Sherlock Holmes and Afghanistan

Lately I’ve been watching the BBC’s new “Sherlock” series, a reimagining of Sherlock Holmes set in 21st century London. At first I was quite dubious at the idea, but I am pleased to report that my doubts were misplaced. “Sherlock” is an excellent retelling of the Holmes mythos for the 21st century, and remains faithful to the stories without slavishly following the text line-for-line. Holmes is just as acerbic, brilliant, and weirdly chivalrous as in the stories (do not mess with Mrs. Hudson), but he is a master of using texting, webcams, computers, and other 21st century technologies as part of his deductive toolkit.

Though I was darkly amused that in the original 19th century stories, Dr. Watson is a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan, but reinvented for the 21st century…

…he is a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

History, it seems, does indeed go around in circles.

-JM