Jump into the pool, you loons!

Today I watched the last installment of BBC's Sherlock miniseries and actually enjoyed it. I say it like that because despite being terribly excited about the series before its premiere, I could not sit through an episode. I would start it and get bored or distracted or fall asleep. At one point I found myself putting it on mute so that I could catch the local weather report and it was then that I decided that Sherlock just wasn't for me.

Maybe it was because I'm a fan of the books and countless other adaptations of them, so it's hard to jump into an updated version. Maybe it's because I'm desperately in love with Arthur Dent (or Martin Freeman to non-Hitchhikers fans) and it's jarring to see him in another role. Maybe it's due to the fact that I spent hours coming up with amusing variations on Bendict Cumberbatch's name (fave: Bumblyshoots Cucumberbritches). All or some of these reasons just kept me from watching what I had heard was an excellent bit of television.

Finally a friend held me hostage and forced me to watch an episode with her and I was surprised to get all the way through it (and not just due to being held hostage!). The plot was exciting, the acting was great and the cinematography was both inventive and still inherently British. I left feeling like I wanted to watch the other episodes...only to get home and realize I couldn't. I started the second show and experienced the same sort of apathy. Something about watching Sherlock at home just didn't work and it wasn't until I went back to my friends house that I watched the next episode. After that I didn't even bother giving the third and final episode a try on my own. Obviously I have some sort of anti-Sherlock-alone problem so I just waited patiently until I could watch it with others. Now that I have, I really enjoyed it and am anxious for them to do another series!

I'm a girl who enjoys watching some things alone. I like rewinding Bill Pullman's speech in Independence Day over and over, I like laughing at the science in Stargate: Atlantis, I like being able to fast forward through all the bug scenes in CSI. But there is something to be said about watching with others, about the community sense you get when you are laughing or crying or being scared together.

Also, it helps when you get distracted and need someone to point out a plot point you missed.