We're going to have to agree to disagree on this series. And opinion seems equally divided on the comments below on-line reviews. For me, the whole point of the Holmes stories was to see the great man solving crimes. This series is far too involved in the characters of Holmes's immediate circle and is way too self indulgent. Watson's wife, Mary, is scarcely mentioned in the original Conan-Doyle stories; here she's become a central character and has out-stayed her welcome. Another example of the series being too much up itself is that the parents of Sherlock are played by Benedict Cumberbatch's real-life parents; and Watson's wife is played by Martin Freeman's real-life partner! Ugh!
And can you buy Sherlock as a seducer of women? He's not James Bond. I watch the series as it does have some excellent set pieces. In this last episode the internal dialogue following Sherlock’s shooting was brilliant. And Charles Augustus Magnussen as Holmes's foe has to be one of the creepiest villains I've seen - even disturbingly perverse. (Pity we won't see him again.) The BBC also had a tie-in documentary Timeshift: How to be Sherlock Holmes: The Many Faces of a Master Detective about the screen versions of Sherlock Holmes since 1900 which shows how our perception of the detective is as much influenced by film as by those Conan Doyle stories (and The Strand Magazine illustrations). Worth a look and available on BBC iPlayer for free. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pzsd9 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pzsd9
