Sherlock Series 2 Soundtrack......Amazing!

The following article was written at the time I wrote IOU AFall: The Reichenbach Fall. I often write additional articles at the time I view a program that somehow tie into that program I am watching. Whether it is a DVD extra, soundtrack or even a whole other program these articles are kept back get published when I do not have time to write a new article or if I want to take a week off. Enjoy!

Even though this is an article about the soundtrack to Series 2 of Sherlock, please note that some plot points may be given away. Please read at your own risk.

One of the things I love about the BBC series Sherlock is how good everything is about the production. I love the way the series is shot, I love the casting, and I love the stories. Not surprisingly, I love the music. The music for any series or film needs to match the balance of the production. Cheesy synthesized music doesn’t work for a series that is trying to be more than television. I guess where I am coming from is thinking of television shows in the 1980s that were let down by the quality of the music. Money needs to be spent in the budget on music. Yet I don’t mean musicians; I mean talented composers. For Sherlock we are lucky with who have working on this series.

Composing the music on Sherlock is David Arnold and Michael Price. I have to admit, I am not as familiar with Michael Price. He has done the scores for Crooked House, The Mountain Within and First Men in the Moon (which the production itself is rather nice!). David Arnold is one of my favourite composers. He has been doing the music for the Bond films since Tomorrow Never Dies. Though, sadly he will not be back for Skyfall. His score for Casino Royale is one of my favourites of all time. I have seen him get a lot of flak on Bond forums for his scores or people moaning that he has been on the films for too long. I just don’t agree with it; he is very welcome in my book. People say that a lot of his soundtracks sound the same. They do not sound the same; it’s called his style. Composers have it and that includes John Barry who did most of the Bond soundtracks from the 1960s-1980s. On a separate note, I also see Murray Gold get a good deal of flak from the Doctor Who forums about his music too. In my humble little opinion, his music is the best in the series ever. Wait? Even better than the great Dudley Simpson? Yes, much better! But we are not here to discuss Doctor Who, are we?

Not available on the Series 2 soundtrack is the theme to Sherlock. It is on the Series 1 soundtrack but I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be included again. It’s a hugely identifiable part of the show. Shockingly, this is also true for the Doctor Who Series 6 soundtrack. A Doctor Who soundtrack without the Doctor Who theme on it seems odd to me but whatever.  It’s funny because when I was listening to the soundtrack of Sherlock on the bus on my way to work, I added the theme music to the playlist so I guess it isn’t that big of a deal after all. I love the theme music but is it me or when the drums for the theme starts up, it sounds like we are actually getting the theme to Absolutely Fabulous? The drums begin to crescendo upwards but then I expect to hear Adrian Edmondson sing, “Wheels on fire…..” etc. Though, the drums are a nice sting transitioning us from the opening of the episode into the title sequence.

Speaking of themes, one thing I love about a good soundtrack is when the main theme can be effortless inserted back into the incidental music. Maybe it’s an echo of itself or an inverted interpretation but it ties back to the series really nicely. The theme music is part of the “Brand” to the series. Why not use it? Arnold does this exceedingly well in Sherlock and also his Bond scores. In fact, not only does it give hints to the Bond theme in his scores he also inserts the theme from that movie as well. See Casino Royale for an amazing example of this.  I think, perhaps, this is what some of his critics don’t like….whatever.

I think some of the best music on the soundtrack coincides with the best episode, A Scandal in Belgravia. The music is beautiful from the violin of “Irene’s Theme” to the heart breaking conclusion in “SHERlocked”. It’s emotional and does not compete with what is happening on the screen. I did not care nearly as much for the episode, The Hounds of Baskerville (it was alright) but the music has some great moments. I really like the techno sound to “Deeper Into Baskerville” and also the whole track “To Dartmoor”, it starts off with a simple guitar like start to the Sherlock theme (the guitar sounds very familiar almost Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in a way) and descends in to what feels to me an old-world Eastern European feel. Clearly, music styles is not my strong point so I am giving my opinion on what I am hearing although how I am explaining it may be completely off. Perhaps the best way to describe it is that I really like it.

The tracks for The Reichenbach Fall do not stand out nearly as much as the others. Particularly with the final 3 tracks. They are very good but they are not competing with what is happening on screen. The end of The Reichenbach Fall is the biggest thing that ever happened in Sherlock. If you want to read my take on the episode, please go here. The music is subdued and complimentary to what is happening on screen. The balance is perfect.

I have listened to this soundtrack about 3 times before I wrote this article. I don’t normally do that. This is one of those soundtracks that gets into your head and your mind tells you that you need to listen to it again. Listening to the tracks conjures up memories of the episodes which in turn makes me want to watch these episodes again. I guess this soundtrack is really doing its job!

The only complaint I have has nothing to do with the soundtrack at all. It is to do with a quote from Mark Gatiss I read on Amazon.co.uk about this soundtrack. “If David Arnold and Michael Price did not exist, it would be necessary for man to invent them. Their contribution to Sherlock is immeasurable. Thrilling, cheeky, sinister, playful and simply world-class…the music's not bad either!” Is it possible to have a quote from Gatiss or Moffat for that matter that is not trying so hard to be “clever”? I must be a bore, these types of quotes simply annoy me and it is all about hype. I know these two guys did not invent it nor are the only ones who do it but it is still very tiresome to me. I say it’s always good to end a positive article with a rant!

Now, here’s a track list:

1. Irene's Theme,

2. Potential Clients,

3. Status Symbols,

4. The Woman,

5. Dark Times,

6. Smoke Alarm,

7. SHERlocked,

8. Pursued by a Hound,

9. The Village,

10. Double Room,

11. Deeper into Baskerville,

12. To Dartmoor,

13. The Lab,

14. Mind Palace and Solution,

15. Grimm Fairy Tales,

16. Deduction and Deception,

17. Prepared to do Anything,

18. Blood on the Pavement,

19. One More Miracle.

 Here is an excerpt from “To Dartmoor”:

Just as an aside note. About a month ago, I sat down with a friend and we decided to watch A Scandal in Belgravia. That was around 8pm and my friend had not seen any of Series 2 at that point. He enjoyed it and I enjoyed it (again) so much that we ended up watching all of Series 2 in one go which took us very late into the night or should that be early in the morning?
Next week: Even though I had a light week for writing, I still have been watching. I am not sure exactly what it will be but I have picked from my randomness Series 4 of As Time Goes By. It is not a series that I seek out but I do enjoy. It does beg the question, from a US perspective, whether show from the same era of As Time Goes By is the last of the big exportable BBC sitcoms exported to the US? That is a theme I will try to expand upon next week.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

I am on Twitter: @FromtheArchive

Also please subscribe to my From the Archive: British Television Blog Facebook Page for updates about new articles.

IOU A Fall: The Reichenbach Fall

If you have not seen any of Series 2 of Sherlock, please note that this article is very spoilerific and I will give away plot points to not only this episode but the entire Series 2. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk.

It is very rare for me to write about something that has been broadcast in the twenty-first century. Pretty much by design my blog exists to celebrate classic British television mainly from 1950s to 1980s. That is not to say nothing good was made in this century (in fact quite the opposite) but I know what I generally prefer. A major exception to the rule here is Sherlock. Sherlock is the twenty-first century modern day version of Sherlock Holmes. It generally is a visual stylish treat that is a feast for the eyes and usually is accompanied by a great story. Sherlock employs a lot of the technology available to us now and often a highlight is dialogue presented on screen as characters are texting each other. The whole thing is very enjoyable.

During the month of May I like to indulge myself with a theme that runs throughout the month. Here in the US, May is the time of year that new episodes of a TV season to the end of the run taking the summer off. Often this means that TV series end for the year and will return that fall or it may be the end of the series all together. I thought it would be fun that everything I pick and watch during May is a final episode of a series or season. A strong start to this would be by picking Sherlock which means picking The Reichenbach Fall. Series 2 of Sherlock has been taking Arthur Conan Doyle titles and have been skewing them based on the story they are based on from the original source. A Scandal in Belgravia is a takeoff of the title A Scandal in Bohemia, The Hounds of Baskerville is a takeoff from Hound of the Baskervilles and finally The Reichenbach Fall is loosely based on The Final Problem. Going into the episode it is clear that as it was the finale for series 2 and based on The Final Problem, things were not going to go well for Sherlock.

The Reichenbach Fall 15/1/12

To prepare for this article, I watched all of Series 2 over the course of 3 days as I had not seen it before. I recently got the Blu Ray discs and sat down and thoroughly enjoyed the series which I thought was better than Series 1. I think one enduring theme that ran through Series 2 was how Sherlock Holmes was starting to gain the notice and attention of people who were aware that he was solving mysteries. Holmes was becoming a sensation.  John Watson keeps a blog (which is a lot more successful than this one) which chronicles the cases of Holmes. This is the modern day equivalent of the journal Watson kept in the late 19^th century. By the time we get to the start of the episode, Holmes had just helped the police track down the painting of The Reichenbach Falls. It is the case that garners the most attention for Holmes. Holmes is not interested in getting this attention but the attention is there. With each case we see Holmes and Watson getting accolades for, we see people lavish attention on the amateur sleuth.

Another theme that equally has been running through Series 2 if not the entire series is how difficult Holmes can be to other people and how badly he wants to show off how clever he is even when he is not trying. This is not really to impress anyone but more so he can show himself how clever he is. Watson is constantly trying to tell Holmes certain things he can do to allow himself to come across to others more graciously or even just more human. Even when solving the cases we see at the beginning of the episode, when people try to give him tokens of their thanks, he doesn’t even handle that very well. Granted one gift was a deer-stalker hat.  There is only one person as smart as he is who knows Holmes weakness and knows exactly how he is going to bring Holmes down. Jim Moriarty.

We first learn about Moriarty in A Study in Pink. Throughout all the episodes we pick up a little more information on Moriarty until we finally meet him in The Great Game. When the series returns with A Scandal in Belgravia, we know that Moriarty is going to come back after Holmes. After all the action dies down from Hounds of Baskerville, the episode ends with a shot of Moriarty who has been imprisoned or being questioned. Holmes’ brother Mycroft is there but when Moriarty is let out of the room, all that is scratched everywhere on all the walls is Sherlock’s name. For a man who is a consulting criminal and is extremely powerful yet lives in the shadows, he comes out in a big way.

At the Tower of London, Moriarty is able to disrupt the security there plus at 2 other places (Bank of England & Pentonville Prison) seemingly from his phone. On the security camera that he knows the footage will eventually be seen everywhere, he writes on the glass case of the crown jewels, “Get Sherlock”. Moriarty does nothing to avoid arrest and is brought in with a court case looming.  Sherlock is being called onto the court as a star witness to testify against Moriarty. Before he goes to the courthouse, Watson and Sherlock leave 221B Baker Street to find a crowd of fans cheering them on as they leave to testify. Once at the courthouse, Holmes gets accosted by a young journalist in the men’s room, Kitty Riley, who wants to get the “real” story of Sherlock and run a feature on him. Sherlock tells her that she (as a journalist) repels him and leaves to go testify. Throughout all of this Watson reminds Holmes that he needs to just answer the judge’s questions and not to be condescending to the judge or anyone in the courtroom. Unfortunately it doesn’t really go like that as Holmes’ rudeness and smugness lands him a contempt charge and he is jailed and needs to be bailed out.

Moriarty’s case is no case at all. He calls no witness and does not allow his defense to cross-examine any one.  Ultimately, it doesn’t matter as Moriarty is found not guilty of any of the crimes by the jury. Of course the reason the jury found Moriarty innocent is because he was going to kill their families if they found him guilty. Once Holmes finds out that Moriarty is not guilty, he knows that Moriarty will come and see him. Moriarty enters 221B Baker Street and sits down with Sherlock Holmes for some tea. Moriarty explains that he has some code that allows him to get into anything, anywhere. The code is simple yet is highly sought after. Moriarty also threatens that he will finish off Holmes at some point soon. Moriarty carves into the apple he was eating I.O.U. and these three letters show up in a few places throughout the story almost like "Bad Wolf" in Doctor Who. Moriarty’s visit accomplishes a couple of things. Moriarty needed to threaten Holmes but also other people may have seen Moriarty visit Holmes. That is important because Moriarty implies that Holmes has the programming code to get into anything. He lets the world know this through him writing “Get Sherlock” on the case of the crown jewels. Suddenly within feet of where Sherlock lives, there are known assassins moving in around Holmes.

This is where it gets interesting because we start to get to know Moriarty’s plan and it is pretty ingenious. The plan isn’t so much about killing Holmes (at least it doesn’t seem that way at the start) it is more about discrediting him. Sherlock is asked to investigate missing children of the British Ambassador to the US. Holmes using his genius of observation to solve the case finds the children relatively easy. The kids are scared but safe. A couple of officers have questioned them yet when Holmes questions the little girl, she screams in terror implying he took part in the plot. In fact, Lestrade’s people start to believe Sherlock has been responsible for all the cases he has solved with them. This starts to be investigated further as a warrant is brought out for Sherlock’s arrest.

In fact, Lestrade approaches the Police Superintendent to get a warrant. There the Superintendent finds out the Sherlock has been helping Lestrade solve these cases. He is shocked and angered that Lestrade has allowed this outsider to work on these cases and solve them on behalf of the police. Where the hell has this guy been? The opening of this episode is nothing but scene after scene of all the accomplishments that Holmes was able to do solving cases. Lestrade is in some of the shots and all covered by different types of media. Holmes was famous yet this guy knew nothing about him? To me that was silly. Watson must have agreed with me because he was arrested just after Holmes after he punched the Police Superintendent in the face. They both escape but decide to seek out Kitty Riley.

Going to Kitty Riley’s house, they have a conversation with her only to be interrupted by Moriarty entering the living room. He freaks out when he sees Holmes. You see, apparently there is no Moriarty. Moriarty was a character that Holmes’ created as a way to stage all of his cases he solved thus becoming famous. In fact Moriarty was an actor names Rich Brook who was famous for presenting a children’s television program. Rich Brook is also translated as Reichen Bach in German. Kitty knows Rich because she interviewed him about his role in Holmes’ weird world of perpetrating his own successes by masterminding the cases he solved. Because of the article Kitty wrote, Holmes is a fake. Kitty explains to Holmes that he repels her as she is happy to get the last word to him before Holmes and Watson depart.

Holmes and Watson go separate ways. Holmes goes to Molly at the hospital to get her help on something that we never know…or do we? Watson goes to the Diogenes club to have a word with Holmes’ brother Mycroft. Mycroft explains that while they had Moriarty in custody they could not get him to talk at all. They would question him and even beat him yet he would yield nothing. Finally, it wasn’t until Mycroft started to give information about his brother to Moriarty that he would start saying something. An interesting and pretty cool thing about the scene in the Diogenes club is that when Watson enters the club the first time in the story, there is a man who is unhappy that Watson is there and raises a bit of fuss about him being there. The actor who played him was none other than Douglas Wilmer who played Sherlock Holmes for the BBC from 1964-1965. If you have never seen his version of Sherlock Holmes, I highly recommend it. It’s only available in the US currently.  The series is in Black & White and is quite, quite good.

Watson reconnects with Holmes at the lab at the hospital. While there, they get word that Mrs. Hudson has been shot. Watson frantically tries to get Holmes to go back to 221B Baker Street with him. Holmes refuses much to Watson’s annoyance. Holmes knows that Mrs. Hudson is not shot and when Watson leaves, Holmes texts Moriarty to meet him on the roof to solve their final problem.

Moriarty has a surprise for Holmes. Moriarty explains that there never was a computer code that could open anything in the world. It came down to bribing people who were in the position to make the security lapse. Moriarty explains to Holmes that Holmes needs to jump off the Hospital roof and kill himself or snipers are ready to kill off Mrs. Hudson, Watson and Lestrade. Holmes would die disgraced and as a fraud but his three friends would be safe. Holmes realizes that of course Moriarty would have a fail-safe that Moriarty could use to call off the killings. Holmes will do anything to get Moriarty to initialize the fail-safe. Moriarty admits they are both alike but then takes out a gun and commits suicide right in front of Holmes. Moriarty is dead which means the fail-safe is now gone. Holmes is forced to having to commit suicide or his friends die. Back at 221B Baker Street, Watson sees that there is nothing wrong with Mrs. Hudson and heads back to the hospital. As he is outside, Holmes calls him and tells him to look up. Watson sees Holmes on the edge of the roof of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. A tearful Holmes explains that this call is his “note” and tells Watson that he is a fake. He orchestrated all the cases and none of it was real. Writing about it, reminds me of how emotional and beautiful the scene is as even now I start to tear up. Of course Watson believes none of it yet it is at that Holmes leaps from the roof and falls to his death. Watson tries to get to Holmes but is knocked down by a biker passing by him. When he gets to Holmes, he is dead. We see shots of the aftermath of this. One shot is Mycroft reading the Sun with the headline, “Suicide of Fake Genius”. Watson and Mrs. Hudson visits Sherlock’s grave. Watson still cannot believe that Holmes is dead and demands that he not be dead and to come out of where ever he is at. Nothing happens. Sadly, Watson and Mrs. Hudson leave the cemetery yet watching from behind some trees is Sherlock Holmes.

There are areas where I think Sherlock excels at and other areas where I think it tries to be too “clever”. To me, this applies both to the overall visual direction and the story telling. Don’t get me wrong, I think Sherlock is one of the most visually pleasing series ever made. It has to be very difficult to keep that standard up. In A Scandal in Belgravia, there is a shot that transitions Sherlock from a dream he is having with Irene Adler to him being in bed sleeping off a drug he had been given. It basically transitions the character standing in a field to a bed coming up behind him to show he is now asleep. It doesn’t work. When that scene starts, you can tell he is being shot on green screen to achieve the effect. What bugs me the most is the last shot of The Reichenbach Fall.

Obviously, The Reichenbach Fall is a retelling of The Final Problem therefore we know that Holmes and Moriarty will die in some way. Knowing that Sherlock will be returning for a third series, we also know that Holmes will live. How will this be achieved? First of all, we see Moriarty take out a gun and kill himself in front of Holmes. Is he really dead, who knows! Characters never really die. Holmes is seen jumping from the roof of the hospital but at the end of the story we see he is alive. Now Moffat has said in an interview with The Guardian in regards to Holmes surviving that fall, "there is a clue everybody's missed ... So many people theorising about Sherlock's death online – and they missed it!" Now forgive me if I may sound a little cynical. You see, I watch Moffat’s Doctor Who too. Fine, so we missed the obvious or the clue but sometimes the clues are pretty miniscule to non-existent. For example, the opening story for Series 6 of Doctor Who, The Impossible Astronaut, we see the Doctor shot down, start to regenerate and fatally shot. Pretty heavy stuff! Then, when we get to the end of Series 6, The Wedding of River Song, we find out it wasn’t the Doctor shot at all but in fact a robot. Maybe we find out that instead of Holmes jumping from the roof, it was a robot piloted by the Teselecta from Let’s Kill Hitler. Maybe, Holmes can re-boot the Universe so he doesn’t die at all; or the best of all maybe Danny Boy (The WWII pilot from Victoryof the Daleks) flies his Spitfire right under Holmes as he jumps, scooping him up to safety! I just would like to see the resolution be plausible. My concern is not even the jump or how it will be resolved, more so as to why we had to end the series on a shot showing Holmes had survived the jump. I don’t think anything would have been wrong if the series ended with everyone thinking Holmes was dead. I think most people knew the series was coming back.  Showing him at the end, for me, ruined that beautiful scene with him on the roof and talking with Watson on the phone.

As with Series 1, I thought the main cast was perfect. Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing as Holmes. He is perfect for it just as Jeremy Brett was perfect for the Granada series. The timbre of their voices is very similar too. The funny thing is that I think Cumberbatch probably wouldn’t play the 19^th century Holmes as well. I don’t think he would be as successful at it. This role is perfect for him and is a treat to watch. There is always talk of fans wanting him to be in Doctor Who as The Master or something like that. Quite honestly, and I can’t believe I am saying this, why not have him in Doctor Who as his Sherlock Holmes character and do a crossover. Matt Smith as the Doctor working with Cumberbatch’s Holmes would be a lot of fun. That way you could also have the new companion team up with Watson with them working together and Watson trying to impress her and fail as he does with all the other women he knows. That’s the closest you will ever get me to do fan-fic. Speaking of Watson, Martin Freeman is great as Watson. In some ways it seems like he had less to do in this series but yet looking back on it, I can’t back that statement up. I don’t know why I feel that way but I do. It certainly feels like more stress was but on Holmes and Watson’s friendship and the strong bond they have together. This is also the second week in a row I watched something with Una Stubbs now. Last week, I wrote about the 1981 episode of TillDeath…. with her playing Rita. She is 74 now and still looks great. I have always enjoyed watching her in everything she was in. Andrew Scott as Moriarty has really grown on me. I am not sure if his performance was toned down or if I finally had time to get used to it. In this role, he was asked to do a lot of different things which must have been a treat for the actor. I think one of my favourite scenes is how he is playing “Richard Brook” as he is trying to fool Watson in believing that all the cases Holmes had been solving was Holmes’ own invention. I would like to see Moriarty back in the series but if you are going to kill him off as they did here, it would be nice if they keep him dead. Otherwise, to me, the series loses credibility and becomes almost a superhero parody. It came dangerously close to this with A Scandal in Belgravia based on how many times Irene Adler “died”.

The Reichenbach Fall took some of its plot from The Final Problem while still being a fresh story on its own merits. Obviously Holmes and Moriarty come to their end at the story. Also, in The Final Problem Moriarty sends a note via a boy to Watson at the Falls saying an Englishwoman is sick and needs a an English Doctor. Watson goes back yet Holmes knows that this is a hoax. In The Reichenbach Fall, Watson gets a phone call that Mrs. Hudson was shot and he needs to go back immediately yet Holmes knows this is the work of Moriarty. Even the phrase “The Final Problem” is mentioned by Moriarty and Holmes throughout the story. Moriarty sees Holmes as his final problem and eventually Holmes sees it this way too. There are some things reminiscent in The Reichenbach Fall that are from The Final Problem but inverted. For example, in Doyle’s story Holmes and Watson go on the run to get away from Moriarty’s men. In The Reichenbach Fall, Holmes and Watson are on the run from Lestrade’s men. In fact the terrorist and snipers are trying to protect Holmes because they think he has Moriarty’s code that doesn’t exist. Even the Falls themselves are important. In Moffat’s & Gatiss’ version, Holmes never goes to Switzerland to the falls. The whole point is the paining he recovers is what brings Holmes to the attention of the world but it is also what Moriarty uses as the starting point for his plan to discredit Holmes. The Reichenbach Fall is the Fall of Sherlock Holmes. As for the paining that is returned at the beginning of the episode, it is a real thing. It was painted in 1804 by English artist J.M.W. Turner. The original resides at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum in England.

As I mentioned earlier, this was is a beautiful series to watch. The typography, the colour grading and how the shots are constructed are a real treat to watch and the BBC should be so very proud of this series. I watched this from the Blu Ray release and it looks great. It is not quite clear when a third series of Sherlock will be made. It sounds like production should begin next year. The third series was commissioned at the same time as the second. I think this is something to really look forward to in the next year or so.

Next week: Not so much a final episode of a series or even a final episode of a season. In fact, it takes place in the middle of a series. If this were a radio station playing classic rock this might be considered a “deep cut” because it is not played very often or not too many people have seen it or know about it. I look at an episode of the Z Cars spin off series Softly, Softly as I watch Dead Aboard.
Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

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