Thursday 29 July 2010

The Case of Moffat and Gatiss

Woo. Not content with reinventing Jekyll, Steven Moffat has decided to take on Sherlock Holmes as well, and update it to the 21st Century. Co-creating it with Mark Gatiss, but we know who's going to get the credit in this partnership.

It's three episodes, hour and half each, and, as mentioned, has this in the modern day. John Watson is an ex-army medical soldier who saw action in Afghanistan, although the only real "updating" of Sherlock has been to make him into a texting fiend, and change his drug habits just a little.

The first story is amusingly called "A Study in Pink". I see what they did there. There are some familiar beats, with the ole 'scratched up' device indicating drunkenness. And when Sherlock asked the key question of "who", I immediately jumped to the correct conclusion, so it's a little disappointing when Sherlock didn't until it was forced in the audience's face. Also interesting they show some of how Sherlock does his induction, so the audience is, for some things, up there with him.

And Mark Gatiss also shows his mug. He tries for creepiness, but can't quite pull it off. And there's an interesting character moment when Watson (played by an immediately recognisable Martin Freeman) hits on Gatiss' assistant. He is a woman-player after all.

Definitely want to watch to the other two, but... just two? I already want more!

[END]

2 comments:

fantomas said...

I'll be watching these once the film festival finishes. Sounds like they are worth watching,which I'm glad about. Not that I'm particularly surprised given who's behind them

evildicemonkey said...

Disappointed.
Predicable, poorly written and a vanity project for Gatiss.


His drug habbit (And drug of choice), not explicitly shown in this episode, the patches were the take on the modern sensibilities of smoking, not his drug taking.