Mark Watches ‘Sherlock’ Liveblog: The Hounds of Baskerville

Oh, that title. That title. Tomorrow, let us all rejoice in yet another ninety minutes of Sherlock. How many thousands of GIFs will it spawn? Will our brains break again? HOW IS STEVEN MOFFAT GOING TO UPDATE THIS WONDERFUL STORY? Also how cute is Martin Freeman’s face? I’ve won no BAFTA awards and I don’t care. Let’s liveblog Sherlock, shall we?

I can’t wait. I CANNOT WAIT.

Now, this liveblog is going to be different for everyone, since it’s not airing officially in the United States. Like all liveblogs with relative airings, this liveblog starts when you have access to “The Hounds of Baskerville.” Use the comments below as your glorious canvas. In order to avoid spoilers, please try to avoid going back and commenting on comments made on the front page so those of us who are liveblogging can stick to the front page to leave them.

The review for this will NOT take the place of a Buffy review. You’ll still get five of those. This will just be an extra one! I’ll have it up Monday or Tuesday, and I’ll tweet from @MarkDoesStuff when it’s up. Thanks!

About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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267 Responses to Mark Watches ‘Sherlock’ Liveblog: The Hounds of Baskerville

  1. bookworm67 says:

    FFFFF it really sucks that I can't watch these yet 🙁 Seeing all the exciting reviews and liveblogs up here makes me sad… That said, OMG HOW WILL THEY DO THIS STORY IN THE MODERN DAY. EXCITING.

  2. Sindragosa says:

    One thing that kinda worries me is that I'm bound to be disappointed one way or another.

    This is my favorite SH story (and I'm sure it's many people's as well) and it is also the best known. So either the writers are going to have to change the story and risk losing whatever quality the original had that made it so popular, or stick to the story which is already 'spoiled' for us.

    It's a fine line. I hope the writers come through.

  3. Minish says:

    Oh, hiya. Haven't been here in a while. I try and pop in now and again for reviews of shows I watch. (I've never seen Buffy. DON'T JUDGE ME. okay judge me a little.)

    Read through the other comments. I've found it interesting that Moffat's image on the internet has become a caricature with overemphasized sexism. It's like people think he's some sort of mythical creature that exists solely to set feminism back 150 years. It's becoming increasingly difficult to take what could be very valid claims of sexism seriously because there's about 400 different claims surrounding them that are just people microanalyzing tedious details that vaguely resemble something misogynistic and extrapolating wildly.

    I use to have to watch Moffat episodes through sexism-tinted lenses, as if there's some curmudgeon over my shoulder refusing to allow me to enjoy an episode by crying foul about how everything that happens is remarkably offensive to women. But I'm glad to have at last been able to shed those lenses and just enjoy genuinely masterful storytelling.

    • maccyAkaMatthew says:

      Maybe this is a better discussion for the Scandal in Belgravia review thread.

      Sherlock as a whole is a joint Moffat/Gatiss thing, with, undoubtedly, contributions from Sue Vertue (producer) and Beryl Vertue (the third executive producer). Beyond that, this episode is written by Mark Gatiss, so I'd say that discussing it terms of Moffat's sexism is pretty irrelevant, regardless of what you think of A Scandal in Belgravia (or, indeed, his other work).

      In terms of what you are saying, my only comment would be to suggest that confirmation bias works both ways (or, to use your metaphor, it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between removing lenses and changing to a different pair). Still, I think that discussion would still be more relevant when applied to Scandal in Belgravia rather than here.

    • Dru says:

      Well, sometimes the shit we love is problematic – it took me a long time to enjoy The Lord of the Rings again after someone pointed out that it is basically a Good White People (elves, hobbits, humans) vs. Dark Bad People story (Sauron, the Ringwraiths etc), with too few women and a lot of anti-Industrial Age rhetoric built in.

      In the case of Sherlock I just don't listen to the Moffatt comments, or comments on those comments at all. At some point, a work does stand independently of its creator and I don't want to lose the brilliance of this show behind some idiotic things its writer said.

  4. amyalices says:

    So excited!

    Although the previews have made me wibble a bit I cannot wait. This will be awesome.

  5. Elethayn says:

    I don't need to see the episode to tell you that Martin Freeman's face is cuter than all the puppies and kittens in the world. Even cuter than this video.

    [youtube Vw4KVoEVcr0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr0 youtube]

    Will return with a deeper analysis tomorrow, when I've actually seen it.

    EXCITE!

  6. psycicflower says:

    Not sure if I'll take part in the liveblog itself as fellow Sherlock loving sister is home and may not appreciate the noise of my constant typing during the show but I am so excite!

    Also Martin Freeman's face is too cute.
    <img src="http://i44.tinypic.com/14ah107.gif&quot; border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
    And extra adorable as John.

  7. Vikinhaw says:

    YAY! about to start!

  8. Vikinhaw says:

    The transition between the little kid screaming and the guy standing in the field was weird…

  9. VicarPants says:

    Oh, Sherlock.

  10. Graylien says:

    GEORGE!, It was a werewolf attack 🙂

  11. Vikinhaw says:

    'perhaps you could put away your harpoon'

  12. VicarPants says:

    WATSON EXPECTS YOU TO APOLOGIZE AND YOU WILL.

  13. VicarPants says:

    Boardgames with John & Sherlock. <3

  14. VicarPants says:

    RADIOACTIVE MUTANT DOGS?

  15. VicarPants says:

    In your own time.

    But quite quickly.

    • nextboy1 says:

      possibly my favourite quote of the whole episode. So subtle, but so good

      • Elyssa says:

        All I could think near the end was "Are you my mummy?"
        Never be able to look at a gas mask the same way again, I swear…

        • VicarPants says:

          I seriously thought his stolen Mycroft ID at the gate was going to be psychic paper.

          • Elyssa says:

            Me too! I totally went in my head "Out comes the psychic paper…" and then I realized I was thinking about the wrong show.

            Plus I kept going "Oh it's going to be a werewolf." and calling Watson companion mentally on accident. And giggling every time I thought "Allons-y Alonso!"

  16. Graylien says:

    'Skipping to the night your Dad was violently killed', oh Sherlock, so tactfull

  17. VicarPants says:

    The kid killed his own dad. It was a hallucinatory tailspin blackout.

  18. VicarPants says:

    Nice eyetwitch with the "SMOKE", Sherly.

  19. knut_knut says:

    does john have a winnie the pooh cup?? i'm just going to go with it

  20. VicarPants says:

    DEMENTORS. HE SAW DEMENTORS.

  21. VicarPants says:

    Awww they're going on a little trip to a cozy coastal B&B for some rest and relaxation.

  22. Graylien says:

    The rabbit is going to end up being very important isn't it?

  23. VicarPants says:

    Damn, Devon. You fiiiiine.

  24. VicarPants says:

    Dear Moffat:

    Please find a way to incorporate Benedict astride some colossus of a windswept rock into every episode from hereon in.

    Thx.

  25. VicarPants says:

    COSY B&B. CALLED IT.

  26. VicarPants says:

    Cutest. Barmen. Ever.

  27. Graylien says:

    John's stopped trying to deny it, he's just ignoring it now.

  28. VicarPants says:

    Psychotropic water supply! And I bet that kid's been in the site perimeters…

  29. VicarPants says:

    Psychic paper, John.

  30. VicarPants says:

    John, you know i love it when you get all militant. :3

  31. Vikinhaw says:

    Watson is awesome, sir.

  32. Graylien says:

    Nice of them to remember that Johns been in the army.

  33. Vikinhaw says:

    Haha he was working the rabbit's case all along.

  34. arnenieberding says:

    OH MY GAWD

    THE TENSION

    GET OUT GET OOOOOUT

    GET OOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUT

  35. VicarPants says:

    I do not like that Major.
    I do not like him, Sam I Am.

  36. Graylien says:

    And what's he up to?

  37. Vikinhaw says:

    'That would be tremendously ambitious of you'

  38. Graylien says:

    Don't stop him from doing his collar thing.

  39. VicarPants says:

    I must say, I am rather liking the non-urban settings.

  40. Vikinhaw says:

    Great now the TV's went and I missed the last 2 mintues.

  41. VicarPants says:

    KEEP UP WITH THE GROUP JOHN YOU ARE A TERRIBLE BOY SCOUT.

    • sabra_n says:

      Haha, when I saw that I was like, THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE THE TIME LAST SEASON WHEN YOU WANDERED OFF AND YOUR CLIENT DIED.

      John's worse than a Doctor's Companion for wandering off, honestly.

  42. Graylien says:

    That is a beautifully creepy moor.

  43. VicarPants says:

    NOTHING CREEPIER THAN THE WOODS AT NIGHT.

    NOT. A. DAMN. THING.

  44. arnenieberding says:

    HOLY FUCK THAT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME

  45. VicarPants says:

    ok shat myself

  46. VicarPants says:

    Oooooh Watson can prescribe things? I forget he's a doctor, sometimes.

  47. Graylien says:

    Dark woods at night, howling, Russell Tovey, It's Being Human all over again

  48. VicarPants says:

    Haha wait wasn't there something in a tabloid recently about backyard breeders in Britain making superdogs by crossing dobermans with some other kind of reputedly vicious breed to make Killing Machines?

    • AulaCicero says:

      ok im kind of scared now and I don't even live in Britain. Maybe I have just read Hounds of the Baskevilles one to many times, but I would not want to meet one of thses frankenstein dogs on the street.

  49. VicarPants says:

    KEEP IT TOGETHER, HOLMES.

  50. platoapproved says:

    Scared Sherlock you are my NEW FAVOURITE THING.

  51. Graylien says:

    Yes, you seem fine Sherlock

  52. platoapproved says:

    Sick burn, Watson.

  53. VicarPants says:

    haaaaa Watson you lady killer

  54. VicarPants says:

    THIS IS WHY I HATE SENSOR LIGHTS WHEN THEY GO OFF AT NIGHT AND YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT DID IT YEAH IT'S PROBABLY JUST A RACCOON OR SOMETHING BUT THEN WHAT IF IT ISN'T?

  55. Graylien says:

    Panic attack with a gun, this can't end well.

  56. VicarPants says:

    THE DOG IS INVISIBLE?

  57. Vikinhaw says:

    oooh Bad Timing

  58. Graylien says:

    Hound sounds more dramatic?

  59. VicarPants says:

    omg so hot grab his arm again plz

  60. VicarPants says:

    CRYING

  61. VicarPants says:

    <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

  62. platoapproved says:

    OH GOD HE ONLY HAS ONE. ;_;

  63. VicarPants says:

    GREG

    THAT'S HIS NAME

  64. VicarPants says:

    sherlock maedz u a koffi

  65. Graylien says:

    SO SWEET <3 <3 <3

  66. arnenieberding says:

    OKAY HERE'S A WILD IDEA ABOUT SOME OF THE THINGS HAPPENING:

    in ROT13:
    GURL HFR N ZNFX GB FPNER CRBCYR NJNL. UNYYHPVABTRAVP TNFFRF RFPNCVAT NG GUNG PERRCL CYNPR ZNXR CRBCYR UNYYHPVANGR NAQ ZNXR GURZ GUVAX GUR ZNFX VF N TVTNAGVP UBHAQ. GUR SBBGCEVAGF NER CYNAGRQ. WHFG N GURBEL, GUBHTU. GUR UNYYHPVABTRAVP TNF GUVAT UNF ORRA QBAR ORSBER, GUBHTU… JR'YY FRR!

  67. VicarPants says:

    NOOOO NOT BLUEBELL

  68. VicarPants says:

    Don't feed the monkeys, John.

  69. Graylien says:

    Yes John sniff the mysterious gas, that's a very sensible thing to do

  70. VicarPants says:

    THE SCURRYING IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

  71. VicarPants says:

    awwww shit, son

  72. VicarPants says:

    MUTANT BONOBO IS GONNA GET YOU

  73. 'It's OK.'

    'NO IT'S NOT!'

  74. Graylien says:

    It was the rabbit all along.

  75. Graylien says:

    'Why?'
    'Why not?'
    Good answer

  76. This is like Alphas…

  77. VicarPants says:

    lol elvis

  78. Graylien says:

    Maggie, great password

  79. Loving Russell Tovey in this episode!

  80. VicarPants says:

    booooom

  81. arnenieberding says:

    holy crap on a cracker

  82. VicarPants says:

    omfg sherlock you utter utter bastard

  83. Graylien says:

    Sherlock, you're kind of a dick.

  84. VicarPants says:

    heeeeeeeeeee poop

  85. Graylien says:

    Wow, someone's obsessed

  86. arnenieberding says:

    wut wus thut

  87. Vikinhaw says:

    I was so engrossed in that episode I forgot to liveblog at the end

  88. VicarPants says:

    Well I think that was better than last week. Mind you, there were only three women in this episode, and they served only to tidy, ferry information, and provide wiles for Watson. 😐

  89. psycicflower says:

    So I called that way back when Sherlock and Henry were first in the Hollow.

  90. Didgy says:

    Bloody Hell. That was incredible. I'm still literally shaking

  91. psycicflower says:

    I am so confused by that final ending. Where was Moriarty, why was he there, who let him go and why? Honestly at the moment it feels slightly tacked on, like a way to remind us of him or link to the finale, but I thought Sherlock hallucinating Moriarty in the Hollow was enough to keep Moriarty in the story without over doing it.

    • Didgy says:

      sounded like mycroft letting him go to me

      • psycicflower says:

        I thought that too but someone on my Twitter said it wasn't Mycroft. Maybe they were wrong. It being Mycroft makes it extra confusing though. Why on earth would he let Moriarty go?

    • Yeah, that was strange. It was definitely tacked on to link to the finale, which will clearly be amazing. It was funny because I thought Sherlock hallucinating Moriarty was a brilliant touch but wondered if they really paid Andrew Scott for, like, a half-second of screentime. So it was nice that they used him again in the episode, although even then, it was only a second or two!

  92. Elyssa says:

    Okay, that was awesome. Random Comments.

    1) Did anybody else expect Sherlock to say "Allons-y, Alonso!" at some point?
    2) The subtext this episode…. a lot less sub, a lot more just plain text in my opinion.
    3) Does anybody else find this quote from a Benedict Cumberbatch interview extraordinarily scary?

    "Will you return for Season 3 of Sherlock?

    CUMBERBATCH: You might see that it’s quite hard for me to make it back, after the end of the last episode. "

    It makes me feel like this is going to happen…

    <img src="http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/125/a/2/late_by_anastazzzy-d3fmu5k.png&quot; width="400">

    And side note, Benedict has been cast as the lead villain in the JJ Abrams Star Trek sequel. -squee!-

  93. psycicflower says:

    Went to check out John's blog and Moriarty has updated it with a video but it seems to be stuck on the neverending load of potential regioning 🙁 Link for those in the UK http://johnwatsonblog.co.uk/blog/16amarch

  94. enchantedsleeper says:

    OH SHIT NEW SHERLOCK

    TO iPLAYER!!

  95. quizzabella says:

    This episode was simultaneously creepy as hell and had some of the best lines in the series. Russell Tovey was great, so were the adorable bar- men and the hound was genuinely scary (poor doggy though :().
    Top three things I loved:
    1."Don't do that. The cheekbones and the turning up your collar to look cool." The writers aren't even pretending that they aren't playing with the Watson/Holmes shippers now.
    2. Holmes getting rattled by letting pesky emotions like being scared shitless get the better of him and giving an insanely detailed rundown on the couple sitting beside he and Watson to prove that his mind is still as sharp as ever.
    Also the rubbish attempts at making things up to John because of the "I haven't got any friends" was adorable.
    3. I loved the whole "is it a genetically engineered beasty" or not? I honestly thought that they might have been going with that. The scenes with the "hound" were genuinely frightening – for gods sake people though, why were you stomping all over the moor in the dark where you think a great big beasty is without any weapons (unless they had some I didn't see)?

    • psycicflower says:

      Please don't use 'insanely' on this site. It's ableist and against the site rules.

      • Burnie says:

        Is this an inside joke or something? I've been reading for a while, but this doesn't make sense as a comment.

      • Burnie says:

        Read the site rules and I take back my previous question. Given the context of the scene and Sherlock's state of mind in that moment, I disagree that the word is misused and think the response is extreme, but I see from Mark's explanation that it doesn't matter and rules are rules. Fair enough.

        And yet, I find it funny that you jumped on this one word here but didn't take issue with the giant spoiler regarding BC returning to the show a few posts above this one. I have a very high tolerance for spoilers and yet was pretty mad about that post. C'est la vie.

        • psycicflower says:

          I didn't 'jump' on anything. I merely pointed out problematic language which is part of my job as a mod. Politely pointing out a word is not allowed is frequently done on this site and not really all that extreme of an action.

          Sometimes mods miss things, that's why there's a report button. If you have an issue with anything in a comment in future just click report and the mods will be notified by email.

  96. platoapproved says:

    <img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxi45gXdWZ1qzj153o2_400.png"&gt;

    I feel, quite strongly, that this cap needs a caption.

  97. ferriswheeljunky says:

    Hey Henry, here's a bloody idea. DON'T SLEEP NEXT TO A GIGANTIC WINDOW FACING RIGHT OUT ONTO THE CREEPY-ASS MOOR.

    Also, John, please to stop walking off on your own… *shiver*

    • VicarPants says:

      I totally agree that there was way too much glass in that house. Would feel like living in an exhibit, and with no curtains. I bet it's lovely in the daytime, if it's secluded enough to afford privacy on that side; but NO TO LIVING IN A GLASS BOX. Difficult to insulate effectively on that side as well, I imagine. Even with double-glazing.

    • I did wonder why he was sleeping in his living room rather than his bedroom…

  98. enchantedsleeper says:

    What the hell?!

  99. enchantedsleeper says:

    HAHAHAHA Watson sees Sherlock DRENCHED IN BLOOD and his reaction is, "You went on the Tube like that?"

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