Sherlock

[seriousfic]

Referring to the new BBC series... well, Benedict Cumberbatch is no Jeremy Brett, but then they're not trying. The present-day setting thankfully doesn't degenerate into The Mentalist with violin-playing, but instead is used to add tics and nuance to the old canon (like with Holmes insisting on texting people instead of phoning them. Cute touch). The caveat that Holmes is a self-identified (self-diagnosed?) sociopath who the police worry will go over to the Dark Side, with Watson trying to anchor him on the side of right and good, is a nice idea, if a touch reminiscent of Web from The Inside. But then, playing him as the hero rather than the mentor is difference enough.

The one real complaint I have is the running gag of Holmes and Watson being mistaken for a couple, which gets tiresome quick with seemingly every character making a gay joke about them, even Holmes and Watson themselves. I haven't seen this many characters sell a pairing since Lois and Clark on Smallville, and they're Lois and Clark! It's like, we get it, people think they're gay but they're not, ha ha, BROMANCE!

Wait a minute, you're saying that two men can enjoy spending time together... and have an emotional attachment... but they don't want to have sex? By Jove, my monocle's popped out! America Britain, what a country! What shall we call this radical new concept? Friendship? No, that's too technical. Maybe nonrotic romance? Nomance?

I'm not opposed to baiting the fangirls or out-and-out making them gay, but Christ, show a little restraint, it's the first episode.