You know, I was really dubious when I heard that Sherlock was going to be doing "A Scandal in Bohemia," because goodness knows its handling of women in the first season was pretty poor. But I watched the first bit and somehow got my hopes up in the case-montage sequence, because that was fun, so watched the rest yesterday as a pick-me-up.
Which was a mistake.
It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but then my expectations were so rapidly lowered as they introduced Irene Adler that I really did think they'd killed her off halfway through, so, you know, low bar to clear. (I only thought she was dead at the end for as long as it took Mycroft to say that only Sherlock would have fooled him, because come on.)
Let us compare Arthur Conan Doyle's Irene Adler with Moffat and Gatiss's:
- Opera singer . . . sex worker. [ETA 2: see comments for further discussion.]
- Crosses paths with Sherlock because Sherlock is hired to retrieve a picture . . . because Moriarty uses her as a pawn.
- Compromising information is unused safeguard [ETA: correction: Holmes' client reports that she threatened to use it to stop his marriage; Adler says only that she is keeping it as a safeguard] . . . is actively used for criminal profit, including selling information to terrorists.
- Disguses self (successfully) as boy . . . greets Sherlock naked.
- Is in love with uninvolved party . . . falls for Sherlock despite describing self as a lesbian.
- Keeps the compromising information and gets away clean . . . loses the compromising information to Sherlock and eventually has to be rescued, again by Sherlock.
In short: not an honorable equal, but a way to enhance Sherlock's Mary Sue.
In even shorter: fuck you too, Moffat and Gatiss!
So is the rest of the season any better?