The most famous resident of Baker Street is back — meaner and more brilliant than ever before. Sherlock , BBC’s kinetic reboot of Arthur Conan Doyle’s consultant detective is that perfect sequel. While keeping all that was cool in the original, Season II has a whole lot of new stuff to offer. The three 90 minute episodes of Season 1, A Study in Pink, The Blind Banker and The Great Game introduced the principles — Holmes, Watson, Mrs. Hudson (who has moved on from being housekeeper to landlady), Lestrade, Mycroft and the criminal mastermind Moriarty.
The genius of the series conceived and written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss is the effortlessly clever updates while drawing from the original stories—thus keeping the fans and newbies utterly thrilled. The updates are straight forward like Watson keeping a blog instead of journal and subtle like the clues in the Banker story.
The cast lift the show to a whole new level. Benedict Cumberbatch makes for a ferociously intelligent Holmes while Martin Freeman gives his Watson pleasantly unpredictable layers.
The rest of the cast including Rupert Graves as Lestrade, Andrew Scott as joyously insane Jim Moriarty, Mark Gatiss as superiorly icy Mycroft, Louise Brealey as Molly and Una Stubbs as the no-nonsense Mrs. Hudson are all characters one can invest in.
The Great Game , the final episode of Series 1 ended in a cliff hanger which the first episode of Season 2, Scandal in Belgravia resolves before moving on briskly to tell an exceedingly thrilling tale involving sex and conspiracy in equal measure. Loosely inspired by Doyle’s Scandal in Bohemia , Belgravia takes Holmes’ relationships — with Watson, Mycroft, Molly and Mrs. Hudson to the next level. Holmes finds a match in Irene Adler, played sexily by Lara Pulver. And their sparring has that delicious frission of sexual tension. Fans will be pleased with the many in jokes including The Speckled Blonde and The Geek Interpreter ! Holmes’ famed Deerstalker also makes an appearance.
The Hound of the Baskervilles , Doyle’s most famous story is the inspiration behind episode 2, The Hound of the Baskervilles . This episode finds Holmes and Watson leaving London to study the mysterious goings on at a military base in Dartmoor. The Final Problem where Holmes and his nemesis Moriarty fall to their death in Switzerland finds echoes in the third episode, The Reichenbach Fall where Moriarty and Holmes are engaged in a fierce battle of wits where no quarter is given or asked for.
Brainy is so totally the new sexy. Sherlock season II premieres on Sunday and will air on Sundays at 8 pm on BBC Entertainment.
Published - June 29, 2012 06:52 pm IST
