Objective Summary

BBC Sherlock is a modern day adaptation of the world-famous British mystery novel

created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The show revolves around the consulting detective

Sherlock Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), and his best friend and assistant John

Watson (played by Martin Freeman) solving cases in present-day London. This adaption features

many aspects of the original series, but follows much of its own plotline. Each episode is an hour

and a half long, which causes them to each resemble a mini movie. Due to this, seasons are

short and the time between seasons are very long. Episode 1 of season 1 focuses on the meeting

of Sherlock and Watson and the forming of their lifelong friendship of solving crimes together.

They first meet when a friend of Watsons introduces Watson to Sherlock as someone in

need of a roommate. Watson met Sherlock at the nearby hospital where Sherlock works. When

they first met, Sherlock was able to pick up on every aspect about John, while left John in a

momentary state of shock. Later on that day, at their flat, Sherlock brings Watson along on one

of the murder cases the police department was working on. They enter an empty room that only

had a dead body of a woman dress completely in pink with a bottle of pills, very similar to three

other suicides that occurred just recently.

It begins focusing on the injured army doctor with PTSD, John Watson. He is in need of

a new flat, hopefully with a roommate for a cheaper rent. He stumbles upon his old friend who

tells him that he knows of a young gentleman in the same position. Watson gets lead into a

forensics lab to meet this gentleman in hopes of a new flat. In a few moments the gentleman

picks up on every little aspect about Watson, and is able to conclude that he was an army doctor

who fought in Afghanistan. Sherlock also points out Watsons leg injury, and dismisses it as
psychosomatic. Watson clearly startled from this sudden outburst of facts about himself, that no

one could have possibly know at first glance, is impressed by him. The gentleman introduces

himself as none other than Sherlock Holmes, a detective that helps with cases dealt by the police

department.

Soon after, they move into the flat of 221B Baker Street. On the way there, Sherlock

spots a police car and deduces there is a case he will be able to help with. Lestrade, the lead

detective, pushed aside protocol and to allow Sherlock to take a quick two minute glimpse

at the crime scene, as Sherlock has helped them uncover many unnoticeable, yet highly

important, details that has allowed them to solve many cases before. Dragging Watson along,

they reach an apartment with a dead woman dressed in pink found with suicide pills, very similar

to the other three suicides that happened recently. A message was scratched on the ground,

clearly from the dead woman as her nails were destroyed. The unfinished message spelled out

rache, which Sherlock completed to spell Rachel. By noticing her wet coat, which was wet

under the collar as well, and her dry umbrella, he was able to conclude that she had been in

extremely windy and rainy weathertoo windy for an umbrella. He looked at the weather

patterns in cities that were walking distance from London, and narrowed it down to Cardiff.

Sherlock looked at many other clues and was able to deduce that she had a string of lovers, but

one deduction in particular didnt make sense to Lestrade. Sherlock pointed out a series of mud

stains on the womans leg, which only could form if she was carrying a suitcase behind her, but

there wasn't a suitcase anywhere near the crime scene. This caused Sherlock to have a sudden

outburst of new deductions, sending him rushing down the stairs of the apartment in excitement,

leaving Watson at the crime scene while he went back to 221B Baker Street. Watson, having no
choice but to walk home, takes the shortest way to their apartment, but along the way, every

telephone booth he walked past rang. Out of curiosity, he enters one and picks up the phone. On

the other side of the phone a man tells Watson that he is being watched and needs to get in the

car parked directly outside of it. John senses he is being threatened and enters the car, which is

being driven to an unknown location. As he exits the car, a man with a cane and a smug

impression greets him and introduces himself as someone who Sherlock considers and

arch-nemesis, Mycroft. He offers to pay Watson a large sum of money to spy on Sherlock, but

John immediately refuses. Disappointed the man allows him to leave as he notices Sherlock has

sent a series of texts that say, Come to Baker Street at convenience, if not convenient come

anyways. Could be dangerous. -SH.

When Watson arrives at home, Sherlock is lying on the couch with three nicotine patches

across his arm. Watson also notices a suitcase on the coffee table by his seat, in which Sherlock

explains that he has found her luggage, but a mobile phone is missing. He concluded that since

the phone is gone, the murder must have had it, which brought him to instruct Watson to send a

message to her cell number. The cell number quickly picked up, and from that Sherlock deduced

that the murder must have the phone due to his panicked need to answer the phone. He forces

Watson to follow him on a chase to find the murder with the phone, which only caused both of

them to cause panic in a tourist taking a cab. By going on this wild goose chase, Sherlock got

Watson to realize that his limp was in fact psychosomatic, as Watson left his cane when they ran

to catch the taxi.

When they arrive at the flat, they walk into Lestrade and his department conducting a

drugs bust. Watson, riddled with disbelief of the possibility that Sherlock could be a drug addict,
tries to get them out of their flat. Instead of drug, the officers found the missing case, which lead

them to believe Sherlock was the murderer. In order to prove himself as innocent, he decided to

show them that the phone was missing, and in order to find it, they need to track it. Using the

online tracker, they tracked the phone to their own apartment. During this confusion, a taxi cab

driver comes to their door saying Sherlock hailed a cabby to take him somewhere, even though

Sherlock obviously didnt. After the confusion cleared, for Sherlock at least, he left the room,

knowing who the murder wasthe cabby driver. All the officers were in a state of confusion,

when they noticed Sherlock walk out the door and enter the cabby.

The cabby driver offered Sherlock two options: he could turn himself in, but then he will

never know how the cabby got the victims to commit suicide, or Sherlock could come in the taxi

with him, and may possibly die, but he will know how the victims died. Sherlock let the curiosity

get the best of him, and he entered the cabby. The driver took him to an empty hospital, and they

sat down on a table with two bottles with one pill in each of them. The cabby told Sherlock that

one pill was poisonous, and one was not. Sherlocks job was to pick one pill to take, and the

cabby driver would take the other one. If Sherlock refused to pick a pill, the driver would shoot

him, surprisingly none of the previous victims chose that option. Sherlock decided to let the

cabby driver shoot him, which resulted in a prank gun shooting out a piece of paper labeled

Bang!. The cabbie told Sherlock that although he chose the correct option, there is still a pill

that isnt poisonous.They each took turns to make a move, like in chess, and the driver chose

to move one bottle closer to Sherlock, which convinced him to continue and guess what pill to

take. Sherlock decides to swallow a pill, but before he does that, Sherlock attempted to deduce

why exactly the cabby was murdering the innocent. He concluded that the cabby was severely ill
and was killing to pass time, and he was getting sponsored by someone with great interest in

Sherlock. His sponsor money was going to his childrens college funds. Just as they are about to

take the pills, Watson figures out why Sherlock left, and goes on a mission to find him. He runs

through the many hospital rooms, until he sees Sherlock through the open windows about to take

a pill. Out of worry and protectiveness, he shoots the cabby driver to save Sherlock. Still

determined to know if he was right, Sherlock tries to get the dying man to tell him. The cabby

refuses, but Sherlock is able to get the name of the person who sponsored him: Moriarty.

Soon after the incident, the cops come, and they never figure out who shot the cabby.

Sherlock knowingly looks at Watson, as thus a strong friendship is formed. The two newly

formed friends, run into the man that took Watson and identified himself as Sherlocks

arch-nemesis. Watson soon figures out that Mycroft was just Sherlocks brother, and their

hatred for each other was only sibling love. The case soon comes to an end, with a lifelong

friendship concluding it. Together they form the blogger and consulting detective team, and

continue solving crimes for many years.