Originally I was going to review some kind of spooky series, but I couldn't think of any. As I am currently dressed as John Watson for Halloween, I will review the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, even if that doesn't really count as a series so much as a collection of short stories.
I feel like Sherlock Holmes is a character that everyone knows about, whether they've read the books or not, but they don't exactly know who he is. I just knew that he was the most famous literary detective of all times and that he had a companion named Watson. Then my friend got me into Sherlock BBC and I fell in love with it. I picked up the books at the library, hoping that I wouldn't be disappointed and that it wouldn't be too difficult to read.
I couldn't have been more surprised.
The writing is wonderful, it's sarcastic and subtly hilarious. The books are written from Dr. John Watson's point of view as he helps the great consulting detective Sherlock Holmes unravel the mysteries of victorian London. The cases are brilliant, well thought out and exciting. The setting is exactly what you would imagine a victorian-era detective would call his home. And then there's the man himself.
In the tv series, Sherlock is a very cold, rude, sociopathic man, who can occasionally be very unintentionally funny and sassy. He's incredibly intelligent and frowned on by his peers (excluding a few individuals such as John and Lestrade). I found that the tv series was very true to his character in the books. They didn't try to make him more, I don't know, heroic. In the books, Holmes is a jerk. To everyone. He is very intelligent and quick, he knows how to get what he wants when he wants. He isn't your typical do-gooder, because you know that if he wanted to, he could be the most dangerous criminal in the streets of London. However, you can see that he isn't heartless, that Watson really does matter to him and that he is inherently a good person.
Then there are other characters, such as Holmes' brother Mycroft. In the books and in the tv show, Mycroft is incredibly intelligent and strange. He holds a very important post in the government, but he doesn't want to be a detective like Holmes the younger. He doesn't like legwork. He's a great character, but we don't see much of him in the books. He has more appearances in the tv show.
To wrap this up, we have the criminal, Professor James Moriarty and his henchman Colonel Sebastian Moran. Moriarty ranks among my top villains of all times. He is cunning and witty, deadly sharp and a completely psychotic wreck. He is calm and quiet, doesn't get his hands dirty, but gets the job done. He is the spider at the center of London's crime web. In Sherlock BBC (because this review is basically turning into a comparison of the show and the books), Andrew Scott portrays a Moriarty that is quite different from the one we are used to. He is loud and Irish, very casual in his manner, but very classy in everything else - for a murderer that is. He knows how to mess with Sherlock, he knows how to get him to do exactly what he wants. I thought he did a phenomenal job as Moriarty, because he is a villain that you are genuinely scared of. He feels no remorse, he doesn't care that people have died, or that people will die. He just wants to play the game. And it's terrifying.
Well this was a different series series post. More of a comparison. Ah well, hope you enjoy it anyway!
Read the books. Watch the show. Sherlock Holmes is a great character, no matter how you see him, on page or on screen. And then of course, there is John Watson, who is one of my favorite characters in any series ever. Talk about being an inherently good person: Watson is the epitome of goodness.
Happy Halloween!
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