Sherlock

sherlock-holmes-robert-downey-jr-jude-law.jpg
 
  • Feels
Reactions: OtterParty
tumblr_static_elementary_timesdispatch.jpeg


(I liked Arthur Conan Doyle from Shanghai Knights too)
 
tumblr_static_elementary_timesdispatch.jpeg


(I liked Arthur Conan Doyle from Shanghai Knights too)

Sorry, not buying a generically handsome Sherlock with a five O'clock shadow...

Is Jeremy Brett now the Citizen Kane of Sherlocks? (ie: Someone who was hyped as being the best Sherlock for so long that there's now a backlash against him?) Because I rarely hear him being mentioned as one of the better Sherlocks. I thought he did a damn good job at being a period accurate Sherlock Holmes (although his health problems did lessen his effectiveness as his series neared its end.) His series covered the largest number of original stories and the cinematography was rather nice. If someone out there wants to watch a straight vanilla Sherlock Holmes: no gimmicks, I'll point them towards this series.

I know that people shit on the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie series, because Watson was portrayed as a bumbling dummyhead, but Rathbone really looks and sounds the part of Sherlock. I'm not sure why they had to make Watson so stupid in this particular version, though. Maybe to make Holmes look even smarter in comparison? Maybe because American audiences of the time wouldn't get a more nuanced portrayal of the character? Or maybe the movie execs thought a lovable bumbling Watson would be more marketable....

In terms of quality and level of period detail, it's hard to beat this version of Sherlock:

russiansherlock_.jpg


Filmed in the older, grubbier parts of Eastern Europe, this series really looks as though you're staring back in time. Watson is absolutely adorable in this version, and he and Sherlock have that Russian thing going on where they can be super affectionate to each other, without being gay. (Athough if you were a fujoshi and wanted to interpret them as gay, you probably could...but then you're probably already doing that for every pair of male friends in every series anyway...)
 
Basil Rathbone made an excellent Holmes; he was considered definitive in the role for a long time, but the stories he appeared in were generally pretty bad, and then there's the buffoonish Watson.
Jeremy Brett is my favorite Holmes by a long way, though. The fact Brett had bipolar disorder probably helped him get the character just right: by turns manic and moody, commanding and fey. The stories are mostly faithful to the originals, and Watson is a steadfast friend and companion.
Benedict Cumberbatch is okay in the role...but the trademark Moffat writing makes the show a huge pile of shit. This sums it up:

41j63kp60s8y.jpg
 
I know that people shit on the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie series, because Watson was portrayed as a bumbling dummyhead, but Rathbone really looks and sounds the part of Sherlock. I'm not sure why they had to make Watson so stupid in this particular version, though. Maybe to make Holmes look even smarter in comparison? Maybe because American audiences of the time wouldn't get a more nuanced portrayal of the character? Or maybe the movie execs thought a lovable bumbling Watson would be more marketable....
I think there's an interview somewhere with Jeremy Brett where he talks at some length about the Basil Rathbone movies, which he extensively watched and researched as part of the preparations for his own series. From what I remember, Brett said that they made Watson a bumbling fool in those old movies as part of an indirect effort to make American audiences more receptive to the idea of helping Britain in the war. At the time, America was still officially neutral and a lot of Americans still felt strongly about staying out of the war and letting Europe sort out its own affairs, so they wanted to have Watson to take on the role of a sympathetic and lovable British character who is helpless in the face of all these big plots and mysteries and needs someone bigger and smarter to swoop in to save the day.
 
Back