Sherlock (pilot for new show)
Aka, Stephen "The Moff" Moffat and Mark "I'm not sure I'm over your awful Jolly Churchill and the iDaleks episode yet, Mister!" Gattis created a modern day Sherlock Holmes series which has just debuted. So far, so good, and I like the pilot far more than the pilot for Moffat's last Victorian-tale-put-in-the-present show, Jekyll. So, a few observations (and nitpicks, naturally).
First of all, regarding our regular leads: Martin Freeman makes a fine Watson, and did they deliberately style him to look like John Simm as Sam Tyler or is that just a coincidence? Benedict Cumberpatch (what a Dickensian name?) is suitably arrogant and bright as Holmes, though a bit too pretty for me. (That was one of my problems with RDJ in the role, too, btw. I like my Sherlocks played by actors who have arresting, interesting faces but aren't classically handsome. Which is true for Jeremy Brett, Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone alike.) But you know whom I really, really loved? Lestrade. And not just because he's played by Rupert Graves, whom I have something of a soft spot for. No, it's the writing as well. Thankfully the Moff stayed away from the bumbling, incompetent policemen of yore with all the coppers but especially Lestrade; here the good inspector is a decent, hard-working man, not as smart as Holmes, yes, but far more grounded as a human being, interested in solving the case above all ego matters and also with some human concern for Holmes - what's not to love?
I wasn't surprised that Watson's Afghanistan war service made the transference to the present, and the resulting angst heightened the Sam Tyler resemblance. Though I have to say, I did not see the in-joke about ACD's tendency to let Watson's wound change place depending on the story coming, and it was hilarious.
At one point, I thought,"Ah, the Moff has seen The Secret of Sherlock Holmes back in the day" - when Sally Donavan predicted to Watson (sorry, I just can't call them "John" and "Sherlock") that one day he'd be so bored he'd end up as a killer himself - but then we got the mirror scene with Lestrade's conversation with Watson about Holmes with the "he's a great man, and one day, if we're very lucky, he might actually become a good one" statement, and I thought, oh, now that's interesting. A version of Holmes with the potential to become a supervillain has been done repeatedly; and of course so has the "doesn't care about the victims, only about the puzzle" challenge by other characters (most recently with House), but to juxtapose that with the challenge to become, to use Lestrade's term, "good", should make for an interesting arc.
(BTW, I do hope they meant Holmes hurting the dying killer in order to find out whom he was working for as a sign of his dark side and his prioritizing knowledge over humanity, and not as a nod to obnoxious current day torture are us heroes like Jack Bauer.)
The Holmes canon is not exactly bursting with female characters, so I'm glad the Moff made one of Lestrade's team female, though if it turns out Sally Donavan (who obviously has some type of backstory with Holmes) is only cynical about him because she either got turned down or they had a relationship that ended badly, I shall be severely disappointed. A regular who's anti-Holmes not for petty reasons seems like a good idea. Mrs. Hudson in her brief appearances is enjoyable enough, Not!Emma Peel could be interesting if she gets to say a bit more, and Sherlock and Mycroft bringing up "Mummy" makes me hope in this version of the tale we might get to meet her. I also liked that the last victim, the one we found out the most about, was presented - in as much as that's possible considering the plot demands that she's dead, of course - as smart and strong enough to incriminate her killer, and that Holmes states she had several lovers not judgmentally but later uses it as part of his argument that she had to be good in planning and scheduling. :)
Everyone and their dog assuming that Watson was Holmes' new boyfriend was a nice nod to the twenty-first century and the changed assumptions about two men living with each other; Holmes himself assuming Watson is interested should make the slashers happy.
Something else that’s changed in the 21st century: Holmes can’t be a cocaine consumer anymore. Though playing him as a former addict was a clever way of keeping the trait without either presenting the drug consummation as unrealistically harmless as ACD did or letting a realistic depiction take up too much time from the crime solving and banter. Also, the nicotine patches and the “this is a three patch problem” cracked me up.
Lastly: clever fake out re: Moriarty and Mycroft, and if you're familiar with Alan Moore's The Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it's a neat reverse of the twist he pulls there.
First of all, regarding our regular leads: Martin Freeman makes a fine Watson, and did they deliberately style him to look like John Simm as Sam Tyler or is that just a coincidence? Benedict Cumberpatch (what a Dickensian name?) is suitably arrogant and bright as Holmes, though a bit too pretty for me. (That was one of my problems with RDJ in the role, too, btw. I like my Sherlocks played by actors who have arresting, interesting faces but aren't classically handsome. Which is true for Jeremy Brett, Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone alike.) But you know whom I really, really loved? Lestrade. And not just because he's played by Rupert Graves, whom I have something of a soft spot for. No, it's the writing as well. Thankfully the Moff stayed away from the bumbling, incompetent policemen of yore with all the coppers but especially Lestrade; here the good inspector is a decent, hard-working man, not as smart as Holmes, yes, but far more grounded as a human being, interested in solving the case above all ego matters and also with some human concern for Holmes - what's not to love?
I wasn't surprised that Watson's Afghanistan war service made the transference to the present, and the resulting angst heightened the Sam Tyler resemblance. Though I have to say, I did not see the in-joke about ACD's tendency to let Watson's wound change place depending on the story coming, and it was hilarious.
At one point, I thought,"Ah, the Moff has seen The Secret of Sherlock Holmes back in the day" - when Sally Donavan predicted to Watson (sorry, I just can't call them "John" and "Sherlock") that one day he'd be so bored he'd end up as a killer himself - but then we got the mirror scene with Lestrade's conversation with Watson about Holmes with the "he's a great man, and one day, if we're very lucky, he might actually become a good one" statement, and I thought, oh, now that's interesting. A version of Holmes with the potential to become a supervillain has been done repeatedly; and of course so has the "doesn't care about the victims, only about the puzzle" challenge by other characters (most recently with House), but to juxtapose that with the challenge to become, to use Lestrade's term, "good", should make for an interesting arc.
(BTW, I do hope they meant Holmes hurting the dying killer in order to find out whom he was working for as a sign of his dark side and his prioritizing knowledge over humanity, and not as a nod to obnoxious current day torture are us heroes like Jack Bauer.)
The Holmes canon is not exactly bursting with female characters, so I'm glad the Moff made one of Lestrade's team female, though if it turns out Sally Donavan (who obviously has some type of backstory with Holmes) is only cynical about him because she either got turned down or they had a relationship that ended badly, I shall be severely disappointed. A regular who's anti-Holmes not for petty reasons seems like a good idea. Mrs. Hudson in her brief appearances is enjoyable enough, Not!Emma Peel could be interesting if she gets to say a bit more, and Sherlock and Mycroft bringing up "Mummy" makes me hope in this version of the tale we might get to meet her. I also liked that the last victim, the one we found out the most about, was presented - in as much as that's possible considering the plot demands that she's dead, of course - as smart and strong enough to incriminate her killer, and that Holmes states she had several lovers not judgmentally but later uses it as part of his argument that she had to be good in planning and scheduling. :)
Everyone and their dog assuming that Watson was Holmes' new boyfriend was a nice nod to the twenty-first century and the changed assumptions about two men living with each other; Holmes himself assuming Watson is interested should make the slashers happy.
Something else that’s changed in the 21st century: Holmes can’t be a cocaine consumer anymore. Though playing him as a former addict was a clever way of keeping the trait without either presenting the drug consummation as unrealistically harmless as ACD did or letting a realistic depiction take up too much time from the crime solving and banter. Also, the nicotine patches and the “this is a three patch problem” cracked me up.
Lastly: clever fake out re: Moriarty and Mycroft, and if you're familiar with Alan Moore's The Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it's a neat reverse of the twist he pulls there.