(no subject)

[prog]

The Biography Channel is (for some reason) regularly showing the celebrated Grenada Television adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes canon. I haven't knowingly seen them before, and they are a delight. While some of the episodes are marred by annoying cinematography (one I watched this morning was really woozy with "clever" framing and closeups, and had an insane soundtrack) the acting is fine. I was put off, at first, by Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Holmes as a somewhat antisocial neurotic, but after a couple of viewings more complete character portrait emerges, and I like it. His Holmes, basically, is a sort of savant with few social graces, and part of Watson's job as his constant companion involves helping fill in the basic interpersonal skills he lacks.

There's a great scene in one of the first shows I saw where Holmes is interviewing a serving woman whose boss had been shot to death early that morning. She is clearly rattled but trying hard to maintain composure and dignity before a social superior like Holmes, who meanwhile is completely blind to her ordeal, thinking of her only as an information source. When it becomes too much for him to bear, Watson interrupts Holmes, whispering a suggestion into his ear. Holmes pauses, casts his eyes down, then quietly asks the poor woman if she'd care to sit down; she accepts with relief. This brief scene sketches so much of Holmes, the role of Watson in his life, and the stratification of the Victorian society they live in. I knew then that I actually really liked this show.

I didn't know that the Holmes stories were, uh, whatever the literary term is for an alternate present; that is, they have the conceit that the stories, written by Dr. Watson (and not this Doyle chap), are being published in the England that Holmes inhabits, and Holmes' growing personal fame comes about in large part from the popularity of these stories about him. (I seem to recall that Cervantes played the same trick with his Don Quixote stories.) In the stories I'm watching now Holmes is getting frequent calls to action from the highest echelons of British government and royalty, so I'm guessing it's a fair way into the canon.

Comments

[kynn.livejournal.com]

Just like the Fantastic Four!

[prog.livejournal.com]

Geh?

[kynn.livejournal.com]

In the Marvel Universe, there is a company called Marvel Comics who publishes comic books about the Fantastic Four, and thus what we're reading when we read the comic book is actually the comic book version of their adventures.

Or something.

Unlike the old DC multiverse, where comic book creators regularly tuned in on parallel universes in order to write comic books. (The Earth-1 Flash used to read the comic books published in Earth-1 about the Earth-2 Flash, who was for Earth-2 a fictional character.)

--Kynn

[prog.livejournal.com]

That's kooky!! I wasn't aware of that, even from my high-school stint in Marvel Zombiedom. (But then, I stuck mainly to Spidey.)

[kynn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the Marvel Universe version of Marvel Comics apparently didn't publish many Spider-Man comics, so he was thought of as a scary creepy guy, while everyone loved the FF. They even visited the Marvel Comics offices regularly and met Stan and Jack.

--Kynn

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Neat! We borrowed some library tapes of a Sherlock Holmes radio production on a long car trip last year. They're great stories. I don't think I get the biography channel, though.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think the Jeremy Brett Holmes stories were shown on PBS at one point, so they might be available on DVD, too.

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Ooh! We watched some of those in junior high. Have you seen the one with the pygmy? That was our favorite...but then, we were twelve.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Yes, "The Sign of Four"! I saw that just last week, in fact. That was one of the two-hour novel adaptations (as opposed to the one-hour short story ones).