The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sherlock Holmes: "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (tv movie), 1988. Sherlock Holmes solves a murder possibly involving an evil dog.

Series created by John Hawkesworth. Directed by Brian Mills. Written by T.R. Bowen, based on a book by Arthur Conan Doyle. Starring Jeremy Brett, & Edward Hardwicke, with Alastair Duncan, Kristoffer Tabori, James Faulkner, & Fiona Gillies.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: Remarkably poorly edited. D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: D
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: Holmes isn't around much in this story. When he is, there are a couple nice scenes. Mostly it's pretty dull, though. C

GPA: 2.0/4

The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Season Two

Data
Title: The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Season Two [or, season four of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with a new title]
Year: 1988
Network: ITV
Episodes: 4, at c. 52 minutes each
Creator: John Hawkesworth (developer)
Directors: Ken Hannam (1 episode), Brian Mills (1), Peter Hammond (1), John Gorrie (1)
Writers: John Hawkesworth (2 episodes), Gary Hopkins (1), Jeremy Paul (1); based on stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring: Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke
Music: Patrick Gowers

My reaction
Synopsis: a private investigator solves mysteries
How I saw it: online (streaming from Netflix), over the past couple days
Concept: Great.
Story: Good. A reluctant "good." Nothing's really memorable in these episodes.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Indifferent. "Sit down, I'm going to tell you my life story."
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Indifferent.  At times it seems like they're improving.  But then there's the episode where the director (Hammond, I think) is inexplicably obsessed with shooting things through mirrors.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good. Brett's as great as ever, but a couple of the guest stars are bad enough to pull this down to just "good."
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). It's still a good show, but there's nothing here that wasn't done better in an earlier season.
Objective Rating: 3.1/4 (Very Good).

The Sign of Four

Data
Title: The Sign of Four
Year: 1987
Network: ITV
Length: 103 minutes
Creator: John Hawkesworth (developer)
Director: Peter Hammond
Writer: John Hawkesworth, based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring: Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke
Music: Patrick Gowers

My reaction
Synopsis: Sherlock Holmes solves a mystery involving stolen treasure
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), a few days ago
Concept: Good.
Story: Bad. Very poorly adapted.
Characters: Bad. Apart from Holmes, there aren't really any characters - even Watson is reduced to to just sort of standing around.
Dialog: Terrible. Characters spend so much time telling their stories, you might as well just film someone reading the book.
Pacing: Indifferent.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Indifferent.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent). Dull and poorly made - worse than the worst epidodes from the series that I've seen so far. I only got any enjoyment out of it because I like Brett's Holmes and Gowers' music.
Objective Rating: 2.0/4 (Indifferent).

The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Season One

Data
Title: The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Season One [or, season three of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with a new title]
Year: 1986
Network: ITV
Episodes: 7, at c. 52 minutes
Creator: John Hawkesworth (developer)
Directors: David Carson (2 episodes), Howard Baker (1), Peter Hammond (1), John Bruce (1), Patrick Lau (1), John Madden (1)
Writers: John Hawkesworth (2 episodes), T.R. Bowen (2), Jeremy Paul (1), Alan Plater (1), John Kane (1); based on stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring: Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke
Music: Patrick Gowers

My reaction
Synopsis: a private investigator solves mysteries
How I saw it: mostly streaming online (from Netflix), over the past couple weeks
Concept: Great.
Story: Good. Not really any bad episodes in this batch (although the first couple aren't great). A few of them are great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Good. The quality of the adaptations are much better than I remember The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes being.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great. I'm surprised to find I'm not disappointed by the re-casting of Watson. And Brett's even better than before.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). Again, I have to point out that this is not My Sort of Thing. I'm not a big fan of mysteries - especially crime drama - and as a rule I hate period drama. But I absolutely love this show.
Objective Rating: 9/10 3.5/4 (Very good).

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Year: 1984 / 1985
Network: ITV
Creator: John Hawkesworth (developer)
Directors: Alan Grint (season 1, 2 episodes; season 2, 2 episodes), Paul Annett (s1, 2; s2, 1), John Bruce (s1, 2; s2, 1), David Carson (s1, 1; s2, 1), Ken Grieve (s2, 1)
Writers: Jeremy Paul (season 1, 2 episodes), Derek Marlowe (s2, 2), John Hawkesworth (s2, 2), Alexander Baron (s1, 1), Anthony Skene (s1, 1), Alan Plater (s1, 1), Alfred Shaughnessy (s1, 1), Paul Finney (s1, 1), Bill Craig (s2, 1), Richard Harris (s2, 1); based on stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring: Jeremy Brett, David Burke
Music: Patrick Gowers
Episodes: 13, at c. 52 minutes (2 seasons of 7 and 6 episodes)
Synopsis: a private investigator solves mysteries
How I saw it: on video (some rented on VHS from the library, some from Netflix), over the past few weeks
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for story, dialog and cinematography) c. 3.3/4 (Very good).

I don't like period dramas, and I'm not particularly a fan of mysteries, but these shows are delightful. The adaptations aren't always great, and there are a few bad episodes (especially the last one - what was supposed to be an epic finale was just dull). Characters have a tendency to tell their stories in a manner that seems like they're reading passages of the book. But most of the stories are engaging, or if they're not the characters make up for it. Burke's Watson is likable and relatable, and Brett's Holmes is a lot of fun - sort of Hannibal Lecter (minus the killing/eating people) crossed with Doctor Who. I'm no longer looking forward to the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie, as I'm convinced you couldn't do better with the character than Brett did.