I just rewatched the first series yesterday and today (hadn't watched "The Blind Baker" since it first aired). There's no indication that I caught of how long they've been living together, but I'd put it at a few weeks, maybe two months, since the pilot. John's very loyal very fast in the pilot, but if you look at "The Blind Baker," it's still clearly very, very new. John spends most of that episode pissed at Sherlock over domestic things, and even asks him for money at one point, which I don't think he'd do once he knew him at all well. Not to mention that he gets a job in that episode because of money problems, which can't be too long after he moved into the flat.
Then "The Great Game" is their first actual row, which bursts John's hero worship bubble, which I think he'd been operating in up to that point. Which still says to me, very new relationship. And he kips at Sarah's. Given what he says about maybe next time not sleeping on the couch when he's over, they haven't yet slept together, which means it's pretty early in their relationship. Put that together, elapsed time between pilot and Great Game I can't see as more than two months at most.
By contrast, in this episode, John and Mrs. Hudson seem to have taken over housekeeping responsibilities entirely. Mrs. Hudson complains about the thumbs, but John doesn't bitch about anything (which, seriously, rewatch Blind Baker--it's the whole episode). John also is extremely confident in his role as Sherlock's partner, and confident that he brings in the business. Again, compare to Blind Baker, where John spends half of it bitching that Sherlock goes off on his own and doesn't let him in the apartments they break into.
There's a huge difference in the relationship. But I really don't see a reason in the first series to think it spanned a great deal of time.
The problem with the time between the series is that the fandom has had a year and a half to mature before there's new canon. So a lot of fanon tropes have gotten deeply embedded and are about to be pulled out by the roots.
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Then "The Great Game" is their first actual row, which bursts John's hero worship bubble, which I think he'd been operating in up to that point. Which still says to me, very new relationship. And he kips at Sarah's. Given what he says about maybe next time not sleeping on the couch when he's over, they haven't yet slept together, which means it's pretty early in their relationship. Put that together, elapsed time between pilot and Great Game I can't see as more than two months at most.
By contrast, in this episode, John and Mrs. Hudson seem to have taken over housekeeping responsibilities entirely. Mrs. Hudson complains about the thumbs, but John doesn't bitch about anything (which, seriously, rewatch Blind Baker--it's the whole episode). John also is extremely confident in his role as Sherlock's partner, and confident that he brings in the business. Again, compare to Blind Baker, where John spends half of it bitching that Sherlock goes off on his own and doesn't let him in the apartments they break into.
There's a huge difference in the relationship. But I really don't see a reason in the first series to think it spanned a great deal of time.
The problem with the time between the series is that the fandom has had a year and a half to mature before there's new canon. So a lot of fanon tropes have gotten deeply embedded and are about to be pulled out by the roots.