I like color. I think the designers are using color to enhance the messages in BBC Sherlock. It’s another (broad brush) pattern we can read to fill in the blanks.
We meet Sherlock in sharp neutral tones- black and white and gray. All brains/no sentiment, crisp and logical. One wall (almost black and white) dominates 221b with a large elaborate, highly structured pattern. This is the wall Sherlock pins his case notes on, the wall he stares at while he’s solving a mystery.
For quite a while I assumed these neutral tones, that boldly patterned “brain work” wall, represented Sherlock. Other colors swim around him- he is fascinated by Moriarty’s blue, he is warmed by John’s red. But Sherlock’s heart and mind are in the Work; and the Work is black and white deduction. Right? 🙄. Wrong. I got trapped in first impressions.
So… Where in 221b is Sherlock at ease; where can he be himself? His bedroom, and his kitchen/chemistry lab. Guess what? They’re both GREEN. (Actually, I think we see several shades of green on various walls in 221b, it is scattered throughout.)
Now that we have spent an entire green-soaked episode inside Sherlock’s Victorian Mind Palace, I think the message is clear. Sherlock pretends to be neutral- cool and detached- but his real self underneath is green. Gay carnation green, rich earthy lusty green, young springtime in love green. We’ve seen a lot of variations. When the designers give us green, they’re giving us authentic Sherlock.
So why the baroque big pattern wallpaper in 221b? Why S1-S2 Sherlock dressed in black and white? I think they’re pointing out the biggest influence in Sherlock’s life: Mycroft.
I’m sure lots of folks got this long ago, but I really just now saw it:
MYCROFT is the character whose color is “no color”. To the world, Mycroft is a neutral, unassuming, minor-position-in-the-government ghostly shadowy shade of gray. In Sherlock’s mind, Mycroft is a powerful, black-and-white controlling discipline that Sherlock both loves and hates. Mycroft looms large in Sherlock’s life, just like that wallpaper looms large in 221b.
We see Sherlock’s small rebellions on the Mycroft wall. He starts with decor: the momento mori skull floating in swimming pool blue. Later Sherlock vandalizes the overbearing wall with a yellow graffiti John smiley face, and shoots at it in a rage.
Amazing. Arwel and his team designed 221b to mirror Sherlock’s mental landscape. The kitchen/chem lab and Sherlock’s bedroom are green safe havens, but when Sherlock walks in the door, THERE is Mycroft’s wall staring down at him, inescapable. Directly opposite is Sherlock’s heart(h), beneath the mirror where he sees his true self (“it’s my face”). The wallpaper is a delicate pattern, warm red-gold-green woven together (a Johnlock promise, I think). And their two chairs, facing each other, together against the rest of the world.
(Now that I’m associating THAT wall in 221b to Mycroft, I’m remembering TAB. It was shimmery, wasn’t it? Difficult to see clearly, depending on the angle of light. Sometimes blue I think (danger!) with garish flowers. What is Sherlock’s subconscious telling him by putting that sooo changeable wallpaper on Mycroft’s wall?)
Tagging a few folks for your bemusement, I can’t believe I’m looking for character clues in wallpaper…!
@may-shepard
@enjoytheelephant
@tjlcisthenewsexy
@withthekeyisking
@hubblegleeflower
@ebaeschnbliah
@just-sort-of-happened
@inevitably-johnlocked I started a conversation with you about green, long ago. I’ve shifted my view… It’s not an emotion or event, I now think green IS Sherlock’s essence. All his sharp classic black and white looks are just a facade…This is perfect. I love it.
So does it mean anything that Mycroft was wearing shades of green at Christmas in HLV?
