SHERLOCK (BBC)

After some initial hesitation I started watching the new BBC adaption of “Sherlock”. I have never been a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, but am pretty much enamored with many British TV shows (Doctor Who and Torchwood, being the favorites) so I figured to give it a shot.

And holy hell. This show is FANTASTIC.

It starts with the writing. Making some references to the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writings the re-boot modernizes “Sherlock” in a fascinating way. Doctor Watson is a former military doctor who is now home from Afghanistan. He is also a blogger, which strikes me a quirky, funny, and totally something I would do. It is the blog that catapults Sherlock and Watson to internet fame, and the famous hat comes into play when they’re fleeing fans. Martin Freeman keeps Watson from seeming stodgy, making the character quietly cool. He’s as complex as Sherlock but in a much less obvious way helping to balance out the dynamic duo.

Sherlock is a cross between “Bones” Temperance Brennan and Sheldon Cooper “The Big Bang Theory” with a dash of David Tennant’s “Doctor Who” thrown in. With the combination of those three, you might think that it would make him annoying, but only slightly so and only occasionally. He is hyper aware of his surroundings and is teetering on the edge of genius and madness.  Instead of smoking a pipe, Sherlock wears nicotine patches, as many as three (that I have seen) depending on the severity of the cases. It isn’t that Sherlock doesn’t understand social niceties, he just doesn’t care, which allows a viewer a twist of envy at his lack of propriety. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock to a tee, the awkward genius, embracing a physical nature to the character—lots of running, falling, and shouting, but nothing over the top. Nothing makes me laugh more then how adept with technology Sherlock is, instead of portraying him as clumsy with his cell phone, he texts faster then any fifteen year old. He is occasionally mollified, such as with the Christmas present from coroner Molly, and it is nice to see the more human side of him.

The very little I have seen so far of Moriarity he seems and equal foe for Sherlock. You would expect him to be older, gritty, and an evil genius, yet only one of those assumptions is correct. Moriarity is young and almost fresh-faced, his laughter is high-pitched with glee over his devious nature. He is fantastically wealthy and spends that money putting Sherlock through the paces. I look forward to seeing more of him as I get further into the series.

The writing is of the highest caliber, right up there with “Doctor Who”, which is not surprising since Moffat is involved with both series. I enjoy the low saturation of colors (other then occasional pops of red in a door or in a protagonists red lips) and the quintessentially British cinematography which is always seemingly slightly grainier then US camera work, something that just works here. The story itself has lots of twists and turns, but isn’t formulaic as the famous “House”. Each episode is eighty minutes which is pretty much my only complaint, sometimes it is hard to carve out that kind of time, especially when you don’t want to leave in the middle of an episode.

I find that I enjoy this adaptation much stronger then the movie version with Tony Stark, errr, I mean, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. Everything in the movie is more fantastic and less realistic, which for me is what makes the television show more appealing, and more relate-able.

You can find both seasons of “Sherlock” to stream on www.pbs.org (part of the Masterpiece Classic series). Major shout out here to PBS for putting up both seasons without qualm, like many stations do, allowing us new fans to catch up! (You can also find “Downton Abbey” here, another high recommendation!) You can also find season 1 on Netflix.