When the second season of Sherlock aired on South Korea cable channel OCN earlier this year the promo commercials took some wonderful liberties with the chemistry between Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Martin Freeman’s John Watson. And then they took a few more….
It’s long been a favorite pastime of the Sherlock fandom to cast the two main characters as OTP (“One True Pairing”). This can signify a range of perspectives on Sherlock and Watson, ranging from entertaining subtext (my perspective, for the record), a straightforward romantic relationship, or something so necessary to the functioning of the cosmos that to tear it asunder would render the world colorless and dull.
The OCN promos take that latter perspective and oh god it’s so beautiful and weird and beautiful in its weirdness:
Is it the random placement of two songs from everything-is-doomed troubadour the Eels? Is it the Firefly and movie Sherlock Holmes-style paperburn portrait of Sherlock and Watson that some delightful soul somewhere in, ah, Seoul was given the task to create? Is it the entire lack of subtext? Is it everything? It’s probably everything.
You guys, I think I believe in love again.
Chris Lough is the production manager of Tor.com and thanks the gods of Monday morning for this heavenly bounty.
