@kbranagh  Yep, lovely, isn’t it?  A light-hearted romp with a sad but accepting ending.

@missy   That he will, and I’ll be there, with bells on, to watch!

@arbutus  I suspect that with the anxieties and frustrations of S8 and S9 burned through and put away, maybe we’ll see a bit more of the sharp edge, but in S10 it will be directed outwardly, not a matter of painful self-interrogation, so — more snarky comedy, less angst and bitterness, will go nicely with a more confident and optimistic CapDoc…[Read more]

@arbutus   Sad, and bad for us as a culture.  A lot of men seem to be so insecure about the adequacy and focus of their own sexuality that they shy away from any degree of ambiguity or blurring of boundaries between this type of love or that type of love — complexity of any kind, really, around the subject.

@missy  Well, no, I think it’s pretty easy.  A psychopath is mentally ill, a psychotic who lives his or her life in a world of internal delusions (“My dog told me to do it”, Son of Sam, murderer of courting couples).  They’re nuts.  They’re the aluminum hat brigade who need to be medicated if they’re let out on the street.

A sociopath is mal…[Read more]

@thephantomtollbooth   Good luck with your project — check reddit for lots of what I think you’re looking for!  People there set up odd theories as discussion subjects, which (if you check the comments) can give you an idea of how common a theory is, and what kind of support it has.

@pedant  I’ve come to think that true sang froid is wi…[Read more]

@missy  I saw a very similar study referenced on a Tv program here just recently.  It’s very interesting indeed; I’ve been reading about the stuff since I was a kid — abnormal psychology always fascinated me.  I remember one book by a psychiatrist on the subject in which he told about a patient of his who, as a boy living in some posh and ho…[Read more]

@theconsultingdoctor  Oh, I absolutely agree with Moffat on this hyper-sexualization of *everything*, even when that’s not actually what a story is about.

@arbutus  Exactly, re the long-standing tradition of “buddy” movies (I meant to do a post just about that, but you’ve done it, so thanks).  The deeper exploration of non-sexual but powerful bo…[Read more]

@puroandson  Oh, thanks for the suicidal zygon scene — forgot that one!  It certainly belongs in our catalog of CapDoc’s sympathy and empathy.  And of course there are those moments when he recoils from his own softer feelings into harshness as a way of avoiding being overwhelmed, best example in Dark Water, after “Do you think I care for you so…[Read more]

@mersey  Please, reveal me the secret, when exactly 12th was a) sympathetic, b) empathic

[First, I’m not always sure I’ve got what you mean to say exactly right, but I never think of it as nonsense.]

Second: off the top of my head: of the dinosaur; “Look what I did to her!”  The Doctor’s face after whassername, the woman who takes others’ a…[Read more]

@puroandson  Thanks for those kind words!  And yes, the cultivated appearance of unshakable sang froide is, from what I can tell, a given for the British upper class, and a measure for telling the “blue bloods” from vulgarly anxious and expressive  arrivistes.  What good is class without “You can tell at once that he’s not one of us”…[Read more]

@puroandson  I think there are lots of honest-to-goodness “high-functioning psychopaths” in finance and banking, the upper reaches of dominant corporate circles, and anyplace where massive amounts of money are made via a finely adjusted balance of high intelligence and the cold ruthlessness that comes with the inability to feel empathy that’s the…[Read more]

Oh, and where might I find “Happy Valley” on line?  I’ve heard a lot of good about it, but it’s not being carried by any broadcaster or network in my area (the American southwest).

@puroandson  It took me a while to warm to Grantchester, but I wound up really enjoying it!  Well, it’s hard not to enjoy pretty much anything with Robson Green — a very notable presence, that one.  I’m looking forward to more.

@theconsultingdoctor  OOps, sorry — electronic tone fail?  I didn’t mean to offend.  “What’s the big deal?” was a question to other characters in the story whose reactions to Sherlock seem to provoke this need for him to explain himself this way.  In any case, apologies for my own verbal clumsiness.

@theconsultingdoctor  Well, friendship is fine too — though it would be a sort of adolescent boy-worships-superior-boy thing, seems to me — Watson’s adoring glances, usually shot to put Holmes’s face higher on the screen than his — makes that abundantly clear, IMO.  No sex need be involved, but I’d put Watson as much in the “devoted follower” c…[Read more]

@missy   Ah, well, the life, she rolls along . . .

@theconsultingdoctor   I watched it twice, once with the sound turned off so that I could pay attention to the words and the images (too many layers of input for me), and found it affecting, yes.  My goodness, I can certainly see why the tumblr people insist that there’s a love story going on there — it’s certainly framed that way visually in t…[Read more]

@arbutus  I rather like the idea of Bill’s relationship with the Doctor starting off a bit less warm and fuzzy. It would be rather fun, in fact

I’d be happy with that too.

Oh, yes — link to the Sad Sherlock?  Sad works for me.  Usually.