Sherlock

[RedbottomedRedhead]

Anyone a fan of this?

Well, it's a British TV Series by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss about Sherlock Holmes in the 21st Century (a sort of spiritual sequel to another Moffat show, Jekyll, about a scientist and his super-strong bestial and hyper-cunning split personality). It's brilliant.

Each series is only three episodes long but dear God it's worth it. Essentially an eccentric detective, Sherlock Holmes and his room-mate John Watson go around solving crimes, sometimes people approach them, sometimes the police or Sherlock's older brother Mycroft get them to help.

The episodes so far have been great, especially for shipping (Sherlock and John, Sherlock and Irene Adler, Sherlock and Detective Inspector Lestrade, Sherlock and Molly the adorable pathologist, Sherlock and Moriarty ...).

Why am I posting this on this site? Well because this version of Irene Adler is a dominatrix. Riding crops and everything.

The only flaws I have with this series are:
Benedict Cumberbatch looks a bit like a goose.
Russell Tovey needed to use his actual voice last episode, not that posh one.
Series 1, Episode 2 is boring as Hell.

[RobM]

Series 1, really good.
Utterly awful, disaster choice of Moriarty. I mean, I didn't think Graham Norton worked for the BBC drama department anymore.
"Oh Begorah, kiss my shamrock meester Holmes. O'I'll be devilin' yer, so I will. Hah! Moi Bois frae' Dublin will have you roight out on yer arse (feck and drink) so they will."

He's awful.
but series 1, very good.

Series 2. So far, not good.
I don't like their reimagining of Irene Adler as a dominatrix. Fetish stuff aside and as appealing as a lot of their characterisation was (in someone else in another show) I didn't like it in this at all.

Besides, a lot of the stuff that was going on, all their fighting over the mobile-phone that holds all her secrets just didn't make sense. Canon from the original was that the 'photo' they were trying recover was that it was well hidden and in the event of something happening to her would be released. The idea that they had all her stuff for four months doesn't make sense.
In the real world, they'd have buried her in a coal mine somewhere and shrugged their shoulders that the data was now safe, even if it was secret. There is no secret on earth that would still be as important and urgant as it was four months later.

Also, a lot of the rest of it is just turgid, idiot-level stuff in Series 2. All this blogosphere stuff is being used to insert little in-jokes and easter-eggs. Like that quip about "The Speckled Blonde!" I just see it as Moffat throwing out buzzwords from his passing through a Holmes Glossary but not actually sitting down and reading either the books or having much of a clue.

Series 1 was all about the setup, which was very well done, now I have every damned fear that Moffat intends to simply throw all formula and all conventions to the wind, put all restraint on a bus going one-way to Azerbaijan and essentially make a Dr.Who In London Without TimeTravel detective drama with absolutely no Holmes intimations whatsoever.
He's got form for it, its what he's done with almost every other TV series (And film) he's ever been involved with.

Fingers crossed that the rest of series 2 proceeds apace, without too much Moriarty and with modern adaptions of the old stories, not modern reinventions.

Also I like Benedict Cumberbatch, however I find it almost impossible to remember he isn't Jack Davenport who, when he was younger, looked exactly like Benedict Cumberbatch does now, only handsomer.

PS:
Really loved the first Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. Really hated, hated, hated the second one, thought it was a piece of unredeemable shit. Could have just replaced the two leads with a black/white NYPD buddy-cop duo, set it in 80s New York and the film and would have been absolutely identical in every way.
I'm reeling under the double body-blow that the two things I most looked forward to in 2012 have both been awful.

PPS: I still like the dominatrix thing, just wish it had been in another show.

[RedbottomedRedhead]

I honestly think Hound Of The Baskervilles was the best episode of the whole series, Mark Gatiss is a bloody good writer when he comes down to it =)

At first you find out about the Baskerville research centre and you think either:
1) Oh yeah! Genetically engineered wolf roaming the forest! (If you are a gamer/ bro of some kind).
2) A genetically engineered wolf roaming around the forest ... yay (Me).

But then everything comes together so well, no one uses "Hound", that guy said "Cell" (That struck me as weird, didn't get it at first) there is fog all over the place. Admittedly the CGI was bloody awful but ... Oh God the guy in the gas mask with the red eyes, Jesus that was freaky.

Though I am sure Mr. Cumberbatch is a lovely person he isn't that attractive, he has a funny face, a really long neck and ... well look at him without the Sherlock stuff on: He's blonde and it makes him look odd. (All about Martin Freeman xP).

I quite like "Jim Moriarty" if I'm honest, though I think it was nice that he wasn't a major part of 2.2.

[AlfaStag3711]

I prefer the film and the actual Sir Arthur Conan Doyle books, I mean the series is good but I think it's a little too modern for me.

Gotta love great's

[CrossedWires]

My girlfriend's into the actual Sherlock Holmes books, and just about everyone I know (Including her) is a Sherlockian (Is that what we call ourselves?).

Last series was heart-wrenching! D:

[UNSCpillarofautem]

yeah im a fan too i cant wait for the new season they just started filming.

[CrossedWires]

I'm a little annoyed that we aren't getting it till 2014 though

What I do like is how Mark Gatiss is hinting at making a new villain, an ORIGINAL villain which I really like the sound of

[AlfaStag3711]

I've actually started to get back into it, I guess I was disliking it at first, been a lover of the old fashioned sort I'm used to in the books and films.

but it's just like a cool version of CSI really.

[RobM]

*Gnaws his tongue slightly*

Mmmnnngnngnnn!

What I will say... is that I'm not totally convinced that one or more recent posters here aren't talking about Elementary instead - which despite being a flashy and somewhat generic NY Copshow is 10x10^21 orders of magnitude better than season 2 of BBCs sherlock was.
Which was fucking shit. I would chose to elabourate by pointing out the major character flaws and character reversals, editorial mistakes, continuality errors between scenes, major inconsistancies in plot or just point out how blatantly badly written and how poorly produced the episode stories in season 2 were... but last time I did that with Dr. Who I got a load of apologist fangirls whining at me in PMs so I'll hang fire.

PS: Elementary is really good, even if it is generic... its like the JJ Abrams Startrek stuff.
It sorta misses the bullseye, but still lands on the dart-board... and the makers clearly both get the source material and care about getting it right.

There's canon characters like Inspector Gregson poping up where they should. Irene Adler is there where she should be (an intelectual and moral issue that bothers him abstractly despite her only being mentioned in passing manner) and not some pointless and stupid character with a love-arc that makes no sense and is completely contrived. Holmes is made out to be a depressed, self-depreciating misfit with a sense of guilt, not a low-functioning aspie.

The very best comparison I could make is that Elementary is a series that takes Holmes mythology and universe canon as something to draw inspiration from and to leave as easter eggs. Sherlock season 2 treated sherlock canon as something to be childhoodraped for largely shock value.

As a series I find it very watchable without being exausting.

[CrossedWires]

Elementary's the one with Lucy Liu right?
I'm not sure what to think of that, apparently it's quite good but I'm kinda wary of watching it seeing as what the US did to Inbetweeners, Red Dwarf and Life On Mars :/ I suppose I shouldn't knock it until I try it?

I absolutely hated the Irene Adler episode. It was pointless, took too long and I didn't understand it. My personal headcanon is that her seeing Sherlock is just a fantasy in her head and then she dies it's just too ... ugh, it's too much of a happy ending. And I don't like how she's treated as a major character by some of the fandom :/