Hi 👋, My Name Is Mohammad, And I’m Reaching Out In A Moment Of Desperate Need. I’m A Father Of

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

2.06 The Final Problem

The thing about every modern Sherlock Holmes story is that it doesn’t understand that “disdain for the existing criminal justice system” is not only a fundamental part of the themes of the ACD stories it’s vital to making the whole concept work.

Holmes, when we first meet him, is on the bleeding edge of forensics for the 1880s, and this continues on into the ‘90s (the planted thumbprint in ‘The Norwood Builder’! the Sherlock Holmes test for hemoglobin in A Study in Scarlet! the use of pigs as substitute cadavers in ‘Black Peter’!) and beyond. He’s flippant about and disrespectful toward the police because he knows how criminology is a science and forensics matter and the cold hard facts are significantly more important than intimidating witnesses to extract coerced confessions, or deciding on a theory and bending the facts to make them fit, or relying on racist stereotypes to explain how people act and who’s most guilty (all things that really happen in the canon, btw). He’s smarter than everyone else because he’s doing things no one else understands yet, he’s made a study of crime and he understands how and why policing is a flawed institution.

This is why he’s not a cop, only occasionally allied with cops, and so often complaining or explaining that a moral injustice and a legal one are two different things. There are multiple antagonists (Sir George in ‘The Beryl Coronet’, Charles Augustus Milverton, Dr. Roylott, the parents in ‘A Case of Identity’) who he can’t catch in the jaws of the law but wishes he could, and at least one criminal he overlooks because he knows prison would only force them deeper into crime.

But. But.

In the 21st century, forensics are not only the backbone of police investigation they’re common knowledge to any average police procedural enjoyer or true crime fan. Holmes’s once-cutting-edge chemistry and geology are passé and ordinary now. If he’s going to be smart, he’s got to be looking ahead.

And what does that look like? It looks like knowing about the flaws in forensic analysis, like knowing about fingerprints maybe not being totally unique, like arguing over DNA evidence being misinterpreted and innocent people being sentenced for crimes they didn’t commit, like calling for the defunding and dissembling of police forces, like siding with the underclasses every. single. time.

Holmes shouldn’t be working with the cops, he should be trying to destroy them, and fighting to prove why they’re obsolete with science and quick thinking and research. Not doing that is spitting in the face of his roots and missing the whole point of what he’s working for.

We were on location somewhere and he serenaded me at a restaurant table in the middle of a very crowded restaurant in the evening … and when he serenaded me, he really did serenade me. He wasn’t taking the mickey, it was absolutely serious as only Jeremy could be serious in a situation like that. I was sitting there, and suddenly his voice was floating out all over this restaurant, and he improvised this song all about me and my beautiful wife and my beautiful son. I was absolutely crimson with embarrassment. But it didn’t make me love him any the less. - David Burke on Jeremy Brett’s irresistible urge to sing

Some of these Holmes stories honestly are the fanfic equivalent of when an Algebra textbook goes “solution is trivial and left as an exercise for the reader”

The Shore - Barry McGlashan , 2023.

British, b. 1974 -

Oil on paper over panel , 12 1/4 x 8 1/8 in.

THAT'S HOLMES RIGHT??? IN HIS BOOKSELLER DISGUISE ON THE LEFT???? THAT'S THEM WALKING IN TOGETHER SIDE BY SIDE RIGHT?!!?!? JESUS CHRIST?????

i love characters who are always like fear not, i shall take care of this problem for you….. by sacrificing myself!! and everyone else is like i swear to god if you pull this shit again i’ll kill you

Rereading some of the original stories to try and help my current writer's block, and I rediscover this little gem.

Sherlock Holmes saying, "doggy".

JEREMY BRETT & EDWARD HARDWICKE as SHERLOCK HOLMES & DR JOHN WATSON in THE PRIORY SCHOOL (1986)

The Corridor - Chiara Gaggiotti , 2021.

italian , b. 1980s

Oil on wood , 65 x 54 cm.