Do Not Cross

My roommate has recently become obsessed with the latest Sherlocke Holmes TV show and has made it a requirement that everyone in our house watch the show.  Although I had heard a lot about it from various friends and postings on the internet, I knew very little past that it was suppedly really “good” and set in modern times. I don’t know very much about Sherlocke Holmes aside from his name and that he is a detective.  I never saw that movie that came out a year or two ago and I’ve never actually read any of the books.  So when my room mate sat everyone down to watch, I really didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have anything to compare the characters to, or the setting, or anything like that.  And while I believe they did in fact do an excellent job, I don’t think I can really make any comments on it not knowing the background of the characters.

However, while watching the show, something very new and different caught my eye that made me love the show for a very different reason. One of the very first scenes in the show involves a press conference dealing with recent suicides. And for a good portion of the scene things proceed as expected. Police talking to the press, urging them to not spread panic, nothing out of the ordinary, until the chief of police tells everyone he has things under control. Suddenly his phone chimes, and when he looks down the text “wrong” appear just above his phone.

At first I was surprised and even a little confused about why the word “wrong” was appearing on screen.  But then as he continued to try and reassure the reporters, the phones in the entire audience went off and one by one the word “wrong” appeared across their chest as they looked down at their phones. At which point I realized it was the text message everyone was getting. It was brilliant, or at least I think  it was. Through out the rest of the show whenever a text message was received it appeared in actually text on the screen instead of showing a shot of the phone with the message on it. 

The show overall had a very unique editing style that I felt was more akin to an independent film than something I’d watch on TV. And they proved this with more than just putting text on screen. There was another scene where Watson is chasing Sherlocke across a roof top when Sherklocke jumps a gap between one roof to the next. Waston follows behind him running but instead of jumping he comes to a sudden stop at which point a “do not cross” image lights up in the upper right hand corner.  It blinks as he begins to hesitate and walk back and then forward to check the distance. Finally Watson backs up for a running start and it switches to  “walk” as he makes his leap across.

In the end I really do think that I will remember the show more for it’s style than for the story or the characters. I think it serves as a good reminder that there is more to film than just the actors, and that the way a film is edited can play just as big a role.  

The clip I'm attaching below gives a really good sense of the stylization they use in the show, and how it really adds to the impact of what's going on.  Also at 0:17 you can see him sending a text on his phone how they show what the text says by putting it on screen, which is what I was talking about earlier.