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Sherlock
Tuesday, 3 August 2010 @ 11:14
I finished watching the second episode of the BBC's Sherlock last night. It was a good watch, the production is polished and there are some nice little touches throughout. In fact, the whole thing hangs together very well as a whole. But my issue is that despite it being a good all-rounder, I kind of feel we've seen it all before.

Perhaps the most obvious thing appears in the opening credits of the series. Sherlock is set in modern-day London, as opposed to the fairly recent, and more high profile, steam punk-styled celebration of Victoriana that was Sherlock Holmes by Guy Ritchie. Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive, but to my mind, the opening music to the BBC version sounds ridiculously similar. See for yourself - below is the opening theme from Sherlock and a theme called 'Discombobulate' from Sherlock Holmes:









As well as that, the nerd chic of the thing, the slightly camp nature of the villains, and the virtually tongue in cheek approach to any depictions of fear and suspense all just make me think of Doctor Who. Perhaps it doesn't help that Sherlock was co-created by Stephen Moffat, who also worked on a few of the most recent Doctor Who episodes - the tone is very similar. And the basic structure is shared as well - in both programs a freakishly and unassailably clever hero solves mysteries along side his lesser, but ultimately more human sidekick. There are some nice touches throughout (I particularly liked the use of organic placement of text in the program) but it all feels a little bit too similar. In some ways this doesn't always work against it. Considering the movement into the modern-day of the series, the ability to hold onto something familiar eases the transition into contemporary Sherlock. And it has to be said in fairness that a slight emulation of Doctor Who should hardly be onsidered the worst fault in television - Sherlock's sci-fi brother has rode on a wave of continual success since the Tennant era. I'm quite a fan of the original novels, and it was pleasing to see reference to them even from the first episode (swapping Scarlet for Pink is the change the TV series makes for its own title from the original novel). And although the character of Holmes is actually quite different from that of the Conan Doyle work, there is nonetheless an important sense that the essence of the character remains pretty well intact. I look forward to the third episode, to see if they can pull something original out of it for the final section.

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quote of the week.

"The circle of human knowledge, illuminated by the pale, cold light of reason, is so infinitesimally small, the dark regions of human ignorance which lie beyond that luminous ring so immeasurably vast, that imagination is feign to step up to the borderline and send the warm, richly colored beams of her fairy lantern streaming out into the darkness ; and so, peering into the gloom, she is apt to mistake the shadowy reflections of her own figure for real beings moving in the abyss.

Sir James George FrazerThe Golden Bough
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The title of this blog comes from a poem by Coleridge, A Wish: Wriiten in Jesus Wood, Feb. 10th, 1792, Plus most blogs are moans anyway. Including this one. lol manuscripts
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I'm a 23 year-old student in London Cambridge London, studying English Literature Law. It's hard to really think of anything truly personal I can put here that might give you some idea of who I am, so I will just tell you that my favourite Shakespeare play is Richard II, my favourite chocolate bar is Snickers, and I have a bit of a thing for instant coffee, especially if someone else makes it for me.


I'm interested in Renaissance Literature, Higher Education policy, and libraries.
I'm completely in love with a Scottish girl.