Having just watched BBC’s second series of Sherlock Holmes, I realise I’ve been totally besotted with Arthur Conan Doyle’s character since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I wanted to be just like him…stylish, brainy and not give a damn. If I couldn’t be like him then I’d settle for being romanced by him. In my dreams! Isn’t Sherlock the ultimate in unavailable men? Aloof, diffident and sexually ambiguous, it would take some woman to get his attention.
Robert Downey Junior played him on the big screen and who doesn’t adore Downey Junior? We know he’s fought a tough battle with his demons in real life and at one stage it looked like he was caught up in an endless cycle of drugs, prison and re-hab. His little boy lost look and lopsided grin had women everywhere offering a shoulder to cry on. Instead he chose a pair of iron clad shoulders for his role in Iron Man. We didn’t hold that against him as we applauded his later portrayal of Sherlock. It was action packed and glamorous with a sprinkling of magic realism, but there was something missing.
In the summer of 2010 there appeared an altogether more worthy contender for the role of our favourite sleuth. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is described as brilliant, detatched and almost entirely lacking in social graces. Sounds like Autuism… doesn’t it? Diagnostics aside, Cumberbatch nails Sherlock to perfection in the BBC’s T.V. series. Though it’s set in present day London, it manages to evoke an ambience of Victorian times. This is done by way of Sherlock’s demeanour, clothing and living accommodation. Did I mention his curly hair and cheekbones sharp enough to slice cheese? Stop me before I drool.
Bringing it into the modern era, the series uses technology, such as texting and the internet. Watson (played by Martin Freeman) even sets up a blog, featuring a picture of Sherlock in his famous tweed cap. Of course Sherlock fumes as Watson gives him regular updates about the number of hits the blog receives. How outrageous that a man of Sherlock’s dignity could be the subject of something so common. What is the world coming to?
My favourite episode titled ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’ runs high on sexual tension when Sherlock meets his nemesis in the gorgeous shape of Irene Adler (played by Lara Pulver), a woman who is more than a match for the brainy detective. It’s sexy, brilliant and action packed right to the end when there’s a clever twist.
I found myself wishing I could be Irene Adler, with her kick ass attitude and endless smarts.
Observing Sherlock and Irene in action, they appear to possess a superior intelligence which comes from a sixth sense. In another episode, Sherlock even goes so far as to order Watson out of the room while he enters his “memory palace” to help solve a crime. We next see Sherlock seated as he enters a state of deep concentration to recall everything he has ever observed or learnt (this is him accessing his memory palace). Information rushes through his brain in the form of images and words while he organises data like Tom Cruise in Minority Report.
Eureka…my own memory bank threw up a recollection of hearing about a gadget called sixth sense. Yes it’s true. We can all be like Sherlock and Adler soon, with immediate access to information. This is how techies like Watson could out wit brainiacs like Sherlock. Take a look at this gadget MIT are working on. Minority Report no longer seems far fetched.
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