‘Young Sherlock’ Review: Guy Ritchie Returns to the Great Detective With a Fun but Convoluted Series
Guy Ritchie is back on TV, and this time he’s tackling a character he’s already brought to the big screen. After making two widely successful “Sherlock Holmes” films, Ritchie is turning back the clock to produce and direct “Young Sherlock,” from showrunner Matthew Parkhill.
Out of the gate, this is a bit of a strange project, as it is neither a faithful adaptation of Andrew Lane’s “Young Sherlock Holmes” books, nor a proper prequel to Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” movies. You could, in theory, change every character’s names and it would work without issue, considering every character is far removed from the point in their lives that is familiar to audiences. Still, the familiar names and iconography combined with Ritchie’s gritty comedic and fast-paced action style make “Young Sherlock” a fun time.
Hero Fiennes Tiffin plays a 19-year-old Sherlock. Not yet a renowned investigator, this Sherlock is the black sheep of the family, too smart for his own good and with zero discipline. We first meet him in prison after he got so obsessed reading “Oliver Twist” that he decided to cosplay as The Artful Dodger and try his hand at pickpocketing (apparently just because you return what you stole doesn’t mean you didn’t steal). To reform him, Sherlock’s brother Mycroft (Max Irons) sends the young troublemaker to Oxford. Not as a student, but as a worker. When a murder shocks the faculty and student body at Oxford, Sherlock becomes a prime suspect. To prove his freedom, the would-be detective sets out to prove his innocence, only to end up involved in a vast conspiracy.
Arguably the show’s first and biggest issue comes with its format. Because the whole season revolves around a single, serialized story, “Young Sherlock” just builds and builds to grand reveals and answers. This means the season also escalates its mystery with every episode, starting with a simple theft that evolves into a murder, then several murders, and then a vast conspiracy that spans several continents.
The first half of the season starts out quite strong, with an intriguing mystery about stolen Chinese documents and a murdered professor. It helps that most of the characters are compelling and drive this part of the story forward — especially our main duo. Years before Sherlock pairs up with Watson, his first partner was James Moriarty (Dónal Finn). That’s right. Get ready for another prequel where two archenemies started out as best friends. Finn plays Moriarty as a suave, charismatic student who is as smart if not smarter than Sherlock. The show reinvents Moriarty as a working class orphan who had to work his way into an education, a man constantly threatened with losing his scholarship — a stark contrast to Sherlock’s well-off family and a well-connected brother who always bails him out of trouble. Their dynamic is the heart and soul of “Young Sherlock” and the best reason to watch the show.
Though he only directed the first two episodes of “Young Sherlock,” Ritchie’s influence can be felt throughout the entire season of the show. His style, the mix of grittiness and wittiness, the quick and snappy dialogue, and energetic action are all present here. Even if we don’t get the kind of slow-motion fight scenes from the “Sherlock Holmes” movies, the action in particular is where this show feels most connected to Ritchie’s previous foray into Doyle’s world. The use of dynamic camera movements and quick editing keeps the action thrilling and kinetic. Additionally, “Young Sherlock” simply looks stunning, with fantastic costuming and set design. This is especially true of the last couple of episodes of the season when the action moves to bigger locales — a barricade-filled Paris in the middle of a revolution looks particularly stunning.
As good as “Young Sherlock” looks, once the plot starts growing from a single crime to globetrotting adventure, the constant need to escalate leaves the story out of focus. The many twists and turns that scale up the story come across as convoluted and forced. At its worst, the season ends up feeling somehow bigger than both of Ritchie’s hundred-million-dollar “Holmes” movies even if this Sherlock has never been involved in an investigation before.
The need for escalation also comes with having to complicate the lore of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original work and also Andrew Lane’s “Young Sherlock Holmes” books. Some adaptation choices, such as portraying Sherlock’s brain attic as him stepping into a memory he can manipulate, are visually inventive. Others, particularly involving Sherlock’s family dynamics, end up nearly as bad as the final season of the BBC “Sherlock” series, forcing a fake sense of surprise that betrays even the first half of the season’s portrayal of certain characters.
“Young Sherlock” is a fun ride, and it does some interesting things with its source material. By trying to become a blockbuster-sized globetrotting adventure, however, it loses focus and steam.
“Young Sherlock” premieres March 4 on Prime Video.
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