[Anaedilla]

FYI: one of the Sherlock Holmes boards linked to an interview on Shortlist with Cumberbatch and Freeman about the show. Just in the interview, you get a sense of well these two actors play off each other.

Question: Are you both fans of the books?
BC: Yeah, I’ve very much been reading the books. It’s the origination of it so you have to go back to them. I think what we’re doing requires that — to bring out what’s unique about him in this modern context you have to go to the original stories. Especially as we’re looking at the inception, I think it’s the first time their meeting has ever been dramatised over the course of 72 different versions. The original books are so good, really well thought out and have beautifully drawn characters. Martin’s illiterate though, so he couldn’t go back to them.
MF: I’m a deaf mute, so he reads them out to me.

[grizolsemn]

Martin Freeman was really good as Watson. I'm not sure about the one who portrays Sherlock. I think he overacts. Maybe it's deliberate, but he hasn't convinced me as the sociopath he claims to be. Yes, he's eccentric and methodical, but my impression is more like a robot. Maybe it's just me. I should watch it again, and I'll do it gladly.

Overall I liked the modern update. I liked the details, like the use of the weather report on a mobile phone.

Now, on a side note, Steven Moffat penned Jekyll with James Nesbitt and that was imo a brilliant show.

[preptarra]

I'm gonna miss today's one, but I'll download it afterwards and watch the first one again with it I think, as I missed the first part of it.

[cauddyVab]

Well episode 2 has left us all rather quiet.

I felt this was lacking last week's dynamism, despite having some great creepy moments. The villianess was very arch and a bit (60s) Batman, which is "fabulous" but also kind of naff.

They introduce a girl to shake-up-the-team (so intolerably static after 1 episode?) which is not inherantly blasphemous and anywayWatson marries their first female client in the books and hey she's FIESTY!

But oh hai now she's tied up crying waiting to be rescued WTF

Still it was OK and as presumably the weakest of the 3 it's certainly an acceptable bottom line.

Wants more Una Stubbs next week! And no police - they only pop up every now and then in teh books with good reason, if he ends up assisting them every week it starts to feel like a Cop Show, which it's got no need to pretend to be.

[preptarra]

I'm about to watch it this evening! I heard it's not as strong as the first one, but that often happens with a three part mini series. The first and last are the strongest with a weaker middle

[preptarra]

Did anyone else catch Sherlock tonight on BBC1? I missed the first half hour or so, but still got into it pretty quickly.

They've updated it and set it in modern day London, but with Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss writing it, I thought they'd manage to pull that conceit off. And they really did. Ace. Really witty, clever writing.

There's three 90min episodes filmed, due to screen Sunday evenings at 9pm. It'll be on BBC iPlayer too, but that doesn't work outside of the UK

Moffat and Gatiss have both written episodes of Doctor Who, and discussed plans for their Holmes series on their numerous train journeys to Cardiff, where Doctor Who production is based. The two writers were big Sherlock Holmes fans. Gatiss asserts that Conan Doyle "was a f***ing genius writer ... Whenever I meet someone who hasn't read them, I always think they have got so much fun to come."

Talking about developing the show with Moffat, Gatiss says "What appealed to us about the idea of doing Sherlock in the present day is that the characters have become almost literally lost in the fog ... And while I am second to no one in my enjoyment of that sort of Victoriana, we wanted to get back to the characters and to why they became the most wonderful partnership in literature."

Steven Moffat also talks about returning to the core of Conan Doyle's stories. He says, "Conan Doyle's stories were never about frock coats and gas light; they're about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and blood-curdling crimes - and frankly, to hell with the crinoline." The website that Holmes runs in the series is online too: http://www.thescienceofdeduction.co.uk/

[preptarra]

Oh, and they have a blog for Watson too: http://www.johnwatsonblog.co.uk/ Loving his description of his first impressions of Sherlock:

It's mad. I think he might be mad. He was certainly arrogant and really quite rude and he looks about 12 and he's clearly a bit public school and, yes, I definitely think he might be mad but he was also strangely likeable. He was charming. It really was all just a bit strange. And I did laugh at the interaction between Watson and his brother in the comments I gotta say. Nicely done interactive add-ons to the show.

[freeringtonesioo]

I quite enjoyed it, although I found Watson a lot more interesting and sympathetic than Holmes, to be honest.

[assonomaf]

Forgot this was on and need to catch up, but I did see a chase sequence with some very questionable and ~stylish editing. Otherwise it looked very good!

[preptarra]

I quite enjoyed it, although I found Watson a lot more interesting and sympathetic than Holmes, to be honest.

I liked his quip about being a high functioning sociopath though.

I'm not sure what I think about the text on the screen gimmick. While handy at times, it was a bit offputting in places.

[Anaedilla]

I can't read this thread for a couple more hours. Argh, stupid regional BBC iplayer!

[tomsmuidh]

It'll be on BBC iPlayer too, but that doesn't work outside of the UK

Which is fucking annoying!!!!
Where else should I watch my missed episodes of Escape to the Country!
(Oh, Alistair )

[cauddyVab]

That was mindblowingly good. Despite loving the last series of DrWho I was quite nervous about what Mr "He falls in love with a woman but is thwarted BY TIME!!! AGAIN!!!!" Moffatt might do to my second favorite non-heterocentric Brit Icon Franchise but I was whooping for joy at its marvellousness.

Like most people over here (I think) I think of Jeremy Brett's fantastic aristocratic version as the definitive model but lately I've been loving hearing the BBC Radio 4 plays starring Clive Merrison with Michael Williams (the late Mr Judi Dench) as Watson, downloaded from archive site Radio 7.

Merrison is a more of a gleeful impatient professor and Williams has become my definitive Watson. He's not just a patient and occasionally exasperated blank cavas for the star to shine in front of, but (being the narrator) is right at the heart of the tone of it - warm, clever, heroic, lethal - he needs to be as "Human" as Holmes is "Logic" for the whole thing to balance.

And that's why I especially love [:log:] Martin Freeman.

So many brilliant transpositions - keeping it spoiler free - particularly everything he figures out about Watson (explained in the taxi scene) which was lifted straight from A Study in Scarlet and placed in an equivalent modern context of clues.

And then as if I wasn't sold enough already the world's greatest overlooked should-have-been-a-gay-icon Una "Worzel Gummidge's Scarecrow Dominatrix Aunt Sally" Stubbs turns up as Mrs Hudson.

c19959.jpg

spaceball.gif
Winapalooza.

Now, why the heck isn't Torchwood this good?
Clue: J*** *arrowman?

[preptarra]

Moffat doesn't write for Torchwood, though, right? I always think that Torchwood is RTD's baby.

[assonomaf]

Torchwood was mostly helmed by a mix of Chris Chibnall and Davies. The horror.

The weak link, however, is definitely the extremely uncharismatic and cartoonish lead. Also the inconsistent tone, false edginess, uneven character development, etc. etc. etc. I know a lot of people saw Children of Earth as a step forward, but I actually found that the show lost its appeal after it started to take itself so seriously. Before, it was funny and camp. Then it was Independence Day. Then it was a cabal of Looney Tunes caricatures being angsty.

[Anaedilla]

I'm sad there are only three episodes. I loved the visual graphics of how Sherlock put together clues at crime scenes and the use of texting/the internet to add a fresh spin on his crime solving resources. I also agree with Helen that Watson's character is much better fleshed out in this series than it usually is. He's more than just a foil for Holmes and I love how he's been made a bit of an emotionally as well as physically-damaged person. Actually think Watson is a more interesting character in some ways, than Holmes at this point or at least more subtly complex, due in part to Freeman's performance. I wish Cumberbatch's Sherlock was a little less bombastic though. I know that Holmes is not exactly stable, but at a few points during his performance I kept thinking of this




Still really looking forward to the next episode. I hearted Sherlock Holmes so much growing up and those books were actually one of the reasons I went for a science degree. Moffat and Gatiss have definitely breathed new life into Doyle's work.

[gamblingstats]

I really loved it and I wasn't expecting to. I'm always kind of suspicious of new British dramas, particularly when they do a modern twist of an old classic', but I thought this was really well done. It managed to feel current but also familiar as well, and made clever use of modern technology (loved the text message thing) without being so obviously 'this is a classic story but LOOK, it's based in TODAY, look at all these newfangled things our old hero is using!'

I loved the way the characters of the two leads were explored, especially with the photographic memory and the 'high-functioning sociopath' elements; and the villain was interesting too.

I'm looking forward to the next two - I don't know what the intention for it is but I think this could potentially become a great franchise and there are so many possibilities to explore, with both the wealth of old material and potential new ideas for these types of characters and situation.

[BqTyG9eS]

benedict cumberbatch is a star. i love the whole of this. i have nothing more to add except for hands up for ben. and the production as a whole. yay!

[preptarra]

I'm downloading today's final part of Sherlock at the moment. anyone catch it ? Opinions?

[tomsmuidh]

I finally saw Ep1.
That was really really enjoyable. A Sherlock like Dr House, nice one!
Also 'I'm not his date'!