I've taken a detour from British sci-fi to British drama. There are a lot of good UK shows that I've seen, State of Play, The Office, Extras, Spaced, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more I need to see, but the beauty of the UK model is that a series is not long. This first series of Sherlock was only three 90 minute episodes and I blew right through them. Partly because of the low number and partly because they were just so good.
"A Study in Pink"
This is the episode that has to do all the heavy lifting, introducing us to the characters. Holmes and Watson are iconic figures, but that doesn't mean you can shorthand everything, especially since they've updated the setting to modern times. Dr. John Watson is an army doctor this time around and was wounded in combat and is now having trouble readjusting to life at home. This is a nice set up for why he would live with Holmes, but also why he would put up with him. John misses the excitement of combat and this is his only way to find that excitement. Sherlock himself is an insufferable person who's only real drive in life is solving mysteries to keep him amused. And while this may seem unpleasant to watch, Benedict Cumberbatch plays him with such abandon that you can help but love it. That's the main function of Watson, though, to keep Sherlock grounded and human.
On the actual mystery side of the episode, I found things slightly lacking. The final confrontation between Holmes and the killer was extremely well done, but for a good 20 minutes I couldn't believe that Sherlock hadn't already figured it out. He should be one step (or more) ahead of the viewer, not the other way around. The deductions were marvelous, especially the long one in the cab when he's explaining everything to Watson. During the investigation scene of the body they employ a wonderful technique of showing what Sherlock is looking at by text appearing over it. Such as a ring that is dirty on the outside, but clean on the inside. "Dirty" appears over the ring when Sherlock first looks at it, but when he pulls it off and we see the inside, "clean" appears. This is a nice way of getting us into Sherlock's mindset without having him spell everything out. The same technique is used when text messages are received on phones so there's no need for a closeup of the screen or for the character to read it out loud. A very good, but not spectacular start to the series.
"The Blind Banker"
The characterizations are better and the mystery harder to solve, but still a few slow spots. Mostly when the asian girl is on screen, things slow down to halt. I place most the blame on the accent, I don't know if that is her native accent or she was just trying to hard, but it was too slow and jilted. It made everything seem like it was a proverb that should have started with "Confucius says..." There was also no reason to get into the backstory of why she got involved with the Tongs (Chinese mob), unneeded filler. Some people have had problems with the cliche handling of the Tongs, but my view is if the Mafia, the Irish Mob, and the Russian Mob can all be portrayed in various cliche ways, why not the Chinese version, too?
On the good side of things, Watson has become more than just a foil and actually added to the investigation this time. His grounding ways are doing more than just humanizing Sherlock, but helping to solve things. The prime example was when the code had been painted over. Sherlock is trying to help him remember and lamenting that a normal human mind (unlike his) can't remember things, but Watson just took a picture with his phone. Something as simple as that is beyond the capacity for Sherlock to think of because he just remembers everything.
"The Great Game"
Wow, just wow. This episode just blew the other two out of the water. Moriarty's name had been hinted at in the first two, and now he's decided to take a more active role in Sherlock's life. We get not only one, but five different mysteries this outing. The countdown clocks to when some innocent blows up add a whole new layer of tension to the mystery solving. Things are at their most tense when it's a kid with the bomb strapped to them counting down from 10. Had me literally on the edge of my seat. The mysteries themselves were a good lot and I didn't come close to figuring out what was going on in any of them. What they said about Sherlock was more illuminating than anything. That people were going to die meant very little to him, only solving the mystery. He starts to turn around by the time the kid is the possible victim, yelling at the curator to tell him before realizing it has to be him to solve it or Moriarty will kill anyway. In the early goings, though, he is almost ecstatic that something interesting is happening, whether it involves people dying or not.
The real meat of the episode is the final scene. The face to face moment of Sherlock Holmes and Jim Moriarty. Moriarty is certainly played differently than you would expect, and I love it. Instead of being a refined professor type, he is a suit wearing mastermind with a strange way of talking. The cadence of his speech is the best part, very off putting and gives him that air of insanity even though you can tell he's brilliant. He also has a playful evil about him. He'll have you murdered without a second thought, and he'll have fun doing it. We all know what Sherlock's move has to be in those final seconds, but ending on that cliffhanger was decidedly evil, Moriarty level evil. I can't wait to watch the second series!
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