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2010/07/26 10:06:28
Subject: No Gak Sherlock! New BBC series - Season 2 Begins!
BBC - A war hero, invalided home from Afghanistan, meets a strange but charismatic genius who is looking for a flatmate; it is London, 2010, and Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes are meeting for the first time. A string of impossible suicides has Scotland Yard baffled - and only one man can help.
Did anyone else see the New Sherlock Holmes series on BBC last night?
For those not aware it is a modern retelling [Revisioning?] of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories.
It stars Benidict Cumberbatch [seriously that’s his name - saw him in Hawkin very good] as the eponimois sleuth [consultant detective] and Martin Freeman [The Office, Hitchhikers GttG] as Watson. Its been co-created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss [who also appears as his usual creepy self as well] who were most recent behind the latest [best?] series of Dr Who.
The initial set up of the story seemed spot on to me, not at all Victorian characters shoe horned into a modern era as you might fear. The similarity between the current Afghan conflict and previous colonial adventures allow the Watson character particularly to have a bit of relevance to modern society. As for Holmes [always out of place whenever it is set!], his deductive/scientific nature whilst innovative in the historical setting obviously is standard fare in modern policing, so in this series they seem to have concentrated on Holmes' thinking-outside-of-the-box nature, connecting the dots that the Met forensics/detective team cannot. Intelligence and Arrogance in equal measure I really quite liked this version of the character, but Holmes seemed universally disliked for these same reasons in the show [no one like s a smart arse!].
There are some great scenes in this and the backdrop - London at night has replace London by smog; look great as well. What really made this for me was the dialogue which flowed along nicely and some of the contretendes between Holmes and pretty much everyone else contained allot of funny stuff as you might expect from Gatiss.
As for the plot itself I am not sufficiently knowledgeable about the original Sherlock Holmes books to know if "A Study in Pink" was one of the original tales [I would suggest not] but I didn't find it at all complex, fitting for the introductory episode perhaps, but enjoyable despite the few short comings it had.
[WARNING Gross over generalisation event happening] Women like murder mystery/who dunnit shows I find [anyone else been forced to watch Lewis recently - Arrgh!] and Mrs notprop enjoyed this one as well, surprising as she usually say WTF when confronted with anything I find interesting. So that was an added bonus.
All in all a well spent hour and a half [two and a half if you include the excellent Top Gear episode before on BBC2].
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/01/01 21:49:14
How do you promote your Hobby? - Legoburner "I run some crappy wargaming website "
Hmm, cheers for that, I recorded it but haven't watched it yet.
oddly saw the Guy Ritchie film version on Saturday which I heartily enjoyed, far more so than I was expecting to.
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Yep, really liked it. Again it confirms my belief that the licence fee is good value and politicians and the Murdochs should stop whining on about it.
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I may watch this if reviews continue to be positive. I have to admit feeling a degree of trepidation; these modern 're-imaginings' of old and loved creations very rarely come off well IMO. I think it was Stephen King who once commented that film freezes fiction. You can't watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest without imaging Jack Nicholson; the same is true of Shawshank Redemption and hundreds of other examples.
For me, Sherlock will always forever be a black and white Basil Rathbone, complete with deerstalker and briar pipe. Not sure how well a quintessentially Victorian character and, more importantly, a Victorian setting, can translate to modern times but I guess the jury is out.
I enjoyed it quite a bit. A nice take on the old fellow.
Spoiler:
I initially guessed the man that brought Watson to the Warehouse would be Mycroft. Then I thought that I must be wrong. But I wasn't! So Moriarty is funding serial killers and the like eh? Interesting.
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
Mitchell and Webb are quite possibly the funniest duo I have seen in a while. I recently powered through Peep Show on youtube after discovering it on BBC America. I wish they had a Region 1 DVD release. Between that and The Inbetweeners I am seriously considering getting a region 2 DVD player.
I was all set up to hate this, being a bit of a Holmes fan, and it was actually pretty good.
Cumberbatch is always watchable but even Freeman was alright (he normally pisses me off, he was rubbish as Arthur Dent).
If you haven't watch it I would recommend Iplayering it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/07/27 19:57:51
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Yep, surprisingly ok. It had shades of Dr Who, but then it was written by the same bloke, so no surprise there.
It was a very loose adaptation of A Study in Scarlet and kept a few elements like "Rache", the cab driver appearing at Baker Street and russian roulette with pills.
I did scream inwardly when I saw that they had shoe horned Moriarty into the plot yet again. For God's sake, he is was only created by Conan Doyle to kill Holmes off and appears in only ONE of the short stories.
I would like somebody to do Study in Scarlet properly one day. Strangely, despite having one of strongest stories and being the first book, it has never ever been filmed. The principal reason being its somewhat harsh treatment of the Mormons.
What are the mormons
I loved it but it seems one crucial element was missed in one of the murders by sherlock which was that "spoiler alert" she is lying in a position which couldnt have been made by her a because she should have keeled over and b al the letter a perfectly formed even the e is completely finished but the l hadnt been started
it just makes me like the show a tiny ickle bit less
Just reply to my posts for the love of the emperor i will give you an e cookie of any kind just please reply i hate talking to myself i am in fact doing it now aren't i oh well.
Mormons are those who practise at the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints. Possibly one of the few religions to have its own City (Salt Lake City) and State (Utah).
As you can probably guess it is loosely based around Christianity and was seemingly formed to allow men to have multiple wives. In early US history, the Mormons were persecuted for their odd belief system and upped sticks to see if they could live a quieter life in the west.
After many months travel and presumably because he noticed that everyone was getting a bit fed up, their leader at the time Brigham Young plonked his walking stick in the ground and said, "We will settle here!" They subsequently set about building their temple and the city that surrounds it.
How does all this figure in "A Study in Scarlet"? Well the murder victims are Mormons who back in Salt Lake City demanded that a pretty blonde girl not of their religion be married to one of them. Her dad was having none of it and told them to sod off. Here Brigham Young is mentioned by name as one of the city elders who issued an ultimatum, wedding or trouble.
Cool scene here as the Mormons visually countdown the days until the deadline, by inscribing the number of days left in different places around their farm. Anyway, the girl has a rugged handsome suitor whom she much prefers and he comes to the rescue. The Mormon's give chase and snatch her back. They agree on who she is to marry and she joins his collection of wives with all of the presumed nasty consequences. Think she subsequently gets ill and dies.
Her true love is naturally a little annoyed and swears vengeance. The Mormons involved flee to London in fear of their lives where he tracks them down (working as a cab driver... spot the link?) and issues them with the pill game as seen in Sunday's episode. Though here it is more a matter of divine providence than a battle of intellect.
Back in the real world, the Mormons abandoned the multiple wives thing before the 20th Century. They wanted Utah to be declared a State, but Congress (or whoever) said no, citing the Mormon's polygamy habits as the reason. Cue a well timed message from God suggesting that they abandon this practise and lo, they were granted their own State.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/07/28 09:40:10
The polygamy thing was supposedly something of a splinter group anyway and not the mainstream, though they were tarred by it, apparently.
Though it hasn't been filmed there have been some pretty good radio adaptations, one dramatised by the BBC in a quartet of stories (one of which has a bit part played by BRIAN BLESSED) but a better one was a much less abridged reading (can't remember who by however ).
It's a great story which really conveys the religious pressures in a tiny community nicely contrasted by teaming comopolitan London. A surprisingly large amount of it is the retelling of the events in Salt Lake and not so much of Holmes running about getting excited by cigar ash or mainlining cocaine into his eye. But none the worse for it.
Worth a go like.
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Yeah i usually hate modern rehashes of old literary heros, but after your recommendations i just watched it on BBC I player.
Excellent. I genuinelly enjoyed it.
We are arming Syrian rebels who support ISIS, who is fighting Iran, who is fighting Iraq who we also support against ISIS, while fighting Kurds who we support while they are fighting Syrian rebels.
If Mrs Alparius is keen for more then the DVD (region 2 I'm afraid) is released at the end of August with the added bonus of including the un-televised pilot.
Appearantly all at the BBC were keen to comission a further longer series after seeing the first three, even more so following the warm reception from viewers, a large audience for a Sunday night and glowing praise from the press. I would guess we could see this as soon as February 2011 or with the Whovians at the wheel can you say Christmas Special? But my spider senses told me that Arsenal would win the league, so heap salt here <--
A word of warning though fellas, the Mrs told me this evening that it starts a half hour earlier on Sunday!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/07/29 23:19:42
How do you promote your Hobby? - Legoburner "I run some crappy wargaming website "
Again, many thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Notprop - dare I say "Props to the Notprops!"? - and I'll bet that we get a series greenlight sooner rather than later.
Though a 'series' on the BBC usually means far fewer episodes than over here in the US, doesn't it?
Either way, I'll be glad for whatever additional episodes we can get!
Automatically Appended Next Post: That link is for you yanks. Who haven't seen it
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2010/07/30 01:01:37
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Really? I thought it was a lot better (and less silly) than the first one. I believe it had a different writer and director, so that might explain the change in tone.
It was another loose adap of one of the books, this time "The Sign of the Four" which is also known for being the one where Watson meets his wife, Mary (who appears in the Downey Jnr film version).
I have seen the first two and am really looking forward to the third. I agree that the second wasn't quite up to the mark of the first, however it was hugely better than the majority of the tripe on telly at the monent.
If I had to hazard a guess at why there are only 3 episodes initialy I would say this is a funding issue. Dramas of this sort cost a hell of a lot to produce and when they are up against reality tv shows which are (sadly) very popular and cheap to make it seems fair enough that the BBC are being cautious, especialy when they are answerable to the licence payers.
Given the mostly positive responces from veiwers and critics coupled with healthy audience figures I would be suprised if they didnt commision another series, this time hopefuly with a few more episodes.
).
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