SHERLOCK SPOILERS BELOW. But also a very pointed and relevant discussion about portrayals of sexuality and women in the media.
To start: I never thought John/Sherlock would become canon. No, really. I don’t think many people do. Lots of people want it to, but I think it’s generally accepted as a relative impossibility, no matter how much we want it.
What I am here to talk about it why that impossibility is so harmful, what that says about media today, and, of course, why I am disappointed in fucking everybody.
Also: this post contains minor spoilers and frank discussion of the appearance of a certain character, so if you don’t know what I’m talking about, turn back now before you regret it.
Joolabee is on fucking target. No, I never thought it’d actually happen—because I knew we were being queerbaited. The show’s been blatant about it from day one: ”Ho ho, look how open-minded we are, bringing this subject up! But…I mean, nobody actually thought it’d HAPPEN, right?! That’d just be silly!”
And more spoilers (and harshing of the squee) after this point, too.
Yeah, it’s not that Sherlock is Yet Another Show Where Everybody except the lesbian who suddenly switches Is Straight. It’s that they keep toying with the subject when they have no intention of treating it seriously. I’m annoyed that the show comes face to face with the subject of other sexualities and then glosses it over as a joke or a trait for supporting cast members, when WE’RE talking up a storm here in fandom but on TV you can still count the number of shows that portray alt genders or sexualities in central, non-negative ways on your fingers.
I also want to add that I’m braced to be pissed off about Mary. I mean, maybe she’ll be awesome! Given the actress, I expect she will be, in fact—for as long as she’s directly relevant enough to bother giving her time on screen.
But where the fuck are they going to put her once they run out of ways to make her important to the cases?
Because joolabee is right, she does change the dynamic between the main characters. And while that in itself is not automatically a problem, the problem is that we have three 90 minute episodes EVERY TWO YEARS, and that means the writers have to make hard choices as to what they put in that space. The hard truth is that Watson is not the title of this show. If any erring is to be done, it’ll be done in favor of Sherlock. And seeing as they already wrote John completely out of the denouement of an episode, I don’t have super high hopes that they’ll manage a third person with any kind of consistency.
‘But she’s canon!’ is not a defense. Canonically, she was dead by the time Holmes came back—which is a statement that so utterly embodies the problem here that I can only add ‘AND I REST MY CASE.’ I HIGHLY doubt they’re going to Scooby Gang her into the crime-fighting festivities as a lifestyle choice on her part the way it is John’s (and frankly Sherlock with his little herd of helper-Watsons strikes me as a bit batshit).
In other words, I anticipate Mary turning into yet another female character created basically as a prop for the plot and the male leads. And I’m pretty pissed that our options for What Happens To Mary when the writers are done playing with the new toy will probably boil down to: ’forget about her’ or ‘fridge her.’