Holmes & Watson drops in the UK this month so we take a look at our favourite (and least favourite) moments from ANYTHING containing the titular hero! So whether this is from the EXCELLENT BBC series: Sherlock or the Just okay Robert Downey Jr movies right through to the American take on the great detective starring Lucy Liu we talk about moments we loved & hated
Will
I’ve gotta say, I really hate what they did to Irene Adler in the BBC adaptation of ‘Sherlock’.
Taken alone, it’s a really enjoyable episode with the standard ‘Sherlock’ schpiel- Benedict Crumblybum stares at people and tells them they had a chippy tea last Friday and that they like lesbian porn, everyone goes ‘wow’. Pretty standard.
But after going back to who Irene was as a character in the original story ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’, I was instantly disappointed.
Irene Adler was the opposite of what she was in the show. She’s a woman Sherlock is sent to find after a Prince finds falls in love with her and has an affair with her, but Irene wants nothing to do with him. Sherlock thinks the job will be easy because he is the great Sherlock Holmes, and Irene is a mere woman, Eww, a woman. But Irene outsmarts Sherlock and escapes to a new life away from the kingdom and Sherlock’s grasp. Sherlock underestimated her because of her sex and is then outsmarted by her and teaches him a lesson in humility.
Compare that to the Irene of the show, who is translated from ‘Free and intelligent woman who simply seeks her own freedom and in the process beats Sherlock’ to ‘A literal prostitute/dominatrix who Sherlock has to rescue’.
That’s not very feminist!
Clarissa
Spoilers!!! Obviously! So to begin with, any of the moments with Irene Adler in, in the BBC Sherlock series are my favourite. I have to say my particular favourite scene though is when they first meet at her house and she enters the room completely naked. I think it’s such a brilliant scene and really sets her up as a match for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock. Furthermore, I love any scene with Jim Moriarty in but I guess my favourite scene is where he’s sat with the Crown Jewels on, and the previous break-in sequence, I love it!! I also enjoy Elementary however I’m soooo very far behind, I realllllllyy liked their Moriarty twist!
William
Can I just say an entire film was a great moment? I can? Great! Mr. Holmes it is then! A great twist on the detective we all know and love as we see him living out his twilight years in a cottage in the English countryside. What makes the story so great through is seeing how age Is effecting the genius. He struggles to remember his past and it’s clear he can no longer access the full power of his mind and it’s breaking him down. Luckily he hasn’t the friendship of his housekeepers son to give him a new reason to keep trying and pass on his skill. It’s a simultaneously upsetting and uplifting tale. As for worst? I’d just say the entire premise of Elementary bothers me. Why do we need to make Watson a woman to create sexual tension between Sherlock and Watsonville that could have easily been done with 2 male leads anyway?