Sherlock Holmes Remediations... US and English and Movie

Hmm don't know what it is with the recent raft of remediation's of the Character Sherlock Holmes but I sat down and watched the new US TV rendition, Elementary for the third time last night and decided that despite the fact that the character of Holmes  is complex and captivating and Dr Watson played by Lucy Liu puts a different and refreshing spin on that character that already the series has slipped into a predictable pattern. It maybe the problem with fitting Holmes investigations in to a 45 minute package, it maybe the writers or simply that the Us is trying to copy the recent BBC runaway success but I fear that that in trying to make Holmes solve things so quickly that it has lost something of the mystery and magic of the original serials.

The BBC series Sherlock of feature length episodes written by Dr Who writer Stephen Moffat are able to capture more the mystique of Sherlock Holmes and the deeper darker side of the things he investigates. Maybe it is the English and Scottish familiarity with the Holmes character and Moffat's long association with the equally enigmatic Doctor that makes it the better product. Perhaps it is the way in which in keeping with the Holmes character itself they have adopted an unconventional format of feature length instalments and not slavishly keep to the requirements of a TV season. It could equally be the actors and the willingness to leave one in suspense.  We have had many family dinner table discussions about how Holmes and possibly Moriarty were able to escape death on a London roof top in the last instalment. But this modern retelling of Sherlock is far superior.

As for Guy Ritchie's two movies Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes Game of shadows   (2011). I really enjoyed the special effects the brilliant way in which turn of late 18thcentury London came alive and the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson is the best of this recent bunch. The film also managed to capture something fo the darkness of the Holmes figure.

So I await the return of he BBC Sherlock and with my kids and many round the world ponder how Sherlock made it off the roof alive. What did we miss? I think it has something to do with the truck. And I will pay to go and see  a third of the movie instalments, if it ever eventuates, and hey Downey Jr just made Iron Man 3.  and can happily live without American TV trying to bring Holmes across time and space to 21st century New York.