The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
My wiki friend ZRoc recommended that I watch The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a BBC series started in 1984.
DVD Cover of the second season.
I don't watch much TV. In fact, the only thing I watch faithfully is Redeye on Fox News (I'm a conservative white female, so sue me!) and Mythbusters. One reason is because everything I watch, I have to watch with my family's knowledge. The only TV with a DVD player is in the busiest room of the house. My rental of Firefly was interesting since my mom always happened to come into the room in time to see the scenes with Inara doing her job >_>
Anyway, as luck would have it, my family loves British television so it wasn't hard to get them to watch The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Each episode is an hour long. My mind wandered during the first couple of episodes, since the story unfolds rather slowly. There's not much action, and the mysteries aren't really solvable by the audience. It takes Holmes' genius to get to the answer. Soon I realized what I should be paying attention to is the characters.
Holmes.
Jeremy Brett is Sherlock Holmes. This actor suffered from manic depressive disorder throughout the filming of the series and eventually died to it. In the last season the condition made him require an oxygen mask on set sometimes. Pretty sad story :(
He was devoted to making his portrayal of Holmes the most accurate of them all, which may have actually contributed to his condition. He literally started dreaming of Holmes as his own alter-ego.
Holmes is very eccentric, and very active, throwing himself into his work, jumping over chairs and tables, but also lethargic when he hasn't got a case, or the prospective cases seem trivial. You can see how bored he is when a client starts telling their story, and how his eyes light up when they finally get to the part that contains the mystery. Downey Jr.'s version of Holmes in the 2009 movie pretty much took Jeremy Brett's Holmes and made him over the top.
Watson.
Watson is played by David Burke. This actor doesn't have a tragic story. He plays the part of loyal companion believably, though. He's a likable character we sympathize with every time he has to put up with Holmes's ego. In some episodes, Watson narrates, since he's writing down Holmes's cases for publication.
I was pretty surprised at the overt references to Holmes' drug habit, considering the series was made for TV. A Russian Sherlock Holmes TV series never mentioned drugs at all. But here, whenever he opens one of the drawers in his desk, the syringe is always there for us to see as a reminder of it. Watson had an argument with Holmes about drugs in one episode in which he looked, well, stoned.
The last episode was a complete change in pace from the previous episodes. It was intense! I knew how it would end (sort of) because I heard how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to end the book series, but it was still intense. When our hero is actually being hunted down, you don't know when the enemy will strike.... it was engrossing.
Holmes cogitates.
Now I must get the next season!
I'm also tempted to try reading the original stories, but I think they may be too high-brow for me.
DVD Cover of the second season.
I don't watch much TV. In fact, the only thing I watch faithfully is Redeye on Fox News (I'm a conservative white female, so sue me!) and Mythbusters. One reason is because everything I watch, I have to watch with my family's knowledge. The only TV with a DVD player is in the busiest room of the house. My rental of Firefly was interesting since my mom always happened to come into the room in time to see the scenes with Inara doing her job >_>
Anyway, as luck would have it, my family loves British television so it wasn't hard to get them to watch The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Each episode is an hour long. My mind wandered during the first couple of episodes, since the story unfolds rather slowly. There's not much action, and the mysteries aren't really solvable by the audience. It takes Holmes' genius to get to the answer. Soon I realized what I should be paying attention to is the characters.
Holmes.
Jeremy Brett is Sherlock Holmes. This actor suffered from manic depressive disorder throughout the filming of the series and eventually died to it. In the last season the condition made him require an oxygen mask on set sometimes. Pretty sad story :(
He was devoted to making his portrayal of Holmes the most accurate of them all, which may have actually contributed to his condition. He literally started dreaming of Holmes as his own alter-ego.
Holmes is very eccentric, and very active, throwing himself into his work, jumping over chairs and tables, but also lethargic when he hasn't got a case, or the prospective cases seem trivial. You can see how bored he is when a client starts telling their story, and how his eyes light up when they finally get to the part that contains the mystery. Downey Jr.'s version of Holmes in the 2009 movie pretty much took Jeremy Brett's Holmes and made him over the top.
Watson.
Watson is played by David Burke. This actor doesn't have a tragic story. He plays the part of loyal companion believably, though. He's a likable character we sympathize with every time he has to put up with Holmes's ego. In some episodes, Watson narrates, since he's writing down Holmes's cases for publication.
I was pretty surprised at the overt references to Holmes' drug habit, considering the series was made for TV. A Russian Sherlock Holmes TV series never mentioned drugs at all. But here, whenever he opens one of the drawers in his desk, the syringe is always there for us to see as a reminder of it. Watson had an argument with Holmes about drugs in one episode in which he looked, well, stoned.
The last episode was a complete change in pace from the previous episodes. It was intense! I knew how it would end (sort of) because I heard how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to end the book series, but it was still intense. When our hero is actually being hunted down, you don't know when the enemy will strike.... it was engrossing.
Holmes cogitates.
Now I must get the next season!
I'm also tempted to try reading the original stories, but I think they may be too high-brow for me.
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