It’s true! After many, many pleads from my friend Chevy (who I can’t thank enough for insisting on it, really) I have finally watched BBC’s contemporary version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles was one of the very first “real”
books I have ever read. And by “real” I mean without preschool educational intentions
and entertaining drawings designed for children. My school had a system where students would share their books with
the class – they were all left in a box in the corner of the room - and every
student was allowed to borrow a different book every week. That’s how I got
into Baskervilles. Later that year,
we had to buy it for our reading class, and the teacher even showed us the film
adaptation (after a quick search on IMDb, I believe it was Rodney Gibbons' version, with Matt Frewer as Holmes and Kenneth Welsh as Watson, which was probably the
newest one at that time). After that, I had read a few of the short stories
from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,
which my grandmother owned – she is a big fan of criminal novels, Agatha
Christie being her favorite but with Conan Doyle’s stories not being far behind.
So BBC’s Sherlock was not my first experience
with Holmes – as I believe it was rarely anyone’s. That being said, I did not
know what to expect. The Victorian aspect of the original stories could easily
be seen as their very heart, so could a modern adaptation be fair to the books whilst
happening in the 21st century? I did not know the answer, but in my mind I
was picturing something close to a slightly more British version of the
countless and needless American crime shows. The hype this series carries in
every social media is immense – even if fans have to wait two entire years to
get a new series with only three episodes each. People spend this two year gap
creating the craziest (yet somehow very convincing) theories about what the
writers have planned for the next three episodes. It is clearly a worldwide phenomenon.
I have a judging radar in my head, and it is usually
at its peak when the hype is too overwhelming. For some reason, when a
successful show or franchise has too many teenage fans, I tend to judge
quickly. Sherlock happens to have a
very extended base of teenage fans, but you’d be a fool to think it is targeted
at teenagers. The truth is, this series has reached such a dimension that it
has become suitable to (almost) all ages. Teenagers, they enjoy it - but elder
Conan Doyle fans should not be disappointed; the brilliance of the original
stories has not been lost. It’s quite
obvious that the writing style is gone when you make a screen adaptation, but
in this case – oh, in this case, the
excellence of the writing in John Watson’s diaries has been transposed to a
beautiful, inspiring use of quality photography and a splendid crew with a good
choice of impeccable actors.
Credit must be given to Benedict Cumberbatch’s
supreme, defectless portrayal of Holmes. The smarty, arrogant aspect of the character
is there – but with a remarkable dose of charm Conan Doyle fans could never
have predicted. With an agile use of speech and a vast level of indifference, it
is very hard to believe Cumberbatch is not the consulting detective himself,
hadn’t he already proved to be a well-mannered compassionate actor. It is hard
to tell what he adds to the character, but it has an appeal that could only be
understood by sight.
And then
we have Martin Freeman to create the perfect balance. “The heart”, John Watson –
the one who sees the situation as a whole, the one who adds tenderness to this
relationship – there could not be a better person to bring this famous doctor
to life. Freeman is the man who offers to the viewers his character’s own perspectives
– probably another way to bring up the fact that Watson is the narrator in the
original stories. We see Holmes as Watson sees Holmes, and we see the crimes as
Watson sees the crimes. We get our emotions incremented during the episodes,
all because of one man, and that man is Martin Freeman, who manages to simulate
this flood of emotions in a splendid manner.
I take my hat off to Steven Moffat and Mark
Gatiss (who also does an outstanding portrayal of Sherlock’s brother Mycroft),
who have been involved in a good amount of exceptional work together, but that
have perhaps reached their peak with the excellence of Sherlock, something that could have only been accomplished by true
Conan Doyle fans, determined to do their best without expecting any massive
response.
This year, I have joined the long 24-month-wait.
This year, I am Sherlocked.
