Miniseries Review: "Sherlock"

Sherlock
(season 1)

Directed by: Paul McGuigan, Euros Lyn
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Rupert Graves
Rated: Not Rated (Unofficial rating would be PG-13 for disturbing/intense images, violence, and mild language)

I normally won't watch a miniseries, and normally don’t like modernizations of classic stories. However, I’m making an exception for the BBC’s three-part series Sherlock, a modernization of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic character Sherlock Holmes. The series, which is three ninety-minute films, feels more like a trilogy of movies than a miniseries. But, more importantly, the series doesn’t feel like a modernization; it feels like the original. Most adaptations hit the characterizations so well, the characters become predictable and shallow. Sherlock certainly gives us real, fleshed out characters that still follow Conan Doyle's form. Holmes, despite donning modern British attire and using cell-phones and computers, is the same quirky, stuck-up, and instantly brilliant persona that he was in Conan Doyle’s novels. Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman in his BAFTA winning performance), has arrived back home from the war in Afghanistan, and is more of a voice of normal society; Watson is likeable, smart, and not intimidated by Holmes (or really anyone.) The humor of their relationship really blossoms throughout the series, between Sherlock's disdain towards the commoner's lack of intelligence and Watson's frustration at the quirkiness and arrogance of Holmes. While modernizations are normally built on gimmicks for the older fans or changes that infuriate them, Sherlock is built the same as Conan Doyle’s stories: on the cases he solves. In past stories and adaptations, the brilliant mind of Sherlock is wasted on trivial cases and novice villains. In the miniseries, the level of both is raised to Sherlock’s bar, which makes them as heart-pounding as they are mind-bending. Thanks to the interesting characters (especially Professor Moriarty), the seriousness of the cases, and the strong visual nature of the direction (especially underrated director Paul McGuigan), Sherlock branches out from Conan Doyle’s stories in a way that makes the series as exciting and addicting as they come, yet still give us the characters and nuances that we’ve come to know and love.