Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

For us Anglophile viewers, this series would have been superb even if the cast had just dutifully recited their lines and tried to look pretty. For this is unrivaled period costume drama, with exteriors and interiors that sometimes make me pause the picture every five seconds, just to take in the Victorian visual cornucopia in all its fine detail. But the series is so much more than that: Jeremy Brett's Sherlock is imbued with such depth, subtlety, color and nuance, the crime story becomes a symphony - a rumination on life, fate, betrayal, companionship, surrendering one's youth, and many other things. This embodiment of Sherlock is not just the moody and eccentric character we grew up to know, playing a violin in between racking his brains. He is a choleric, a mystic, a philosopher, a scientist, even a psychic and occultist when the occasion calls for it, and quite possibly a mason and a homosexual; a man living by his own rules. The 'whodunit?' element thus refreshingly doesn't dominate the story; it is the central character's unpredictable actions and interactions that steal the show. Wonderful viewing.

He is (was) wonderful in this role, beyond any expectation of a Basil Rathbone fan. There is NO thought or emotion that does not reflect in his face, and each separately at that. No mush. And always a sense of mystery about him. It's why the camera focuses so much upon his face. Without meaning to insult Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett is the consummate Holmes. Any aspiring actor should watch his face, his sudden physical actions and responses, his equally sudden humor... I don't know how he was in any other performance, but his Holmes is the winner of winners. As far as Dr. Watson himself, the film production, location, costuming, the other character actors - all brilliant. brilliant.

Before I began watching the series of one-hour TV shows, I watched the associated 103 minute TV Movie, "The Sign of Four." At first I was put off by the frequent hints that Holmes was a needle drug user (apparently cocaine and morphine according to Watson's allusion). Once those hints went away as the season progressed, I became more interested in seeing a now clear-minded Holmes pursue his adventures. Holmes did appear rude, bombastic and unpredictable in temperament at first, but that too seemed to improve with time. Once these poor character traits seemed to subside (or I became inured to them), it became almost impossible to not be glued to each episode. One in particular, "The Red Headed League," was most exhilarating to watch, as Holmes dealt with corrupt royalty, a silly pawn shop owner, and Professor Moriarty. It is a "three pipe" challenge to Holmes, meaning he has to smoke three pipes of tobacco while mulling it over.This series of Sherlock Holmes shorts has Watson a much more perceptive and helpful assistant to Holmes as contrasted with the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce version, where Watson is an addled and unreliable hindrance to Holmes. Watch for the episode where Sherlock's older brother is introduced. It is entertaining to see them both deducing much from looking at a random man through the window. For any who would enjoy a fairly "family-friendly" fully engaging mystery series, this is one for you.

Has Patrick Gowers been given his real due for the music he has written for this series? The title music, that beautiful, rather morbid theme for the solo violin (Holmes's instrument, of course), so subtly coloured by the harmony and instrumentation of the accompaniment, reflecting a number of elements in these stories (I fancy that there are tragedy, regret, tenderness, ennui and cocaine all in there somewhere), is uncannily right, and the composer is endlessly inventive in deriving other passages of music from this material. I have just watched 'The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist' and marvelled yet again at the superbly atmospheric touch Mr Gowers has, applied with such taste and economy - a haunting octave-oscillation, for instance, suggesting the up-and-down movement of bicycle pedals but also full of mysterious, suspenseful malevolence. At every turn the music, while never pushing itself to the fore, complements and enhances the excellent production with the utmost effectiveness. We never tire of that ubiquitous theme, presented and developed in such cleverly varied ways.Whoever engaged Patrick Gowers for this job deserves our gratitude, and as for the composer himself - well, eat your heart out, Richard Wagner. Fantastic music which surely has few equals among all film scores.(For some episodes the solo violinist in the title music is absolutely first-class - who is it? - , while for others it seems that the soloist is different and, while acceptable, not quite as good. This seems rather odd.)