We’ve seen a lot of Sherlock Holmes variations. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories debuted way back in 1887, and it seems like every few years now, we get a new take on the master logician. The CW is trying its hand at it with “Sherlock & Daughter,” with James Duff serving as showrunner and Brendan Foley as writer-creator.
Starring David Thewlis as Holmes and Blu Hunt as the titular daughter, Amelia Rojas, this production plays it mostly straight. We’re in 1880s London with the costumes, social classes, and architecture that go with it. This series also features the characters Sherlock fans know and like, including Professor James Moriarty (Dougray Scott, really going for it).
But with such well-trodden ground, a Sherlock show needs a strong reason to exist, and this one doesn’t. Ostensibly, what makes it different is the addition of the daughter. Hunt does a good job of bringing depth and light to her character. But she is hampered by writing that does not bother to expand Amelia beyond the same plucky heroine Disney has been giving us for decades, and we’ve even already seen that in the Sherlock universe, thanks to Netflix’s “Enola Holmes.” In Amelia’s introductory scene, she falls for an obvious ruse but then fights off a (bigger and male) assailant. We’ve seen this girl before, countless times, and “Sherlock & Daughter” doesn’t have much to say about her.
They give Amelia an Indigenous backstory, and I’m glad they cast a Native actor for the role with Hunt. On screen, we see Amelia’s mother, Lucia (Savonna Spracklin), discussing her mixed lineage with her daughter in one memorable scene. But Amelia doesn’t appear to have any Indigenous cultural practices. She grew up isolated, just with her mom, and so has no community. If they ever speak a language besides English, we never hear about it. And learning to shoot a gun and revere Sherlock Holmes are about as generically American as you can get – and they are about all we know about Amelia.
The choice to highlight Amelia’s indigeneity but not explore it indicates the series’ problem as a whole. It uses a middle-of-the-road approach in an apparent attempt to please everyone—those who say they care about diversity and those who don’t want to think about it. Instead, it ends up pleasing no one (including me).
The same thing occurs with how the show treats Sherlock lore. Instead of functioning as an introduction to Baker Street’s most famous resident, “Sherlock & Daughter” assumes we already know and care about characters like Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson, who we hear about in this edition but don’t see (at least not in the four episodes given to critics to review).
Watson’s fate holds the season’s stakes, but without seeing him, it’s hard to care, even if you, like me, harbor fond feelings for his other iterations, such as Martin Freeman in the BBC’s edgy, modernized Benedict Cumberbatch version.
And for those deeply enamored with the English detective, “Sherlock & Daughter” makes multiple bewildering stylistic choices that undercut the fun of trying to solve the mystery along with the famed detective. They interstitch scenes by cruising along a sepia-toned map, with locations rising from it in a miniature, almost-Lego form. They repeatedly do so despite not placing any significance on the location’s relative positions. It’s odd and doesn’t add more than minutes to the runtime.
Worse, they scrawl notes across the scenes, believing their audience needs to be spoonfed our hints, undercutting the fun of the entire whodunit model.
To make matters worse, the plot is largely predictable, with me guessing key plot points before Holmes despite us having the same information. This is death to the conceit of this particular character, whose notoriety relies on always being one step ahead.
Ultimately, “Sherlock & Daughter” doesn’t give us new ways to see either of its titular characters. It doesn’t push the period-piece-with-a-plucky-heroine genre like, say, “My Lady Jane” did on Prime Video last year. Nor does it gleefully toy with its source materials and the confines of teen drama like CW standout “Riverdale.”
Instead, it gives us a mish-mashed nothingburger of a show that will surely fade from our memories before it’s finished airing. Let’s hope for better parts for Hunt (veterans Thewlis and Scott will be fine regardless). And if you want some Sherlock, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Entire season screened for review. Series premieres April 16th on The CW.
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