Anya's Musings: April 2012

The Game is On!! Or was, until Season 3 starts!

I don't how many even read this thing anymore. But I shall go on anyways.

Yes, so. I think anyone who claims to know me even a little bit would know that i adore literature. And on the days that I am stressed/annoyed/depressed... there are just a few things I can turn to. Detection fiction & murder mysteries being some. And I don't care if that, of all things, makes one morbid. So anyways, the point is that my friend BT called me up one day and positively shouted--- " You HAVE to watch this show called Sherlock!"

Which I ignored. She wasn't the first person who told/ordered me to watch it. And I have way too many things to do/read/watch/worry about than see yet another adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. And the next day in class I told her as much. To which she replied, "Watch Sherlock. Don't study. Just watch Sherlock!!!!" And saying that, she handed me the pendrive. After a very very very very long, tiring and uninteresting day, I came home and finally saw it.

And it is brilliant!! I haven't watch any television series in a long, long time that is so utterly beautiful, brilliant & pure genius. Because that's what Sherlock is. (I am still a huge fan of Modern Family... but then, that's a whole different genre all together, no?) The best thing about Sherlock is this: it is not a remake of any of Sir Arthur Canon Doyle's stories. It is set in the contemporary times, where Sherlock Holmes texts and people wonder & conclude out loud that he and Dr. Watson are happily gay. In this version, Holmes hates that funny hat of his, Watson keeps a blog, Holmes has a rather dull and awfully technical website and they are both internet sensations and so on. The guy who wrote it, Steven Moffat is a genius. And he isn't a genius just because he was able to write such brilliant stories and mysteries. No. That's not it. He's a genius because he has managed to pick up characters, really wonderful characters, that have been immortalised by a legend a really long time back, put them in a different time altogether, post-modernist context (and all that jazz that any literary critic may throw at you) and have adapted them with such care and injecting intricate details in their personality, without doing away with the original basic personality of any of them. And the best part (apart from Sherlock not being fond of his hat)? That none of the stories are by Doyle. They all, all allude to the original novels & short stories of Sherlock Holmes. The 1st episode of Season 1 is called A Study in Pink which is clearly a reminder to the faithful fans of Sherlock Holmes that must constitute quite a bit of the audience of Sherlock about the original A Study in Scarlet. In fact, all the episode are named that way. Both Sherlock Holmes & Dr. John Watson still in 221B, Baker Street and that made me smile for a really long time. Because it is inconceivable that Sherlock Holmes should inhabit any other place.

Benedict Cumberbatch is so convincing as socially-challenged genius. He is an amazing actor and makes up for a very good looking Sherlock Holmes. All of the actors in fact. Martin Freeman, Rupert Graves, Una Stubbs, Mark Gatiss and of course the very brilliant Andrew Scott.

BBC One's Sherlock has convinced me that Sherlock Holmes is after all a human being. A genius one, not always sensitive. But a human nonetheless. He is shown, as the title goes, Sherlock and not necessarily as Holmes.

So yes, yesterday I went up to someone I know and set her a task of watching Sherlock. As far as I know that the series is not available in India. But really, get hold of it somehow and watch it!

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