This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

I'll tell you why so serious

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I found the full set (39 episodes) on 3 DVDs in a pawnshop for $1. It was worth every penny. Indeed, it might have been worth $2. :-) The actors portraying Holmes and Watson are excellent--well-defined personalities and very likable. The rest are appealingly comic. The episodes are mostly non-canon, and often silly, with many non-sequiturs and plot holes. However, since the series does not take itself seriously, these faults are forgivable. One might say that when an episode is good, it is very good, and when an episode is bad, it is so bad that, seen with the right spirit, it is also good. The fuzzy black-and-white photography, the very inexpensive sets, and the repeatedly-used stock clips (e.g. the Tower, the carriages coming and going) add to the patina of awful greatness. Really, I'm not trying to be supercilious--you will enjoy the series for its fine portrayal of Holmes & Watson, not to mention poor Inspector Lestrade. Lose no time--search the shelves of your local pawnshop today!

I found a boxed set of 25 of these films on 5 discs in The Works, the British remaindered books outlet, a year ago. (I don't think you have remaindered books in the USA - they're pulped, due to different laws.) The DVD set was produced by a Dutch firm, and not re-mastered - but the films are in quite good condition. They were made first in the year of my birth, 1954, so I did some research to find out why I had never seen them. I had seen episodes from every other British TV Holmes series, and heard, through archive material, episodes from every British and American radio series.All became clear: they were never shown in Britain! Even though most of the actors were British, with a handful of Americans and French - the series was shot in France - the series was made by an American producer for US TV.Most stories are good, some are excellent, some are terrible, and some are from the canon, with altered titles for some unfathomable reason (The Engineer's Thumb becomes The Shoeless Engineer, The Greek Interpreter becomes The French Interpreter).Nine marks instead of ten because of the three or four awful ones - a Red Indian sets up his wigwam inside 221B Baker Street in one of them! I'm glad I walked into that shop. I might never have known about this series otherwise! Enjoy.

If you are not so interested in the mysteries, but rather Holmes himself, you will not be disappointed in this series. Whatever it may lack in directing, staging or filming, Ronald Howard makes up for it (Especially when many of the episodes can be found very cheaply.) While it does deviate from Doyle's original stories in fact, it does not deviate in spirit.There are some moments in which characters such as Dr. Watson and Lestrade are given center stage while Holmes is put to the side, which might disappoint some viewers. Dr. Watson, who is closer to the everyman than Holmes, seems to be the center of attention quite a bit more than some might like. While these might detract from the few episodes which are like this, they do not affect the series as a whole.Even if it does not become the favorite of any Holmes collector who chances to pick it up, it will at least become an admirable addition to any DVD or memorabilia stronghold.

Until I saw this I always thought Basil Rathbone was the only actor that brought the correct intensity to this role (Jeremy Brett's pompous interpretation was putrid in its faithlessness to the original), but Ronald Howard's Sherlock Holmes is superb, even if the writers tampered with the character's quirks a bit (the original Homes was never absent-minded, and Watson, for that matter, was never as observant as this series would seem to indicate). I have to agree with another reviewer that I now want a copy of every episode, so enjoyable it was to see the two I have been lucky enough to view. I say this not only as a Rathbone fan but as a devotee who has read Conan Doyle's COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES, all 56 short stories and four novels, at least a dozen times (and some stories at least twice that). Highly recommended for true fans of this dynamic duo.