The whole of Sherlock Series 3 in one frame:

stephisanerd:

That’s it.  That’s the show.  

You’re probably think I’m being facetious and silly, but nope.  I’m not one to talk about cinematography and lighting, but I like talking about stories, so I’m going to tell you one.  

Series 3 of Sherlock is based pretty heavily on Through the Looking Glass—there are an inordinate number of parallels and references, and in a lot of ways, it’s the story that they were telling this series.   While writing about that, one quote in particular jumped out at me.  It’s about the Red Queen’s Race.   

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

From the moment Sherlock returns, he finds himself fighting to maintain his place.  He fell through the looking glass, and expected to find that his world was the same, but it isn’t.  Everything is different.  He spends most of The Empty Hearse fighting to return his friendship with John to anything resembling what it was before he faked his death.  He spends most of The Sign of Three doing everything can do for John.  He helps plan the rehearsal, the wedding, and the reception. He plans a stag night and gives a a speech, and all of it is clearly about as far from his comfort zone as it possible for him to be.  Before the fall, all of that effort probably would have deepened his relationship with John (however you view it), but here, it barely helps him maintain his place in John’s life.  

“I’ve never made a vow in my life, and after tonight I never will again. So, here in front of you all, my first and last vow. Mary and John: whatever it takes, whatever happens, from now on I swear I will always be there, always, for all three of you.”

In the end, it’s not even enough to do that.  It’s not enough for any of them.  

Think about Sherlock, John, and Mary in His Last Vow.  They’re not getting anywhere—they’re all trying desperately to maintain the place that they’re in, so they don’t send their whole house of cards tumbling down.  Sherlock tries to push John and Mary back together even though Mary shot him.  Mary doesn’t face up to her culpability and refuses to acknowledge that her past isn’t really behind her at all. John takes her back, though he refuses to know anything about her past. They’re all absurd decisions in our world—but we’re through the looking glass. It’s all they can do. 

Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.  

How do you show us that visually? How do you tell us it’s the story you’re telling?  You put the Red Queen of the story on a treadmill.  

(shameless plug:  I’m starting at tumblr dedicated to story references in Sherlock.)