Hi,
It's Sir Hago here.
I'm going to review random stuff which i watched or played.
It's my first post here so it may not be best quality but ill try to improve later on!
I will divide every review into a few categories which are following:
Visual: Opening, Effects, Camera, Setting
Audio: Soundtrack, Sound Effects and Voice Acting
Story: Writing,
Characters: Some which i think made series a lot better (doesn't need to be Main Protagonist)
Other: Details and References
Verdict: Numbers and final words
In a first review i will review BBC's Sherlock.
Sherlock is a BBC's new take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic. They have a lot of experiences with these stories as they made several adaptations in past which were quite successful but they stayed true to original concept of Sherlock Holmes but writers of Sherlock decided to take a step forward and make a modern-day version of this legendary detective. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (which are responsible for Doctor Who) decided on this in train. (Apparently, Trains somewhat improve ones ability to generate great ideas). Modern-day Sherlock Holmes is played by great Benedict Cumberatch and his companion Dr. John Watson being played by Martin Freeman.
Visual:
Opening of Sherlock doesn't stand out of the crowd, but its something which is still good. You probably wont remember it after 10 years but you will sure remember it for some time. Only thing i didn't like about it is that it recycles some scenes from actual episodes which made me feel like they were somewhat lazy to shoot a few another scenes for opening. But you probably wont get bored by it and i wasn't disappointed.
What caught my eye was Effects. You wont find many things in Detective show but BBC knows how to handle their stuff and they came with a great way to give us insight into Sherlock's brilliant mind. They made White texts and Psychological Maps which guided you trough Sherlock's thinking process. Transfers from one scene to another were great and i really enjoyed some of them which were really smartly made.
Camera was great because one would be surprised if BBC couldn't handle that after all shows they have made.
Sherlock is unsurprisingly set into modern-day London and mostly circles around St. Bartholomew's hospital and Sherlock's apartment on Baker's Street. In a few episodes you get to countryside which was always welcomed change.
Audio:
Sherlock's soundtrack was great but after 4-5 episodes it got slightly repetitive. At some points i thought there were only 4 different themes which was kinda disappointing because they really had a lot of space to make more of them but i really liked song choice in last episodes because it just went really great along the current context and psychology.
Sound effects were great which came to no surprise. They were recorded with high quality equipment because with quality headphones you could hear every little ricochet in gunshots.
Voice acting was great. You could hear every single change in tone and you could find out mood and setting just from tone of their words.
Story:
Sherlock is a well written but has its flaws. Episode 3 of first series was badly written because the whole story inside it was a mesh of events. For a moment you have a assassin there and for another moment they don't even care about him. Time line was twisted in so many directions that for a moments you lost track of time. Hounds of Baskerville was nice turn from London but this turn wasn't really great for a story. It was a event which didn't really go with story. It was a nice reference but it didnt really match the rest of the story. Besides that, i would like to address fact that in atleast half of the episodes i was able to predict what happens in next 30 seconds or minute which was really bad because Sherlock wants you to think but its not that great when you think too much. Sherlock needs just the right amount of thinking.Still i would like to bring up the whole Sherlock/Watson relationship because the writers really know what to do to serve female fandom and make Sherlock even more popular in different countries like South Korea and Japan. They opened them for Fanfiction and that was a good thing. Personally i didn't like that but i admit it was good move. Another good move was mystery which last episode arose. It was great thing to think about and make theories about. (If you want to know my personal theory you can just email me.)
Characters:
Sherlock was pictured as a guy who is ultimate badass and his brain is fast as a racing engine. Similar picture was already made in Hollywood's movie take on Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. It was great movie and it pleased female audience but didn't really stayed true to original stories but we already know that Moffet and Gatiss wanted to take Sherlock the other way and make him into modern-day badass. I didn't really like that but it was somewhat expected because modern trend spins more around this type of guys. But the best thing which could happen to Sherlock was indeed the worst thing that happened to Sherlock.
Yes, I'm talking about Moriarty. Oh yes Moriarty, the chaotic mastermind. The ever-surprising antagonist which was able to surprise even me. It was an ultimate clash of minds. Moriarty was the thing that Sherlock missed for the most of the series. Nemesis. A true challenging nemesis. Misleading, Unpredictable with lots of Style. Moriarty's style was the thing which held the series back and which brought it back up in my eyes. Moriarty wasn't the type of nemesis Sherlock needed, it was a nemesis which Sherlock deserved. (No pun intended.)
I cant pass over Watson. Watson played a great part in story and offered a person which we could watch when Sherlock wasn't doing something cool. Indeed there werent many times like this but every Sherlock needs his Watson.
Details:
I really liked that Moffet and Gatiss hid some references in this adaptation of Sherlock. Hounds of Baskerville was the first one and it was great. As a one who knows original stories of Sherlock i was really happy to see some things like this. And Fall of Raichenbach. Oh god yes ! (In original stories the Raichenbach fall was the place Moriarty and Sherlock made their final clash and **** **** **** *** **** *** **** ** ***** ****** *****). I really liked that Watson wrote a blog about his adventures and cases with Sherlock which was reference to Dr.Watson writing about Sherlock in Magazine. Last thing i nearly missed was the old, bearded guy which was startled by Watson and called a security. That guy played Sherlock in original BBC series.
Verdict:
Audio: 9/10
Visual: 9/10
Story: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Final: 8,75/10
Final words:
BBC's take on sherlock was something new and refreshing. It felt good, kept being interesting and i enjoyed most of it. I recommend watching it if you didnt do it yet, its really worth the time it consumes.
Sir Hago
