Stephanie Earp
BBC's "Sherlock," the latest take on Arthur Conan Doyle's detective (who has been portrayed onscreen more than 70 different ways), does this beautifully.
I've just discovered the show, but most of my TV watching friends haven't heard of it. If you, like them, haven't caught on to this series yet, go do it. You might be able to get it on demand, and the first season is on Netflix. The structure of the show is a bit odd, at first. Instead of a handful of hour-long episodes, each series consists of three 90-minute mini-movies based on Arthur Conan Doyle's stories.
I've watched five so far, and I'm in that delicious period where I'm dying to watch the last one, but also want to save it. Knowing I've got more than a piddly 44 minutes coming my way makes it bearable. Set in modern-day London, the newest Sherlock has access to forensic labs, nicotine patches, and smartphones, but he is, in every way that counts, utterly faithful to the literary original.
Forget Robert Downey Jr. -- this one is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, a Brit (obviously with that handle) who bears a passing resemblance to the young Dennis Quaid, and clearly has no qualms about chewing the scenery.
His Dr. Watson is played by Martin Freeman (from the original "Office" and the underrated "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy") as I imagine Bill Bryson might. In other words, he is happily amazed by most things, occasionally cranky, and always soothed by a nice cup of tea. The thing I'm most enjoying about indulging in the show is how light-hearted it is.
All the really good TV right now is so dark. I'm as excited as the next guy about the return of "Game of Thrones" this April, but it's nice to watch something that doesn't involve people being crippled, beheaded and thrown into dungeons.
"Sherlock" is delightfully fun. It's obvious, in the execution and from the fan reaction, that this show is being made by people who adored the source material. (One of the creators also plays Sherlock's brother Mycroft, a character whose fictional other life I've been following avidly in the "Thursday Next" novels by Jasper Fforde. Check those out too, while you're at it.)
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