[Critique/Review] Sherlock (Season 1 and 2) [English version]

Translated from the French by Pauline Roux.

Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss in 2010.

         Let’s just say it straightaway: this adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson’s adventures by scriptwriters Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat is certainly the best ever made, all Sherlock’s films and series considered . The authors stay true to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s universe, but manage to transpose it in the contemporary world and do everything they can to modernize the main character. They remain faithful to the spirit of the books as well as keep intact suspense and Holmes’ famous sciences of deduction. Therefore, Gatiss and Moffat use high technologies in many ways, in the different plots: internet (for Holmes’ research and Watson’s blog), smart phones (for applications and high speed information), and GPS are tools employed to make Sherlock Holmes a modern, reachable and contemporary man.

            The main plots of the original short stories, like The Hound of the Baskerville, A Study in Red or The Five Orange Pips are kept, but also modernized and adapted in order to keep the main elements: suspense, sometimes supernatural and the strength of Holmes’ deduction.

Although he's a modern man, Shelock still plays the violin.

            In spite of the old fashioned Sherlock Holmes we can have in mind with Conan Doyle’s novels or the acting of Jemery Brett; Gatiss and Moffat present to us a younger M. Holmes. Based on the hyperactive, presumptuous and stormy behaviour of this character, they create an unpredictable and brilliant man, sometimes impossible to live with, whom Watson must follow everywhere, help and support in any circumstances. This involves being ready for anything at anytime. As a result, the show is very dynamic, and you can’t get bored a second. We follow these two characters in many typical locations of London, as the Battersea Manufactury, the edges of the Tames or industrial fallow lands, but also the English countryside. The series moves all the time and we love it!

             Many techniques are employed to support this modernization. Once again, we can pay tribute to the work of the BBC production, which are employed to make series look like real pieces of art, very close to films. The quality of Sherlock’s photography is absolutely brilliant and filmed in High Definition. Directors Paul McGuigan, Euros Lyn and Toby Haynes take risks, by using moving camera, to make us see the characters’ perspective and movements as well as how the action evolves. Special effects are not spectacular but they are devilishly efficient, and give rhythm and humour to the plot, avoiding unnecessary dialogues. Insertions of texts or images on the screen, optical effects, changes of location enclosed in the frame: special effects are ingenious, modern and include the viewer in the action. We have to read, think or sometimes make deductions, and we are very pleased to be part of the current investigation. The music, with very good themes, full of rhythms, very brassy and syncopated, inspires dynamism and lightness to the characters’ adventures. 

In spite of the old fashioned Sherlock Holmes we can have in mind with Conan Doyle’s novels or the acting of Jemery Brett; Gatiss and Moffat present to us a younger M. Holmes. Based on the hyperactive, presumptuous and stormy behaviour of this character, they create an unpredictable and brilliant man, sometimes impossible to live with, whom Watson must follow everywhere, help and support in any circumstances. This involves being ready for anything at anytime. As a result, the show is very dynamic, and you can’t get bored a second. We follow these two characters in many typical locations of London, as the Battersea Manufactury, the edges of the Tames or industrial fallow lands, but also the English countryside. The series moves all the time and we love it!

            Many techniques are employed to support this modernization. Once again, we can pay tribute to the work of the BBC production, which are employed to make series look like real pieces of art, very close to films. The quality of Sherlock’s photography is absolutely brilliant and filmed in High Definition. Directors Paul McGuigan, Euros Lyn and Toby Haynes take risks, by using moving camera, to make us see the characters’ perspective and movements as well as how the action evolves. Special effects are not spectacular but they are devilishly efficient, and give rhythm and humour to the plot, avoiding unnecessary dialogues. Insertions of texts or images on the screen, optical effects, changes of location enclosed in the frame: special effects are ingenious, modern and include the viewer in the action. We have to read, think or sometimes make deductions, and we are very pleased to be part of the current investigation. The music, with very good themes, full of rhythms, very brassy and syncopated, inspires dynamism and lightness to the characters’ adventures.

"Special effects are not spectacular but they are devilishly efficient, and give rhythm and humour to the plot, avoiding unnecessary dialogues. Insertions of texts or images on the screen, optical effects, changes of location enclosed in the frame."

         Sherlock is a detective series, but we still enjoy the Britannic sense of humour in many circumstances. British actors Benedict Cumberbatch (Holmes) and Martin Freeman (Watson) are the main bases of this touch of humour, especially because they’re so different from each other: tall and short, brown and fair haired, one is disconnected from the common world, and the other is a soldier and therefore very organized. Their different ways of thinking, of seeing the world around them make situations hilarious. Although Holmes is a very cultured man, he ignores elementary knowledge, and he’s tactless in human relationships. On the other hand, Watson is very comprehensive, sometimes naïve, and more practical than Holmes is. The playing of the actors underlines this opposition: Cumberbatch is elegant, dynamic, with many gestures; he declaims impressive monologues with a high speed saying, but can also be prostrated on his couch or locked in his “mental palace”. Freeman is more frozen (Watson is a military doctor, wounded in Irak), traditional, old fashioned, stay-at-home person, and his dress code is, let’s say, quite strange. The relationship between the two men is extremely important in the script, and the authors make ambiguous dialogues or awkward misunderstanding about it, which make us laugh. Holmes and Watson are complementary: they help (Watson gives the answer to Holmes’ problems without knowing it…) and stimulate each other, have fights, and one seems not to be able to think properly if the other is not around. Like in an old couple…

            And the bad guy is … Moriarty. We hear his name in the first episode. We only see him at the end of the First Season, but he’s constantly here, walking in the shadow of murders, kidnappings and suicides. Moriarty is probably one of the most Machiavellian characters in the history of criminal literature. The actor Andrew Scott perfectly embodies him: he sometimes imitates Holmes, plays with him, and provokes him. Moriarty is an ultra modern man, uses high technologies to manipulate, threaten or only to show the world he is capable of doing whatever he wants, whenever and wherever he wishes. He’s Holmes’ stimulation when the detective is bored, and he can also be a charming lover or a very eloquent actor. In a word, his character must be a great jubilation for an actor to play.

            The first and second seasons are already available in DVD and in blu Ray, editied by France Television. The show was unfortunately and anonymously broadcast on France 4, then on France 2, from January to July 2011. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, whose fame has been growing up since they played Holmes and Watson, have been so busy that the third season was filmed last summer and we can’t wait to see it next January, on BBC1, after three long years of expectation.