I am a big fan of detective stories. Not stories really. More TV detectives. My favourite, naturally, is Morse. Like me, he's a grumpy old bugger. But also Jane Tennison, Fitz (Cracker), Adam Dalgliesh, Wallander, Philip Marlowe, Poirot, Colombo even Kojak. Yet, somehow, not Sherlock Holmes. All that deerstalker and pipe. The supposedly dark side implied by reference to cocaine. Works in the books but awfully outdated on TV. Until today that is.
Just saw the first instalment of 'Sherlock' on BBC1. As usual for the BBC it is a period piece. The only surprise is that the period is . . . . now. Mobile phones, CCTV, the lot. More Spooks than Conan Doyle. It runs at Bugatti Veyron pace and it is witty:
Someone: "You are a psychopath Holmes."
Holmes: "I am a highly-functional sociopath you idiot!"
Just hope it's gonna last. You see, it was the exposition, the unfolding of the context and introduction of the key characters that was the most exciting part of the episode. The actual mystery took not more than a third of the air-time. Now that we have the background, will the actual plot hold 90mins of TV? I do hope so.
BTW, no mention of the word "elementary".
PS 620km down. 380km to go.
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