Sherlock Pilot Episode Plot Analysis Burroway tells us, “Human beings are meaning-making creatures; we love to interpret and conclude. So when scenery, clothing, and objects appear onstage, we will read significance at once.” I feel this goes hand in hand with Chekhov’s assertion (which I have found worded in a variety of ways) that if there is a pistol in the first act, it should be fired in the next. Otherwise don’t put it there at all. I thought of both of these as the pilot for Sherlock began. Immediately, we are launched into documentary footage style war scene. At first, I thought, “Oh, I’ve clicked on the wrong thing,” but then a character jolts awake and the scene shifts from the battlefield to a tiny flat. As a man perches …show more content…
When it is done with clues, it also makes his thinking seem mechanical and computer-like. When Sgt. Donovan tells Detective Inspector Lestrade to make Holmes stop doing that (interfering in their investigations and making them look like fools), he replies, “If you can tell me how he does it, I’ll stop him.” In just a few minutes, we know about the episode’s case, are introduced to the central police characters and their feelings towards Holmes, and realize that Holmes is much cleverer than the police. There are a few scenes in which Holmes, upon meeting Dr. Watson, uses his powers of deduction to prove to Dr. Watson that they don’t need to get to know one another. This not only shows us Holmes’s abilities, but it also gives an incredible amount of backstory for Dr. Watson in a very condensed manner. It’s key here that Dr. Watson responds with, “That was amazing.” Holmes points out that most people tell him “to piss off” when he does something like that, so this exchange also serves to bring the two characters together. It’s interesting that we don’t get any backstory for Holmes, but I feel that this lends to his mysterious and elevated