A Study in Pink (Sherlock TV 2010)

This is the first episode of the Sherlock tv series that premiered in 2010 starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. It’s a modern retelling that was a rather large success. I am doing a watch-a-long with Dave and we watched this and had a couple of questions for the other. Here are Dave’s questions to me that I’ll answer. A link to his post is at the end below.

1) Did you like the over all feel of the opening episode?

Yes I did. I really enjoyed this modern retelling. The updated forensics and technology was handled well and as far as tv goes, didn’t offend any sense of reality that I had.

2) What do you feel about the portrayal of The Holmes brothers?

The portrayal was fantastic. I really enjoyed how the producers made it look like Mycroft was actually Holmes’ “nemesis”, getting our expectations all set for some Moriarty action. Making Mycroft a government stooge, albeit an extremely smart and powerful one, seemed much more in tune with today’s culture than him hanging out in a gentlemens club like in Doyle’s stories.

3) Do you think or remember Watson having a brother or a sister in the books?

I don’t. It was one of those “liberties” that the producers took that didn’t really bother me. It really felt more of a setup to give Holmes and Watson a bonding moment, to cement their friendship. Considering that Watson’s family wasn’t again outside of that specific moment made it feel as shallow as it was. Of course, I could be wrong and Watson has a HUGE family that we’re introduced to in later books

4) What do you think about the chemistry between holmes and watson? You can list good and bad traits if you feel like it.

I thought Cumberbatch and Freeman worked excellently off of each other. They exhibited characteristics of Holmes and Watson that MADE them those characters. Now that I’ve seen them, I can not imagine anyone else playing them. I am not familiar with older incarnations of TV Sherlock, so I have no attachments to other actors. That helps a lot. I did find Watson a bit too “polite” for me. He’s not spineless, as how he handled the mad cabbie shows that. Holmes’ disdain for the police smacked of modern elitism, unlike the books by Doyle. I did find the joking about male friendship as nothing more than hidden homo-eroticism got stale and tired very quickly. It made me wonder if the producers had ever had any close male friends or if they were just pathetic lonely men?

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this watch. I am VERY glad that Dave had these questions because I was really struggling to write something about this tv show. I expected to write something up as easily as I did for the Muppet Show or Fragglerock but nope, I tried about 6 times to get started and it wasn’t until I had these questions that the writing seemed to happen. Made me wonder how some people can write up movie reviews every day?

• Here is Dave’s Review