Review: Sherlock 2.2: The Hounds of Baskerville

In front of a full moon. Classic. No sense of subtlty there, guys.

Based on, "The Hounds of the Baskerville", Mark Gatiss delivered a slightly calmer adaptation that took a more traditional route and followed the more conventional Sherlock Holmes format as established by the written stories. It was a lot slower than the Moffation pace had left me expecting, but that didn't stand to its detriment as a lot more time was given forth to character development. It just didn't feel as clever as the series usually allows itself to be, and instead relied on what the titular character would call, "Cheap tricks".
       Sherlock is off cigarrettes cold turkey and is thus highly erratic. The only case he can find is One about a rabbit that has disappeared after turning luminescent. When Henry Knight (goddamnit, Russell Tovey) turns up and offers his testimony about a "gigantic hound" that roams Dartmoor near a science laboratory called Baskerville. Sherlock is immediately enthused, and once out on the moors he sees the Hound himself and is shaken by his own self-doubt. However, further investigations into Baskerville reveal the truth; Henry, Sherlock, and later John, saw the Hound because of a hallucinogenic gas which was specifically designed to cause people to go mad. They return to the sight, battling their own hallucinations as they finally corner the killer, who used the gas to cover up a murder.
       Russell. Tovey. I don't like him. He's irritating, his screechy, unconvincing acting style that was acceptable in the Being Human 2008 pilot but that slowly begins to gnaw away at my insides. Casting Tovey to play a man afraid of large dogs showed that at least the Sherlock team has a sense of irony, but it did nothing to enhance the episode and his scenes are by and large the worst part.
       The use of more modern, sci-fi elements leads this to be a little on the simple side, and any attempts at complexity come off like disposable red herrings. The story spent a lot of time on set pieces and ideas that never went anywhere - the moor, while atmospheric and great for, say, trailer shots, was over-emphasised over plot. Likewise there's a long scene where John believes he is being stalked by the Hound in a Lab, one that has no bearing on the actual mystery but seems just to be Sherlock uncharacteristically dicking about. More importantly, there were scenes added that made little to no sense whatsoever, such as hallucinations at Toby's home actually cause the lights to turn on and off.
        The Hounds of Baskerville was still enjoyable, but it didn't live up to the standard that I've become accustomed to in Sherlock. It replaced the usual fast paced conundrums with a slow walk around the British countryside, something that failed to tickle my fancy entirely. And, after his less than impressive Who record, Gatiss is still in my bad books for the moment.

Thanks.

P.S. Nice chap though. Lovely chap.