For weeks, I've been wondering how to write an article that explains how much I love the show Sherlock. I now realize that it's impossible to put into words just how much this show means to me, but I'm going to try anyway. This show has a huge fan base, but that has nothing to do with the reason I love it. I happened upon this show on a rainy day. I had hours of free time on my hands and had finished watching a show on Netflix, so it was time to start a new one. I clicked on BBC's Sherlock just to give it a try. And I fell absolutely in love with everything about it.
Sherlock aired in 2010 and is still going strong. The thing is, there are only ten episodes, and one of them is an out-of-season special. So how did I fall in love with a show that's only three series and ten 90-minute episodes long? Because it's bloody brilliant.
The thing that makes this show is its characters. Sherlock Holmes is clever, handsome, and infinitely interesting to observe. He's also an arrogant, rude, and emotionally challenged drug user. Like every convincing character in fiction, he is beautifully flawed. Equally interesting is Sherlock's crime-solving partner, John Watson. John is an army doctor who meets Sherlock after returning home from war in Afghanistan. Wounded in action and in need of a place to live, he happens upon a friend who introduces him to Sherlock. As it happens, Sherlock is also in need of a flatmate. And so Sherlock's first real friendship is born.
Throughout the show, Sherlock and John help each other develop into better human beings. John was lonely and bored, missing the excitement of war. Sherlock was cold and emotionally inept. Sherlock provides the adventure John craves, and John, in turn, teaches Sherlock how to act more like a human being and less like a machine.
Another reason to watch Sherlock is so you can witness Sherlock's glorious temper tantrums. While he doesn't seem to have emotions like normal people, he certainly gets worked up when he's bored or things don't go his way. His temper tantrums are childish and hilarious, and so is watching John deal with them. The fact that John Watson is able to live with, let alone deal with, Sherlock is proof of how great of a friend he is.
The antics these two friends get up to are hysterical. Especially when it comes to picking on Sherlock's older (and cleverer) brother, Mycroft. Whether they're making jokes at his expense or refusing to wear clothes when he summons them to Buckingham Palace, these two are always full of jokes when Mycroft is around.
This is the only show that has a villain I love almost as much as the "good" characters. Moriarty is insane, unstable, and hilarious. Every time he's in an episode of Sherlock, the show just gets better.
I am completely unashamed to say that I watch at least one episode of this show almost every single day. And to put this in perspective, I'm not someone who enjoys watching television very often. I'm more of a book person, but this show has me hooked. So if you're open to watching some clever, hilarious, and sometimes heart-wrenching episodes, this show is for you.
And instead of Sherlock's methods for curing boredom, why not just watch this show when you've got time to burn?
