Monday, May 14, 2018

The never-ending Sherlock story

So, only two episodes into it's current twenty-one episode season six, CBS's Elementary has been renewed for season seven. "Despite currently being CBS's lowest rated drama," the update over at TV Guide reads. But such are the strange and unpredictable ways of modern media.

Where once pure ratings ruled the only three networks available, now syndication, foreign markets, streaming channels, and who-knows-what-else are in the mix. Get dropped by one network, get picked up by another. Of our three major media Sherlocks at present, the only thing seeming to hold any of them back is the availability of their stars. Were Downey and Cumberbatch not otherwise occupied, we'd no doubt be seeing more of them as well. (Yes, yes, Downey is finally coming back for a third bit, but how many years has it been?)

Miss Sherlock is out there somewhere, Enola Holmes is headed for the big screen, and Violet Hunter has her own adaptation going "Copper Beeches" without the help of Holmes or Watson.

Listening to a comic book podcast this weekend where the hosts, who remembered a time decades past, were marvelling at the difference in public awareness of certain comic book characters now versus a few decades ago, I couldn't help but see certain Sherlockian parallels.

More people are bumping into "a" Sherlock Holmes somewhere in their media consumption than ever before. Maybe they're not all reading Conan Doyle, but they're getting one particular view of the character or another, something that wasn't nearly as prevalent a mere fifteen years ago.

Sherlock's story has become the never-ending story in its way . . . at least for a time. How long will this time last?

Longer than most of us, I'd wager.

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