I constantly think about the part in Sherlock where Sherlock says a scratched USB port means the old owner of the phone had a drinking problem and how I didn't immediately notice what a pile of bullshit that was
@noiob I think they're adapting the observation of a key-scratched lock to a contemporary setting.
I agree it's bullshit and I think it's lazy writing.
@cooler_ranch well heck yeah it's lazy writing but I didn't notice myself until the last episode and I could've saved myself a lot of time
@noiob Yeah, generally I'm not keen that show because it bungles up the whole premise of a detective story:
BBC's Sherlock does not draw plausible deductions, the writers picked a conclusion and wrote backwards until they had the clue.
(i.e. if one has a drinking problem, one might be more likely to have a scratched up USB port, but it has no predictive power: if you have a scratched up USB plug, it might just be that USB is shite and you need four times before managing to plug something in)
@noiob They even call out, in the show, fans for trying to follow the plot and the deduction, literally making fun of them and pulling the “Sherlock is a super genius” card a couple of times they couldn't be arsed to actually write a deduction.
Like Moffat's other show, it's mostly just an altar to the title character, devoid of plot but full of glitter, smokes and mirrors, keeping watchers hooked for some plot that is coming any time soon©.
@kellerfuchs @noiob Hbomberguy did a good video on Sherlock and Who under him. He helped me realize why I stopped watching and caring about new Who
that seems to be a common shortcut for writing "genius" characters: character jumps to wild conclusions on scanty evidence and turns out to be right
it only works because the author is in complete control of the story world, and so gets to declare that the character is right in-universe, even if it makes no sense
another example that comes to mind is Artemis Fowl
@magical @noiob Oh, yes, Artemis Fowl is definitely a case of that sort of “intellectual Mary Sue” (is that a good name for it?) but it can make sense if the character being a genius is an excuse for the actual plot and wild adventures (it's a fantasy book after all, though that's still kinda-lazy writing), as opposed to deductive investigation being the premise of the whole genre.
@kellerfuchs I accept this name.
@noiob wow, uh, same.