Why the Hell Did Sherlock Star Amanda Abbington Get Death Threats?

Here we go again. Amanda Abbington, who just joined Sherlock as Mary, says she was targeted with online death threats just for having the audacity to portray a character someone else wrote. OMG THE NERVE OF THAT WOMAN.

The actress recently opened up to The Times about threats she got when the public first learned she’d been cast in the role.

“When I told everybody I was playing Mary,
there was a small group who wanted me dead,” she said. “I got, ‘She should die. How dare she play Mary Morstan? How dare she!'”

“They
take the John and Sherlock storyline so seriously that they wouldn’t
want anyone coming between them,” she said.

Oh God. FACEPALM. So much fucking facepalm.

Of course we know this isn’t the first time some horrible, awful, unnecessary, mean woman has ruined a precious television show for a select group of fans who really should consider perhaps getting out more often or something. You’ll recall Anna Gunn was pushed so far by the abuse she endured because people didn’t like what her character on Breaking Bad—A FAKE PERSON WHO DOES NOT ACTUALLY EXIST—was doing on the show, she penned this epic, beautiful takedown for The New York Times.

Now, apparently Abbington, who is the real-life partner of Sherlock star Martin Freeman, is having to go through the same pointless, batty-ass bullshit.

Many fans celebrated the news—who better than to play Freeman’s fictional wife than his unofficial real life wife? (The pair have two children together and have been together over a decade.) But many others were upset, because if true, the spoiler could directly sink the “JohnLock” ship, a pairing beloved by legions of eager slash fans….Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss’s husband Ian Hallard tweeted, “I get that some people like to fantasise about Sherlock & John as a couple but no one seriously thinks it will actually happen, do they?!”

Abbington responded with [tweets] on the subject, saying that she found slash fans’ reactions amusing, and that she felt the friendship between the two men was “more interesting” than the queer romance many fans so desperately want. After that, however, Abbington noted that she had received death wishes from angry Sherlock slashers.

What is wrong with people? Someone wants someone’s mother to drop dead because they think she’s preventing them from seeing Benedict Cumberbatch and Freeman kiss? What in the what now?

Why can’t people just watch a television show anymore without going completely over the edge and threatening to kill people who are on it because they don’t like a storyline? Remember when people just WATCHED TV? “Uh-oh, somebody got shot, hmmm, I wonder who did it, ooh look at that guy, he is fiiiiinne as hell, I hope they bring him back, whoops, no he’s dead, gee maybe it was the teacher who did it, no she just got killed, oh now they’re shooting at people, who’s in that car, oh I bet it was the gardener who did it, nope now he’s dead too, oh damn it was the accountant all along, isn’t that something, never would have guessed, OK what’s for dinner?” THERE YOU GO.

Do you think people sent death threats over freaking Quincy, M.E. because they didn’t like who Jack Klugman was dating on the show? Hell no. Come on. Has the Internet made us all insane or what? (I honestly have no idea at this point.)

And why the hell are people sending death threats to her, anyway? (YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER IS BECAUSE OF SEXISM, DON’T YOU?) Why not send them to someone is you know, say ACTUALLY responsible for writing the storyline in the first place? Is Steven Moffat getting death threats?

But hold up—why even send threats to people associated with the show? They didn’t come up with this stuff. Why not send death threats to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? He’s the one who put the character you hate so much in the stories in the first place! And look, HE’S ALREADY DEAD! So congratulations! You win! Moving on.

Like my mother always said all those times I was about to quit my job to pursue a full-time career as a Disney World character performer (I WOULD HAVE MADE A GREAT DAISY DUCK, Y’ALL), “it’s time to stop all this foolishness.” It is wonderful that people have found a show that brings so much happiness and joy and all this into the world. I get giddy when I read things in this community from people who are fans of this show (and others like it). It’s fun and wonderful and a welcome break from all the tedious fucking bullshit we have to deal with in our daily lives.

But this kind of crap has to stop. It just does. Death threats to actresses? This is why we can’t have nice things. That has no place in fandom, and it never well. Period.