I've been on a bit of a marathon of the 2010 Sherlock TV series recently, impressed by its strong performance in recent awards ceremonies. As usual for a BBC production the quality was excellent. There was some great acting, especially from Benedict Cumberbatch (awesome name) and Martin Freeman. The structure was just right with long, eighty-minute episodes but a short series run of only three programs. This allowed the directors to fully develop their plot lines but the series ended before the charm of the characters wore off and left the viewer eager for more. The interesting artistic style, notably the appearance of thoughts and electronic messages as words on the screen, and witty dialogue helped to set it apart from other crime dramas. However, it didn't quite achieve perfection, due mainly to some overly obvious foreshadowing, a weak finale and an unconvincing Moriarty. Below are some general musings on how the relationship between Holmes and Watson was portrayed followed by individual reviews of the three episodes.
Starting with the positive, I think the best thing about this series is the way it presented the relationship between Holmes and Watson. In some ways it remains very true to the books, with Holmes dragging Watson along through sheer force of character. The repeated joke of Holmes being too preoccupied to carry out trivial, menial tasks and stubbornly waiting for Watson to do them for him is funny every time. Also familiar from the novels is the director's use of Watson as a character that the viewer can relate to. Holmes may go off on wild tangents of feverish deduction but we can always rely on his explaining his thought processes to Watson at some point. Other aspects of the relationship, specifically the humour derived from other characters assuming they are a gay couple, are more modern concerns but still familiar from other TV drama and comedy.
However, these prosaic and humourous features of their relationship act as a cover for a darker, more gothic need that Holmes has for Watson. In the first episode, Donovan warns the Doctor to stay away from Holmes. She thinks his enthusiasm for death and mystery shows him to be a functioning psychopath who will inevitably eventually cross the line and turn from detective to murderer. From this perspective the loyal Watson can be seen as a link to humanity for the potentially unbalanced Holmes. He calls the genius detective to order when he is at his most alien and uncaring but his unfailing loyalty means that this criticism is always constructive and never petty or self serving. All of the jokes about them being gay or playing up Holmes' eccentricities obscure the deathly serious role that Watson plays as a surrogate conscience for Holmes.
Anyway here are my thoughts on the three episodes:
1) A Study in Pink
Intellectual Heritage - 'A Study in Scarlet', 'Saw I'
While it still diverged significantly from the book this was the episode which stuck closest to Arthur Conan Doyle's novels. This was ideal for the first episode as it quickly established that they hadn't just stuck the 'Sherlock Holmes' brand on an otherwise unrelated crime drama. It also allowed those of us who had read the book to sit back a bit and enjoy getting to know the characters as we already knew the broad aspects of the plot. However, I doubt it would have been too taxing even for viewers who hadn't read the novel. The foreshadowing that the killer was a taxi driver was, if anything, too blatant.
2) The Blind Banker
Intellectual Heritage - Snippets of some Sherlock Holmes stories, William Gibson's cyberpunk, Neal Stephenson's cryptography themes
This was definitely my favourite of the series. If 'A Study in Pink' was mainly an updating to the modern day of a Victorian story, this episode aimed to be indisputably modern and cutting edge. The use of graffiti as a medium for cryptography and the Triad assassin hunting for the smuggler's stolen property were great ideas that kept the plot moving quickly and wonderfully evoked a murky underground world of smuggling and intrigue. The awkwardness of the relationship between Sarah and Watson added a lot of humour. It began to feel a bit like the more cringe-worthy bits of 'Being Human' as they tried to enjoy their date despite Sherlock's gate crashing and the eventual fight with Chinese smugglers. The final show down between Holmes and the criminals didn't live up to the rest of the episode but the cliffhanger ending set things up well for the series finale.
3) The Great Game
Intellectual Heritage - Snippets of some Sherlock Holmes stories, 'Phonebooth', 'Saw I'
The finale of the series was a let down for me. For one thing it got very silly, with Moriarty deciding to play elaborate games with Sherlock rather than simply killing him and the presence of a Jaws-style giant Czech assassin. The plot whizzed between different cases as Holmes solved Moriarty's challenges, meaning that the bodies piled up too quickly for me to really care about any of them. When we finally met Moriarty he seemed to be aiming for a kind of Joker-like creepy insanity, with just a hint that it is an act to disguise a vicious stability underneath. This didn't really work and just made him come across as mentally unstable. I mean it's fair enough that a mass murderer might have some issues but one wonders how he holds together his massive criminal empire when he is so obviously cracked.
The only way to understand this one is as a further illustration that 'Genius needs an audience', a maxim uttered by Holmes in an earlier episode. Just as Holmes needs Watson to call his deductions brilliant occasionally, Moriarty needs someone to appreciate how clever his work as a 'contracting criminal' is. His camouflage is too perfect. By making himself invisible to the police he achieves security but also makes himself invisible to the appreciating yet horror-stricken audience that he believes he deserves. Therefore rather than doing the sensible thing and shooting Holmes he has to make him appreciate his work first. While plausible I found this too weak as a unifying theme for such an eclectic and fast moving episode.
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