Although a war was once waged to defend the American colonies against the whims of a crazy king – it worked well, for a while – we have spent the centuries since the importation of British culture: its pop music, the fish and the chips, the mini -hessions, the Mohawks and, above all, its mysterious stories.
A distinct cultivated race from the hard native brand, its king and her queen are Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, as it is almost impossible not to know. Conan Doyle: Creator of Sherlock Holmes and by extension all subsequent super detective with an eccentric character, Eagle Eye for Detail, encyclopedic knowledge of unexpected anecdotes and the brain of a univac. Christie: Architect of the mystery of the Maison de la Campaign and the scene in which all the suspects are gathered in a room as a detective – its best known are the difficult Belgian expatriate Hercule Poirot and the misleading town Miss Marple – usefully explains who did it and how it was done. Between them, the authors represent 95% of the intelligent twists that you will meet in any mystery.
For a long time, the imported British Mysterian TV series were more or less the province (and a good part of the bread and butter) of public television. Now there are dedicated entire streaming channels, in the middle of many other platforms and networks eager for content. Wednesday brings two new series, the adaptation of Christie “to Zero” on Britbox, and an original adventure by Holmes, “Sherlock & Daughter”, on the CW.
Anjelica Huston as Lady Tressilian in the Britbox series “Toward Zero”.
(James Pardon / Britbox)
Holmes has long been the subject of pastiches and parodies and post -conanian doyle excursions on the page and on the screen – hundreds of them, I would bet, not that I will count. Writers such as Stephen King, Philip José Farmer, Michael Chabon and Anthony Burgess succeeded with him. Played by Basil Rathbone, he fought the Nazis in Wold War II; He collaborated with Sigmund Freud in “The Seven Per per cent Solution” by Nicholas Meyer; and in person Benoît Cumberbatchrushed through the London glass wood forest in the 21st century.
Created by Brendan Foley with James Duff (“The closest”) As a showrunner, “Sherlock & Daughter” corresponds to the history of the CW with female genre shows. Holmes this trip is David Thewlis (Mike Leigh's “Life is sweet” And “Naked,” Remus Lupine in “Harry Potter” films and a corrupt police officer in “Enola Homes 2”), but he shares the invoicing of title with Blu Hunt like Amelia Rojas, a young woman who came from California after the murder of her mother. Engineer of genius, designer and inventor living in the back of Beyond, Mom had left Amelia a message that Holmes is her real father, and with the demonstrated gift of Amelia for observation and deductive reasoning, and because the show is called “Sherlock & Daughter”, we are invited to believe the same thing.
Blu Hunt, on the left, like Amelia and Gia Hunter that Clara Anderson in the CW series “Sherlock & Daughter”.
(Jim Hession / Starlings Entertainment)
Things at 221b Baker Street are not what they were. Where is Dr. Watson? Where is Ms. Hudson? And what happened to Clara (Gia Hunter), the daughter of the American ambassador, who became a friend with Amelia on the boat in England, to disappear from her bed? Who is this arrogant purple lady (Fiona Glasccott) who hovered around her? Why does Clara's father (Phillip P. Keene) seem to be such a pill? Why do American actors seem so stilted when they play characters from the 19th century when the British actors seem so natural? What is the problem with the common thread? The finger in the box? Does that have something to do with Professor Moriarty (Dougray Scott)? And why does Holmes seem reluctant to investigate?
Amelia enters the Manse de Holmes through the entry of the servants – it could be a new addition to 221b – and, due to the recent dismemberment of the Holmes de Holmes de Chapelon de Holmes de Holmes, is wrongly in vacant work. Due to her Western cum, the talent for deduction, his ability to identify a scent of Holmes tobacco cannot and the detective need for a acolyte, she made her assistant. (Although she still has to cook his eggs.) He does not buy the history of paternity, however, as things happen, he will become, in his Holméien, paternal way: “It is strange to see how the concern of your security affects my concentration.” She goes against her precepts and disobeys her orders – they appear as italic titles on the screen – and he gets tracking, as a father would do. (“If you don't open this door at a time, I'm going to overthrow it.”) But she gets results.
David Thewlis as Sherlock Holmes in the CW series “Sherlock & Daughter”.
(Fionn McCann / Starlings Entertainment)
Thewlis, who has the profile and the net profile that we associate with the character, is a beautiful holms, caustic with a comic edge, and Hunt is like his problematic partner. I cannot say that the plot is perfectly logical – because only half of the eight episodes season was available for examination, I don't know where it's okay – but you can say that about many otherwise most of the mysteries, and it's pleasant from one moment to the next.
Because Marple and Poirot are deposited by an area of Vigilant Christie, no new story has been added to the originals; They are just adapted, again and again, sometimes faithfully, often very freely. The older adaptations are on the whole comfortable, while the more recent versions tend to be darker, minimizing romance and comedy. Directed by Sam Yates – Co -creator and director of “Vanya”, “Uncle Vanya” by Andrew Scott, currently a hot theater ticket in New York – “Toward Zero”, based on a 1944 novel, Falls Sulely in the loose camp. He offers neither Poirot nor Marple, although a Marple-election version, with Geraldine McEwen, was filmed in 2007. The detective here, mixing some characters from the book, is the inspector Leach, a depressed drinker if faded, one wonders why he was not put on administrative leave. He played by Matthew Rhys, the big name of the series alongside Anjelica Huston.
Matthew Rhys as an inspector Leach in the Britbox Agatha Christie “to Zero” series.
(Britbox)
The handsome man in history is the tennis star Neville Strange (Oliver Jackson -Cohen), newly married to Kay (Mimi Keene), who, instead of a honeymoon promised in the Greek sun is dragged towards the Domaine de la Mer Devon – Dreary, even when the sun is cut – by Lady Tressilian, whose late husband was Neville. For insensitive reasons, Neville's first wife, Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland), blond in Kay's Brunette, for easy identification. Jobs miserably around the dinner table and in the living room are the lawyer for the M. Treves (Clarke Peters) family; His teenage room, Sylvia (Grace Doherty), an orphan Kleptomaniac; Tom (Jack Farthing), a Joker Mopey back from Malaysia at the invitation of his Palais de Péstruck, Mary (Anjana Vasan), the paid companion of Lady Tresselian; The intimidating valet of Neville (Adam Hugill); And a man obviously worthy of confidence (Khalil Ben Gharbia) resumes in the neighboring hotel, where household allowances go for a change of decor, sexy dance and mental games in a state of drunkenness. The readers of the book will not recognize all these diversions, but the contours of history are more or less observed.
It is displayed on the usual questions. Who can we trust? Who will be dead? Detective novel? How did they do it? (The “why” is never so interesting.) The Rachel Bennette adapter leaves you room to stay uncertain – you will certainly play “towards Zero: The Home Game”, if you are a fan of mystery. Naturally, you are manipulated all the time to keep you watching, as tedious as the characters can become during the series of several hours.
The main attractions other than it is a new adaptation of Christie – a considerable audience will arise just for this – are huston, which brings a calmly irritable majesty on his part and is simply good to review, and Rhys, screwing in the definition of the Hangdog dictionary. Apart from the solution – that there will be one is a fact – there is a happy additional end, an extra -happy end -up end, you will have been ready to hope. And will get.
