Sherlock: The Game Is Afoot

I didn’t even know that they were making a new Sherlock Holmes TV show until I saw some friends (namely, Liz and Carina) raving about Sherlock on Twitter. Being a huge fan of anything Sherlock Holmes, of course I had to give it a look.

What makes Sherlock interesting is that instead of the typical Victorian setting of almost every single fucking Sherlock Holmes adaptation since time immemorial, they take the titular character and his, erm, sidekick, Dr. John Watson, and put him in a modern setting. For the ones who are a bit too slow to understand that, I mean 2010.

Yep, Sherlock is about that detective solving crimes in 2010, using technology such as text messaging, email, and the internet to help him figure out who this week’s serial murderer is. Add the fact that current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffatt is one of the brains behind Sherlock, and we have a winner in our hands.

What I totally loved about this miniseries (which, sadly, only has three episodes, boo) is that Holmes feels totally at home in 2010. It doesn’t feel forced, and the contemporary setting really drives home the fact that Sherlock Holmes is one weird motherfucker. A badass motherfucker, yes but weird still.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the title character in a cold and slightly Asperger-ish way. I don’t know if you’ll love his take on Holmes, but it’s great for me. Martin Freeman plays John Watson, and I really don’t think anyone else can do a better portrayal of Watson.

A few thoughts on the show:

• The first episode, written by Moffatt, was an excellent introduction to the show. However, I couldn’t help but notice that Holmes and Watson have an Eleventh Doctor-Rory vibe. Its like Moffatt wrote Eleven with all of his signature quirks in mind but substituted the name with Holmes, and turned down the ADHD significantly.
• The rest of the first episode, A Study In Pink, was brilliant though. Since I tend to say a lot of spoilers in things like this, I’ll shut up and just tell you to watch the damn thing. It’s worth your time.
• By episode two, The Blind Banker, Sherlock Holmes finally gets a personality of his own.
• Holmes is a sociopath. Awesome.
• They’re adapting the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, and it’s great to see that the adaptations work.
• Sherlock Holmes isn’t a drug addict here, unlike his literary counterpart. It’s been hinted at, but there’s nothing that proves that he’s currently doing drugs. However, he overdoses on nicotine patches and it cracks me up.
• There was a huge amount of homoerotic subtext played off for laughs, but I worry about clicking on an errant link that leads me to a fan fiction site.
• Since Sherlock Holmes is such an iconic character that everyone everywhere recognizes, I was kind of expecting people to say “Seriously? Sherlock Holmes? That guy from the books?” whenever he introduces himself to people.
• Where’s the deerstalker and cape?
• I am so glad they never make Holmes say “Elementary, my dear Watson,” because I swear I will punch anyone in the balls if they ever do that.
• Best Sherlock Holmes adaptation so far. Sorry, RDJ, your movie’s good but this blows it out of the water.
• This post is totally devoid of dick jokes.
• It’s hard to do dick jokes all the time, you know. Really hard.
• … wait.

So far, Sherlock has been an excellent show and it’s sad to see it end by episode three. BBC wants to turn this into a full-length series, but if it does happen, we’re going to have to wait until next year. It’s not easy to wait for 2011 for new Doctor Who and Sherlock episodes, you guys.

I give Sherlock four out of four Rachel McAdamses. What.

   

What do you think of Sherlock?