Sherlock

(2010) ****

Nothing like a good BBC made-for-tv movie to get the bad taste out of one's mouth from the overblown, underwritten fiasco that was last year's blockbuster Sherlock Holmes adaptation. Too bad, really, as Downey was well cast, and I usually like Law. But the script was garbage and the characters never fleshed out, and the whole thing felt more like Wild Wild West 3 than a Holmes story. Oh well--it made a bazillion dollars and no doubt will lead to (hopefully better) sequels.

So back to Masterpiece Mystery! on this fine Sunday night when I was supposed to be grading a huge stack of shitty essays. Real quote: "The boy in Araby believes in love at first site, and so do I." Ah yes, James Joyce, the bard of true love.

Tonight's pilot episode was titled "A Study in Pink," which is a play on the title of Doyle's original first Holmes novel "A Study in Scarlet;" and some parts of the new film are indeed based on the book. Incidentally, I just read the book last week, after realizing I'd somehow missed it during my Holmes phase a few years back. Man did Doyle mistrust those Mormons!

So in this version, as in the novel, Dr. John Watson has just returned physically and psychologically wounded from military service in Afghanistan. Funny how the Brits are still making the same mistakes they made 100 years ago, huh? An acquaintance introduces him to an odd guy who needs a flatmate, and we get the famous first meeting between Holmes and Watson wherein Holmes deduces all kinds of little biographical details about Watson. (I remember reading an essay in college by some linguist/philosopher who pointed out that Holmes' method of analysis is actually something called "abduction." Note to self to look that up.)

Pretty soon, Watson is running around London with Holmes trying to solve a quadruple suicide/serial murder case.


The good news here is that this is a LOT of fun. The writing is fun, the actors very well cast, and they do some fun editing to convey Holmes' talent for deduction. This is WAY better than the one off Hound of the Baskervilles I reviewed last year. What I really like is that the filmmakers clearly "get" what makes Holmes such an endearing pop culture phenomenon. They get what Doyle did well, and so they are able to keep very true to the Holmes of the stories even while updating it to the era of GPS and text messaging.

Probably some purists automatically have kneejerk reactions against the idea of Sherlock Holmes as blogger, but it makes perfect sense. I loved it.

Btw, it occurred to me while I was writing this review that I might be stretching the definition of "horror" to its breaking point. Hound last year certainly fits into category, but this one is really more a murder mystery. Mea culpa.

Here's the trailer: