Sherlock - Season One

Sherlock - Season One
[DVD Sherlock]

Sherlock is a reimagining of the classic tale of Sherlock Holmes, bringing the legendary, well-known characters out of the foggy era of horse-drawn carriages and into the modern era. Holmes in this case is a brilliant yet somewhat unstable man, still a "consulting detective" for Scotland Yard (and the stolid yet unremarkable Inspector Lestrade), and running a website extolling his theories of deductive reasoning. Dr. John Watson is a military veteran of the Middle East conflict, looking for lodgings and trying to reassimilate himself into society (while dealing with nightmares about his war experiences). The first episode is a very nicely done reworking of the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, introducing the Holmes and Watson characters. Beyond that similarity, however, everything is very modern and up-to-date, with the characters making heavy use of contemporary electronic technologies -- cellphones, laptops, texting, etc. Sherlock is a very stylish series, with lavish production design, funky music and a fascinating editing style -- lots of fast cuts and computer graphics super-imposed as Sherlock rapidly makes calculations about the evidence before him. The performances from Benedict Cumberbatch (Holmes) and Martin Freeman (Watson) are absolutely terrific, and they very quickly develop a likeable chemistry as the characters. That's a good thing, since there were only three 2-hour movies produced for this first season, which ends on a major cliffhanger. Holmesian purists seem split on their attitudes towards this reinvention of the characters, but I found it remarkably true to the essence of the Sherlock Holmes canon and highly recommend it. And never fear...if you're wondering if arch-enemy Professor Moriarty puts in an appearance, you won't be disappointed. Written and produced by some of the same folks who are bringing us the newest version of Doctor Who, Sherlock originally appeared on British television in July/August of 2010, then aired as part of the PBS Masterpiece Mystery series in October 2010. A second season is in production for broadcast in 2011.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this series ] | [ official Sherlock on PBS Masterpiece web site ] | [ official The Science of Deduction site maintained by Holmes in the series ]

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