When I first informed some of my friends I would be watching Sherlock in our class, they completely flipped out. They told me that my life would be changed forever and that I would become addicted to the show. They said all I needed to do was watch the first episode and I would fall under Sherlock‘s spell and certainly be hooked. Having now seen the first episode, I hate to disappoint them but I am not addicted, I’m not under the spell, and I’m certainly not hooked. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, I really did. As someone who has read Sir Arthur Conan Doyles creation I appreciated this modern day adaptation. It’s a genius idea and in my opinion it put together almost flawlessly by our old friend Steven Moffat. I guess I should say that I wasn’t disappointed with the show itself. Instead, I just felt like Sherlock was just another crime solving dramas which have oversaturated the US market.
A crime solving protagonist with a knack for picking up on the tiniest details and peeving off his colleagues with his demeanor seems to be common place on US television. Criminal Minds, NCIS, and The Mentalist are just a few examples that quickly come to mind when I think of this type of show. Each show is unique in its own way, and offers it own unique style to the crime solving genre, but they all seem to tell the same story. Sherlock, while the character certainly is THE original standard by which everything in the crime solving genre is compared, to me was just another example of one of these kind of shows. While I was interested to see how the episode ended to see if all the questions were answered, I was not screaming for more like my friends insisted I would be.
This was just one of the things working against Sherlock for me. Another thing was the 90 minute episode length. Perhaps it was just my tragically short, American attention span but I just couldn’t get accustomed to the pacing of a 90 minute television show. It felt like a movie, but I knew it was a TV show. Alex’s brian = confused. This is just my personal taste and most people I have talked to about this have just rolled their eyes at me.
As you can see, what I disliked about Sherlock was just little nit-picking and overall I did enjoy the show. I feel like if somebody put the remaining 5 episodes in front of me I would probably not object to watching them. I just feel that as an American watching British TV, when comparing Sherlock to other American crime dramas it’s just another face in the crowd. Like I said, I feel like Moffat does a great job at modernizing the old tale into a contemporary world. I feel like it also has enough action to exist in the same breath the other latest Sherlock Holmes adaptation, the action film with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. I found myself thinking about the film while watching Sherlock but there wasn’t much to compared between the show and the film except for the characters and the “bromance” between Holmes and Watson. In my opinion both have their own place in the Sherlock Holmes pedigree.
I agree with your point regarding the 90 minute episode length. I actually found that the longer-than-usual (by American standards) length to be a detriment to the show. Sherlock is so packed with plot elements, visual effects and constant charisma that 60 minute episodes seem more appropriate and rational for a show that already has so much going on.
I read online that “A Study in Pink” was originally directed and shot as a 60 minute episode, but had to be reshot when the BBC commissioned 90 minutes of length. I wish I could see the former 60 minute episode. The show started to cross into film territory, and one reason why television is more attractive to me than movies is because it takes less time and less overall investment. Sherlock was impressive, no doubt, I just wish it was impressive in 60 minutes instead of 90.