SALON

Friday, May 4, 2012 8:10 PM UTC

“Sherlock’s” masterful return

As its second season begins, the British series' complex take on Holmes remains transfixing

By

Topics: Sherlock Holmes, TV,

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in "Sherlock"

As the Internet has helpfully pointed out, Benedict Cumberbatch looks like an otter. The preposterously, even pervily named Cumberbatch, stars in “Sherlock,” a modern-day adaptation of the legendary Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories beginning its second season on PBS this Sunday. He has tiny, intense eyes, slashes of bright blue on a face composed of geometric planes, all cutting cheekbones jutting out of a flat face, finished off with a mop of curly brown hair and a flowing, high-collared overcoat. Early in the series’ first season, a skeptical detective pointed out that a genius like Holmes could easily break bad, just one bout of boredom away from committing the crimes he solves so effortlessly, and the cool, charismatic Cumberbatch conveys the implicit threat that underlies this Holmes easily. Otters are cute, but they’re also squirrelly.

Like the first season— which is streaming on Netflix, should you desire to catch up — the new one consists of three one-and-half hour installments, making it more like a miniseries, or three self-contained films, than a shambling, outsize TV series. The first episode picks up exactly where the first season left off, with “consulting detective” Holmes and his devoted friend and former soldier Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman) facing off against arch-nemesis and psycho James Moriarty (the impressive Andrew Scott). But after this five-minute intro, any new watcher can dive right in.

“Sherlock” is an elegant updating of Conan Doyle’s stories, not an overhaul. This season’s three cases are based on the most famous Holmes stories (“A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Hounds of Baskerville” and “The Final Solution”) and, if while solving them, Sherlock never says “elementary,” he does say “obviously” quite a bit. This Holmes never refers to Watson as “My dear,” but in every single episode there is a winking reference to the fact that Holmes and Watson are often mistaken for more than just colleagues.  Watson doesn’t write up Holmes’ exploits with pen and paper, but on his blog. Thanks to that blog and Holmes’ exploits, Sherlock becomes a legend in his own time. To escape the paparazzi he even slaps on the iconic deer-stalker, immediately turning it into a Sherlock Holmes hat.

This Sherlock is like the original in constitution as well. He has little time for feeling or formalities, he’s imperious and disdainful, manic and captivating, masterful and idiotic, all-seeing and blinkered, indifferent to almost everything and everyone except his own boredom. He can extrapolate from worn elbows and crumbs a person’s life story, and he never tires of explaining his deductions in impressive, showy and expository exegeses. But in contrast to the original Sherlock, there is now a term to describe this constellation of characteristics: Asperger’s, which Dr. Watson levels at Holmes in passing. And just like TV’s other shows starring Aspergian savants — “Community’s” Abed, “Big Bang Theory’s” Sheldon, “Bones’” Dr. Brennan — “Sherlock” is fundamentally about making and keeping lasting, meaningful relationships. “Sherlock” can be a kicky, good time (see: Irene Adler rubbing up on Holmes’, uh, intellect in the first episode) and a stressful, scary thriller (see: Moriarty ruthlessly capturing Holmes in a complex trap in the third) but its major mystery is friendship and how a towering but difficult guy like Sherlock Holmes can have one.

“Sherlock” does have a problem, though it’s a structural one that plagues all TV mysteries. Written fiction overflows with descriptions, of rooms, of clothes, of the weather, of behavior. In a written detective story, it’s possible to slip in a sentence about a bad guy fiddling with his fingers that has no more weight than another sentence about how the light falls on his face, or how he cuts an apple, or sits in a chair. Video is not nearly so subtle, and when a camera takes a second to show a bad guy tattooing a beat across his knee it calls attention to itself: Why would this shot be here, if not for a reason? TV and film are not flabby mediums and every image and line in a well-constructed piece of work signifies. The camera gives the audience clues even Sherlock doesn’t have. Sherlock remains miles ahead of us, but it still doesn’t seem quite fair.

Willa Paskin

Willa Paskin is Salon's staff TV writer. More Willa Paskin.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 30 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations