My original response to yet another damn Sherlock Holmes remake was to in the words of Judas Priest, “Run to the Hiiiiiiills!”
But I came back to 221B Baker Street again. In the same tradition that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was reinterpreted in a modern fashion for Jekyll a few years back, the BBC (specifically BBC Wales, the people who brought you Torchwood) have done the same with contemporary update of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes detective stories.
There were only three episode shot so far, but they sparkle with the same wit and panache that have been a mainstay of any Holmes interpretation. You may have never heard of Benedict Cumberbatch before, but you will be seeing more of him soon enough. His is a delirious monster of a Holmes: all cold modern attitude asocial yet tremendously out there and in your face. Martin Freeman keep the Zen balance as his Watson is a 180 from Cumberbatch’s Holmes. Solid as a rock, everything you could hope for from the everyman Watson.
Even the editing and the cinematography get top marks; I’ve not seen that kind of work since David Fincher advanced the game a decade when he put out Seven. The use of text and image overlay adds a subtle level of depth which plays both guide and extra sensory stimulus for the viewer. Just look for the stop lights during the climatic roof chase half way through the first episode and you’ll get what I mean.
Sorry Robert and deepest apologies Jude, I think you’ve officially been replaced.