I wonder if the detail that Holmes doesn't own poetry is a reference to the famous list in A Study in Scarlet where Watson says that Holmes's knowledge of literature is nil (which is, of course, inconsistent, since Doyle loved to throw in poetic quotations when he felt like it). If so, that was a really great canon…

I didn't think Joan was slow - I think she was getting it when she said that.

A good Watson has always been interested in things that remind Holmes of his limits, so he doesn't do things like take drugs because he's so much better than normal people that he won't become an addict. :) "Norbury!"

Well, the teaser for next week indicates that they will at least mention the bees. :)

Valentine is a brilliant writer and reviewer, but her expectations of the show fall in line with a small segment of the viewers/fans who believe that the show must serve Watson more because she is a non-white woman. Most of the grades, criticisms, and praises in the reviews stem from that concern. Like Artemis, I have…

Having just finished the first book in my reread, and getting into the second, I have to agree. I understand wanting to end the pilot with the Beast, but while there are some truly jewel like moments (the scene of Pearl Sunderland testing Quentin were really delightful, the story of Alice and Quentin finding out about…

Agree - it seemed opportunistic and not personal at all. But she also seems like a very malicious person, so hurting someone was probably a bonus for her.

I may be nuts, but at least it's consistent insanity - I acknowledge the technical excellence of the filmmaking craft involved in Mr. Robot's execution, but I really disliked the show, especially the reality screw plot. I don't find that particular plot all that interesting - The Matrix got progressively less…

I mean, speculation on that level seems a bit premature to me. But it's the kind of thing we probably won't really know until the finale actually airs. I just hope that it's not the case.

An "If-Then-Else" style episode or sequence would be pretty cool. But I hope that whatever they do, it's a bit less scifi/fantasy show cliche than "it's all in the protagonist's head".

Excellent point! I really hope we get the infodump about time and such at the end. One of the most interesting (to a fantasty/scifi nerd like me) parts of the book.

Oh, goodness, I hope not. It makes some dramatic sense, but that would be really dreadful (and kind of ruin the dramatic structure of the books, which might already be altered beyond caring, but still). I don't watch or read Game of Thrones, so I don't know what's usual for this type of multi-book series adaptational…

It does feel like they're playing too hard with the long term plot in the first three episodes, but this fourth episode indicates rabbit trails. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that. I also wish they'd refer to Alice as the chosen one, but I'm partial to her (since she's the only character I don't actively…

I'm working my way through my reread of the books, and just got to the point where he meets Jane Chatwin again after his fight with Penny, and it does feel a bit like there's still a "chosen one" vibe to the narrative structure. I still think that the plot revolves too much around Quentin just not growing up for them…

I hope that it will be a moment of growth, but since, you know, the whole trilogy is about how hard it is for Quentin to grow at all, I'm not optimistic.

They are different, but I could see the Beast as portrayed in the show as playing the same kind of trick on a group of hedge witches attempting a summoning, just as it plays out with a different figure in Magician King.

I kinda think it was just a more intense version of the brush-off he gave Julia in the pilot, though it was kind of a standing jump from nowhere character-wise.

It did feel a bit overly harsh - I did like the scene where he recorded a message for Julia in episode 2 and realized his hypocrisy and deleted it - and this scene felt like he hadn't had that moment at all. But I'm glad other people are seeing the complete jerk he was in that moment.

I hate to say it, because the climax of Julia's plot in the second book is one of my least favorite things ever, but I was hoping that the entire creepy, rapey coven of hedge witches did get what was coming to them because of how terrible they all were in the show.

Does anyone think that (spoilers from the book) Julia's main antagonist will end up being the Beast, instead of who it turns out to be in the second book?