Victorian England is an interesting place. You have a really highbrow and fancy society, and then you have the seedy and impoverished society. Both are involved in some really great literature and television. Charles Dickens, The Bronte Sisters, and Elizabeth Gaskell often dealt with both ends, and sometimes the middle class peoples. We just read "The Red-Headed League" and true to Victorian Style, it's pretty dense. However, granted you understand the word choice and sentence structure of the era, the story line is pretty easy to follow. Basically (and notice the word 'BASIC') what happens is this red headed guy applies for a job that is actually a ploy to get him out of his house so his assistant, who is actually a criminal, can tunnel to the bank and steal a butt-load of money. Sherlock, with help from, well, no one, as Watson is really just a glorified body guard, solves the case and all's well that end well.
If I'm going to read Victorian lit, I'd much rather read The Adventures of the Extremely Seedy and Sketchy. If I'm not really going to learn anything about the human condition besides sometimes people aren't very nice, I would at least like to be entertained. All I got from Sherlock Holmes is that people like to pick on red heads, which I already knew as I am a red head myself, and that running around solving mysteries is a totally okay way to spend your time. I generally enjoy mystery stories. Heck, I owned almost every single Nancy Drew book when I was eleven. But I just could not get into Sherlock. I'm not sure why. It might be because there were no characters for me to relate to, or even root for really. The stakes didn't seem that high and the final scene was mildly anticlimactic.Even Scooby-Doo, which is just a cartoon remake of Sherlock Holmes with more characters, a dog, and some monsters is more exciting to me. Seriously, It's the exacts same plot as a Sherlock Holmes story. The Mystery Gang (Sherlock) happens across a mystery (client shows up with a problem), they walk around for a little bit observing stuff, Daphne (Watson, a Police Officer, someone in general) does something dumb, everyone regroups (Sherlock invites the Police), a trap is laid, "it's just mean old Mr. Jenkins, the groundskeeper!" (AHA! We caught you red handed!") Fred Explains the why, Velma explains the how (Sherlock explains to Watson), Everyone goes for a milkshake (Holmes and Watson have a drink). Same story. At least in Scooby-Doo we learn the importance of team work, and it's silly fun. Sherlock, not so much.
"Hey c'mon get involved until the mystery is solved!" - The Scooby-Doo Show Theme
-D.
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