by Joe Miller
A few weeks ago, I came across The Word Is Murder, a 2018 murder mystery by Anthony Horowitz.
Horowitz has his fingers in a lot of pies. Fans of British television know him as the creator of Foyle’s War and from his work on Midsomer Murders. Kids know him as the author of the Alex Rider series of spy novels. Ian Fleming’s estate hired Horowitz to turn some of Fleming’s notes and unfinished drafts into new James Bond novels.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate asked him to do the same thing with Sherlock Holmes stories.
The Word Is Murder is a metafictional story. It features a fictionalized version of Anthony Horowitz, who takes on a Dr. Watson-like role to Daniel Hawthorne, who in turn displays a number of Holmes-like traits.
The Horowitz of the novel is also the creator of Foyle’s War, author of the Alex Rider series and has just completed a new, officially authorized Sherlock Holmes novel.
If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes or of weird metafiction (and, reader, I qualify on both counts), then “The Word Is Murde”r is definitely worth a look.
In one of those weird coincidences, Guy Ritchie’s new series, Young Sherlock, premiered just as I was finishing The Word Is Murder.
Ritchie insists that Young Sherlock is not a prequel to his Sherlock Holmes films, which featured Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson. But it’s got an awful lot of family resemblance – a great uncle, perhaps.
As a television show, Young Sherlock is reasonably entertaining. As a Sherlock Holmes adaptation, it leaves a lot to be desired.
Holmes adaptations stand or fall on the strength of the actor charged with playing the famous detective. Alas, poor Hero Fiennes Tiffin is completely overshadowed by – well, pretty much by everyone else in the cast.
The contrast is perhaps at its greatest when Tiffin shares screentime with Dónal Finn. Finn plays a young James Moriarty, Sherlock’s only real friend. Finn’s Moriarty is a lovable rogue, equally quick with his wits and his fists. From the jump, Finn drops small hints of Moriarty’s darker future. (The hints are less subtle as the season progresses.)
Colin Firth and Joseph Fiennes (Tiffin’s real-life uncle) lend a bit of gravitas and star-power to the mostly young ensemble cast. Firth is delightful as the arrogant and somewhat dim-witted Bucephalus Hodge. Fiennes brings a dark edge to Silas Holmes, Sherlock’s father.
The show would improve in my estimation had Ritchie simply changed the names of all the characters. “Young Sherlock” is pretty good as a Holmes-inspired story.
It’s in the bottom tier of Sherlock Holmes screen adaptations.
For those who are curious, here’s my (entirely subjective) ranking of the television and film Sherlock Holmes’ adaptations I’ve seen.
1. House, MD. I’ve talked about this one before. The last two seasons are pretty bad, but I don’t care. Holmes (aka, House) is absolutely the person you want when you need his area of expertise. He’s also a person you would do just about anything to avoid in any other circumstance. And yet he’s compelling in both sets of circumstances. Hugh Laurie nails Holmes’ character.
2. Sherlock, seasons 1–3. Benedict Cumberbatch portrays Holmes as something just this side of a sociopath. His Holmes is colder and less charming than Laurie’s, but he makes up for it by being smarter and scarier.
3. Elementary. This show asks what would happen if Sherlock decided to work on his mental health. Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock kicks his drug habit, makes some friends, and generally tries to contribute to society outside of solving crimes. It’s an optimistic take on Holmes.
4. Enola Holmes. This is how you do a young Sherlock story. Just invent a new Holmes and make the actual Sherlock into a supporting player. Henry Cavill, who was a pretty good character actor on “The Tudor”s before consuming an alarming quantity of steroids, is solid as Sherlock.
5. Star Trek – The Next Generation. Brent Spiner plays the android Lt. Cmdr. Data who in turn plays Sherlock on the ship’s holodeck. Chaos ensues when the computer creates an adversary capable of challenging Data, whose computer brain is loads more capable than Holmes’ organic one.
6. Sherlock Holmes. The Jeremy Brett series, produced in the UK and aired on PBS. They are faithful adaptations. They’re also dull. This is the sort of show that kids are forced to watch in middle school and then they grow up believing classic books are boring.
7. Sherlock Holmes/ Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Guy Ritchie turns RDJ’s Holmes into Batman. They’re both very punch-forward. The films are entertaining enough, but they owe far more to 1940s radio serials than they do to Doyle’s books.
8. Young Sherlock. See above.
9. Sherlock, season 4. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman cashed their Marvel checks, promptly forgot everything they ever knew about acting, then filmed this season. It is very bad.
10. Holmes & Watson.
If a worse adaptation exists, I don’t want to know about it.
