The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

The opening episode, in which Sherlock prefers to feign homosexuality rather than exchange his Stradivarius for his sperm in Venice, offers no real reflection on the events that follow, aside from comparing the case to Swan Lake. The "Holmesian" director armed the episode with sharp dialogues, dry humor, and a slightly melancholic mood, where the man who isn’t an "ardent admirer of the female race" first becomes a pig sniffing for truffles, only to later, like a love-struck teenager, eagerly await umbrella Morse code. The only downside I see is that while Robert Stephens, resembling Alan Rickman, fit into the role splendidly, they turned Watson, through Blakely, into a giddy fool with a tendency for overacting. However, this doesn’t stop Sherlock series creator Mark Gatiss from seeing in this clear inspiration an unspoken love of Holmes for his assistant. It’s true that even Wilder wanted that element, but I didn’t notice it. (2022-08-22)