by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
I’m not afraid to admit it, when it comes to certain types of media, I’m a mark.
Sherlock Holmes-based content is certainly one of those areas. With a couple of exceptions, I’m probably going to check out most mainstream content on the matter I can get my hands on. (I mean, I was watching Sherlock & Daughter on a week-to-week basis.)
Now, Amazon Prime has released Young Sherlock, which follows the famous detective (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) in his university days, where he befriends another young genius in James Moriarty (Dónal Finn) while trying to solve a case. It’s from Guy Ritchie, and I have really been enjoying him lately (not you Fountain of Youth)—including his foray into TV with The Gentlemena few years back. Much like that project, Ritchie helps to get the ball rolling by directing the first two episodes. Here, though, he doesn’t have any writing credits, aside from those he gets for co-creating the show alongside Matthew Parkhill and Peter Harness. With Ritchie setting the tone, the rest of the creative team does a great job of running with the show in a way that evokes his style, from the visuals to the use of music, but without feeling like a cheap imitation. The editing style is kinetic, and the action has a real flair that I expect from a Ritchie project. Almost as crucially, it also has a great base of music. There’s a great soundtrack, courtesy of music supervisor Ian Neil, that is complimented by composer Christopher Benstead, who often evokes similar notes from other Ritchie projects that are very welcome for me.
This is Ritchie’s second project iterating on Sherlock Holmes, after his two films with Robert Downey Jr. in the title role that I thoroughly enjoyed. In talking about the key cast, Fiennes Tiffin is fine as Homes, as is Finn as Moriarty. For the former he’s cutting a more stoic and restrained version of the character than we’ve gotten elsewhere recently. For the latter, I kept my eyes open waiting for the twist, and they skillfully played on my expectations as we get seeds of his future, without the narrative fully committing. That, frankly, excites me, because it says there’s a plan for more. As for the rest of the Sherlock standbys, Max Irons as Mycroft, like the portrayal of his younger brother, is less emotive than some other versions of the character, again cutting a more stoic figure. Lestrade (Scott Reid) is just a beat cop, but it’s fun to see him in his more bumbling phase, though we’re given glimmers of the proper investigator underneath.
The old standbys aren’t the only characters worth noting in this project. Personally, I did not realize Colin Firth was involved here, but I love his turn as a science professor tangled up in the web being woven. The character of Princess Gulun Shou’an (Zine Tseng) adds a fun little martial arts twist to the action that I really appreciated, often making for the best set pieces of the season. More than that, though, she throws an interesting wrench into proceedings, consistently putting our characters on their toes. Perhaps the most surprising character I came out of the show enjoying was Cordelia Holmes (Natascha McElhone), the matriarch of the Holmes family. We don’t often get much from the parents of the Holmeses (Enola Holmesperhaps being the exception to the rule), and I found I really enjoyed the particular flavor she added to our mix of characters.
But wait, it’s a Sherlock Holmes project. What about the mystery? Despite what the episodes’ titles would leave you to believe, it’s basically one giant case. I found myself more invested when the show focuses on the mystery and less interested when it’s the Holmes family drama — at least in the first episode where it moves away from the main mystery that we had been following. However, as I got into the complicated family dynamic, I got hooked in by the time it came back around to tie everything together. Did I guess the big penultimate episode reveal pretty early on? Sure. Did I still find the moment of revelation immensely satisfying? Yup. There are times where I could feel the writing going through the motions to get us to where we needed to be, but I was never having a bad time. I also enjoy the eventual globetrotting aspect of this series, particularly since we don’t always get much outside of the British Isles. While there are nods to the future, they aren’t as ham-fisted as projects like these can sometimes be.
On balance, this show scratches the itch I wanted it to scratch as an addition to the Holmes canon, though it’s neither joining the upper echelon of that voluminous catalogue nor surpassing Ritchie’s other entries in that arena.
Rating: Liked It
Young Sherlock is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Bluesky and Letterboxd