Sherlock, no sh*t!

[bellinghman]

We caught the new series Sherlock last night.

Apart from one somewhat-too-obvious mystery (possibly due to over sign posting), I think I can say it was a success. Martin Freeman did an excellent job as ex-army-medic Dr Watson, and as said elsewhere, made the most watchable Watson I've seen. Resetting the series in the here and now is an interesting decision, but (at least partly due to a strong sense of place in London) it works. This is totally the Sherlock Holmes that Conan Doyle would have written if he'd had to cope with one way systems and mobile phones and the Internet. The first hour didn't really put a foot wrong, and though the last 30 minutes was a bit slower, in general this is something worth watching.

So, full marks to the Dr Who team (Moffat, Gatiss, Vertue) taking the time out to do this too.

(The only thing missing was the obvious modern line that my title inverts. We did spot one particular point that it could have been dropped in.)

ETA: there may be spoilers in the comments

Comments

[hesadevil.livejournal.com]

I thought it was great, especially Martin Freeman's Watson - I'm not his date!

I did feel that the conversation between Sherlock and the villain was overly-long and didn't really convince me that this was what had caused the 'suicides'.

Not sure about the Series format of 3 mini-films. It will depend on how long a gap there is between Series. I'm impatiently awaiting the return of Merlin and Being Human.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

The mini-film format does permit a larger story than you can fit into a mere hour, though. (Though there is the problem that TV has that the story has to fit an exact size, rather than the cinema ability to expand or contract the running time as appropriate.)

[sparrowsion]

I love the resolution of the canonically vexing question of where (other than Afghanistan) Watson got shot.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

I saw the scriptwriter's treatment of this movable feast as a nod to Doyle's original carelessness -- if Watson was shot in the shoulder why does he have a limp and use a cane?

[rmc28]

Tony and I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be watching it next week. Also I was delighted to find these:

http://www.thescienceofdeduction.co.uk/

http://www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk/

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

*grins*

Was v. amused that working out the cipher included principles from ACD...

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

It was fun. I shall have to go back and watch Rathbone.

[perdita-fysh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this post, I hadn't heard anything about this series. Why do the BBC endlessly trail some gutter shite about a new 'gossip' series on Radio 2 and completely neglect to mention something like this then?

Due completely to having read your blog we watched it (having watched Top Gear due entirely to Chris Evans waxing lyrical about it all morning yesterday). Top Gear was good, this was better. I am smarter than Sherlock Holmes though because I worked out he was a cabby about 15 minutes before he did *&) That is not normal for me and TV by the way, I'm usually surprised!

The guy who plays Holmes looks like a cross between the chap on the BT adverts and Merlin. I guess pale & skinny is the new hip!

Loved the use of music to suggest he was going to be using opiates, only for it to be nicotine patches. I laughed for ages at that. (noted the suggestion later that this might still be an element though).

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I think everyone got the cabbie - it was the one big hiccup in the writing.

As for what they trail on R2? I suspect they know their audience.

(Ow, ow, ow, don't throw any more!)