30 Days of Sherlock Holmes

[capt_facepalm]

Day 03 – Your Favorite Adapted Story

There are elements of A Study in Scarlet that appear in the new BBC Sherlock adaptation that make me squee. On my first viewing of A Study in Pink (and this was back before the DVD and I was watching it in 10 minute YouTube segments, so there was no help from the commentary) I noticed the takeaway coffee was from the Criterion Bar. Little details like that amuse me. Very, very much. I also very much liked the handling of Rache-Rachel.  Brilliant!

I cannot comment on the Granada series because I have not seen it all. (I have the whole set, and from what I have seen of it, I like it very much, but I have yet not had the time to set a viewing schedule.)
 
But as much as I enjoy them, my favourite adaptation (so far) has to be the BBC's 2002 version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart. Although it deviated from the canon to accentuate the drama and action, it still provided the wonderful essential elements. Stapleton was a most insidiously slimey villain, the music and the cinematography cast an eerie setting, and we finally get a Watson that we can believe in. (More on that in Day 5, I believe!) Holmes was his brilliant and infuriating self, and Lestrade is treated like the hard-working professional policeman that he would have to had been.

For more details, here is its link at IMDB. Check your local library for availability! 

Comments

[jaelijn.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that Day 5 might just produce two very similar posts from both of us ;).
That version of HOUN was the first adaptation of Holmes I ever watched - before I realised just how amazing canon was - but I still love it now that I read all of canon, and watched other adaptations.
I have to say, however, that there are two versions of that film. One skips Holmes's during-a-case-taking of cocaine, which, in my opinion is an improvement, although it leads to the loss of a beautiful scene between Holmes and Watson... and makes you wonder where Holmes disappeared to when Watson and Lestrade breakfast at the train station ;).
Their Stapleton was creepy (if not striktly canonical)!

[capt-facepalm.livejournal.com]

Holmes' drug use is always problematic. Although it is part of canon, every film-maker feels obliged to mention it in some form or other. This makes me grind my teeth in a similar fashion to when fan-fiction writers (and we are all guilty of this) mention the seventeen steps from the main floor to their Baker Street apartments just to prove they know their canon.

In Hound2002, there are two scenes where Holmes shoots up. As a Watson fan, I find the first one, at Baker St., to be more angsty. Watson clearly does not approve of Holmes drug use, yet is unable to say anything to his friend… probably because they have had this conversation before and he has not been able to change Holmes' mind. I interpret Holmes' in-your-face attitude as he prepares his injection as a challenge for Watson to dare to say something. Watson, clearly hurt, lets it go. (I often read angst between the lines!)

If I were more of a Holmes fan, I would find the other scene where Holmes secludes himself in the train station toilet to shoot up, to be bleaker, more depressing, and more desperate.

In canon HOUN, there is no mention of drug use.