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A Sherlock Holmes TV Show for the Video Game Era
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Matthew Dickinson
Jan 4, 2012, 1:11:57 AM1/4/12
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http://kotaku.com/5872777/a-sherlock-holmes-tv-show-for-the-video-game-era
SHERLOCK
BY KIRK HAMILTON JAN 3, 2012 8:00 PM 9,718 142 Share
GET OUR TOP STORIES
FOLLOW KOTAKU
A Sherlock Holmes TV Show for the Video Game Era
Sherlock, the BBC's modern-day Sherlock Holmes reimagining, is a heck
of an enjoyable TV show. In addition to the solid writing, strong
acting, and un-cheesy modernizing of Holmes, I'm struck by the many
ways that Sherlock uses the visual language of video games to place
viewers in the mind of the master deducer himself.
Sherlock returns to the BBC this week for its second series after
airing three 90-minute mini-movie episodes last fall (as with the
first season, the episodes will air in America on PBS at a later
date). All three of the first episodes are viewable via Netflix
instant watch. I'm a bit late to the party, and have only just now
been watching the first series.
In Sherlock, Holmes makes the transition to modern-day London with
surprising ease. He is a self-described "high-functioning sociopath,"
a freaky genius of observation, with almost superhuman, X-Man-like
deductive abilities. He is also a whiz with computers, quick to turn
to the internet for assistance, and entirely addicted to his cell
phone. Played with an appealingly alien weirdness by British actor
Benedict Cumberbatch (actual name), Holmes is able to immediately
observe and put to memory thousands of tiny details about a given
person or scenario, then combine those observations with his
apparently bottomless memory banks to make superhuman deductions.
Upon meeting Dr. Watson (played by The Office's Martin Freeman),
Holmes lets fly a volley of seemingly impossible deductions about
Watson's family, personal history, war injury, and mental state. He
then walks us through how he made those leaps; the camera does a
series of snap-cuts as Holmes mechanically deals out his observations.
It's the sort of thing we've seen before, usually on shows like House
and CSI which, at least in part, were influenced by the original
Holmes' deductive show-offiness.
Full size
But in later scenes, it becomes clear that Sherlock showrunners Mark
Gatiss and Steven Moffat aren't afraid to appropriate video-game
language to convey information to viewers. My friend Jay even included
this as he pitched the show to me: "You'll love it! It's got all this
great video game stuff!" (He may have been more eloquent than that.)
As Holmes inspects a crime scene in the first episode, we see what can
only be described as a Heads-Up Display inserting text over items as
he examines them. He looks at the word "Rache," scratched on the
floor. Immediately, text pops up identifying it as a German word for
Revenge. He blinks his eyes and the text vanishes, replaced by an
unfinished scrawling of the name "Rachel." Clearly Holmes thinks this
seems more likely.
He touches the murder victim's umbrella: DRY, the HUD informs us. He
feels under her lapel, and looks at his fingers: WET. He examines her
jewelry, deducing via the cleanliness of various items that she
regularly takes off her wedding ring and is likely an adulterer. We
viewers learn all of this from the text that floats over the items he
conducts his examination.
Full size
Plenty of crime shows would simply show Holmes going about his
business and finally have him sit down and explain his findings. In
fact, the "explain your genius process to your dullard sidekicks"
sequence has become something of a detective-show cliché. As it
happens, Holmes does explain his findings to his sidekicks, but he
goes one further, quickly explaining the deductions he can make from
the facts that we the audience already know.
The scene calls to mind detective video games like L.A. Noire and
Heavy Rain. Games have so many means with which to "cheat" to convey
additional information to players—gamers have gotten used to pop-up
text, detailed inventory, HUDs, mini-maps, and the like. Sherlock's
use of the same tricks is a smart way of giving viewers insight into
the mind of a genius whose brain doesn't work like the rest of ours.
I'm reminded, in fact, of what Brad Bird pulled off in Ratatouille
when young Remy attempts to explain his genius palate, and how he
"sees" flavor: colors bouncing around a dark room, interlocking and
forming new combinations.
Full size
In a chase sequence a bit later on, we get a look at the mini-map that
resides in Holmes' head. It's even more video-gamey than the pop-up
text—Holmes has a photographic memory of a London city map stored in
his head, and the show's directors let us in on that, keeping us aware
of Holmes' and Watson's progress while tracing them in relation to
their quarry.
The idea of the mini-map is actually something I've written about
before. In games, mini-maps can sometimes provide too much
information, pulling me out of a world that I'd actually have no
problem navigating on my own. But it makes sense that a genius like
Sherlock Holmes would have a perfect mini-map of London in his brain,
and by tossing it into the scene, the director gives the audience a
perspective on the chase that we wouldn't have had otherwise. (It also
may be a clever way to work around the fact that they didn't have the
budget to show a lengthy, coherently edited chase sequence.)
Of course, Sherlock isn't the first show or movie to do this kind of
thing. Off the top of my head, Edgar Wright's adaptation of Scott
Pilgrim vs. The World used many of the same tricks, and to great effect
—in fact, Wright's work has long been influenced by similar ideas, all
the way back to his and Simon Pegg's TV show Spaced.
One of my favorite things about the "mainstreaming" of video games
isn't how games have been incorporating aspects of film and
television, but how film and television have been incorporating
elements of games.
Eeexcellent, Smithers. Slowly but surely, we're taking over.
(Top image photoshopped by me—there isn't actually an on-screen mini-
map in the corner of the show.)
Contact Kirk Hamilton:EMAIL THE AUTHORCOMMENTFACEBOOKTWITTER
SHERLOCK
BY KIRK HAMILTON JAN 3, 2012 8:00 PM 9,718 142 Share
GET OUR TOP STORIES
FOLLOW KOTAKU
A Sherlock Holmes TV Show for the Video Game Era
Sherlock, the BBC's modern-day Sherlock Holmes reimagining, is a heck
of an enjoyable TV show. In addition to the solid writing, strong
acting, and un-cheesy modernizing of Holmes, I'm struck by the many
ways that Sherlock uses the visual language of video games to place
viewers in the mind of the master deducer himself.
Sherlock returns to the BBC this week for its second series after
airing three 90-minute mini-movie episodes last fall (as with the
first season, the episodes will air in America on PBS at a later
date). All three of the first episodes are viewable via Netflix
instant watch. I'm a bit late to the party, and have only just now
been watching the first series.
In Sherlock, Holmes makes the transition to modern-day London with
surprising ease. He is a self-described "high-functioning sociopath,"
a freaky genius of observation, with almost superhuman, X-Man-like
deductive abilities. He is also a whiz with computers, quick to turn
to the internet for assistance, and entirely addicted to his cell
phone. Played with an appealingly alien weirdness by British actor
Benedict Cumberbatch (actual name), Holmes is able to immediately
observe and put to memory thousands of tiny details about a given
person or scenario, then combine those observations with his
apparently bottomless memory banks to make superhuman deductions.
Upon meeting Dr. Watson (played by The Office's Martin Freeman),
Holmes lets fly a volley of seemingly impossible deductions about
Watson's family, personal history, war injury, and mental state. He
then walks us through how he made those leaps; the camera does a
series of snap-cuts as Holmes mechanically deals out his observations.
It's the sort of thing we've seen before, usually on shows like House
and CSI which, at least in part, were influenced by the original
Holmes' deductive show-offiness.
Full size
But in later scenes, it becomes clear that Sherlock showrunners Mark
Gatiss and Steven Moffat aren't afraid to appropriate video-game
language to convey information to viewers. My friend Jay even included
this as he pitched the show to me: "You'll love it! It's got all this
great video game stuff!" (He may have been more eloquent than that.)
As Holmes inspects a crime scene in the first episode, we see what can
only be described as a Heads-Up Display inserting text over items as
he examines them. He looks at the word "Rache," scratched on the
floor. Immediately, text pops up identifying it as a German word for
Revenge. He blinks his eyes and the text vanishes, replaced by an
unfinished scrawling of the name "Rachel." Clearly Holmes thinks this
seems more likely.
He touches the murder victim's umbrella: DRY, the HUD informs us. He
feels under her lapel, and looks at his fingers: WET. He examines her
jewelry, deducing via the cleanliness of various items that she
regularly takes off her wedding ring and is likely an adulterer. We
viewers learn all of this from the text that floats over the items he
conducts his examination.
Full size
Plenty of crime shows would simply show Holmes going about his
business and finally have him sit down and explain his findings. In
fact, the "explain your genius process to your dullard sidekicks"
sequence has become something of a detective-show cliché. As it
happens, Holmes does explain his findings to his sidekicks, but he
goes one further, quickly explaining the deductions he can make from
the facts that we the audience already know.
The scene calls to mind detective video games like L.A. Noire and
Heavy Rain. Games have so many means with which to "cheat" to convey
additional information to players—gamers have gotten used to pop-up
text, detailed inventory, HUDs, mini-maps, and the like. Sherlock's
use of the same tricks is a smart way of giving viewers insight into
the mind of a genius whose brain doesn't work like the rest of ours.
I'm reminded, in fact, of what Brad Bird pulled off in Ratatouille
when young Remy attempts to explain his genius palate, and how he
"sees" flavor: colors bouncing around a dark room, interlocking and
forming new combinations.
Full size
In a chase sequence a bit later on, we get a look at the mini-map that
resides in Holmes' head. It's even more video-gamey than the pop-up
text—Holmes has a photographic memory of a London city map stored in
his head, and the show's directors let us in on that, keeping us aware
of Holmes' and Watson's progress while tracing them in relation to
their quarry.
The idea of the mini-map is actually something I've written about
before. In games, mini-maps can sometimes provide too much
information, pulling me out of a world that I'd actually have no
problem navigating on my own. But it makes sense that a genius like
Sherlock Holmes would have a perfect mini-map of London in his brain,
and by tossing it into the scene, the director gives the audience a
perspective on the chase that we wouldn't have had otherwise. (It also
may be a clever way to work around the fact that they didn't have the
budget to show a lengthy, coherently edited chase sequence.)
Of course, Sherlock isn't the first show or movie to do this kind of
thing. Off the top of my head, Edgar Wright's adaptation of Scott
Pilgrim vs. The World used many of the same tricks, and to great effect
—in fact, Wright's work has long been influenced by similar ideas, all
the way back to his and Simon Pegg's TV show Spaced.
One of my favorite things about the "mainstreaming" of video games
isn't how games have been incorporating aspects of film and
television, but how film and television have been incorporating
elements of games.
Eeexcellent, Smithers. Slowly but surely, we're taking over.
(Top image photoshopped by me—there isn't actually an on-screen mini-
map in the corner of the show.)
Contact Kirk Hamilton:EMAIL THE AUTHORCOMMENTFACEBOOKTWITTER
MickeyMoop
Feb 3, 2012, 6:10:30 PM2/3/12
to
http://www.theamericanscholar.org - Nabokov, the Psychologist, by Brian Boyd, Essays, Autumn 2011, "Vladimir Nabokov's understanding of human nature anticipated the advances in psychology since his day."
MickeyMoop
Feb 24, 2012, 9:32:56 AM2/24/12
to
"John Currin may be the only painter in whose work one sees inspiration that ranges from Fragonard and Boucher to Norman Rockwell and R. Crumb. Currin's delightfully perverse, inexorably American paintings are the sexualized mashup of art and culture from low/ridiculous to high/sublime, from Middle America to Versailles, Love American-Style meets the Louis (i.e., XIV, XV, et.al.)." - A.M. Homes, VANITY FAIR, September 2011 issue, page 325, photograph by Annie Leibovitz; painter lives with his wife/muse artist Rachel Feinstein and kids in SoHo, in a "glamorous celebration of rococo Hefner-esque opulence."
MickeyMoop
May 24, 2012, 9:23:59 AM5/24/12
to
On Friday, February 24, 2012 9:32:56 AM UTC-5, MickeyMoop wrote:
> "John Currin Fragonard and Boucher to Norman Rockwell and R. Crumb ridiculous/sublime, from Middle America, Louis XIV, A.M. Homes, Annie Leibovitz
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s69desire.html
> "John Currin Fragonard and Boucher to Norman Rockwell and R. Crumb ridiculous/sublime, from Middle America, Louis XIV, A.M. Homes, Annie Leibovitz
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s69desire.html
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