Last night, New Years Day 2014, the BBC broadcast the TV programme that I, along with nearly 10 million others have been eagerly waiting for – The new series of Sherlock.
Sherlock is one of the few TV series that I enjoy so much I bought the DVD box-set of series 1 & 2 so I would be able to watch it whenever I felt like it. I like the Guy Richie films featuring Robert Downey Junior as Holmes that came out around the same time, but can’t help feel that these are totally overshadowed by Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes, Martin Freeman’s Watson and the writing of Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat.
I am a Sherlock Holmes fan. I have read Conan Doyle books and watched many different actors play the detective in the past. I used to think that Jeremy Brett played the best Holmes; to me, he seemed to get all the nuances that I thought Sherlock would posses. I remember hearing about the new series that would be starting in 2010 and how it was going to bring Sherlock Holmes into the 21st Century with the use of mobile phones, laptops and forensic science. I wasn’t too convinced it was going to be any good and work as a modern day story, but I thought I would give it a go. I don’t think I have ever been more wrong about anything! From the very first episode I was hooked. Everything about it is fantastic. The script, the acting, the story-lines, the little nods to the original Conan Doyle books, everything. It says to me that it has all been put together by huge fans of the original books who wanted to update them without leaving fans citing the things that did or didn’t happen in the original stories. On top of all this I am still trying to work out if the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman was fete or pure genius.
It has been two years since Sherlock launched himself off a rooftop in the attempt to save those closest to him. That means two years waiting to find out how he pulled off the faking of his own death; so it was with sheer shock that I fell off my sofa when I saw Derren Brown come into shot. A scene that turned out to be just one of many sequences that could explain how he did it. As Watson said the words I tended to agree with him, It doesn’t matter how you did it, It’s just why? The thought that Sherlock is back on my TV is enough for me and I started to think It doesn’t matter how you did it, I’m just glad you did.
Last nights episode “The empty Hearse” was a real roller coaster ride that kept me on the edge of my seat, but as I watched in ore at the magnificence of the whole production, there was one thing that struck me. I am studying Film and TV Production and everyone is always talking about the pace of a piece. I have never been totally sure what they meant, is it the speed of the spoken words, the speed of the camera movement or the speed of the editing? Last night I realized that it involves everything. The speed of the lines delivered inter-cut between two different scenes had my heart pounding in places, while other scenes seemed to stop-time making it possible to reflect on what is going on, only to be quickly flipped again. If I ever have to explain pacing for my degree I will use this episode as a masterclass.
I think Sherlock is the greatest television series I have ever watched and just hope there are many more to come. If I am lucky enough to ever work in television and get involved in a production 1/10th as good I will be a very happy man.
This isn’t just Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective anymore he now also belongs to Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat.
Creative Sparks 