Friday, June 8, 2012

Sherlock (Seasons 1 & 2)

Sherlock: Season One
Sherlock: Season Two

Steven Moffat (one of the geniuses behind the revamping of Doctor Who) decided to work on a small side project with a friend of his, Mark Gatiss.  As they were both big fans of the originals, they thought it might be fun to try and make a modern version of Sherlock Holmes.  The result is the BBC TV show, Sherlock.  In a word it is brilliant.  It's everything you could possibly hope for from such an idea and more.  All of the characters are cast perfectly.  The modernization doesn't lose any of the Holmesiness* of the originals. And the stories while not exactly like their inspirations are pretty darn close.  As it happens, I had just read A Study in Scarlet, before watching the first episode of season 1, A Study in Pink.  The story line is different but large portions of it are nearly exact copies, except modernize.  There is a bit of liberty taken here and there.  Sherlock's brother Mycroft is little more than a side note in the original stories and is a much larger part in the series.  Similarly, Moriarty shows up much more than the stories.  But you couldn't ask for a better characterization of a villain who's so bored with life that he helps others commit crimes just to spice things up a little.  Andrew Scott plays the part brilliantly.  Season 2 picks up where season 1 leaves off (both literally and figuratively) and while there are a few changes in how things are done in season 2, they only serve to make the show better.  If I have any complaint with the show, it would be that a "season" is only three episodes.  And while the episodes are ninety minutes, it doesn't seem enough.  Though if the price of keeping the show so great is the small episodes per season, I guess I'll learn to suffer.

Sherlock (Seasons 1 & 2): A+

p.s. - The U.S. is coming out with its own modern version of Sherlock Holmes called Elementary.  A made for TV movie that should be broadcast sometime this year (2012).  I hope it will be as good as Sherlock but I'm not holding my breath.

* - Technical term





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