Today, I finally finished the three-part first "season" of Sherlock, the BBC's reboot of Sherlock Holmes set in modern times. Everything is set in modern London and, in this world, the character of Sherlock Holmes never existed.
Holmes is played to cold, cynical, brilliant perfection by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is the three-time champion of the "Most British Name" competition. Holmes, in this iteration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, is a "special consultant" to the police. Basically, he's called in whenever Inspector Lestrade is stumped, which, luckily for us, happens often over these three 90-minute long episodes. Sherlock is joined by Iraq war vet John Holmes, played by Martin Freeman (The Office, Hitchhiker's Guide). The whole concept was created and masterminded by Steven Moffat, who rebooted Doctor Who a few years ago to amazing results, or so I'm told.
There are a lot of things that this show does so well. But, the decisions of what it doesn't do are even smarter. It doesn't turn Sherlock into this bumbling anti-social introvert who doesn't relate to the outside world and has to constantly be told that he doesn't understand people. It doesn't turn Watson into Sherlock's babysitter or his number one pal. It doesn't use gimmicks to make it's point. All of those things seem so organic and natural in the flow of the action that you don't notice that it's different than it should be and how, if it were done in America, it would be done SO poorly.
Sherlock is brilliant and deranged and awesome and pitiful. But they don't have to TELL you that because you see it in everything he does and in his general demeanor. Additionally, he is NEVER written or characterized as being irrational (in fact, he's always the opposite: the most rational, logical human who has ever walked the planet.) In a week or so, you'll probably see my review of season one of "The Big Bang Theory," but Sheldon is very similar to Sherlock: They're both wrong, but it's hard to convince them of that, because their logic is so airtight and sensical.
The team behind "Sherlock" has taken three classic stories and updated them, adding in elements that tie them all together in this season long arc that ends with, "The Great Game." All throughout, you watch all of the characters grow ever-so-slightly, and it never has a "Monster of the Week" mentality.
Sherlock is set to return in the fall of this year and all I can say is that I'm glad. I probably should have made the couple of episodes I had to watch last a little longer.
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