A Study in Sherlock: The Best TV Adaptations Of the World’s Most Famous Detective

So, Sherlock Holmes is popular right now. This is nothing new. He is the most adapted character, from plays, to movies, and even comic books. And back when Sir A. Conan Doyle was still publishing the stories in the Strand, he would receive letters addressed to Mr. Sherlock Holmes, asking for help. When Doyle killed Holmes off at Reichenbach Falls, people wore black armbands in mourning. Holmes has meant a lot to fans for a long time, and adaptations of that beloved character is met with intense scrutiny.

Any adaptation changes the original characters, the tone and the mood of the story. But it is the change for the better?

Let’s examine a couple modern adaptations and see.

The most popular of the bunch is the BBC’s Sherlock. There are some pretty good reasons too, besides Benedict Cumberbatch’s cheekbones.

By DeviantArt user KimShuttle

First off, the cinematography is breathtaking, and the way they update many of the old plot devices is very clever. Text messages take the place of telegrams and Watson’s magazine stories are replaced by a blog.

Screencap from Moving Pictures

This series also has the best Watson I have ever seen on screen. For once, Watson is not shown as a blundering nincompoop. For some reason, adaptations almost always forget that Watson is a successful doctor and was in a war! Martin Freeman is not some comic foil, he adds that humanity to the friendship that Holmes desperately needs.

The BBC’s Holmes is even more of an emotionless calculating machine than Doyle’s. Also, in updating to the modern age, Sherlock lost his Victorian gentleman’s charm. Instead he goes around exclaiming he is a sociopath (a term used incorrectly). In my opinion, this lessens Holmes. Yes, it ups the tension, but seriously, who would ask for help from such an asshole?

Anyway, lets move on to a competitor, Elementary!

You might be tempted to dismiss it straight off.   How could Americans ever get something so iconically British right? Well, to start with, Doyle was rather enamored of America. Two of Sherlock’s 4 novels mostly take place in America, A Study in Scarlet and The Valley of Fear.  So no fear of Doyle spinning in his grave.

A strong point in this series is that it takes Holmes’ dysfunctions a bit more seriously. It is an update on the lax Victorian view on opiates. In Elementary, he is faced with repercussions, and finds Watson through getting help with his alcoholism.

Holmes is still a bit of a jerk, but he is shown to make connections, to know how human interaction works.

Screencap by Ana Mardoll’s Ramblings

And another fine update is the treatment of women. Watson is played very well by Lucy Liu. She is not a love interest, she has her own story and is actually learning the science of deduction! As opposed to the  masses of love-lorn, helpless women in the original stories.

Now, I have a recommendation that you won’t usually hear from a Sherlock Holmes fan. I think that Psych, originally on the USA Network, is a secret Holmes adaptation. And it is fantastic! It takes that incredulous moment where Lestrade of Scotland Yard, goes ‘egads Holmes, how do you do it?’ And instead of answering logically, he decides to take advantage of the situation and proclaim himself a psychic.

It has the essential components of the Doyle stories; a strong partnership, consulting detectives, and most crucially, the detective work is based on Holmsian deductions.

Psych adds something not really present in the stiff Victorian tales; witty and silly humor. And for that, it is my current favorite adaptation.