As for the piece that Sherlock played at the very end- that was none other than Bach’s Partita no. 2 in D minor. All those readers who took a music history course would remember that this was the piece rumored to be written in memory of Bach’s late wife, Maria. Was the selection purposeful? Did it tie into the “penance” theme running through the duo’s storyline?
We’ll just have to turn in to the third episode, airing two weeks from now, on October 18th, to find out.
Funny, witty, and one of the greatest violin solos of all time- I’m going to have to give it a three and a half out of five.
In closing- my love, Aidan Quinn flashing his badge, oh baby.
Grizzly Bomb 