Doyle is spinning like a top in his grave
Written: Feb 06 '01 (Updated Feb 08 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: may make people read the Doyle stories
Cons: the agony of watching the show
The Bottom Line: If you like Holmes, this will make you twitch. Watch the A&E shows.
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| justjulia's Full Review: Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century |
While my love for Sherlock Holmes is a deep and abiding love, I am not one to fence in my dearest. I have no objections to people writing updated versions of Holmes, or writing new mysteries that pick up where Doyle left off. What I do object to is when someone rips off the original stories and Sherlock Holmes name in order to get people to watch an otherwise unwatchable show.
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century is bad. It's real bad, and not in a fun campy way either. So, it's the 22nd century and a relative of Lestrade is still having a hard time with police work again. Darn. Because it's the future, this Lestrade is a tough and sassy woman. woo! (That Lestrade is a female police officer is the high point of the entire show and about the only thing the show has going for it).
Wacky burial customs = plot device
For some wacky reason, the creators of the show have decided that after Holmes and Moriarty fought at the falls, Holmes interred Moriarty's body in a conveniently located ice cave right near the base of the falls. Through a miracle of plot device, Moriarty's body was perfectly preserved so that in the future an evil scientist could find the evil corpse, clone it and implant all of Moriarty's memories in its brain (I guess the memories fell out of one of the many huge plot holes in this story).
Future Lestrade, being much smarter than Victorian Lestrade, realizes that only the person who defeat Moriarty is Holmes. Luckily, Holmes was buried in a coffin filled with honey. For some reason, Lestrade inherited this coffin and decided to store it in the basement of Scotland yard for a couple centuries (didn't anyone ever clean that place up?). The honey preserved Holmes' body and DNA so they can clone him and implant him with more of those conveniently placed memories (I guess those were kept in the deux ex machina file. For some reason, the cloning process caused Holmes to regress to age 25. Why? No clue.
Don't forget the annoying robot
Since this is the future, we need some wacky technology. Thus, they create a robot Watson. I guess the actual Watson wasn't so conveniently buried in a bizarre fashion that lets him be cloned. This Watson is both annoyingly bumbling and in charge of any plot exposition or clearing up of plot holes. Oh, and he's really irritating.
Poorly written stories are afoot
On to the episodes. Under the guise of paying homage to Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, the creators of this show settle for ripping off the plots and presenting the stories in a dumbed down incredibly obvious fashion. There is no mystery other than figuring out why most of the people in London have American accents.
I suggest avoiding this show because it's poorly written, poorly animated junk. It doesn't have objectionable language or situations (unless you count poor writing), but it's a boring show that will turn your child's mind into oatmeal. If anyone you know expresses interest in watching it, give them a collection of real Sherlock Holmes stories, or if they crave Holmes in the future, the excellent Holmes in Orbit edited by Mike Resnick and Martin Greenberg is well worth reading.
Recommended:
No
Type of Program: Cartoon or Animated
Program Quality: Low-grade humor, relies on cheap tricks to tug at the heartstrings
Best Suited For: 6 to 8 Years
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justjulia
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Location: Cambridge, MA
Reviews written: 61
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