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fluffyllamaOr at least why she doesn't deserve some of the reactions I've seen.
trobadora has started an interesting discussion about Sally Donovan here, and this was supposed to be a reply to a comment there but sort of got away from me.
A few things first: I'm going to make some assumptions based on what we've seen of Sally, so do shout up if you think they're unreasonable. I'm not an expert on careers in the police, though I do have a good friend in the Met and an uncle who is retired from the police. As a middle class white man (and admittedly as a really nice friendly one) my friend in the Met very likely had an easier time getting to his current (similar) position than Sally, though she's a bit younger than him so it may not be directly comparable. We can assume she's at least of average intelligence and probably a bit better than that.
To get to where Sally is she will have had to work hard. She has had to learn police procedure as well as the law, she has massive restrictions on what she can and can't do, and she probably ends up with mountains of paperwork to slog through for every case. In the end, her job is to make sure that when someone takes over to start prosecuting a criminal she's arrested, they have done everything correctly so they get a conviction, barring random fluke results. Her job is hard work physically, mentally and emotionally, not especially well paid even if it does come with a decent pension, and she needs to be tough and hard-headed to do it.
Then you have Sherlock. However it came about, and however valuable his input is, what does he do? He gets invited to crime scenes and he decides whether they are interesting enough to be worth his time – a luxury she certainly doesn't have. If they are interesting enough then he turns up and takes them over as far as he's allowed (and further), he doesn't follow procedure, he potentially contaminates or plain runs off with evidence, he doesn't always share his findings or conclusions, he is rude and abrasive to everyone to frankly, beyond the point where I'd punch him myself, and if there's a problem her boss takes his side.
He's playing, as far as she's concerned. He's a posh, rich white tosser with connections (and a lot of attitudes that she's probably used to finding way above her in the police, in ranks she's not likely to reach) playing at being what she's worked so hard for, because he apparently doesn't need to have a full-time job to pay his rent and it's the least boring thing for him to do right now. She can't trust that. She's right not to trust that too, and we know it, because his goals are not the same as hers. She has to have results in the form of eventual convictions and cases closed, and he can just enjoy the puzzle and then swan off to the next one. If he doesn't manage to get anyone killed in the process, that's a bonus.
Sally is the main representation we see on screen of the untold hundreds of people Sherlock has no doubt pissed off and that can't stand the sight of him. It's an important and necessary role, and she has to shoulder most of it. She's a great choice for this as she is Sherlock's absolute opposite -- except for the fact that they both solve crimes. That's not enough to make them allies though, because she does it within the law (the most important thing to her, I would suggest) and Sherlock is a law unto himself. When he's not actually doing something criminal himself, that is. And she can't get rid of him because they need him too much.
What she isn't is someone who hates Sherlock just for the hell of it and therefore needs to be punished for it.
Was she justified in her gloating when Sherlock was arrested? Of course not. I can see why she felt the need to say 'I told you so', but she should have restrained herself. I put her response down to, as I've said in a couple of comments elsewhere, the fact that early on in 2.03 we can see signs of her attitude towards Sherlock thawing. John acting as a buffer is helping and she's considerably less hostile when they are doing the joke presentation of the hat, for example. No wonder she reacted so poorly when she believes she was almost taken in by Sherlock, was almost fooled by him when she was the one who knew all along what he was. (As an aside, I love that the writer didn't just go with the easy option extending her usual suspicion of him, but developed it in a more interesting way that really worked to create her attitude in the confrontation with John.)
We all buy into Sherlock's charm and forgive him for being obnoxious to people like Donovan and Anderson, even though Sherlock's general attitude would be enough to piss most people off. He routinely humiliates people and sometimes he enjoys it, even though he knows it's not a fair fight. He knows people don't respond well to him but he doesn't care enough to do anything about it – he doesn't have to care because it doesn't prevent him from getting what he wants. He gets away with it because in the end, they are desperate for his help.
Sally shows us a real person's perspective on Sherlock's obnoxiousness, the perspective of someone who has to deal with him in the course of her own very difficult job. He is in a position of ridiculous privilege, and if Sally had been the one with the brain and not him, she wouldn't be a civilian swanning around crime scenes in a big coat being cryptic and special and pissing everyone off, because anyone who isn't an over-privileged male tosser doesn't get to act that way. Try reversing their roles – it wouldn't happen. Not even on TV.
Stuff I keep meaning to post about and forgetting: Poll here about a meta fest - go and take it, even if you just want to read it rather than participate by writing!
trobadora has started an interesting discussion about Sally Donovan here, and this was supposed to be a reply to a comment there but sort of got away from me. A few things first: I'm going to make some assumptions based on what we've seen of Sally, so do shout up if you think they're unreasonable. I'm not an expert on careers in the police, though I do have a good friend in the Met and an uncle who is retired from the police. As a middle class white man (and admittedly as a really nice friendly one) my friend in the Met very likely had an easier time getting to his current (similar) position than Sally, though she's a bit younger than him so it may not be directly comparable. We can assume she's at least of average intelligence and probably a bit better than that.
To get to where Sally is she will have had to work hard. She has had to learn police procedure as well as the law, she has massive restrictions on what she can and can't do, and she probably ends up with mountains of paperwork to slog through for every case. In the end, her job is to make sure that when someone takes over to start prosecuting a criminal she's arrested, they have done everything correctly so they get a conviction, barring random fluke results. Her job is hard work physically, mentally and emotionally, not especially well paid even if it does come with a decent pension, and she needs to be tough and hard-headed to do it.
Then you have Sherlock. However it came about, and however valuable his input is, what does he do? He gets invited to crime scenes and he decides whether they are interesting enough to be worth his time – a luxury she certainly doesn't have. If they are interesting enough then he turns up and takes them over as far as he's allowed (and further), he doesn't follow procedure, he potentially contaminates or plain runs off with evidence, he doesn't always share his findings or conclusions, he is rude and abrasive to everyone to frankly, beyond the point where I'd punch him myself, and if there's a problem her boss takes his side.
He's playing, as far as she's concerned. He's a posh, rich white tosser with connections (and a lot of attitudes that she's probably used to finding way above her in the police, in ranks she's not likely to reach) playing at being what she's worked so hard for, because he apparently doesn't need to have a full-time job to pay his rent and it's the least boring thing for him to do right now. She can't trust that. She's right not to trust that too, and we know it, because his goals are not the same as hers. She has to have results in the form of eventual convictions and cases closed, and he can just enjoy the puzzle and then swan off to the next one. If he doesn't manage to get anyone killed in the process, that's a bonus.
Sally is the main representation we see on screen of the untold hundreds of people Sherlock has no doubt pissed off and that can't stand the sight of him. It's an important and necessary role, and she has to shoulder most of it. She's a great choice for this as she is Sherlock's absolute opposite -- except for the fact that they both solve crimes. That's not enough to make them allies though, because she does it within the law (the most important thing to her, I would suggest) and Sherlock is a law unto himself. When he's not actually doing something criminal himself, that is. And she can't get rid of him because they need him too much.
What she isn't is someone who hates Sherlock just for the hell of it and therefore needs to be punished for it.
Was she justified in her gloating when Sherlock was arrested? Of course not. I can see why she felt the need to say 'I told you so', but she should have restrained herself. I put her response down to, as I've said in a couple of comments elsewhere, the fact that early on in 2.03 we can see signs of her attitude towards Sherlock thawing. John acting as a buffer is helping and she's considerably less hostile when they are doing the joke presentation of the hat, for example. No wonder she reacted so poorly when she believes she was almost taken in by Sherlock, was almost fooled by him when she was the one who knew all along what he was. (As an aside, I love that the writer didn't just go with the easy option extending her usual suspicion of him, but developed it in a more interesting way that really worked to create her attitude in the confrontation with John.)
We all buy into Sherlock's charm and forgive him for being obnoxious to people like Donovan and Anderson, even though Sherlock's general attitude would be enough to piss most people off. He routinely humiliates people and sometimes he enjoys it, even though he knows it's not a fair fight. He knows people don't respond well to him but he doesn't care enough to do anything about it – he doesn't have to care because it doesn't prevent him from getting what he wants. He gets away with it because in the end, they are desperate for his help.
Sally shows us a real person's perspective on Sherlock's obnoxiousness, the perspective of someone who has to deal with him in the course of her own very difficult job. He is in a position of ridiculous privilege, and if Sally had been the one with the brain and not him, she wouldn't be a civilian swanning around crime scenes in a big coat being cryptic and special and pissing everyone off, because anyone who isn't an over-privileged male tosser doesn't get to act that way. Try reversing their roles – it wouldn't happen. Not even on TV.
Stuff I keep meaning to post about and forgetting: Poll here about a meta fest - go and take it, even if you just want to read it rather than participate by writing!