My fellow staff member Olivia wrote an article on a book series based on the Sherlock Holmes stories back in November of last year. I’m honestly surprised that the opportunity to write on Sherlock, the BBC show that is a modernized version of Sherlock Holmes, has not been taken from me by someone who is slightly more up-to-date than I (I haven’t seen the whole first season, I missed last week’s episode, et cetera…). My guess is, then, that I must be alone is watching this television programme. This must be fixed, because this show is for sure one of the best I’ve seen in some time.
Co-created by Steven Moffat, who made-over Doctor Who (I can hear the Sherlock-Doctor Who fan wars already), this show makes up for all the tacky detective shows that have been created over the years. After all, it has to be good if Sherlock is played by someone with a name like Benedict Cumberbatch (who was also in War Horse, apparently), not to mention that Watson is played by Martin Freeman, who is going to be in The Hobbit as Bilbo.
Holmes and Watson, a.k.a. Cumberbatch and Freeman, stand outside of their apartment.
The show is well-crafted, portraying each character as elegantly or brutally as possible. I have to confess that Moriarty is my favourite character; he’s allowed to come off as perfectly brilliant and completely mad at the same time! Each episode is a separate case, taken from Arthur Conan Doyle’s original writings and translated into the 21st century. Instead of letters, there are texts, maybe from Irene Adler (or rather “the woman”), maybe from Moriarty, maybe from the chief of police, Lestrade. It’s needless to say that I’m not the only one who likes this series, judging by all of the stuff that comes up when you search “Sherlock” on tumblr, but it does get a nine point one out of ten on imdb.com if you need to be assured of its high quality. Several of my friends enjoy the show as well, though one of them is still trying to convince me that Doctor Who is better (it’s not working). While Sherlock is no longer on the telly, it is available on DVD, and the first season is available on Netflix. For now, it can be watched online as well, though it will no longer be available after the nineteenth of June. It’s elementary, Watson: you need to check out Sherlock, now.
