Sherlock: A Study in Pink

[strange_complex]

This production from Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss has been well-hyped, which always makes me wary. But it does seem to have got off to a good start this evening. Here are some of the things I particularly liked about it:

• The fact that the first time we see Sherlock's face, it's viewed upside-down and from within a body-bag. A lovely statement of how the series intends to invert old tropes.
• The décor of the flat in 221b Baker Street, which managed to capture the feel of - oh, say - the set for the Granada series with Jeremy Brett, while still being plausibly contemporary at the same time.
• Along similar lines, "It's a three patch problem" - lol!
• The handling of text messages by just putting the text on the screen as we watch the character reading it. So much more simple and elegant than showing us the actual phone screen! Why haven't I seen anyone doing this before?
• Similar for Sherlock's thought-processes as he examined the lady in pink lying on the floor. Much better than having him explain every detail to Watson - because although he did do that as well, filling in what he had deduced from his observations as he did so, it gave us as the audience a chance to do a little deducing ourselves before it was all spelt out for us.
• And indeed all the road signs, road markings and maps overlaying Holmes and Watson's chase after the mysterious taxi-cab. Someone on the design team really know a thing or two about merging text and images.
• Obviously lots and lots of queer references - not just Holmes and Watson themselves, though that was handled beautifully, but Mrs. Whoeveritwas next door having 'married ones' and 'Harry' Watson turning out to be short for Hariette. Well done!
• And although the structure of a story centred around the relationship between two men obviously doesn't leave as much room for female characters as I'd really like, we have some promising starts: Mycroft's smartphone-addicted assistant Anthea, and Sergeant Donovan, who is more than ready to viciously deconstruct Sherlock's character.
• Indeed, the general feeling that Sherlock is dangerous and that getting too deeply involved with him may backfire on Watson. That's an important element of the character, but all too easily eroded if we come to him with the baggage of previous experience, and thus take for granted that he is the good guy and that we can trust him. If we are to understand this Sherlock as someone new, that trust does need to be undermined.

On the minus side, I felt that some of the intended mysteries in the plot weren't as mysterious as they ought to have been. I knew that Mark Gatiss' character was intended to be Mycroft, rather than e.g. Moriarty, from his first appearance - partly because he demonstrated the same powers of deduction as Holmes, but mainly because Gatiss' performance was clearly channelling Charles Gray (again from the Granada series). And we'd already seen enough evocative shots of London taxis that I knew exactly what we were being pointed towards by the time Holmes started exhorting Watson to try to think of what type of person could hunt unseen in broad daylight. In fact, it seemed rather disappointing that the cab driver had to basically come and pick Holmes up from his flat in the end in order for the two to finally have their stand-off. I'd have preferred him to actually realise why the phone was at their address, and go out to the cab himself.

Still, this is nothing that'll matter if the quality of the acting, characterisation, scripting and production we've seen this evening are sustained and (in some cases) developed. I'll definitely be watching next weekend.

Click here if you would like view this entry in light text on a dark background.