SHERLOCK
Sherlock was my favourite show in its first season and it remains exactly that after Season Two; no other television show was able to produce the kind of transfixing highs that are now a feature of Sherlock’s three-episode seasons. If there’s a single episode of television I now look forward to the most, it’s the third episode of any season of Sherlock, which have become legendary after merely two incarnations to date. Sherlock is the sort of reinterpretation that will have you wanting to go back and read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s originals, just to deepen your understanding of the show.
There’s a reason lead actors Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch are suddenly in many a blockbuster; their chemistry and individual performances are stellar. Cumberbatch is hugely charismatic; snobbish and arrogant without ever being unlikeable or unsympathetic. It’s quite a feat. Freeman is quiet, thoughtful and dispatches his near-perfect comic timing to relieve the often unbearable tension, the perfect foil to Cumberbatch’s force of nature. It helps that they’re speaking the words of some fantastic writers in Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, navigating their way through some fiendishly clever plots with wit and charm.
Lastly, not many people have really spoken about Andrew Scott’s performance as Jim Moriarty, but it’s one of my favourite television characters of the last ten years. Introduced in Season One as a wet blanket boyfriend of a minor character, his reveal as a psychotic criminal mastermind was spectacular in that season and the culmination of his arc in Season Two is just phenomenal. Some may consider Scott’s performance overacting, but I love it. It’s a sneering, articulate, imbalanced and classic television villain; one that couldn’t be more appropriate for one of the best television mysteries ever.
Honourable Mention: Arrow is coming to Channel 9 in Australia in 2013, and having seen a few episodes already, all I'll say is this: comic book nerds, you'll probably enjoy it. Hell, if you liked the Dark Knight trilogy, you'll get something out of it. Everyone else: it will probably seem really stupid. Count me in, though. I'm sold.
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