Writer's must watch: Sherlock

THE adventures of Sherlock Holmes is perhaps one of the greatest stories of all time that even in the modern age, the great detective's tale, together with his trusty partner John Watson, is still being told and shown through various movies and TV series.

Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the stories of Sherlock Holmes were so popular that adaptations for stage, film, and television were produced.

Some of the popular versions of Sherlock Holmes were acted by Jeremy Brett in the 1984's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, who was dubbed as the definitive on-screen version of Sherlock Holmes; Peter Cushing in 1959's The Hound of the Baskervilles and 1968's tv series of Sherlock Holmes; and Robert Downey Jr. in 2009's Sherlock Holmes movie and 2011's film titled Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

And in the latest adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, we have Benedict Cumberbatch who played the 21st century Holmes as fast-talking, aloof, perceptive and a "high functioning sociopath."

Interestingly, Cumberbatch's version of Sherlock Holmes is unlike its predecessors wherein the stories are set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras. Since he's the 21st century Holmes, he exists in the modern age of computers and smartphones. The John Watson of this era, played by Martin Freeman, is even tagged as a blogger, apart from his real profession as a physician.

BBC's Sherlock, created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, focuses on Sherlock and John's adventures in London as they solve crimes and chase after the "consulting criminal mastermind" James Moriarty.

As a fan of mystery and detective shows (apart from being a lover of the horror genre) and a person living in the modern times, the BBC's Sherlock is more appealing to me than the other film and tv show adaptions. Not that I'm saying the other adaptations are not good, in fact they were great and I like Jeremy Brett and RDJ's Sherlock Holmes.

However, what made me love the latest adaptation of Sherlock Holmes are its characters and their developments throughout the series.

Initially, viewers see a former army doctor who came back from his service in Afghanistan and the self-proclaimed "consulting detective" who does not always consider the morality and ethics of his actions. But as the series flow, you could see the development in the characters of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson through their relationship with each other and with the other characters.

Sherlock, who previously doesn't care about morality and ethics and just in it for the adrenalin of solving puzzling crimes, became what we call humane ever since he has John as his "morality compass."

On the other hand, John, who was active and useful during his time as an army doctor, became a civilian after he was shot and his service as a British soldier ended. And at the start of the series, you could see him walking with a limp and relying on his cane. However, it was when he met Sherlock and dragged into the detective's fast pace, the limp, which was psychosomatic as Sherlock pointed out, vanished.

The disappearance of John's limp is a huge character development as this could be seen as the doctor, who has experienced the trauma of war that left him with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), finally sees his self-worth, no longer feeling crippled, and was able to move on.

Another thing that this series appeals to me is the difficulty in hating its characters. Naturally, we all have a character that we hate in a show, which is more often the villain. Upon watching BBC's Sherlock, I found it hard to hate characters like Irene Adler and even Moriarty.

The way Andrew Scott portrayed Moriarty's character makes it hard to hate the villain.

And the huge factor that made me fall in love with BBC's Sherlock is, part from the show's crime-solving theme, is the friendship between the two main characters. You could say I'm a sucker for shows that focuses on friendship and loyalty.

BBC's Sherlock has four seasons with three episodes each and one special episode (13 episodes in total).

Trivia: Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman worked together in other films such as in the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, with Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Cumberbatch voicing the dragon Smaug.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Cumberbatch played as Doctor Strange while Freeman played as Everett Ross in Captain America: Civil War and in Black Panther.

Meanwhile, Robert Downey Jr., who also played as Sherlock Holmes, is in the MCU as Iron Man.

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