I am a huge fan of the writer Steven Moffat. The early reboot Dr. Who episodes he wrote were fantastic, and ever since he stepped down from that show, the quality of Dr. Who has been terrible. Thankfully, Moffat worked on another show which I only recently found out about; Sherlock.

Sherlock, as you might’ve guessed from the title, is about Sherlock Holmes solving mysteries with his partner John Watson. However, this iteration takes place in modern times. Other characters from the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels show up as the show progresses, such as Inspector Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes, Irene Adler, and of course, Moriarty. There are also lots of references throughout the show to the original books. At one point, Watson references a case they solved off-screen which he calls “The speckled blonde.” This is alluding to another Sherlock Holmes case found in the books, called the speckled band.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman respectively. Both are very well cast and suit the roles perfectly, but Martin Freeman is given more opportunity to show his acting abilities in some emotional scenes, as for most of the show Cumberbatch simply has to play Sherlock as incredibly reserved and anti-social. The main villain however, is by far the best character on the show, and that’s saying quite a bit, because the characters on this show are all-around very likeable. Andrew Scott as Moriarty is incredibly funny as well as unpredictable. One moment he may be eating an apple and discussing his master plan like a cliche villain while the next moment he’ll be yelling at Sherlock and calling him a “Doofus.” He absolutely steals the show, and the audience is glued to him whenever he’s in frame. The writers even had to bring him back after his death in the form of video recordings, because he does so much for the show.

For the most part, Sherlock’s episodes follow a typical mystery formula. There’s a puzzling crime that makes no sense to the police, they bring in Sherlock to solve it, and he proceeds to do so. There are however, a few exceptions to this formula. The season two finale, the “Reichenbach Fall,” is maybe one of the best episodes in tv history, and it has twists and turns that no one ever saw coming, and that I’m not going to spoil for you here. Another exception is the last episode of the show, “The Final Problem.” Sadly, most of the episode is a saw-esque gauntlet that Sherlock, Watson, and Mycroft are trapped in, and it’s kind of boring. The end of the episode partially redeems it, but it’s easily the worst episode on the show.

Overall, Sherlock succeeds mainly because of it’s characters being well written and fun. Most of the episodes are great and very entertaining, even if the last one makes you leave the show with a bad taste. I highly recommend Sherlock, and one can find it on Netflix.