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Saturday, January 28, 2012

SherLOCKED--Please Join the Club


You know how sometimes you fall in love with the character of a film or a book and you get excited and then the mere fact that you are excited about it excites you even more? How you then research the character, research the actor, discover some hidden jewels along the way, even secretly try to imagine different plotlines, endings? That’s where I am now.
For some reason, last several years have been productive in terms of good-quality TV and some series tackled the challenge of being short, engaging, well…serial, but still retain the eminence of a film and pack a lot of character and story development in a short period of one episode.
Recently, I was pleasantly surprised by BBC’s “Sherlock”; last year, when my hubby offered to watch a modern British adaptation of Sir Conan Doyle’s work, I was reluctant; I could not imagine this project done tastefully. We started watching the first episode and though I instantly loved Dr. Watson, an image of young Sherlock was harder to stomach (though his age is exactly the same as in the books; we have been fed an old Sherlock in other adaptations). The plot was excellent, with so much nerdy references to the original that it got hubby and me squeaking with delight. Each episode is 90 minutes long, so we could not just watch it tired, after work, thus it took us a while to watch all three episodes of the season 1. By the end, I was completely hooked and could not imagine any other Sherlock. As a result, I started appreciating the story again--after all, I’ve read “Sherlock Holmes” sometime in 6th grade and seldom went back to it.
Very short review: I value this fresh duo of John and Sherlock, the fact that the former has some personality and is not just a dumb story-writer, and the depth given to the characters of Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, Mycroft and, most importantly, Moriarty. Actually, Moriarty deserves a separate post...The creators of the film have stated, that they aim to show Sherlock as he was perceived in his age—innovative, using modern technologies, intelligent, but at the same time, very classical and Byron-esque—not hidden under the set of Victorian decorations, outdated, a creature of the past.
Along came the season two, and if season one succeeded in building this super-human, super-intelligent, I would say Aspergerish Sherlock, season two exposed a human, fallible side of his character and accomplished the impossible—proved to be better than the first season! Of course, the importance of human emotion on Sherlock’s usually grim face would never be appreciated without the first season, but watching the second season is twice, thrice as satisfying! All, absolutely all of the actors perform so well, watching them is a treat.
Back to my exited self: This whole week I have been reading “Sherlock” press reviews from all over the world; watching interviews with the actors and creators of the film; reading history of Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle; reading reviews of theatre work that Benedict Cumberbatch—the actor who plays Sherlock—performs well and consequently, collects awards; watching some of his films; and learning how to pronounce his name (sounds like BATCH of cuCUMBERs). I have gathered a ton of information about film, theatre, British actors in general and of course, all things Sherlock. I’ve written two posts on this theme (one will soon appear on my other blog), and spent some time looking through Cumberbatch’s pics (let’s hope my hubby won’t read this post). Hence, I can proudly declare that I have found something exiting to get excited about and I have been absolutely and irrevocably SherLOCKED. And maybe (just maybe) I am the first official Georgian Cumberbitch—a slightly disturbing twitter term describing quickly-spreading Cumberbatch fan hysteria.
Come on, watch it, get hooked!!! What else do you have to do this weekend?!
P.S. I have not taken this pic (I wish!!), I’ve copied it from : http://www.notzombies.com/tv/the-bbcs-sherlock-review/

1 comment:

  1. my friend got very emotional when i called myself first official cumberbitch. she claims the title is hers.
    i am not alone in this world :-)

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