Masterpiece Mystery – Look at us, getting all cultured up in here! This week saw the premiere of the British series Sherlock, meaning it was a very good week for crime dramas with damaged protagonists from the UK. It’s a modernization of Sherlock Homes, using the original stories as the basis but transplanting the setting to 2010. Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes takes a page from Hugh Laurie’s House, playing the iconic detective as a guy who is much more interested in solving a mystery than he is in any of the people involved. He’s anti-social and a little bit odd. The first episode introduced him to John Watson (played by Martin Freeman, better known as Tim in the UK version of The Office), now reimagined as a wounded veteran of the Afghan conflict. It’s fun and clever, with some really neat ideas. Text messages appear on the screen, almost like a word balloon coming from the phone. It’s eye-catching, and it saves us from repeated zooms onto the phone’s display so that we can read along. When Holmes examines a dead body, his insights appear as text on the screen – it’s a little strange at first, but it works quite well to indicate to us what it is that he’s observing. After all, the viewers can’t tell that the victim’s coat is wet. It’s a good visual shorthand and the quirkiness of the gimmick is a nice illustration of Sherlock’s thought process. Unfortunately, the first season is only three episodes, though each episode is a solid 90 minutes. Whether you’re a Baker Street Irregular or you only know Sherlock Hemlock from Sesame Street, Sherlock is worth a look.
