Writers Need Help!

armalis

score 5/10

I have no problem with the cast, and though this Sherlock does not compare to BBC's Sherlock, I'm getting rather fond of the neurotic, twitchy character. Lu is wonderful, as always. What I think this show needs is better writing, before the writers destroy what could potentially be a fabulous series. This is supposed to be Sherlock Holmes, the ultimate in mystery series, and I managed to figure out the entire plot in the first 20 minutes. "Murder, She Wrote" and "Castle" had/have better writers.

If someone out there knows the writer of this series, please tell him to stop drawing focus to the murderer(s).

"SPOILER ALERT"

I have just watched "The Angel of Death Episode". The elevator scene where Sherlock apologizes to the janitor is unnecessary. As I watched this I was wondering why they would focus on such an insignificant character, just so that Sherlock (who is an egomaniac) would apologize to him? Then you have the whole bit about Watson not being a doctor anymore and I KNEW the janitor had to be the killer. If they left the elevator scene out, we would still have seen the janitor and remembered what a jerk Sherlock was for spilling that water, so when he connected the obvious, that a janitor could have been a doctor, and revealed the killer, we may have been surprised. Then there was the part in the interrogation, when the janitor is convinced the young woman was terminal. An interesting twist, but who could have done it? The only other person that comes to mind is the crazy doctor with the God complex. There are NO OTHER suspects. Mysteries are filled with other suspects!

The greatest of mystery writers always say that they have no idea who the killer is. They write about the murder, populate the scene with character and at the end of an interesting story they pick the least likely character and then rewrite a clue into the story for the big reveal.

The reason they do this is because when you are writing knowing who's done it, you cannot help yourself but write in obvious clues. The clues have to be something tiny that the audience or the reader would not pick upon as they watch or read the story.

So, please for the future scripts give us more suspects, think of a crazy, non obvious scenario and a reason why a murder could be done, and pick the least likely suspect. If you cannot write a mystery (one of the hardest genres to write--that is why Christie and Doyle remain crime royalty) find someone who can and give them a job; even a co-writer who can write mysteries would help.

armalis 2 November 2012

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2699950/