#Hrshl's review

[hrshl-hlms]

The Irregulars

Due to the original reason for my listing every single Sherlock Holmes derivated work, I do have to take an interest in the details of those. I also am a Sherlock Holmes enthusiaste, so I also do read, watch and listen to those derivates.

And this includes some of the ones I haven't many great things about.

The better way to know how to feel about a media and criticise it, is to dive into it and make your own thoughts about it. Which is why I watched The Irregulars.

The Irregulars is a 2021 Netflix show, and as such, it falls under the system of 8 episodes for 1 seasons (before, obviously, being cancelled after this sole season).

A first misconception I had was that it was solely a crime drama and mystery show (due to the Netflix and Wikipedia listing) and it is a certain shock when you notice that actually, it is also a fantasy show. But well, I have watched The Empire of Corpses and read Les Étranges Sœurs Wilcox so once the first shock of being corrected within five minutes of my research, I wasn't distraught by the supernatural and paranormal being associated to the Holmes universe.

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On the wikipedia page, we can learn that not only the creator of this series (and writer of the episodes) is Tom Bidwell, who, during an interview, said:

Sherlock Holmes [in Conan Doyle's books] had a group of street kids he’d use to help him gather clues, so our series is what if Sherlock was a drug addict and a delinquent and the kids solve the whole case whilst he takes credit

This, in my opinion, is a very interesting idea.

While it does suggest that Watson is basically also taking advantages of children to write and publish those stories, it does open the door for many questions, but also many opportunities to talk about drug addictions. (I am thinking about Elementary, among other things)

Bidwell had been pitching it for ten years at the moment of the interview (in 2018), and such a long time of polish can only mean that he has worked on it and it will hold together nicely.

But que nenni.

(I will come to that)

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We therefore start the series knowing that our dear Watson and Holmes will be most likely morally grey, but also that we will see a lot of the Irregulars, which are, as stated, an important part of the investigations when it's about finding a person in London.

And as we debute with the presentation of the characters, we are hit in the face with this important fact: This show is so aimed at teenagers.

So, I will not judge the acting, as everyone need to start somewhere and we all know about Netflix and its choices in budgets. I will, however, judge the music choices.

Because the electronic music? It breaks everything.

Throughout the show, we have bits of electro popping out, breaking entirely with the rest of the music style and making it stand out so much that every time it came up, it was the only thing I could focus on.

Some bits seemed to try to show the youthfulness of the characters, while others seemed... unnecessary.

Another thing that makes you notice it's for teenagers is the mild swearing and sexual allusions.

Fine. I'm aroace. This sets me off every single time, whether it's for teenagers of for adults. But the first episodes are the ones with the most swearings and allusions, as if it was trying to fit with the current wave of "let's add swearing everywhere". It calms down later on, using swears and swearing more normally.

The rest of the series is intersting in itself, but not a hit. And it would be difficult for it to be, since between the strange choice of music and the trying of including the paranormal the way it is (one person being misteriously gifted while the others are not) and the overall vibe just... brings me flashback of Stranger Things.

We therefore follow the Netflix "diversed teen groups with the GIRL being special and they try to fix the paranormal shits happening".

But I digress.

Of the teenagers, they all fit nicely in their group and their relations are real, despite the weird obligation to have a romance thing in every show where a man and a woman of the same age are interacting.

The prince thing was also a really hilarious trope to slap in this series with the whole "weak and broken prince falls for poor girl".

And the different paranormal cases? They are good in themselves. We see the lowest of the low face the harshness of London and its class system.

The perpetrators are not treated as purely evil. They might not be treated with full compassion either, but we do have the chance to see their point of view and their reasons for doing such deeds. All that while continuing the overall plot.

It's not really something that I was expecting, but I guess I've seen too many USAmerican shows.

But this is a nice thing to have, especially considering the novels, which also had a parts where we learn the history and reasons behind the actions of the perpetrators.

This is, however, the closest we get from the original works.

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"But Hershel, Bidwell said that the series would follow the idea of Holmes being a drug addict and the Irregulars being the actual detectives. You haven't talked about Holmes yet."

Well.

The reason is because Holmes doesn't fully show up until episode 4 (or something).

The only person we see at first is a very twisted Watson, stalking the kids, before being asking (forcing) them to work for him.

As it turns out, Watson and Holmes used to work together, but again, the drug problem. Watson is therefore left to fend for himself AND for Holmes and is struggling to investigate on his own.

Which is extremely weird, since a very easily noticeable thing with the first case (the one with the babies) is that all the babies were born on the same day. How did Watson manage not to notice such easy information? Not just that but it is said that Holmes has been in the pit for 15 years. How did Watson managed to keep up with things and to survive that long if he can't notice something that obvious?

This was a huge part of my thinking "what the heck did they do with Watson?"

This is also where I noticed that Bidwell followed his idea... in a peculiar manner.

One would think that it was like that since the beginning. Or that the irregulars would be doing that willingly like they do in the books. Or maybe that they would report bit by bit and properly. BUT...

Watson is really strange.

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Of the characters, I feel like they really wanted to present us is clear morally grey characters, to the point where they kept the essential of the characters but changed them almost to the core.

We have Lestrade who is extremely against the paranormal, to the point of treating Jesse like an object and a tool to reach his goals.

We have Mrs Hudson who's a sort evil landlady. She doesn't live at 221B and instead own many houses in London. I do not know how much landlords from the victorian era were similar to the ones nowadays, but she feels like a parallel to it.

We have Mycroft, which I actually like, compared to the others. Even Holmes and Watson. I like the overhanging PTSD/anxiety and the resulting very slight speech impediment. I also liked how he talked about Sherlock, the way you see the big brother coming out, especially with his hate towards Watson.

Which brings Sherlock and Watson.

Sherlock is... something. To say the least.

Bidwell is unfortunately following in the understanding of many writers of Sherlock Holmes, or he might've been cut short by the Doyle Estate.

He depicts Sherlock as someone arrogant, sure of himself but bordeline on the "absolutely sure", he also seem to like having a public.

While I do understand the thought of having people like Holmes instead of what he says in the books (something about people finding it annoying after a while for him to present his deductions), it makes him out of character.

We also have the extremelly annoying straight take of him getting enamoured with a woman and having Watson mention how Holmes used to say that emotions were something trivial and not useless/hindering to him.

And the point that annoyed me above all: how they constantly repeat to Holmes how brilliant he is.

Holmes is already doing that, and they continue to enable him, making him more annoying.

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And this is where Watson come in. (I will not talk about Alice. She's the straight plot tool in this series. (in my opinion))

Maybe you've heard about it, but people were saying that in this show, Watson was in love with Holmes. Unrequired, yes, but in love.

Gay Watson? Heck yeah!

Well, it turns out that no. Here's why.

In most of the flashbacks we see with him and Holmes, Watson is manipulative.

He canalises Holmes, but he also refuses thing in his stead and somewhat controls his schedule. For the case with Edith Dubois, he pushes her aside and tell her to come back at a later time because he doesn't want Holmes to get in another case.

Watson says himself that he is the one who brought Holmes' brilliancy out to the world. He says that he saw how brilliant and great Holmes was and that thanks to him canalising him and writing about him, he managed to make him famous and greater, but also himself in the same process.

And that's the core of their relationship.

Through what Watson tells, it sounds like Holmes is incapable of taking care of himself and that in order for him to thrive he needs Watson. All the while, Holmes doesn't seem to notice Watson.

And this is what bring Watson to do dumb shit such as opening the rip the first time around (while, again, manipulating people to get to his goals).

After the closing of the rip and the start of Holmes falling into a pit of despair and grief and depression, Watson continues to take care of him, seemingly continuing to investigate and write about him as if he still was able to function.

We also have the moment when he tells Beatrice (or was it Jesse) that the reason why he did all that was because he loved Sherlock.

And you might tell me "here you have it! black on white! Watson is gay for Holmes!" but I don't see it like that.

Up to that point, I never once thought that Watson was doing that because he truly loved Sherlock.

What I see Watson ass is someone who stumbled upon a man in which he saw potential and then tapped into it. Then the potential, as he rightfully saw, was great and it brough both of them fame and money. And Watson was glad about it, but he already was a bit annoyed at Sherlock's impulses (and most likely always has been).

What I see is a manipulative man who reached greatness and became obsessed with his tool to fame and riches. He is dependent of Holmes. If Holmes doesn't do cases, or is great at those cases, then he can't write about it and he doesn't get recognition or money. So he manipulates everything around them in order to reach success. But the entirety of his plan can be easily thwarted if Holmes loses interest in him, and he feels like it was the case when Holmes met Alice and then when she decided to leave London; which is why he finally lead him to the "possible" location of the rip (which, again, he had opened himself and therefore knew very well where it was since the beginning).

So, the way I see it, Watson is not in love with Holmes. He's in a fucked up dependency and is trying really hard to show to Holmes that he too is dependent on him and not just himself on Holmes.

And in the case where the writers had in reality decided that Watson was deeply in love with Holmes? Well it's a really fucked up writing.

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So, overall (even though I'm sure I've missed points), this series was okay.

The teens (and protagonists) are well written, and we see proper growth throughout the show, which is better than what a lot of shows try to do.

The story itself is nice, showing us morally grey characters but also to feel for the perpretators even if at time they seem to be holding us by the hand to show us what critical thinking is (but this is a teen show so...).

I am a bit annoyed at the main villain being black and be against the white girl, only for his end to be... yeah.

I'm also annoyed at the depictions of the canon characters, even if I do have to say that the drug addiction part was well done (or at least properly, I would need the point of view of someone who had faced that in order to properly know).

But I'm mostly annoyed at what they did with the relationship between Holmes and Watson.

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ALSO

Leo is based on the actual fucking prince Leopold, which was 30 in 1884.

The earliest story of Watson if from 1881.

Which means that Leopold should not fucking be 17 in the series since it's been established that Watson has been writing before the first rip incident, which was 15 years prior. Which means that the story takes place in AT LEAST 1896.

But well... they apparently really badly wanted to use a prince and not just another posh guy.