I’ve always enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes stories and movies.

We seem to be in the midst of a Sherlockian revival these days.

There’s the BBC version with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson respectively.

This is essentially three 90-minute episodes per season. The producers have moved Sherlock and Watson into the 21st century and given them cell phones and the internet, but the bulk of the deducing is still dependent on Holmes’s superior observation skills and logical thinking. I love how they’ve taken some of the classic Holmes stories and updated them for this series. Cumberbatch’s Sherlock comes off as a high-functioning autistic man who needs some tutoring in his social and people skills.

Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock is a bit closer to manic than autistic. Jude Law as his Watson keeps the movies grounded in some semblance of normalcy. I love these movies steam-punk vibe. Rachel McAdams was miscast as Irene Adler but other than that, the Guy Ritchie films are a fun addition to the Holmes oeuvre.

Perhaps the oddest current offering (on paper at least) is the television series Elementary. With Jonny Lee Miller playing up Holmes’s addictive personality traits and Lucy Liu as a female Watson, the stories totally work.

We enjoy this series a lot. Now that we’ve gotten caught up on all the Castles, Justifieds, and Longmires, we needed something to fill an hour in the evening. Unfortunately, we came to this series fairly early in its run so we’re nearly current now and will be looking for a new series to follow. Any suggestions? Who’s your favorite Sherlock?