Quickies May 4, 2012

“Sherlock” Season 2 Comes to the US This Sunday!

Your typical Sherlock Holmes fan is a strange breed–loving stories written nearly a century and a half ago, at the height of the British Empire, set in Victorian London. You can find Holmes fans who love the Basil Rathbone films, and those that hate them; those that think the Downey/Jude Law/Guy Ritchie were awesome, and those that think they absolutely sucked; fans that have annotated editions and dig up the old John Gielgud BBC radio adoptions, and those that mix up “Valley of Fear” and “Sign of the Four”; those that think the whole “Mormon thing” in “A Study in Scarlet” was a waste of time, and those who found it fascinating. (I am not a big fan of the Jeremy Brett adaptations, for example.)

But with all that variation, I have yet to find any Holmes fan (or even non-fan) who doesn’t love the Beeb’s brilliant adaptation and updating of the classic Doyle stories, “Sherlock”, to be great.

Moved up from the late 19th to the early 21st Century, Holmes and Watson utilize cell phones, blogs, and other modern tech to solve their crimes. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes is, by far, the best I have ever seen, and Martin Freeman’s John Watson very much a more accurate portrayal than many might be used to. (Watson–a trained Army surgeon, Afghan war veteran, and well-documented ladies man, has almost always been ill-served by adaptations. Would a man as brilliant and self-sufficient as Sherlock Holmes go out of his way–as he does in many stories–to dig up his old companion if was a bumbling, Nigel Bruce-style boob?)

This Sunday, on PBS stations near you (as well as on iTunes), the U.S. finally gets to (legally) view the second season (or “Series”, as they call them in the U.K..) of “Sherlock”. Most of my nerd friends are salivating, as am I. This season will include creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat‘s takes on the classic Holmes stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “The Hound of the Baskervilles, and “The Final Solution” (“A Scandal in Belgravia”, “The Hounds of Baskerville”, and “The Reichenbach Fall”, respectively). Clocking in at 1.5 hours, each episode is more like a short movie. I really can’t recommend this show highly enough.

(This means, of course, that Sunday will be just packed. ”Game of Thrones”, “Mad Men”, and now “Sherlock”, all three big, high-profile productions. Not to mention “The Simpsons”, “Family Guy”, Stanley Cup hockey, and God knows what else. Good thing for iTunes and/or DVRs!)

So what about you? You a “Sherlock” fan, or do you think ol’ Doug’s gone round the bend again? Let us know below!

Tags: TV Shows

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About Douglas Moran

View all posts by Douglas Moran

Doug is a nerd from way back, falling for a Commodore PET at the age of 15, and never looking back. Riding the nerd wave, he got a Computer Science degree and entered the tech industry at a young age, deciding after a year and a half of front-line phone technical support that he should try something, *anything* else. He settled on technical writing, and has been cranking out documentation for companies like Unisys, SGI, Cisco, Juniper, and many others ever since. He is nothing short of ecstatic to be working for H-P from his home base in Austin.

Michael

I love, love, love the new Sherlock! The first series was great, but this second series somehow manages to be tremendously better (the internet does so well at sating the impatient). Thanks for the heads-up; can’t wait to download it from iTunes and watch them again.
Dina

The second series is great, of course, and you really get to see a new side to Sherlock. Can’t help feeling a teensy bit smug that I have gotten to watch something well before it came out in America when usually it’s the other way around for us here in the U.K! I feel your pain, fans of Sherlock
Kate

I completely agree that this is the most accurate portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson yet! It cannot be recommended highly enough. The script is very well-written, and the acting is great. Everyone should watch it!
Trina

‘Sherlock’ is a prime example of how good television can be. Great writing (oh, the dialogue!), great directing, amazingly acted, and altogether a treat for the eyes and ears. It’s extremely popular in the U.K. with good reason, and I frankly I’m a bit embarrassed that it hasn’t drawn the same kind of viewership in the U.S. – yet. So far it’s been a treat tasted only by the lucky few, here. But that may change with the blockbuster stories coming to us now.
- dancohen
  
  I have to agree. But that is my feeling about so many of the shows that come from the BBC. Each is almost like a mini movie.
  
  Most likely written with Siri. Please excuse any and all errors.
Doug Miller

My daughter bought me the complete Sherlock Holmes collection last year and I finished reading them a few weeks ago. I agree – these shows are great. I think that Downey/Law movies are great as well; I love both series more for how well they show Watson, actually.
Erin524

PBS did “creatively edit” the episode that aired yesterday. They took out a lot of little scenes that me and a lot of my Sherlock fangirl friends thought of as necessary for the development of the characters of Sherlock and John for scenes in the next two episodes.

Plus, they sped up the tape, a lot. The original UK version of the episode clocks in at almost exactly 90 mins, so they had to edit some stuff out for the introduction and the couple of commercials that they showed. I didnt mind the edits as much as the speeding up of the tape. I’d seen the original UK version (thank you innernets!) and the speeding up of the tape is probably only noticeable to people who’ve seen the original. It was a bit distracting.

At least now that it’s here in America, I can (legally!) download the episodes (I already pre-ordered the dvds) so I dont mind so much that PBS edited the episode. Since I’ll have the dvds to obsessively watch soon.

It’ll be interesting to see what they edited out of Hound of the Baskervilles, and Reichenbach Fall.