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William Shakespeare once wrote that brevity is the soul of wit. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must have agreed. Though he wrote four novels starring Sherlock Holmes, the author’s primary mode of conveying the private detective’s adventures to the masses was the short story. Succinct and tightly plotted, each tale contained snappy dialogue, vivid characterization, and a solution presented for each mystery even if justice could not always be served. Yes, certain story aspects carried over from tale to tale, like Holmes’ use of morphine and cocaine, or sidekick Dr. John Watson’s attempts to solve crimes using Holmes’ methods. But the reader was given more than enough to develop a deep attachment to the character.
The same cannot be said for Prime Video’s “Young Sherlock,” a new series based on Andrew Lane’s YA book series of the same name. Though the books were authorized by Doyle’s estate as an exploration of Holmes’ life before he took rooms at 221B Baker Street, they have not survived a transition from serving an audience of teenagers to a high-budget TV series aimed at adults. The audience has to manage at least four different, weakly written subplots over the course of eight episodes, and the stories are shot to serve the action set-pieces, rather than the other way round. It does not help that the lead actors have not yet honed their talents well enough to expand the meager material, causing their performances to feel like impressions of the characters rather than fully realized portrayals.
Hero Fiennes Tiffin plays the titular pre-sleuth circa late 1800s, aged 19, released from prison through the greased wheels of his Foreign Office employee brother Mycroft (Max Irons). Both brothers are haunted by the death, many years prior, of their younger sister Beatrice, whose visage appears to Sherlock as he goes about his day-to-day life as a scout, or servant, at Oxford University. There, he meets a whole host of characters, including university benefactor Sir Bucephalus Hodge (Colin Firth), new best friend James Moriarty (Donal Finn), and Chinese visiting scholar Princess Gulun Shou’an (Zine Tseng), a stand-in for Irene Adler. Mycroft and Sherlock also visit their mother Cordelia (Natascha McElhone), who was installed in a sanatorium after the death of her daughter, while their father Silas (Joseph Fiennes) left for Vienna to pursue scientific research.
The theft of valuable Chinese scrolls Princess Shou’an was escorting to Oxford, not to mention an explosion and a murder, lead Holmes and Moriarty to team up and find the culprit. But when the mystery suddenly invokes the possible involvement of Sherlock’s mother, the setting switches to the sanatorium and then, just as rapidly, the Holmes family estate (and from there to late 1800s Paris). The pacing is nothing short of frenetic, with the dialogue either dragging or feeling rushed, almost always leading to a flashy action sequence that does little to excite the viewer, nor does it advance the story. Nothing is permitted to breathe; the story simply hops from one twist to another. I appreciated the nods, here and there, to Sherlock’s eventual story—the beginnings of his addiction, the root of Moriarty’s malevolence—but given that all that takes place in the final episode, much of the season just feels like window dressing for a season two pickup order.
As someone who greatly enjoyed Fiennes Tiffin as a young Tom Riddle in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” it pains me deeply to say that he was a better actor in his childhood than he is now. One of the best things Benedict Cumberbatch ever brought to Sherlock was agile facial and body movements; he used his body to inform his performance and thus our understanding of Sherlock’s eccentricities and habits. Fiennes Tiffin often seems he is looming in a scene rather than living in it. The same is true for Irons, and since the actors are 28 and 40, respectively, neither can really pass for men in their late teens or early twenties. At least Firth, Finn, and McElhone appear to be having a good time, but even the best classically-trained theatre actors can only do so much with poor writing.
Though his name is splashed all over the promotional materials as a director and executive producer, Guy Ritchie (who last directed the second of the bafflingly steampunk-ified Holmes and Watson films in 2011) only helms two episodes and claims an overall development credit. Ritchie is often, but not always, at his best when he writes his own films, because at least there is a likelihood of his stylistic vision serving his story. The other directors certainly ape his style, but it is no substitute for the real thing. By episodes seven and eight, “Young Sherlock” starts to feel more like “Young Indiana Jones” and I had to resist the urge to throw my own notepad at the screen.
There is one visual element I did enjoy: Costume designer Jany Temime is the only person who understood the series she was working on and used the budget to her advantage. The pinstripes, silks, waistcoats, handkerchiefs, organzas, taffetas, everything is in keeping with who each person is and what they are trying to achieve. There is some terrific detail in the hardware Temime assigns to characters, including cufflinks, earrings, even sigil-imprinted buttons on men’s coats. She brings to life Princess Shou’an, whose attire, in the hands of a lesser designer, could have fallen victim to lazy Orientalism. But with Temime we get texture, movement, little reminders that this is a confident, assertive outsider who can fit in while still representing her culture. More than any other member of the crew, Temime understood that she could provide key information about the characters before they ever say a word. Perhaps the writers will keep that in mind for season two.
Entire series screened for review. Premieres today on Prime Video, March 4th.
from Roger Ebert https://ift.tt/HTytpgv
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