Monday, May 07, 2012

The Game's Afoot!


The second season of the updated-to-contemporary-times Sherlock Holmes began last night, and for my money, it's far and away the best thing Holmesian since Jeremy Brett's turn from twenty-odd years ago.


"A Scandal in Belgravia" offers up the hot new version of Irene Adler, a woman who needs no introduction to Holmes' fans, but boy, is this one different. Here, Adler is a brilliant dominatrix, a bad girl who has incriminating photos on her cell phone of some unnamed young woman Royal, and Holmes is brought in by his brother Mycroft–and wrapped in a sheet because he couldn't be bothered to dress–to Buckingham Palace to get the case.


There's much more to it than that, of course, and we have CIA assassins, terrorist plots, wheels-within-wheels, and all manner of skullduggery and mayhem afoot, each twist more fun than the previous one. I especially like how Adler, knowing that Holmes is coming to visit, spends hours getting ready for him, and the costume she chooses is absolutely stunning and appropriate ...


The episode begins where the previous one left off, with Holmes and Watson facing off with Moriarty and about to blow them all to pieces.

Obviously that didn't happen ...


As usual, there are some great clues, some false clues, a couple of great twists, and to play fair with a viewer, the last an best reversal has a direct clue that should, if you are paying attention, tell you it is coming. 


I am not a fan of the Robert Downey versions, they are fine movies, but in no way Sherlock Holmes. Iron Man in a Victorian costume, but this one, I do like a lot.



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3 comments:

  1. The Daring NovelistMonday, May 7, 2012 at 4:17:00 PM PDT

    I do like the new movies, but I think of them a "Sherlock Holmes as Robert Downey Jr." rather than the other way around....

    But you are right. Cumberbatch just FEELS like Holmes, in the same way Brett did. There's that controlled derangement factor that nobody has been able to capture quite so well.

    My only quibble is that I don't like this Moriarty very well. (But it's hard to please me on that. I think the only I have liked so far was Jared Harris.)

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  2. AnonymousMonday, May 7, 2012 at 6:20:00 PM PDT

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    "the last an best reversal has a direct clue that should, if you are paying attention, tell you it is coming."

    How far in advance was the clue to which you refer? Was it Mycroft and Watson, or earlier?

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  3. Steve PerryMonday, May 7, 2012 at 7:13:00 PM PDT

    Mycroft telling Watson about Adler's fate at the sandwich shop.

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