It may be pure entertainment, but the whole point of Sherlock Holmes dramas is that the clues are small and easily overlooked. So the rest of what is one screen needs to be at least passingly accurate.
But the trouble with this episode is that I have never seen so many astonishing errors of geography or simple fact within the first five minutes of any television show. Ever.
Its dire. Highgate Cemetery is a famously Victorian overgrown urban cemetery in the middle of north London. Not some sunny country graveyard near a little rural church. Then we see they burying a vast American- style casket instead of a British coffin.
Cut to New York where Holmes tells of the carrier (or homing) pigeon that nor only delivers messages but - astonishingly - takes replies.
Leaving aide the assault and battery by Ms Watson on a suspect (can you really do that in America?), quick change of scene to London where the most bizarre taxi ride ever starts from the Whitehall end of the Mall in St James Park, goes down towards Buckingham Palace, before off-screen somehow doubling back before crossing over the Thames at Westminster Bridge, passing Parliament and ending up at New Scotland Yard barely 100 yards from where the journey began.
We then have New Scotland Yard relocated to the Thames (the river they have just driven over and away from), including an office from where you can see Tower Bridge... which is miles away!
After that the whole drama falls apart as it becomes impossible to take seriously. The fact that a key character is named after an English mountain range - Langdale Pike(s) - barely makes a ripple.
I will not even go into the ludicrous plot itself. Series 1 was quite good at times, but as this opening episode to Series 2 clearly shows that the writers have run out of ideas and are just going through the motions.
Shame as the main acting partnership is actually quite good...
But the trouble with this episode is that I have never seen so many astonishing errors of geography or simple fact within the first five minutes of any television show. Ever.
Its dire. Highgate Cemetery is a famously Victorian overgrown urban cemetery in the middle of north London. Not some sunny country graveyard near a little rural church. Then we see they burying a vast American- style casket instead of a British coffin.
Cut to New York where Holmes tells of the carrier (or homing) pigeon that nor only delivers messages but - astonishingly - takes replies.
Leaving aide the assault and battery by Ms Watson on a suspect (can you really do that in America?), quick change of scene to London where the most bizarre taxi ride ever starts from the Whitehall end of the Mall in St James Park, goes down towards Buckingham Palace, before off-screen somehow doubling back before crossing over the Thames at Westminster Bridge, passing Parliament and ending up at New Scotland Yard barely 100 yards from where the journey began.
We then have New Scotland Yard relocated to the Thames (the river they have just driven over and away from), including an office from where you can see Tower Bridge... which is miles away!
After that the whole drama falls apart as it becomes impossible to take seriously. The fact that a key character is named after an English mountain range - Langdale Pike(s) - barely makes a ripple.
I will not even go into the ludicrous plot itself. Series 1 was quite good at times, but as this opening episode to Series 2 clearly shows that the writers have run out of ideas and are just going through the motions.
Shame as the main acting partnership is actually quite good...