Sherlock - season 1 (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Creators: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat
	Actors: Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness, The Hobbit 1-3), Martin Freeman (The Hobbit 1-3, Fargo TV-series), Una Stubbs
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: January 2015, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Consulting detective Sherlock Holmes (Crumberbatch) takes Doctor Watson (Freeman) as flatmate and involves him in his crime-solving passion.
Review: I started to watch this series because it is proposed on Netflix (and was produced by them) and features two actors that I often see those days (in The Hobbit, Fargo and/or Star Trek). I didn't really know what to expect, so I was at first surprised to see that the series is a transposition of the adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective into the 21st Century. As mentioned in my previous review of the animated series Sherlock Holmes, I have been reading the original novel so I am quite familiar with the stories. My second discovery was of the talent with which the transposition was done by the creators, film-makers and quite importantly the actor: brilliant Benedict Crumberbatch and no-less perfect casting for Martin Freeman. I was indeed amazed to see how well the classical investigation stories were relevant to our time as well. A hard-to-solve murder will always be one. And the means used by the hero have not changed: deduction, deduction and more deduction. Crumberbatch is definitely perfect for the role, and he managed to give life to this peculiar character thanks to odd habits (reminding of the modern Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory) and quickness of speech (very hard to follow for a non-native speaker). Many fine details from the novel are present and are infinitely better reproduced than in the American movie versions starring Robert Downey Jr. (see the review of A Game of Shadows for example): the addiction to cocaine is cleverly replaced by one to nicotine, Sherlock is overly bored when he has no case to work on and overly excited when people die, telegrams are replaced by SMS, Sherlock always jumps in a cab when exiting his apartment (motor replaced horses), the novels by Watson are replaced by a Blog.... All of them excellent ideas. What annoys me a little is the music (too present) and the editing (often too fast for no reason). Also I found Moriarty too young for the part, but all in all he was very well introduced and the actor (Andrew Scott) brings something very special to the role. Sherlock's brother Mycroft is more present than in the novel but that's alright. Each season is composed of only three 1.5-hour episodes. In this first season one can see A Study in Pink the necessary introduction episode that baffled me, The Blind Banker a well-shot investigation that deepens the relationship between the two heroes, and The Great Game in which we truly see Sherlock at his best (he is solving mystery after mystery) and he gets to meet his archenemy. Definitely a great first season and a cliffhanger that forced me to watch the second season right after.
Rating: 8 /10