Sherlock

Overview

The classic Sherlock Holmes universe gets a high-tech update in this series. Each season revisits three of the short stories, carefully making them modern without losing the flavor of the original story or the relationships between characters.

Major Characters

For a full cast and characters list, check out Sherlock on IMDB.

Show Dynamics (Spoilers)

Both Sherlock and Dr. Watson are straight, at least in my opinion as a viewer. (Sherlock is fairly enamored of Irene Adler; Dr. Watson keeps trying to date women throughout the first two series, however unsuccessfully.) However, most of the other characters (and most fans, to be honest) think that Sherlock and Dr. Watson are a gay couple, which causes Watson a good deal of consternation.

There IS, however, a fair amount of what seems like brotherly affection between Holmes and Watson, with all the ribbing and little jokes that pop up as well as the occasional spats between them.

Watson usually has to remind Sherlock of his own humanity, helping him get back down to earth when he’s high-flying in his own imagination.

One gets the feeling that Watson might actually prefer a quieter life, but the excitement of working with Sherlock on all these crazy cases actually makes him happier than a quieter life would.

Mycroft is Sherlock's biological older brother, but he’s too distant and competitive to really be a support to Sherlock when he needs it. Watson actually fulfills the brother role a lot better.

Moriarty and Sherlock are very similar in some ways, and the show plays beautifully off that. Both can be devious and deceptive when they need to be, and both crave mental stimulation and excitement. However, Moriarty is not hemmed in by social morals and values at all, where Sherlock has a couple of morals still left to him. (He’s willing to break some boundaries in the pursuit of a solved case, but not all boundaries are breakable. To Moriarty, those boundaries simply don’t exist; he’s a sociopath.)

Short Essays

The "Mind Palace" and Finding Your Keys

Several times throughout the series thus far, Sherlock makes mention of rather odd mental tactics, such as "deleting" old/useless information from his mind, and storing information in a mental structure he terms his "mind palace." The other characters think he's a little batty for using such tactics, but they actually work for him, and similar mental strategies can work for the most random things in our actual lives.

For instance, thinking of our minds as a file cabinet with various memories "sorted" within them can help us remember important details and forget the dross of everyday life. Likewise, strongly associating items with places can help us remember where we last laid our keys, or our cell phones, or anything we tend to misplace easily. Sherlock may come off as weird, but his methods work--that's one reason the show is so compelling!

Links

Sherlockology
Sherlock TV series Wikipedia article
Sherlocking
Sherlock Wiki @ Fanlore.org
The Voice and the Violin (Sherlock/Irene Adler fansite)
SherlockHolmesWiki
TheSherlockFan's Youtube Feed