Sherlok Kholms

Sherlock Holmes: There is no doubt the writers and director of this show are engaged in radically redefining the character of Conan Doyle's eccentric 'consulting detective.' But I have followed this series through 4 episodes so far, and I find the effort surprisingly effective. In the general sense, this revision of Holmes is successful because of it basic premise: Watson is an aspiring writer who is working his way to becoming the author of the stories published under the name Conan Doyle that we are all familiar with. Unfortunately, the real Sherlock Holmes that he becomes involved with is unappealingly nerdy and asocial. And the adventures the two share are difficult, violent, and engage the grime of London's underworld, and the corruption of England's most trusted institutions. We can see how Watson might want to simplify, clean up, and romanticize these adventures for marketable publication.

And they are real adventures, have no doubt. The storytelling in this series has been remarkably strong. It's difficult to pull away from any episode once it hooks you at the beginning, which it does very quickly (the series has a very lively pace). Despite the revisions, the series does honor to Doyle's originals.

The design, the direction, the camera work, the acting, are all highly impressive; this is a most polished series of historical genre films. (The one quibble I have is that Holmes makes too much about his glasses, he is too frequently busy with them. A trifle, but occasionally annoying.)

Over all, I find the series fascinating and look forward with great anticipation to the next episode.

Note: There are currently four series of films attempting to revise the canon of Conan Doyle's brilliant Victorian detective for the 21st Century. One from the UK (Sherlock, for TV), one from the US (Elementary, for TV), one from Russia (Sherlock Homes, for TV), and the internationally produced films of Guy Ritchie, starring Robert Downey. Notably, each involves a radical re-envisioning of the character and his place in the world. We may have reached a point in history when filmmakers simply cannot give us the Great Detective as he was imagined by Doyle and played (with variations) throughout the 20th Century. Rating the 4 series: Sherlock Holmes (Russia): 9 of 10, with strong stories and a believably proletarian nerd Holmes. Sherlock (UK): 6 of 10; excellent first season has been betrayed by Steven Moffat's flashy showmanship until the stories are incoherent now (Season 3), the characters no longer likable, the focus almost completely lost. Elementary (US): 4 of 10; the redefined Holmes, a nervous, unsympathetic recovering drug addict, is not without interest, and any show with Lucy Liu in it gets the benefit of her quiet but charismatic presence and talent. But basically, this is just a routine American police procedural with a gimmick. I doubt that Hollywood can do anything else. Sherlock Holmes (Ritchie/Downey): 1 of 10. This series lacks any coherence in its stories or continuity. It's just a series of set-pieces with running around, fist fights, explosions, and campy jokes.

Frankly, when I first started watching this on Amazon I did not know it was a Russian production. When I saw that it was in the Russian language and had English subtitles that didn't turn me off. I enjoy watching other language Productions with English subtitles if they're well done.

That being said, I have to admit that it was a slog getting through the first three quarters of the first episode. But then something happened, I stopped paying attention to the Russian that was being spoken and started to hear the English through the subtitles. And then I really started paying attention to the story. The production values are very good. Costumes locations and actors are all outstanding. Even though when they show backgrounds of London Bridge and a few other places in the show I started noticing that these backgrounds were computer-generated. But that's to be understood to keep the cost down.

The episodes themselves are all very slickly done and entertaining. The one thing that I have that to me was a drawback is the Holmes character himself. All the other people in the series playing a character are recognizable for being who they're playing whether it be Watson, mrs. Hudson, Professor Moriarty, or lestrade. Holmes however was a little off for me. I like my Holmes to look like the Holmes in the books. This Holmes is more like the character from the American TV series Elementary, or the Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey jr. . He is scruffy, fidgety, and wholly unkempt looking. But I overlooked that because the stories were so well done. By the way, near the end of the series there is a humorous part in the story which addresses this very thing. I enjoyed this series which is only 8 episodes long so much that I devoured it in a day and a half, each episode being an hour and a half long.

I highly recommend this for any Sherlock Holmes enthusiast or just somebody who doesn't mind subtitles who wants to see some good mystery shows. The Russians did a great job with a great English character. Or was he just a character????

Probably the best version of Sherlock Holmes in the last twenty years. Igor Petrenko is totally believable as a young eclectic genius trapped in a world that cannot feed his need for intellectual stimulus quickly enough. he is fragile, nervous, shy, brave, infatuated and clever all at the same time - only the Russians could pull that off.

The complex relationship between Sherlock; the aspiring but plodding writer, Dr Watson, torn into shreds both physically and emotionally through his experience in Afghanistan - and the extraordinary subliminal attraction of Mrs Hudson draws you into an insular world more closely confined, more inexplicable, more intriguing than any previous series.

Terrific production values, supporting cast, complex and fascinating stories - what more could you want. This is gold dust.

In my opinion, one of the best miniseries on the subject, and certainly an excellent Russian production. The staging and scenery is top-notch, and manage to transform one to the late Victorian era. Am looking forward to a repeat watching!

This is a wonderful series and it is well worth watching all eight episodes.

I'm accustomed to subtitles so that wasn't a huge problem for me -- I admit that unlike the Italian and Scandinavian shows I'm use to watching, these subtitles were more challenging... I'm not quite sure why.

I loved how the writers started reimagining things and giving us glimpses into storylines that are seemingly quite fresh. One of them is the work that goes into Watson becoming a published author.

The feeling I got watching this was that it was a labor of love by all concerned -- the writers, actors, production crew, everyone.

The acting is excellent and the stories engaging. Keep an open mind and don't let the Cumberbatch or Downey or whoever else has been Holmes intrude on your ability to enjoy these.

The eighth and last episode offers a couple of emotional pay-offs which just made me happy. One is expected, but the other is not and is pretty fun.

Bravo!