1182 replies to this topic

[00Twelve]

Well, found me a streaming site.

Brilliant. I'll venture to say it's the best episode yet. Loved the references to the short stories (Geek Interpreter being the best by far). Mrs. Twelve kept asking me, "Why'd Irene Adler have to be a skank ho?" but I thought it was a fantastic way to update this scandalous woman. Pulver's chemistry with Cumberbatch was fiery. And as always, there is no way to make me dislike Martin Freeman. His banter with Cumberbatch and Gatiss is perfection, and I'm also glad to see him show off not only his impeccable dry humor, but his loyal friendship to Holmes, without which this show would be at a loss. Also got more of a sense of how dangerous Moriarty can/should be in the opening resolution to the cliffhanger.

Also, Lara Pulver is just...DAMN.

(Fact. Sorry.)

[graric]

Watched both the new Downey Jr Holmes movie and the first episode of the second season of the BBC show. Felt Stephen Fry was a perfect Mycroft in the films, but otherwise it felt more like an action film starring Robert Downey Jr as Charlie Chaplin. BBC on the other hand was amazing and a perfect image of what a Sherlock film should be! (Although I am disapointed Adler didn't end up beating Holmes in the end)

[stromberg]

Saw 'Scandal' yesterday (don't ask how I got my hands on it) - and loved it. But as if they intended to prove me wrong, I have to say that I do need a German dubbed version for that one. I got most of it, but when it came to Holmes explaining how he decrypted that message, it was all over for me
Can't wait for 'Hound'...

[marktmurphy]

Ha! Fair enough; he does go a bit quickly there.

From memory

Spoiler

he works out they're seat numbers, deduces it's a 747 from the high numbers and number of seats across there are, works out it'll be going to America due to the Americans being invoved and so. I think. Bit hazy on it now!

[stromberg]

Ah, thanks for that. I figured out the basics, but not as much as that. Also I didn't want to spoil the pleasure by jumping backwards and forwards (instead, I watched the whole thing again tonight). I don't want to be the one to do the dubbing of that episode for any foreign language (and subtitles for that scene would probably take half the screen)...

[killkenny kid]

Well time for a cup of tea and Mr. Holmes.

[Single-O-Seven]

I just finished House of Silk and enjoyed it a lot. It had the right feel, the perfect tone, and nothing, I felt, was lacking. It was such a perfect fit into the canon stylistically that I'd really like to see Horowitz tackle another.

I've just bought up a stash of Titan's Further Adventures... series, and tonight I began Sherlock Holmes and the War of the Worlds, just for fun. I'm about a third of the way through. I love Wells' original novel and thought the blend would be interesting. I'm enjoying it, but stylistically it feels like a fan fic mash-up and I don't particularly enjoy the relationship between Holmes and Mrs. Hudson. Obviously the book deviates from Holmes's "real" world by its very nature but it seems like the tweak to Holmes and Mrs. Hudson was unnecessary and odd.

I've read only a bit of Holmes pastiche but am looking forward to more in the future. Just yesterday I found a hardcover copy of Meyers' West End Horrors in a pile at a used book shop. I haven't read Meyers' Holmes books but they seem well-received. Are there any other continuation works to be recommended? How is Caleb Carr's book?

[DamnCoffee]

[univex]

Loved that hat stuff. Sherlock is really a brilliant take, they nailed it. Cumberbatch is an awesome Holmes. I´m a huge Sherlock Holmes fan BTW. Up there with James Bond for me. Britain´s St. Georges they are. Really looking forward to the next episode. BTW, Adler was HOT. Didn´t like how they felt they had to explain the mesurments code, figured it out right away.

[Single-O-Seven]

I have yet to see the BBC incarnation of SHERLOCK, but I've ordered the first series from Amazon and expect it to arrive within a day or two. I'm excited to give it a go, as the press and public seem extremely responsive to this modern take.

Currently, I'm actively engaged in taking in the first of the Clive Merrison radio plays as well as re-watching some of my favourite episodes from Granada's classic telling of the canon. At the moment, I'm watching Rathbone's Hound of the Baskervilles - the first time I've seen it or any Holmes film with Rathbone-Bruce!

On the literary front, I've procured a couple more Holmes books, and am finishing up Boyle's The Giant Rat of Sumatra, which I'm really enjoying.

[killkenny kid]

The Reichenbach Fall, oh what a merry game.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Well, the spoilers are right there in the title, aren't they?

[00Twelve]

Reichenbach Fall was awesome.

Spoiler

I do have to say it's vexing me that film/tv producers feel like the modern audience cannot stay engaged enough through a good, solid cliffhanger. Brett's show had no problem ending their Final Problem season with the pure Watson vision of Holmes' death...without revealing him alive at the end of the same episode. They couldn't hold off in the recent film, either. Sure, everyone who does a little research knows he didn't really die, but doesn't it make the return just a touch anticlimactic? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's much better to make sure everyone knows that Holmes wasn't really done in by Moriarty that easily, but it's that much harder to make his reveal to Watson really entertaining.

At least we'll hopefully get a proper explanation of the ruse, because it looked like a good one. Clearly, Mycroft and Molly were in on it-- 1) Mycroft is historically in on it, and 2) the last scene with Molly makes her involvement rather obvious. Plus, Watson gets pulled away trying to take the pulse, and once Sherlock is wheeled off, we don't see anything of what happened to him. I'm sure it really was him, but he had some kind of protection.

Plus, this episode did a fantastic job of doing justice to the Final Problem story, but not so much that no other adaptations can match it. Looking forward to next season, hope to see some classic stories like Sign of Four and Twisted Lip with some Empty House thrown in of course, and wouldn't mind seeing another country story like Musgrave Ritual.

[Satorious]

I was glad to see they toned down the OTT childish shenanigans of the actor playing Moriarty on Sherlock 2.3. Not a bad episode, it made up for what I thought was a week second part (Baskerville), but the first episode was by far my favourite.

One thing which irked me in the final episode:

Spoiler

(besides feeling the need to reveal Sherlock is still alive), was that if Moriarty was really claiming to be the actor Richard Brook, how come nobody recognised him after being reported in such a high-profile case? This plot device just didn't hold up.

[David Schofield]

Sherlock is the best, most creative piece of entertainment I've seen for many a year. And that includes EON's rebranding of Bond with Craig as Bond-Bourne: James Bond needed a tweaking from Brosnan, sure, but, IMO, not a hugely radical one was necessary (ie there no need to rip-off Bourne, and do Bond begins); Holmes needed Moffat and Gatiss BBC version to make him relevant today (I'm ignoring Ritchie's "Carry On, Sherlock", and it's sequel).

The six epsiodes are not far from perfection (I also like the brevity of the shorter Pilot episode). "The Blind Banker" is probably the weakest and "Baskerville" comes from such a well-known Conan Doyle story that really probably didn't need the alterations it got to still be viable in the modern world, "Bohemia" perhaps a little too complex for its own good (okay, for MY good). Perhaps getting Sherlock into a position where the "Fall" could take place - come on, we all knew it was coming - was perhaps also a bit too contrived. But these are really only minor quibbles. Wonderfully cast and brilliantly acted, and even in 2010-2011-2012 Conan Doyle world was amazingly evoked.

The ending might have been a bit more obliquely mysterious (indeed, it wasn't mysterious at all). Might also have played nicely with any threat that Cumberbatch might not be returning due to his burgeoning career; who is this man who claims to be Sherlock Holmes, surely he can't be...

[DamnCoffee]

Brilliant episode the other night! Just annoys me that Moffat is brlliant on Sherlock and well... Doctor Who.


http://www.dailymail...aked-death.html

They've written the entire artcile like it's a proper conspiracy!

[David Schofield]

Oh, and am I the only one who enjoyed the sight of former TV Holmes (and Bond veteran) Douglas Wilmer as one of the silent members of the Diogenes Club....?

Lovely touch. Holmes never dies; he just grows old and becomes a member of the Diogenes.

[killkenny kid]

http://spinoff.comic.../#disqus_thread


I have a bad feeling about this....

[Dustin]

http://spinoff.comic.../#disqus_thread


I have a bad feeling about this....

If it is good it should be welcomed.

Which is not a given. I admit I'm more sceptical about moving Holmes to New York than I am about placing him in a modern day world.


On a related note: I've just finished 'VICTORIAN UNDEAD: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies'



A fun crossover read, part Holmes, part horror feature, part steampunk Victorian take. Holmes is closer to the original than Downey, the action closer to Ritchie than Doyle. Not for the purist but I suppose some here could find it amusing.

Here's a more typical cover:



And here a page of the actual issue artwork:

Edited by Dustin, 18 January 2012 - 03:02 PM.

[Brisco]

If you like Victorian Undead, you should definitely try Edginton's legitimate comic adaptations of the Doyle novels. He's done all four novels, and they're absolutely fantastic. Among the best and most faithful adaptations of the material I've seen in any medium--and the art by Ian Culbard is fantastic, too. Here's the first on:
http://www.amazon.co...26956358&sr=1-1

[Dustin]

Oh, thanks for the tip-off, I wasn't even aware there were any. I shall check them out, looks quite atmospheric.

[marktmurphy]

Hot on the heels of the series 1 soundtrack at the end of this month comes the series 2 soundtrack, following in Feb- once again featuring music from David Arnold of this parish

http://www.amazon.co...27011217&sr=1-2

[Bond... Raybond]

Excellent, I saw David Arnold tweet that the series two soundtrack was being mastered and should be out late Feb, but I thought he must've confused it with the series 1 release. I couldn't believe they would release the two discs so close together. Obviously now I can believe it.

[Mr. Blofeld]

For those interested in the far-back screen Holmes, well, here's a photo of the original authorized British Holmes from the first screen adaptation of A Study in Scarlet:

His name was James Bragington, an employee in the office of the film's producer who had never acted before, but whom the producer, by his looks, felt fit the bill. He never acted again, and, unfortunately, we cannot see if his performance was a touchstone by which later Holmes actors should measure up to, because the film has been lost since shortly after its release.

However, you can't say it didn't look very good, now, can you? ;-)

[marktmurphy]

Excellent, I saw David Arnold tweet that the series two soundtrack was being mastered and should be out late Feb, but I thought he must've confused it with the series 1 release. I couldn't believe they would release the two discs so close together. Obviously now I can believe it.

Yeah, it does seem an odd move. I'm not going to buy it just yet- I want to see whether I like the first one first.

I think they probably should have held off releasing it for a little while; get the anticipation built up a bit.

[Brisco]

Wow: when it rains, it pours! I'm happy to be getting both so close together, personally. My only question is whether they'll get an American release or I'll have to import them. Silva often does release their stuff in the US...

[univex]

For what is worth, I love Sherlock´s soundtrack. David at his best. The two themes are both fantastic and stick to your ears like glue for days.

[Dustin]

Only loosely related but perhaps of interest for some fans of Leslie S. Klinger's splendid Annotated Sherlock Holmes, the master of annotated icon publishing has set his sights on Bram Stoker's DRACULA and released a magnificent 600+ pages tome in a similarly distinctive fashion of his earlier work on the Holmes canon. (actually he did in 2008 and I only now discovered this heretofore to me unknown fact)

The book comes with an abundance of period illustrations and photographs, notes on all manner of facts related to the text and the publishing history, appendixes containing DRACULA'S GUEST, dating, chronology and glossary of DRACULA and a number of articles concerning themselves with the impact of the Count on popular culture. An introduction by Neil Gaiman rounds off the package.

Actually I wonder how I managed to live all these years without it. A mystery...

[zencat]

I'm absolutely crazy about the SHERLOCK series. Incredible. Great time to be a Holmes fan.

[marktmurphy]

I'm absolutely crazy about the SHERLOCK series. Incredible. Great time to be a Holmes fan.

It's a bit ace, isn't it? Six brilliant Holmes films with three more on the way; hard to knock that.

It's been massive here this time around; the first episode got 10.6 million viewers, and every time I've picked up a paper over the last few weeks Sherlock has been talked about in there in some way.