So I see there's a thread here for Sherlock Holmes II, aka the goofy corny Robert Downey Jr. vehicle that I'm never going to see, but there's nothing for the vastly superior effort by everybody's favorite godzilla of british culture Steven Moffat!

That's right, if TWO british institutions weren't enough for him to put his..... let's call it an indelible stamp on, welp, he got a THIRD in the form of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's timeless 7% cocaine-drinking pipe-smoking smartest-guy-in-the-room du-jour. Somewhere, you know that Lawrence Miles is having a real bad case of nagging diarrhea thinking of this.

I found the first series of 3 90-minute-episodes to be a satisfying jaunt in "event television." Grand Marshall Moff managed to, IMO, successfully modernize the character of Sherlock Holmes via some spirited acting by the incredibly-named Benedict Cumberbatch. Sure, the show uses all kinds of trendy visual gimmicks to showcase Sherlock's famous abilities of deduction, and yeah, the show tries REALLY FUCKING HARD to be a superslick 21st century showcase of how cool it is to be british, but beneath everything on the surface lies a genuinely quality effort to make compelling television, and I found myself rather enjoying the first round of 90-minute episodes, which (OMFG SPOILERS!!!) ultimately introduced us to a, well, let's say definitely-modern-and-quirky version of "Jim" Moriarty.

In typical Moffat fashion, because you know, no story is good enough to stand alone on its own merits without hitting you over the head with a dramatic sledgehammer to literally try and shackle you to the story with a cliffhanger between series, there was the obligatory cliffhanger at the end of series 1 which left you thinking "man, they better not drop the ball in series 2"

Welp, I had completely forgotten that the series aired just after the new year started over three weeks, so I was able to get the jump on all three 90min episodes b4 the proper DVD/blu-ray sales started on Jan 23rd (at least in britain anyways... idk if they're out for our region yet, as there's a deal to show these episodes domestically on PBS via the "masterpiece mystery!" series as opposed to just airing them ASAP on bbc america) and alls i gotta say is YEEEEEHAW!

I'm not going to spoil anything here because this is more of an advert than a discussion at the moment, but episodes 1 and 3 are the ones you watch, as #2, the modern day THE HOUNDS OF BASKERVILLE, is just kind of standalone and meh and if you LOVE the series you'll get the formula, but after episode 1 you want that big bad story arc to continue, and akin to doctor who, yeah, there's gonna be an episode or two that are just kind of standalone stories that give the flagrant nod to the arc at the end, but otherwise could be missed if you're into the big story...

and then BLAM! episode 3 delivers... and in typical moffat fashion you know he's gonna brag that "there was a clue that everyone missed all along" much like the famous clue we supposedly missed in doctor who series 5 episode 1 "the eleventh hour" (which, now ~2/+ years later, we still don't formally know because moffat is fucking convinced that we need to have a carrot perpetually dangled in front of us to keep us watching, therefore there's always going to be a cliffhanger or two or three and answers never seem to come on time, and then moffat goes "YOU LOT JUST MISSED IT! HOW DAFT ARE YOU!" which is just pfft... at least with Sherlock he doesn't have the classically-trained doctor who audience to toy with so you tend to get resolutions real quick)

ahem. suffice to say, just like... yeah. episode 1 gives us a classic character who hearkens alice from luther... or well obviously it's the other way around, but that's just how it goes... and then after you get through with episode 2, man, episode 3 just gets rolling and absolutely fucking delivers. hats off to moffat here, as this second batch of episodes overall just owned it. when it's going proper, man, you can relate to sherlock so much being a stone cold pimp.... one reviewer said in the first episode there's a memorable quote every minute or so, and i reckon the same is said for episode 3.

suffice to say, sherlock's pimphand is about as strong as it gets.. and thankfully, whereas the first set of 3x90min eps had you thinking sherlock was gay as shit, this second one has you thinking that he likes the puss... so thank god for that! not that there's anything wrong with being gay, but at the same time, there's nothing wrong with being straight and great! especially when some of these hoes just THROW THEMSELVES at our boy benedict...

and what can i say about benedict cumberbatch? he fucking kills it. he's way better at being sherlock than matt smith is at being the doctor (and matt smith, IMHO, could be a ~top3-4ish doctor if he gets out of the convoluted pond/river drama and gets better writing... i'm not being a prisoner of the moment either, the kid has skills, but doctor who is just kind of bleh and top-of-the-pops-ish right now and he's feeding into that with his late ~20something hipster du jour look. at least he's nailing daisy lowe... go look her up, she did playboy somewhat recently and it seriously makes you think the guy is prolly gay cuz if he's nailing that and still toggling your gaydar, then damn, there's something there)

but yeah, if you wanna see some oldschool sherlock stories retold with the BBC tossing out a nice big budget for steven moffat to go out and showcase england as a cultural mecca of the world with some clever-as-hell writing/storytelling combined with benedict cumberbatch acting so damn good you know he;'s destined to be one of britain's "next big things", then this show is for you.... if you read all of this ramble of mine for god knows what reason, quoteth doug, STOP YOURSELF, go buy the DVDs or find a way to watch it in the interim, and go be entertained. this show is worth your time, as i came into the experience with no expectations (thanks moff!) and now twice in back-to-back series have walked away from the experience quite entertained. there were no less than a combined ~10-15 pure FUCK YEAH!!! applause-generating moments from me in episodes 1+3 (cuz episode 2 isnt necessary and you can skip it with no consequence) and like, that's amazing, cuz i'm a cynic... i'm a thinker... television as a whole underwhelms me cuz its target audience is below my raw mindpower, and like, this show manages to walk that line with being universally accessible and downright clever-as-hell to the point where a technically-smart nerdenstein like me can walk away with that facial expression hearkening the timeless internet meme "i came"

TL;DR I SUCK SHERLOCK DOESN'T GO WATCH IT

# sini

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