Sherlock Season 1 Overview: Worlds Only Consulting Detective

"Sherlock" is a British series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories. The main characters are Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Doctor John Watson (Martin Freeman). There are several other supporting characters.

One difference between this show and others in that there are only 3 episodes each season (and a long stretch of time between). Even though I'm late to this party, I dont think it will take me long to catch up. Below are the episode overviews from Wikipedia.

I must say I very much enjoyed season 1. The character of Sherlock is an interesting one. I'm not sure at this point if he's supposed to have Aspergers syndrome or what.

Favorite quotes:

"I'm not a psychopath Anderson. I'm a high functioning sociopath. Do your research."- Sherlock
"Man like you. So clever. But what's the point of being clever if you can't prove it. Still the addict. But this is what you're really addicted to. You do anything, anything at all to stop being bored."- taxi driver to Sherlock.
"I'm his archenemy"- Mycroft about Sherlock.
"One day just showing up won't be enough. One day we'll be standing around a body and Sherlock Holmes will be the one who put it there." - Donovan about Sherlock.

Wikipedia:

Episode 1: A Study In Pink

The police investigate the deaths of a series of people who all appear to have committed suicide by taking a poisonous pill. They turn to their unofficial consultant, Sherlock Holmes, who deduces various elements pointing to a serial killer. Meanwhile, Holmes is introduced to John Watson, a former soldier who served in Afghanistan, and the pair immediately move into a flat in Baker Street. John Watson slowly gets to know and trust Sherlock despite police officer Sally Donovan (Vinette Robinson) warning him that Holmes is a psychopath and will one day be responsible for murder. Sherlock's brother Mycroft (Mark Gatiss), at first not revealing his identity, kidnaps Watson and asks whether he'll spy on Sherlock for money, but John refuses. After a series of incidents, the person responsible for the deaths, a taxicab driver (Phil Davis), reveals that his victims took their own lives by playing a game of Russian roulette with two pills: one fatally poisonous, the other safe. Watson shoots the cabbie and runs away. As he dies, the taxicab driver reveals that Moriarty was his sponsor.

Loosely based on the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet.^[8]

Episode 2: The Blind Banker

Sherlock is hired by an old friend to investigate a mysterious break-in at a bank in the City. He discovers that symbols spray-painted onto an office wall are a coded message intended for an employee of the bank, who is later discovered dead in his flat. The next day, a journalist is killed and the same symbols are found nearby. Sherlock and John follow a trail of clues that link the two dead men to a Chinese smuggling ring, who are trying to retrieve a valuable item that one of them stole. Sherlock eventually cracks the coded message based on Suzhou numerals and a book cipher, but not before John and Sarah (John's girlfriend) are kidnapped by the criminals. Sherlock rescues John and Sarah, but the leader of the gang escapes. After escaping, the leader of the gang is in communication with her superior, who is identified by the initial "M". She is then shot by a sniper.

Loosely based on the short story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men",^[10] the storyline also incorporates elements from other Sherlock Holmes stories; the concept of coded messages, the markings on the feet of the Black Lotus members and the plot of escaping a secret society, then being tracked to and killed in England all feature in The Valley of Fear. A murder victim being found inside a locked room, accessible only by climbing, alludes to The Sign of the Four.

Episode 3: The Great Game

Sherlock is commissioned by Mycroft to investigate the suspicious death of a government employee, who was working on a top-secret defence project: the Bruce-Partington Project.^[12] After rejecting the case and handing it over to John, Sherlock begins to be taunted by a criminal who puts his victims into explosive vests and sets Sherlock deadlines to solve the apparently unrelated cases, which include a twenty-year-old cold case involving the shoes of a drowned boy, the disappearance of a businessman, the death of a TV personality, and the assassination of a guard of an art gallery by the "Golem". As Sherlock solves the cases, he finds links between them. After clearing up the original case of the civil servant, Sherlock tries to force his unseen adversary to reveal himself. Near the end of the episode, Sherlock and "Jim Moriarty" reach a standoff, where Jim reveals that he is responsible for the crimes. In the final seconds, Sherlock Holmes points his gun at a bomb on the floor that had been strapped to John.

The episode's story line is essentially original, but elements of the plot are drawn widely from the works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). If you want to catch all the clues, you have to pay close attention (but that's part of the fun). And there's quicker dialogue than in the typical American show. You might want to turn on closed caption.