Yes, this is called "Playwrights Notebook," and yes, I am as obsessed with the stage as I am with large and small screen. And I don't know that the lessons I discuss (below) translate to the stage, necessarily...or even to other television shows...but maybe they do.
But. I'm in love with Sherlock Holmes (the new television show). Why?
1. Because it gets the bread-and-butter stuff right: compelling characters working hard to achieve something difficult-but-not-impossible, relationships that unfold over time, suspense, solid story-telling, frequent twists.
2. Because they've turned what for most shows is a problem (that we live in a hypertext world, one where conversations take place and crucial information is conveyed on tiny devices) and turned it into an advantage or at least a fun visual conceit (the text free-floats in the air near devices, will appear on its own). They then EXTENDED the solution, and show us what Sherlock sees -- the closest thing to allowing us into his decidedly unusual brain, without wasting precious screen time/conversation time on "well, I can tell he has a dog because I see three hairs on his collar, and I can see he's effete and wealthy because he has manicured hands...". And then they have FUN with the solution, pointing out things that are extraneous/ridiculous/fun, or showing where Sherlock DOESN'T see an answer. So free-floating text becomes one of the visual systems of the show, both mirroring and elevating the ways in which the show's audience is now accustomed to using text.
3. Because they JUMP IN and USE the visual medium, the tools that editing provide. Case in point: guy shows up, Sherlock says "tell me what happened," the picture does a 360 and when it lands, we're with the guy his car, in a field...and we simply relive the experience the guy had. We assume he's telling Sherlock the story, but we don't have to sit there and have him REPORT something that the nature of television gives us a chance to see for ourselves. (I love the show even more because Sherlock's other directive, before the guy "told" his story, was "and don't be boring.")
4. Because even the things that seem random/irrelevant end up being for a reason -- Sherlock turns down several cases at the beginning of Season Two, Episode One...all of which turn out, at the end of the show, to be entirely connected -- but that's something he doesn't see until he's told.
5. Speaking of point #4, our main character is both INCREDIBLY INTELLIGENT and FALLIBLE. So often, characters will be one or the other -- the idiot or the James Bond. This show gives us a character who is consistently but not invariably the smartest guy in the room, who we also get to see do idiotic things. We see his humanity and his fallibility, enough to make this otherwise famously unlikeable guy someone we can root for even when he's being an asshole.
6. The show's amazing at "get in late, get out early..." but it doesn't live by that to the exclusion of occasionally having a good time. It moves incredibly quickly, but is also willing to live in a moment of silence, hold a long shot, take a second to get into a scene...it manages to be relentless but not so much so that we can never breathe, not so much so that it feels robotic.
7. Terrific camera-work. Nice twists, like Holmes staying home and Watson trudging around in a field with a laptop, so that we get to have laptop shots :)
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