A Geek History of Time - Episode 142 - Sherlock Holmes and British Empire Part III

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

Wow, you're gonna like this. Oh, no, I'm not because there is no god damn middle. This is not unlike ancient Rome by the way Not so much the family circus Yeah, I did Want to create self-sustaining forms and you got into crystals. I know. Okay. I understand that standing farms and got into crystal sea. I know! Okay, I understand that. But yeah, I'm reading Livy, who is a shitty historian. Because Irrigan is.

Others say that because Laurentia's body was common to all the shepherds around, she was called a she-wolf, which is a Latin term for horror. You were audible, lassies. It was just most of it, where you slamming the table. As the Romanists at the table, well, duh. Yeah. Obviously, it's so fucked up. Right. You know, it's your original form.

It's a fuck of a lot. You have a sword rat. This is a geek history of time. Where we connect nervery to the real world, my name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history and English teacher at the middle school level here in northern California. And welcome back to everybody. We are returning from a holiday hiatus, during which I spent most of my time trying to get moved into my new house. So that's big news on this end. You will probably notice from the nature of the sound quality on this recording

that Damien and I are recording separately due to the plague still being an effect. But the nice thing is that now that I'm in my new house, I have, it's that much better. It's as much easier to kind of record in this setting than it was in my old apartment. And I'm very excited about being here, even though the place has already tried to kill me once. Suffice to say that the breaker panel in this house is a tissue of lies. a tissue of lies. There is my wife and I got a really lovely light fixture to go over where our dining room table is going to go, which is actually where I'm sitting to record

right now. And in order to install it on New Year's Eve, my wife went out and shut off the breaker that was very clearly labeled lights. And I climbed up on a step ladder and there was exposed wiring coming out of our ceiling from where the old fixture had been removed. And as I went to remove part of the mounting bracket for the old fixture, I wound up touching the mounting bracket to one of the exposed wires. And predictably got a massive shower of sparks and had to change my trousers.

Well, I mean, I'm exaggerating. I actually have to, but like mentally, I had to change my trousers. I mean, I'm exaggerating. I actually have to, but like mentally, I had to change my trousers. It truly was a boasted and fetched me in my brown pants moment. So, yeah, the house has already tried to kill me once, which shouldn't be that surprising. It was built in 1950 and inhabited by members of the same family right up until we bought it. So we're doing a lot of modernization, but we're over the moon, we're really happy to be in here. So that's our big news.

So that's me. And now that I've taken up two minutes of our time with that, the heck are you? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a Latin and drama teacher up here in Northern California. And I just would like to tell our audience, I fucking told you so.

So I don't know if you've heard the hiatus episode yet, Ed, you've been knee deep in pergo or whatnot. Uh, long stuff, they're things, yeah, but I literally said something along those lines. Uh, so yeah. Okay. Well, you told somebody, but I was not here to hear it. So in my, in, in my defense, you, so, so you only called it on good. I've been needy been per go. No, there's a five-minute episode that I recorded to let people know that we're on hiatus because I write to a new house. Okay. And in that, I had mentioned it's nice to know I'm the only one listening to our show. Whatever. But it's not like you could like, you know, put on headphones while you're, you know, per going. So the look I'm getting, ladies and gentlemen.

Anyway, so your house tried to kill you. Yes. And yeah, it's also born in 1950. I do have a question about your house. Are you the second owners or are you the third owners? We are. Well, it depends on how you want to define that. I mean, okay, so like if I bought a house

and then gave it to my kids and then they moved me back in, I would consider that second owners, okay, you separate people have owned it, whether or not I come back to it or not. Okay, so we would in that based on that definition, we would probably be fourth owners, because there was the couple of originally fourth owners from a house that was born in 1950. Yeah. So, so, house was built in 50, family moved in and the parents left the house to one daughter, that daughter then sold the house, passed the house on to the woman that we bought the house from. And then we bought it. And so that's us.

So we're we're fourth technically based on that fourth owners. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you're the fourth party to own it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like I, I understand that people count, Grover Cleveland is 22 and 24. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but, you know, we've, we've only had 44 different man as president makes sense. So yeah. Okay. So yeah. I don't really have any updates other than to tell folks now that we're back. It is a new year. And I have been eating wildebeest almost exclusively because new year new meat. And thank you.

That's really bad news. Yeah, look at you. Oh, that's really bad news. Yeah, look at you. So, but so I don't have that many updates other than, you know, the basics. Historically, what has happened is we've passed the one-year pooched anniversary. We're into yet another version of the plague that nobody could have predicted, except for everybody who predicted it quite some time ago. Like a year ago. Yeah. Well, yeah. It's okay with alarming disappointment. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, in the defensive, in the defense of everybody else, you know, you and I are historians. And one of the curses of our job is our middle name is Cassandra. Yeah true. So, you know, yeah, yeah, it's been, it's been awful. Yeah, no, it sucks. It sucks. I will say this, my kids have been cooking up a storm. Well, that's good. Yeah, yeah, I think this weekend,

my son's going to want to make our own ice cream cones. Nice. I'm like, who the fuck does? My son does. Okay. People who eat really fucking good. Yeah, that's how it does that. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you,

like I want a full report about how that goes. Absolutely. Home made waffle cones have got to be. Well, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. Yeah, I say this as a fat guy. Like, you know, okay, we also made Lomba spread a few weeks ago.

I remember seeing that. Yeah, that looked that one pretty good. Yeah, okay. Very cool. Like, like if you took a. Snicker doodle and turn it into a scone. okay, and then warped that scone into a biscuit. I'm on board. Yeah, it was good. I could eat a lot of that with coffee. That would be So dangerously easy. Yeah. Very cool.

So we did not get to finish Sherlock Holmes. And I'm really hoping that we get to this time because we were just getting into like the stuff that I remember in my childhood that didn't involve Miss First and Thaw's reading assignments. So. Okay. assignments. So yeah, so picking up basically right where we left off, Conan Doyle as a product of his time was clearly an imperialist. Like his outlook on the world was one in which His outlook on the world was one in which Western civilization and the march of

scientific progress led by the British Empire was just that was like that was just the best thing for everybody. To him and his audience at the time, it was the pattern on the wallpaper. If you had tried to buttonhole him about imperialism and, and his most popular character, he, he would have scoffed like, no, I'm not, I'm not writing about empire, I'm writing about consulting detective. Then if you pressed him harder, he probably would have come back saying he is a believer in empire and that the British empire was a force for good. Yeah, look at all the light that it brings to the world. Yeah, and look at Mottipython kind of making fun of that point of view in life of Brian, and kind of not making fun of it with what if the Romans done for us?

It's the same thing. And because modernity, liberalism, classical liberalism, that is to say, scientific progress, et cetera, et cetera. Like, yeah, linear history. Yeah, yeah, linear history. It's so fact though, this is just, this is the best thing for everyone. And there would have been a raft of racist assumptions that evolved that he didn't even see. Like, like, you know, he was to the British Empire, what I was to being a Giants fan for way too long. I grew up in San Francisco, they were my first team. I love them.

No matter how good or bad they were, they were my team. Yeah. And then like their owners, like turned really shitty in the last two or three years. And I finally said that's it. I'm benching the team until they get new ownership. But that's fair.

I still, I still, there's a part of me who hopes they're doing well. Like, you know, and so you're, so you're kind of the Jeremy Brett Granada TV version of Sherlock Holmes. I'm going gonna say yes and the hopes that you explain that reference. Oh, I will. Oh, good. I will in a moment.

Oh, oh, because he, oh, yeah, okay. Okay, I see what you did there. Yes. So, okay. So yes, I was a giant fan, like, or a Niners fan. Same thing, like a huge Niners fan on my life. And I'm still drawn instinctively to root for them, despite the fact that they completely abandoned a man who kneeled for principle and then continued to employ

spousal abusers. Okay, so that's incredibly shitty. Like, I'm totally 100% in agreement with you. But over and above that, like, I have a hard time, I have a hard time holding much respect in my, in my heart for, for Niners fans right now. Just because like that's, that's bad enough. Like that's, that's morally bankrupt. But then on top of that, even if you want to be a hardcore like, no, no, I go to a football game to watch the football. I don't care about politics.

None of that matters to me. I just want to see the team play. I'm just a fan of the game. Sure. Whatever. Even if you're able to convince yourself that that's the case, when the team literally leaves the city that you are, that they have been part of for generations. Yes. In literally generations, in order to get a better tax deal and have a different city pay

for their stadium. Yes. And then they increase the ticket prices for that stadium. Mm-hmm. I'm not all of their old fans. Pricing out all of their old fans and completely go like 100% like blatantly corporate

and we don't give a shit about you. Like that's the point at which it becomes not merely like I intensely disagree with the fact that you're still so loyal to this organization because oh my god, look at who they're employing. It actually gets to the point where I look at you and like, what are you fucking stupid? Well, and again, do you not understand? No, I know you have, but I'm just I'm ranting this point because like like other Niners fans, it's like a fucking cult. You know, at least at least a bunch of the Raiders, this is the only time you're ever going to see me hear me say anything good about Raiders fans ever.

And like the one good thing I can say about most of the Raiders fans I know is And like the one good thing I can say about most of the Raiders fans I know is when the Raiders ownership packed up and moved to Las Vegas, 90% of the Raiders fans I know went, fuck them. I'm done. Like forever. They did. Oakland LA Oakland. Like they don't.

Yeah. Yeah. And then they left to go. Yeah. I mean, that still is like an abusive fucking relationship that they find, but they finally got out of it. Like here's the thing I grew up in left.

Like, yeah, like, yeah, but you know what? But they had the good sense to be like, you know what? He's gone. I better off fuck it. You know, I grew up in San Diego. And so you have so particular enmity toward the Raiders. Well, number one, I like it's genetic. I hate the Raiders Even though nobody else in my family is like at all the sports fan Like out of out of hometown loyalty. I was like yeah, no fuck the Raiders

Like forever And still fuck the Raiders, but for different reasons now but like The ownership the spanoanos family and the ownership of the chargers is a bunch of shitty douchebags. Yes. You said Spanos. I'm like, oh. And the father passed away and the eldest son took over General ownership, General Manorship, whatever. And he immediately, the moment he took over, he started trying to find an excuse to move the team up to LA, right? Because like San Diego wasn't fucking good

enough for him. Right. And then he finally did it. And now they're playing in a soccer stadium in fucking Downey, or at least they were for the last two years. I think think I think their stadium is done. Oh, by the way, they're sharing it with the fucking Rams who left and then came back who left and then came back. Like, I mean, this whole thing, they left. I can do that. One championship then came back. Yeah. Like I would point out that's two professional teams at San Diego has lost to LA. They keep stealing your girl. Yeah. Well, yeah, number one, number two, and they moved in with the other person's lover. So like they, they left. Oh, yeah, no, it's part to be partner,

number two in a polyamorous abusive relationship. Yes. Yes. I would even call it polyamorous, just abuse is fine. Yeah. And so like, you know, they're beside chick for LA. Yeah, they are. And here's the deal. When the chargers moved up to LA, there were sports fans in LA, who were very loud about like a lot of them,

who were very loud about, fuck off, we don't want you here. I bet. Well, because they've chasing, like, he came down already, who both came back.. And then like, so, so, you know, I mean, it's just, it's, it's ridiculous to me that like any, there, there is, there is a level. I mean, understand I am, I am a believing Catholic, with, with everything that that carries along with it. And I look at people who are still loyal to the Niners and I'm like, what are you?

Like dude, at least you get like the promise of an afterlife or something. You know, this is true. Yeah. You know, I'm membership or something. Yeah. You know, I'm membership or something. Yeah, well, yeah, you know, but the thing is I'm not, I'm not still clinging to the glory of the first crusade. You know, nine hardcore. And the second, I'm sorry, I was a huge, I was a bigger fan of Steve Young than I was in Montana. All right. I'm that one. Yeah. Okay. Based on everyone else. That's fair. That's fair. But but like, you know, five Super Bowl rings, five rings.

Like, yeah, we should have been six. Yeah, yeah, fair. Fair. So I'll, okay, fine. We'll go with should have been six. But when was the last time they even got close to winning one? That time. Uh, so like I was, I was still married. So we're talking so half a dozen years ago. Yeah, like come on more.

Come on. Yep. Yeah. So anyway. So he was to Sir Arthur Cronin Doyle was to British imperialism, what I was to bear. It used to be to bear his sports. Yeah. So, um, and that's, and that's just, and, and so that colored the characterization of homes that colored the characterization of how everybody else around him looked at homes. Remember the detectives of the yard always came to him looking for help. And when they were talking to him, they were always kind of faunting as like, well, you know, I don't think anybody but you can figure this out. And then it for help. And when they were talking to him, they were always kind of fawning as like, well, you know, I don't think anybody but you can figure this out. And then it got solved and he always got written

out of the news stories. And it was like, whatever I know, I know I'm awesome. Like, you know, the Batman dynamic that you brought. Yeah, yeah. And so now I'm going to make a pretty big jump here. Because if I spent time going into the broader history of Sherlock Holmes in media, we'd end up with another series of Batman episodes and ain't nobody got time for that.

So, yeah, to sum up, as time went on, because of the popularity of this character, because of how huge Sherlock Holmes had become in the public consciousness. And because, you know, Doyle, by the 30s of course Doyle had died. And so, you know, the earliest stories of the character started coming into the public domain. And so we see multiple radio series being made in the 1920s and 1930s and then Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, who had

played Holmes and Watson in one of those radio series together wound up taking over the same roles in a movie series from 1939 to 1946. I should point out that's a seven-year span and they made 14 films in that time. Wow. They were they were cracking them out two a year and they kept making them so they kept making money. It's worth noting. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And also, you know, if you have a short story, you can adapt to a screenplay because a lot of these were short stories. You can adapt it to a screenplay. You have the two actors you want to make make hey while the sun is shining, you know, like before they age out. Yeah. And they're, I'm sorry, but they are kind of formulaic. You're not wrong.

Like I'm not gonna even even hardcore holmes in isn't gonna argue with you. So they're, it's a nice, it's comfort movie on some levels. It's there for people who want to feel intellectual, but also it is beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat. Like all of that makes a lot of sense. And then you add into that what the movie studio system was like in that time.

And that makes a lot of sense that they're cranking out a shit on a movie quite honestly. And that they're able to make money with it because I'm thinking about the locations. You could reuse sets like crazy. Oh yeah, for a home story, especially for a story. Well yeah, because the flat at 221 B Baker Street, you've got the set built, you can use it

in every one of the movies. It's literally the same place. And if you're filming any kind, any other kind of period drama from the tail end of the 19th century, you've already got dozens of sets lying around that you could reuse from whatever other films you're making. And you're assuming an actual eye toward accuracy, which the studio system at that time did not have. Oh, no, they didn't care about it. But, you know, at the same time, you still have that, and that's cool. Yeah. And the stories are even, even the most action packed of them are still essentially drawing room mysteries. Exactly.

And you can read. And you can read. And you can read. And you can read. And you can read. And you can read. And you can read. And you can read.

And you can read. And you can read. And you can read. And you can read. And black and white. So you don't even really need to repaint anything. Yeah. Like, yeah. You drape something and it looks like a totally different room. Yeah. And then shoot it from the opposite side. Like, yeah, I mean, you don't even know. Yeah. So anyway, it's a lot of sense to make as many of these movies as you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The band of Rathbone and Nigel. Nigel Bruce. Oh, yes. the band of the Rathbone and Nigel Bromall. Oh, yes. Host.

But home, these go to 11. This kid to 11. Oh, my God. What is that song you were playing on the violin? That's a lick my love pump. Yeah. Now I want to see that mash up. I got it.

You know, so George get on it. You can't figure out how to see that mashup. I got it. You know, so George get on it and figure out how to make that work. Right. So, now the series is one of the ones because they made 14 of these movies. And because, you know, in the early days of television and actually even into our own generation, you know, if you need something to put on the screen, you know, at eight o'clock at night on a Saturday. Yeah, the Phil program. You know, Phil, Phil, but yeah, I mean, you know, yeah, nobody's nobody's gonna hate on it. It's not gonna be offensive to anybody. Like, here you go, right? And so, Basil, Rathbone, and Nigel Bruce kind of became in the popular imagination

from the 40s up through easily the 1970s. If you imagined Sherlock Holmes, he probably looked like Basil Rathbone. And you're imagine, and unless you were really paying attention to the details in the books, if you imagine Dr. Watson, he looked like Nigel Bruce. Now the thing is Nigel Bruce looked a lot more like me than he looks like Jude Law and Jude Law is a lot more actually accurate to how Watson is described in the stories. He was very physically fit. He was athletic and, you know, tan and, you know, well, he was in good shape other than an unfortunate limp from

an Afghani ball in his leg. And this is one of the things that, you know, really hardcore Holmesians dislike about this series is that it's kind of a disservice to Watson because the screenwriters found themselves in a position to be like, well, we don't know what to do with Watson. Yeah, I see that because he's the narrator. Yeah, so there's so yeah, so like anography around him too, just in general. Yeah, he's yeah, So like, I canography around him too, just in general. Yeah, he's, yeah. And so, you know, if there was a paint bucket somewhere, Watson was gonna step in it.

And he really became very side kicky and kind of the comic relief. Yeah. Which was a disservice to the character, Nigel Bruce, you know, played on. Played on and did a great job with it, you know, played on and did a great job with it, you know, made the most of the material. In terms of visual dynamism,

like you have a tall thin and you have a short fat. Yes. Yeah, no, it makes, I mean, aesthetically, it totally makes sense. Yeah. So I'm going to skip several decades. Totally fine. Because again, if we spend all of our time going into every interpretation of homes, we're going to be here forever. But I'm going to move to a whole new medium now. And I'm going to talk about television. Okay. I'm going to argue that because of the nature

of the Holmzean stories of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The small screen suits the story, I think, better than the movie theater. Okay. Because it suits a drawing room mystery, I think, a little bit more. Yeah, it doesn't need to be a big screen. It doesn't need to be huge. It's more intimate. It's big screen. It doesn't need to be huge. It's more intimate. The feeling of claustrophobia or in some of the stories or the feeling of,

hey, we've got to look at this very specific detail. He just spot this very small thing. I think it's a smaller screen a bit better. And even though the emotional stakes of the stories are very high, the scale of them is generally very small. There are a couple of places where it's like, well, this is going to cause a huge diplomatic

incident if we don't solve this problem. But it's not like the world is, I think there's like one story where, and it's very clearly a reference to the looming thread of World War One. And that's the only one of the stories that I can remember off the top of my head, in which the stakes are, you know, earth shattering. In every other case, it's knowing you just solve this problem because it's a problem and because, you know, the emotional stakes are there, you know, somebody's been horrified by an ear arriving in a cardboard box and we're trying to figure out, you know, what happened with this, you know, it's that kind of thing.

And in the middle of saying all of this, I do need to say, I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes movies, like the Robert Downey Jr. Jude Law Holmes films, which I've referenced now by talking about Jude Law specifically as Watson. I'm a huge fan of them. They're incredible fun. It's really clear that everybody who is involved was having an absolute blast. And Robert Downey, Jr.'s interpretation of Holmes is amazing. Like, I don't know how else to say it. I really enjoy it. But they feel a lot more like, hey, we're going to do a steampunk story and we're going to use

Sherlock Holmes as a character rather than being really, no, no, we're going to use Sherlock Holmes as a character rather than being really, no, no, we're going to do a Sherlock Holmes story if that makes sense. The scale as much is very big. It's very bombastic. It's a big Hollywood production with lots of explosions and all that kind of stuff. And it's an action movie more than it is a drawing room mystery. And I think that grandiosity makes it feel, especially if you're a purist, which I'm not totally, but I can understand the idea behind it. If you're a purist, that kind of takes away from the wholeness of the whole thing. So anyway, getting back to TV, any discussion of homes on TV, I think, has to include the Granada television series, the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Now, this ran from 1984 to 1994. It was a production by Granada television, as I mentioned in its name, and they were making the show for the BBC. And so, important note, because they're going to be distinctions, they're going to come up later. This is a British adaptation of the characters. And it is an adaptation, it is screen adaptation that takes place in the original time period of the stories. So it is not any kind of a modernization. Okay.

It is no no. And now we are going back to the thrilling days of Victorian yesterday year, right. You know, and we're gonna, you know, and the scripts were all direct adaptations of Doyle's stories. Now Jeremy Brett was the actor who portrayed Holmes and his performances defined the character

in my opinion, defined the character for generation. I genuinely think, especially for people who are hardcore homesians. Jeremy Brett's performance is probably is is if they do not say he is the best homes ever, he's going to be in their top three. Is this the one that was on PBS mystery? Yes. Okay.

Yes. Yeah. Brett very much worked from the angle of Holmes being a mind without a heart. And this was a quote he attributes to Conan Doyle. It's one of the things Conan Doyle said in his correspondence about the character. In the Granada series, it's notable that we see his homes really hitting the really intense high points of mania and really deep melancholy. And Brett does an amazing job of even when Even when Holmes's verbal tone is totally flat, his eyes are incredibly intense. Brett really pulls a Toshirumi Fune on a number of times where it's just like his expression the expression strictly around his eyes conveys there's a lot going on.

Sure. That his lines don't express like verbally. Now normally on this show, we will look at the time in which it was made. I'm getting there. Wonderful. Okay. So now the series ran from 1984 to 1994. And now this is a time period

during which the UK is climbing up out of the nadir of its prestige. The loss of empire. Yes. By this time, the empire was a faded memory, a rapidly becoming distant memory. They had made the decision to not empire anymore. Yes.

And then had a convulsions once Maggie Fatcher got in. Yes. And so Fatcher was in power at this time. This is 1984. And so the post-war consensus was under hard threat from the right. Right. And in many ways, like the, you know, speaking of things being prescient, the the the loss of prestige and power settled in. And some people in an effort to reject that, swung far to the right and tried to undo all of the very good reasonings for why you should let go of the empire, up to an included, trying to take a bunch of penguins from

Argentina. That's funny that you mentioned that because that's my very next bullet point. Oh, geez, I'm sorry. The Falcons were, well, no, it's perfect. The fault lens work had been in 1982. And that was the first major military undertaking that British had had done since the Suez in 56, which as you'll probably recall, those of you who are long time listeners, like really long time listeners. Well, remember that the Suez crisis got mentioned when I was talking about Maggie Thatcher and Warhammer 40,000, because that was a crippling, even though they won militarily, like their invention in Suez was like a cakewalk militarily.

like a cakewalk militarily. It led to the British prime minister at the time getting a very, very harsh tongue lashing from the president of the United States. And from Russia. But by this time, by this time, that was Eisenhower. Yeah, and yeah, the UN Security Council, the Soviets, like everybody was like, the fuck UK.

Yeah. You know, we can come together. Yeah. You just congratulations. You've just solved international conflict for a week because you're the asshole. And, you know, and so it had been a military victory, but a complete political disaster. And the fallout from it had, I think, been, I mean, by this time, the British were already working to dismantle their empire just because they couldn't afford to maintain it anymore.

Yeah. But I think this really was the point at which it became clear to everybody in British politics, like no matter which party they were in, or what their position was on the empire, they figured out, okay, you know what, this is the ultimate, we can't argue with it anymore, sign that we are no longer the hedgehog on. Right. Like we did this thing and everybody else is giving us shit. Our time has passed. Like and I think that was really,

and I mean, I'm saying this, of course, as an American who was born, you know, 19 years after Suez happened. But I think, you know, looking kind of broad brush, historically, I think that really was the event that we can look at as truly the sunset of as truly the sunset of empire. Yeah, for the Brits. No, no, it was, it was, it was very rapid, rapid sunset into a very harsh cloud bank. Like, yeah, no, no, it is dark now, we're done.

And so at the same time, that's going on in 1984, there is major labor unrest, the National Miners Union was in the middle of a strike, that they would go on to lose, which dramatically weakened organized labor in the nation as a whole. And this was part of a generalized rightward shift. a generalized right word shift. Yeah. And so the period of Holmes's adventures is depicted uncritically at the very least. It's depicted uncritically. And frankly with a kind of a glow of nostalgia attached to it. In the same way that like in the 1980s,

people watched leave it to be for about the 50s. You know, late 40s or 50s, and they were like, you know, those were the good old days, you know. Right. It's that same kind of nostalgic kind of kind of looking back. Now in this series, Jeremy Brett's portrayal, like I said, he really hits the very highs of the near mania when Holmes is engaged in a case and is fired up and going after something and He does an incredible job of showing the deep melon collie and the terrible depressions the black moods That he gets into when he's when he's between cases and he does and he's bored doesn't have anything to do And his his portrayal of Holmes's struggle and eventual eventual defeat of his cocaine addiction is an amazing performance. And Brett, it's interesting to note, himself, was bipolar. And as the series wore on into the 90s by the time of the last series, he was in very ill health,

largely as a result of number one being a chain smoker, and the side effects from the medication he was taking for his bipolar disorder. Um, and so, but he, he, he, include like he, he took his own knowledge of his own struggle and used that for the character. I think it's very great effect. Holmes is a bit mad, more than a bit mad, and he's deeply cold in his manner. Right. But he's simultaneously very profoundly motivated by a moral imperative. It is very clear, you can see from Jeremy Brett's performance that even though his wording is cold and kind of detached sounding or imperious or whatever, when he confronts the bad guys at the end of an episode, his tone of moral indignation at just how awful they were is very clear and there is very clearly a moral motivation for what he's doing.

Right. Truth and justice are at least a significant part of his motivation to solve cases in the series. A particular note is the case of the dying detective where there's an amazing moment where he stands in the street and he points his cane as part of his, his, he basically comes up like standing there on the street. It looks like the bad guy has won. And, you know, in true homes in fashion,

he has a whole big convoluted plan occur to him like right there. And in the street, points as came at the bad guy and gives this pronouncement about, you know, I'm gonna see you hang or words that affect. And in that moment, his moral indignation and the righteousness of what he's doing

because he's literally helping a widow and her child against this guy who's stolen their inheritance from him. You know, his moral indignation is obvious and it's clearly what's driving him to keep fighting. Right. It's not just a problem to solve. Yeah, it's not just about like solving the problem is certainly a big part of it because he's got this overactive brain, he has to keep busy, but he's motivated by a moral imperative at the same time. Sure. And so, kind of what we're looking at here is memory of what the Empire was.

It's still being viewed with nostalgia. But in the characterization that we get of homes, there is more emphasis than there was before on his fragility. We see how he is flawed. We see that he's no longer just nothing but an unquestioned titan of intellect. He's still admired. He's still admirable, but he struggles. He struggles with his addiction. He is plagued by his depressions. He, he hurts. Now, I mean, my immediate question would be to ask,

is that how the British saw their empire? Because you also, at the exact same time, is this is coming out. Margaret Thatcher survives an assassination attempt by the IRA, remember? Although in fairness, I don't know how British TV series work. So I assume that they're going by the false schedule kind of thing, but I could be wrong. But she survives her attack in October of 84. Yeah. Basically says, come at me. Yeah. And so and she becomes the iron lady just at a time where Holmes is brittle. Here's the deal. She becomes the iron lady. But the empire, the memory of what the empire was, I think, does not gain the same. Like I'm trying to figure out how to verbalize it.

I think the her morphing into the iron lady, like the modern incarnation of Elizabeth Regis, you know, Gloriaana, as word I'm looking for. You know, that you're turning into the Iron Lady is a is a reaction to the, and then this is all me, me, you know, psycho babbling this whole thing, but I think, I think the memory of the Empire people were starting to understand that the Empire as it had been. Was not untouchable. untouchable. They saw now that, like, no, no, the Empire was not inevitably going to last forever. The Empire did fall apart, and so the Empire was never unassailable. Right. Does that make sense? Thatcher becoming the incarnation of this idea of the Iron Lady, I think is more totemic of a phoenix kind of idea. Okay, that's what I was wondering if it was essentially like he's taking, I want to say

almost the pathos of Britain's fragility. And she's, like they're two sides at the same point. It's stronger. The more iron she is, the weaker he's allowed to be. Like the more they're allowed to admit that the empire is done because she's strong. I think there could be something to that. Okay. I think that's a valid historiographic interpretation.

I think there might have been more of a separation in the popular subconscious between the empire that was and the United Kingdom that is now. If that makes sense. Yeah. And I think by this time, most everybody in the United Kingdom had just accepted that we're not an empire anymore. Like, yeah, we have this island in the South Atlantic that's ours.

And like, we're going to defend it because it's the last vestige of what we once were. Sure. And also, you know, the Argentines were basically fascists, so fuck them. But, yeah, you know, I mean, there's not really, I mean, like it's, it's like the Falklands were a great example of a 40k conflict, because you're kind of looking at it like, well, there's one group that's like really shitty. You just kind of root for injuries. And there's there's another group. Well, like you pick which army you're going to play and you just recognize like, yeah, you pick in the best of a bad lot.

Like, you know, um, I mean, I, I go brits because, you know, fuck fascists, but, you know, like still like that. Yeah. Um, but, um, so I think, I think the subculture, You know, like still like that. Yeah. But so I think I think the subconscious understanding of the empire that no longer existed was becoming more nuanced and their view of it was nostalgic. And it was, this is back when things were simpler. And, you know, Holmes was the superhero and whatever, but at the same time, all of a sudden, now we see, they recognize that Holmes isn't perfect in every way.

Right. You know, and there's, and there's the beginning of the understanding that Holmes is a human figure for all of his, you know, grandiose abilities and his proto superhero kind of characteristics. So that's the Granada series in a nutshell. my thesis, if you are able to find it on a streaming service somewhere, highly recommended, it's amazing. It's a whole lot of episodes. It's 10 years worth of homes television, but like seriously watch it because it's great. So now we're going to jump ahead.

So the Granada series ended in 1994. Okay. And in 2004, Fox decided that they were going to do a show that was a modern reimagining of homes with house. And now the thing is, it's an interesting story. The showrunner had initially decided that he wanted an American actor to play house. He didn't want to berit do an effect American accent because they bugged him. They just like, I can always tell when a British actor is doing an American accent. It's just it's jarring. It sucks. I understand, you know, I'm doing this homage to homes with this whole thing, but like no. Well, and Hugh Laurie recorded an audition tape in a hotel bathroom. That's an amazing story.

But he recorded this audition tape in a hotel bathroom, wound up using an umbrella in place of a cane as a prop as part of the recording. And then he was like, but he recorded this audition tape in a hotel bathroom wound up using an umbrella in in place of a cane as a prop as part of the recording. And the casting director sent it to the showrunner because he, Lori, is a British actor, of course, but he did such an amazing American accent that the casting director sent it on to the showrunner and the showrunner was not familiar with Hugh Laurie. So he did realize he was a Brit until he'd said, yeah, that's the guy higher him. So kind of a double blind test. And what's remarkable is Hugh Laurie actually hated watching himself

doing his American accent. Like it made him flinch like he did it. And he kept doing it for eight years on the show, but like he didn't like the sound of it. But he credited his actually really good American accent to having watched way too much American TV as a kid. And so this is no longer a straight adaptation of we're gonna take the three orange pips or we're not going to take a study in Scarlet, we're not going to take the story and just strictly adapt it to the screen. This is we're taking the concept of Holmes and we're modernizing it and we're going to make it a medical drama because I don't know what the process was.

How many years did you say this started 2004? Okay, I can tell you why. ER was winding down. That's a good reason. Now it was winding up or actually, I don't know, I've raised an enemy. Grace, that's an enemy wasn't on yet. Okay, there you go.

But ER was winding down. Yeah, yeah. ER and Chicago hope. Oh, I never. Okay. All right. All right. But anyway, yeah, ER and Chicago hope. Oh, I never. Okay. But anyway, yeah, ER had been huge. It had been.

And I mean, it was still, it still had a couple of years left in it, as I recall. I think so. Because it went on until 2009. Yeah, they hadn't dropped the helicopter on the one guy yet. No, I think so.

Have they? Yeah. Okay. Because that was that was that was the point at which my best friend and his wife were like, okay, and over my best friend was like, I can't watch this anymore. This is just how I'm sorry. You're going to seriously guy guy loses a hand in a in a freak helicopter accident, manages to get over his foe, he gets back to work.

And then you literally drop a helicopter on him. Yeah, it was it was a helicopter that would not be denied. Yeah, like fuck you. Like I'm done. He walked away at that point. But so crushed him. Actually, he died. I mean, my friend walked away. Oh, okay. Yeah. That makes it smart ass. So so yeah, because because you know medical long running medical drama, like, okay, there's an opening we can do this thing. And so it's set in the present day, like I said, houses and diagnostics, not a consulting detective. He's kind of a consulting detective, but he's a medical doctor and it's a different kind of mystery he's solving. And the fundamentals of the character are still the same. He's a human

mystery solving machine who uses the latest technology and scientific knowledge to solve mysteries that baffle everybody else. He's always the smartest guy in the room. He's, you know, like, you know, it's the same character. It's also a missing throat. So we're pulling on that same social awkward, kind of drug addict. Yes, now here's the thing. Yeah. Holmes was never cuddly.

Like Conan Doyle wrote him as being cold. Kind of prickly. Yeah, I was gonna say bristly. Yeah, house ramped the detachment up to 11, and then not only made him cold and detached, but actually turned him into a misanthrope in an asshole. Yes. As Conan Doyle wrote the character,

he was not really a misanthrope. As Conan Doyle wrote the character, he was just moving faster than everybody else in the room. And when he, and when he realized that nobody else was keeping up with him, it was always kind of like, Oh, right, I'm sorry, you're not a smart as I am. Let me explain. Right. Which, which is, you know, condescending and fucking annoying, but, but not like, but he didn't mean it as such. Yeah. It was, it was, no, I'm really sorry. I forgot that you're not as smart as I am.

You're, you're, where is this one? It was a, you're not on my level. Right. I'm sorry. I forgot you're not in it. Wow. That's, that you can't see me. No, those are two different.

Like, you didn't even get peanut butter in my chocolate. You like put peanut butter up my camel's ass. Like, it's for, for anybody, for anybody. You didn't even get peanut butter my chocolate you like put peanut butter up my camel's ass like For anybody for anybody not you know since it's you know, this is an audio medium you missed the fact that I did John Cena's I did it's John Cena's you had to move your fingers Well, other hand to make it look like west side. I've I've already remember the west side Yeah, and then he used that to John Cena. Okay. All right. That's two like okay, whatever I tried you put peanut butter I failed I failed I tried okay. It was hilarious. Okay, so you said it won that level. Okay You're laughing at you not with you. Well, all right. There you go. So that I can do that level. Okay. You're laughing at you, not with you.

Well, all right. There you go. So that I can do that one. You know, one handed. All right. So, but anyway, so he's he is, um, where his house is like, he's a fucking intellectual bully. He said to you up to then condescending to you.

Oh, yeah, not not just an intellectual bully. He's a fucking bully. Yeah, um, you know, he is Yeah, he's just an asshole. His best friends the oncologist Dr. Wilson And by the way in hindsight, I'm a shame Watson Yeah, I'm ashamed. I didn't see that parallel until like he pointed out to me is possibly the longest suffering sidekick in history Yeah, like ever. House is a terrifying genius, but he's a shitty, shitty person. Yeah. He's casually dismissive of literally everybody, like all the time forever. His addiction is active and ongoing throughout the series. Right. Unlike, unlike Holmes, he never completely beats it. Right.

Like until like the very end, like I think in the last episode, by the time of the last episode, he's mostly clean. He's in recovery. He's in recovery. But like, I remember it took multiple seasons like before he even like admittedly had a problem. But how did you kill the Golden Goose as far as character stuff? Yes, it's true.

You know, yeah. But um, I found interesting also he walks with a pronounced limp. So they subsumed that into him. Yeah, they took that away from Watson and put that onto him as an explanation for, okay, well, this is the reason why he's hooked on a mic at it. Right. You know, and his addiction and his just generally being an asshole causes massive destruction in his relationships with literally everybody around him. Right. Which enables the writers to write people out. Yes.

Yes, which like, okay, there we go. Like, Cuddy famously was like, okay, well, she's not willing to take a pay cut. So, you know, she's out. And we're going to have house, you know, drive his car into her front room. Like, okay. So, like, and we wind up finding out that he's been secretly stealing prescription pads from Wilson to fuel his addiction.

And Wilson winds up saying, oh no, I've been the one writing the prescriptions at one point. Oh, but but is incensed and like isn't talking to it for right. I have a season after that. But then I'm fucking don't. But then like, you know, fuck you. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, he's not only arrogant about his intelligence, but he consistently and constantly reminds everybody else how stupid they are. It isn't just, I'm the smartest guy in the room. It's, I'm the smartest guy in the room and you're all a bunch of fucking morons, right? Um, and everyone around him, except for his closest friends, puts up with him because of his brilliance, but not out of any kind of affection or admiration. Like as a person, it's like, no, no, he's an asshole. If we could get rid of him, we would. Because he's a prick.

And he actively pushes people away with his behavior. If Lori's performance had not been as amazingly charismatic as it was, the character would have been unwatchable. So why do we have a Sherlock Holmes? I understand the medical drama because you got updated and medical procedures were a big deal for like there had been a path car. But why is the American Sherlock Holmes such a prick that they can't get rid of in 2005?

Because by 2004 we had been in Afghanistan for three years and in Iraq for a year. We had been the world's lone superpower since 1991 or 92, depending on historically where you want to draw that line. Our economic and military might were utterly unrivaled. But the underbelly of both of our invasions had started to show. We knew by now that we had bitten off more than we could chew in both places. The Abu Ghraib scandal had broken in April of 2004. And that was a huge blow to our self-image as a nation of people who think we are do-gooters. That was American troops. That was national guard troops.

That was your next-door neighbor who goes off to like drill once a month and for two weeks in the summertime. Right. You know, this is literally the boy and girl next door had committed hideous dehumanizing atrocities to prisoners at Abu Ghraib. I mean had had just like like the Stanford experiment gone hideously awry. And it was just it was a graphic and shocking case of inhuman behavior by US troops. We believed collectively that we had gone into both places for legitimate reasons. We also knew that we had a problem on our hands and we were in fact the asshole.

We had a role to play in the world, but the second Bush administration had by this time started to make us deeply unpopular on the world stage. Spent all our capital in the wrong direction. Yes, our oldest allies were vexed with us, but went along because they'd known us for so long. Well, and you can't not. Yeah, because, you know, not only are we so wrong-headed, but there's no promise that we won't be vindictive as hell. Yeah, and I think speaking about vindictive ability,

also credibility of investment. Yeah, our credibility is completely fucking shot because we'd gone into a rat claiming weapons of mass destruction. And by 2004, it was pretty clear, you were at best completely wrong. And most likely, you were fucking lie. Yeah. You manufactured it. And their credibility was invested because they did.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. But okay. And so back to the vindictive, were you about to back to the vindictive? And well, what I was about to mention was, of course, the reason that house is a drug addict. And the kind of the explanation for why it is that he is such an intense asshole, is that he was always kind of an arrogant jerk, but then he suffered a blood clot in his leg and in the process of trying to save his leg and his life simultaneously. I think we find this out in season three, two or three, I'm trying to

remember, but there's a whole episode where we get kind of an extended flashback of how that all happened and why he has to walk with a cane and suffers chronic pain is he had this massive medical trauma in his background and he got turned into this guy who's constantly in pain and kind of half high and like that exaggerated all of his worst personality traits. And so now he's just this huge bitter asshole. Okay. 9-11 much. Yeah, but you know, I was all thinking though. Speaking of like vindictive, like literally, that's why we went to Afghanistan. Yeah. Yeah. I was also thinking though that like the drug addict part in March of O five we had the steroid hearings in baseball. Okay. Yeah. And our president had been a baseball team owner.

Yeah. people that were being tried or were being made to testify were the biggest stars of the late 1990s that brought baseball back from the brink of insolvency. I was going to say insolvency, but I think obscurity would be better. Here relevance. Yeah, irrelevance. The guys who participated in Chaseball, so Mark McWire and Sammy Sosa, but also nicknamed the rocket, what's his name, Clements, Roger Clements. Yeah. Um, they all testified in line about steroids. And so this and bald face light, I mean,

look at Mark McGuire for fuck sake. Look at any guard. Look at, look at any of the pictures from that time period. Like, it's how did how did the man not turn into a human cheeseburger? Like in the middle of a game, like, we're all the shit that he was pumping in his system. So because because you had them lying and basically getting away with it and you know, thumbing their nose at us and saying, you don't get to know these questions that you're asking, at us and saying you don't get to know these questions that you're asking. There's, you know, you have the extra added thing about the drugs that just that extra layer, like it was already

in the public consciousness. Little bit of the tweedrocks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So 9-11, vindictive. We are invading places that England never even thought to go in Afghanistan and Iraq. So clearly we're going to do well there. But we're actually invading places, British like either invaded or had protectorate control over for decades, at least if not centuries. What? No, I mean, we would have learned from their mistakes. Did you forget the part in our last Sherlock episode where I mentioned that Watson

was a veteran of an Afghan war in the first story? Yeah, I thought that was the couch of Mrs. Baddington. And no, that's an entirely different kind of conflict that involves more, shall we say, swordsmanship? And was a different kind of pulp publication from the late Victorian era. That's that's an entirely different. So when he started different genres, that was yeah, was that yeah, yeah, it was a different thing. They weren't actually curtains made of beef. No, they hope they were not. All right, that was never actually historically a thing. In the way you're thinking. So, yeah.

You like crochet it? Okay. Yeah. Well, sorry. Okay, so that's, so that's house. And that's, that's our, that's our American post 9-11, early 2000s Afghanistan, Iraq war. Hey, look, we're, we're an empire now.

How great. Hey, you know, we just had a create a character. We had to create an empire so that we could also do a Sherlock Holmes show. Never have so many suburbs for the benefit of so few. Benefit of so few. Yeah. Yeah. So. And by that, I mean, Haliburton. Yeah. Nice. So, so while, while House was still on the air, because it ran until 2012. In 2010, the next big TV adaptation of Sherlock Holmes was Sherlock on the BBC, produced

by Russell T. Davies and co-creator with Mark Gattis, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson. I know Martin Freeman's name. That's, that's, that's the, the, the agent from Black Panther. Yes. Yes. Also, Bill Bo Baggins. Oh, yeah. In the Hobbit.

And also Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the movie, which was the film, which was actually the, the first role I saw him in and that, and that predates Sherlock. was actually the first role I saw him in. And that and that predates Sherlock. That's, I don't remember which year, but in any event, the show is what Sherlock is what propelled the two of them into international attention, because it became a huge hit, because it became a huge hit basically right away. The series debuted in its first season in 2010 and of course both Freeman and Cumberbatch,

Cumberbatch was the voice of smog in the Hobbits. So they actually both had roles there. Oh, good Lord. And they've gone on to play roles in the MCU, Freeman in Black Panther and Cumberbatch, Cumberbatch is of course now Dr. Strange. Okay, yeah. That's so. And now he's a Brit doing an American accent.

Again, yeah. But in Sherlock, of course, he was an Englishman. Now Sherlock is again again a completely modern adaptation of Holmes. It's set in modern day London. Holmes is now once again a consulting detective and the titles of stories and names of characters are lifted from the original stories. Oh cool. The first episode of Sherlock is a study in pink, which is a play on the title of a study in Scarlet, the first novel. Moriarty eventually shows up as an archvillain, Inspector Lestrade is the main contact in Scotland Yard, etc.

Now the cues in this series from house are pretty clear. Nobody likes Sherlock, except for the people who become as close as friends. Mrs. Hudson is baffled by him. By turns, she's frightened and exasperated by his weirdnesses and his antics. And there's kind of a mother-hand kind of protectiveness of him, but he's also kind of a freak and kind of scary. In the very first episode, the crime scene text from Scotland Yard called him a freak to his face, referred to him as a psychopath kind of half behind his back. Lestrade needs his skills but doesn't trust him. So it's a really far cry from the detective who's fond over by the kind of buffoons of the

Victorian police department. Right. Interestingly here, differently from house, the inflection is changed. House was an asshole a lot of the time on purpose. He enjoyed twisting the knife. He liked flicking people and making them mad or make them cry. Shirtlock by way of contrast is just thinking so much faster than everyone else, but he doesn't have time to be pleasant. Okay. Yeah. And there's a certain self-awareness of the fact that like people are not my thing. In the very first episode, when one of the texts calls him a psychopath, he turns to him and says, high-functioning sociopath, get it right, as his response.

And now the thing is, there's a sense that he's kind of engaging a little bit of millennial sarcasm there. And on a certain level, he's also not. Right. You know, it's in that space where, you know, he's right, but he's owning it. Yeah, he's owning it, but he's also kind of exaggerating. And you know, he isn't really, we figure out over the course of the series. He isn't really a sociopath. He does form connections with the people who matter to him, and he cares deeply about them. But he is, he doesn't, he doesn't handle sentiment at all. Like, he's not even a mis-thriple like house.

He just doesn't get normal people. And he has trouble at times understanding why they get upset at the way he talks to them. He's not an addict of hard drugs, but he does abuse them from time to time between cases and he smokes. There's a great back and forth between him and his brother at one point where his brother can only smoke low-tar cigarettes and Sherlock calls him a beginner smoker. Sherlock calls him a beginner smoker. And he abuses, and he abuses nicotine patches for the Stemylin effect. Okay.

This Holmes is very much more interested in the mental stimulation of his work than the justice behind it. This is departure from Jeremy Brett. This is a departure from Conan Doyle because there are several places in the Conan Doyle stories where Holmes gets really preachy about, you know, the there are several places in the Conan Doyle stories where Holmes gets really preachy about the dastardliness of the people they're dealing with. Sure, I've never did that. I mean, like, whatever morals, yes, I know you're making this huge big deal about how morally wrong it is. Whatever, let's solve it. Like, right, right. Don't, don't, don't get, stop getting so emotionally

worked up over how wrong it is. Let's solve it kind of thing. He's arrogant. Mm-hmm. It's like he's a supremely arrogant and casually dismissive of people, but he doesn't spend anywhere near as much time as house, telling everybody how stupid they are.

He's mostly detached and oblivious. He's not actively nasty. Okay. He exhibits signs of AST. At one point, Watson mentions that he thinks that Holmes has Asperger's or Holmes is on the spectrum. As we would say it now, because the terminology has changed since 2010. And Asperger's history of being a Nazi fuck. Yeah, well, yeah, that doesn't help. So, yeah. So, we see him suffer from sensory overload on several occasions.

We see him engaging in stimming behaviors. So, he doesn't have a superior British Empire brain anymore. He has a modern highly specialized at this one thing brain, but in other ways, it costs him. Yes. Yeah. And he is, there is still, along with the, well, you know, he's different. He's not neurotypical.

There is also part of that is, no, no, he's also a staggering genius. Like he is, in fact, still the smartest guy in the room. It's not just his brain works differently. He is, you know, objectively smarter than the rest of us. Yeah. It's a specialized brain, but it's not a overall superior brain. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And which sounds like England in the 20 teens.

Yeah. Yeah. He, I want to continue with this though, because I find it interesting, because the laundry list of these things was interesting to me, and I started thinking about it. He has a really iffy relationship with sarcasm. He uses it like a second language. He is consistently dead, he is a deadpan snarker, like everywhere. But he doesn't always catch it when it's directed at him. Oh, that's funny.

When other people do it, there are a couple of occasions on which you know Watson kind of has to you know Stumblingly because it's Martin Freeman being wonderful in that. I'm just so anguish I have to be polite about everything kind of way saying well no It's it's a joke at your expense And he just and and cummerbatch does this wonderful kind of flat blinking and I don't get it You know and and moving on and like you done right right and cumberbatch does this wonderful kind of flat blinking and I don't get it. You know, and moving on and like he doesn't. Right, right. And he doesn't pick up on nonverbal communication.

Very well. Okay. Now, interestingly at the same time, he is capable of turning on. Like when he needs to get something from somebody, he can turn on the mask of, hey, I'm going to be Mr. Engaged and like, how are you doing? And you know, all of that kind of extrovert, kind of, you know, affect. Right. But he's playing at it. But he's playing at it.

He is putting on a mask to do it. And so the plot lines in this series are updated from Goyle's work. There are lots of themes of conspiracy and terrorism shown up all the time, the level of violence is a lot higher than in the Granada series. Now by 2010, Britain was coming out of a recession. Britain was culturally more open to diversity than it had been in the 80s. And they had another 30 years of separation from empire to develop a more nuanced outlook. Sure. In this interpretation, Holmes is a jerk with significant dysfunctions and difficult

relationships, even with the people he cares about. But he is that way because he's existing so much in his own head rather than because he's just an abrasive, indicative asshole on our house. Okay. So now at this time, British troops were in Afghanistan alongside US troops watching, watching the US go through exactly the same thing the British Army had gone through a century to half before. Now they were in a supporting role. So that whole oh no I'm throwing sarcasm out like everywhere. Right. Is very fitting. Watson, one more time is an Afghanistan veteran

who starts the series with a psychosomatic limp left over from the wound that got him medical down of the army. Okay. So he got wounded. And in the very first episode, he's talking to his physical therapist who says to him, you don't need the cane anymore. You don't actually have a limp. And he argues with them and says,

so why don't I still limping? And in the climax of the first episode, when Push comes to shove and he has to be the man of action that Watson historically was, the cane falls away. And he bolts. He he has a moment of like, no, no, I've, you know, thoughtlessness, you know, action, action without thought, reaction, right, right, in which his injury disappears. Yeah, his injury disappears. And so it becomes very clear to us the audience. That is that that is in fact a psychosomatic limp. Self imposed on self imposed limp. Right. Does that seem symbolic? I was anything you think. I mean, maybe his partnership with the United States would be a pre crippling relationship, especially when it's like, hey, let's go back to Afghanistan a third time England.

Okay, that's that's different from the one I I had, but yeah, yeah, also most people were not very what year did this come out? 2010. Yeah, and most people were not very high on Gordon Brown and he was on his way out by then. Yes. Yes. So in some way, he was self-imposed in a club. Yeah. And the lingering blow of no longer being the Hegemon, I think is echoed in what's not being able to let go of his injury. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, on a less, you know, current politics and a bit more, you know, broad spectrum kind of historical zit guys kind of way, that's where my head went. But I think yours are more lucid, maybe not the word I'm

looking for, but more immediately pressing. Yeah, there's that. So now by this time, General opinion in Britain was far less gung-ho about military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, reflecting and if I think and it falls out, look Look, found empire cringey and kind of suspicious. Yeah. I mean, David Cameron was pretty, like, not, not down for staying. Yeah. Indeed. He was not. And by 2010, government officials who had been responsible for sending British troops into Iraq were being called to explain themselves before Parliament in a whole series of hearings that lasted until 2016.

Right. Which, wow, that's the entirety of his time in office. Time in office. Yes. And I mean, he's not, David Cameron is not a liberal. He's a conservative. Oh, no. But he's an England first conservative.

Yes. And the really, yeah, and the really funny thing, of course, is that the party that, you know, had gotten Britain involved in Iraq was the labor party. Right. Under Tony Blair. Now, they were still in the beginning of 2010 labor party was still at power. In May, they lost the general election election and it went to a coalition government between the conservative and liberal democratic party. That's right. Which is the second time that happened in English history by the way. Yes.

The LibCon. Yeah. Yeah. You guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, just just fuck the left. All right. Just that's all we care about. Which of course, by this time, the labor party wasn't really the left anymore. No, it had been because they were, they were third way, yes, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton middle. Yeah. And so that paved the way. Yeah, that paved the way for the conservative party to eventually take power without any partners in 2016, right, Theresa May's government. Yeah. And I think that disillusion about Iraq and the voters lingering suspicion of labor party over it,

along with the fact that this was also in the middle of a huge money for influence scandal, that's right. Involving, involving labor party politicians, played a really significant role. Now at the same time, Britain had been the target of terrorists to tax themselves on 777 of 2005 for suicide bombs were detonated in the London underground by Islamists who pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

And so, you know, we see, again, like I mentioned, the themes of international terrorism, counterterrorism, which show up in the series a lot more often than anything like in the in the 1890s, of course, there was not international terrorism was not a thing, just because the infrastructure for it to exist didn't wasn't there yet. But there wasn't anything in the original stories that was even even had the same kind of emotional feeling that international terrorism carries for a modern audience. There wasn't there wasn't the same weird looming kind of threat, which is interesting unto itself because in the 1880s and 1890s, it's not like anarchists weren't bombing the shit

out of royal people. It's true. There were several heads of state killed by not international terrorism, but an international movement. Yeah, an international movement that informed internal political terrorism. Yeah. Well, I mean, the, the, the Zara of Russia was killed in not O5. That was the revolution

I got put down 1885. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. Like Nicholas the first, no, Alexander the third, but he was killed by bombs, not even like, you know, friendly, friendly bullets. No, fucking bombs. Oh, yeah. And in the United States, we'd lost James Garfield to to choke. No, no, no, no, that's a mechanic. No, James Garfield was killed by all the doctors, but the shot was fired by Charles Gato. Oh, yes.

Yes. I love that story too, is that like they even brought twice for both Garfield and McKinley, they brought the metal detectors, like they invented a metal detector, Edison, to try to find the bullet, but he was on a a metal bed springs. Yeah, it didn't work. And then the the other one they they were at the world's fair So they brought a metal detector over to try to find the bullet. I think I forget exactly what happened I think they didn't know how to work it or A little column A little column B. Yeah, but so the point is though, is that you have a movement toward anarchism, specifically. You had left-wing actual political violence, making some pretty good successes given its goal.

And at the time, the oil was writing. And yeah, and in certain circles, there were people who were really concerned about that. Yes. But for the average reader. And in certain circles, there were people who were really concerned about that. But for the average reader, it didn't have the same level of realness or immediacy, maybe. Yeah, I mean, it is still a rush in our far away. So it is still a Portuguese high level functionality far. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Or, you know, and it's, it's, you don't have mass casualty events involved. That is a really good point. You know, by, by the time of, by the time of, you know, the modern era, we're looking at, you know,

the, that's the whole barracks, the, yeah, the barracks bombing in the 80s and Bay Route, the first set of attacks on the World Trade Center and trying to blow up a bomb in the parking lot or blowing up a bomb in the other parking lot. And these are events that caused massive trauma to huge numbers of people. And then caused, I don't know if I would say secondary trauma, but caused a separate kind of kind of trauma for everybody who witnessed it on television. Right. And so, you know, what was in the popular imagination?

Yeah. And in a way that, you know, you could, if you were an author in the 1890s or the early 1900s, you could have a character, have an antagonist, be some kind of international anarchist bomb thrower and be, you know, almost like the pulp novel equivalent of a Batman villain. Sure. You know, the anarchist would be this very colorful over the top kind of character. Right. Because it was still public imagination.

Yes. It wasn't. Yeah. Oh, this shit's too real. Yeah. Yeah. So now in Sherlock, Minecraft shows up and plays a pretty significant role over the course of the series.

This is Holmes's older brother, who is the only person in the world, canonically, that Sherlock recognizes as smarter than he is. And Minecraft, in the original stories, Minecraft was like Holmes, Naples, Ultra, like Holmes is detached and kind of a snooty jerk. And mycroft is just like, why are you even here? What the hell do you want? Or in another case, he was, all right, I have this problem and I'm too busy

with all of these other things to deal with it. But here you go. You're good enough, you can solve like I can't trust this to end to a normal person. But right. So he assigned it. I don't, he didn't have for help. Yeah. Pretty much. Okay. And, and Microsoft kind of does the same thing in, in the Sherlock series, but he's characterized as, in Holmes's words, Minecraft holds a minor position in government, except he is the government when he's not too busy being British intelligence

or the CIA on a freelance basis. Okay. Now in the end, Minecraft motivation, primarily, a lot of the time he shows up trying to protect his brother, potentially from himself. Like in the very first episode, Mike Ruff shows up in the very first episode.

We don't know who he is for a while. He's just this shady kind of seemingly sinister figure who offers Watson a lot of money to spy on Sherlock and report back to it. And it's funny, you know, Sherlock immediately, when Watson comes home, he Watson, of course, turns him down because, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to do that. This, this guy's my roommate and he's kind of becoming my friend. I'm not going to do that. And Watson, you know, comes home and, uh, kind of, in, in, in a tone of kind of incredulousness, says, you know, I was just kind of kidnapped by somebody who wanted me to spy on you.

And Holmes looks, you know, it has been kind of detached and boredom. It kind of looks up for what he was doing. He says, did he give you a name? No. Okay, of course not. Did you offer to pay you? Well, yes, a lot of money actually. Did you take him up on it? No, no, pity, we could have split the fee. It's a wonderful moment. But you know, Mike Kraft wants Watson to keep tabs on Sherlock because he wants to see what his little brother is up to. At the same time though, Mike Kraft keeps an awful lot of shit secret from Holmes, including a whole younger sister, who is a new creation for the series, who Sherlock has thought his

dead for the length of the series until like the last two episodes. And I guess that's a spoiler alert, but it's been, you know, five or 60 years since the series. Yeah, I know. So sorry. And so, Minecraft is the government when he's not too busy being British intelligence of the CIA. And where has my craft in the original stories, my craft? There's a line in which Holmes basically says, oh no, my brother doesn't work for the government. My brother effectively is the government.

He's that much smarter than I am. Like, no, no, you don't. You can't even begin to understand how many things it's got going on. And in those stories that's said in a way that is like, well, he's keeping the whole system running, the whole system running, you know, kind of like, you know, here, like I said, he's a shady character. Right. Like in the end, he turns out to be not a bad guy, but like there are several places where we're like, you're working your own angle and we don't know like how much of a good guy you really are. Like we've spent a lot of time being really suspicious of Minecraft. Okay.

Like, you know, and again, you know, in that same relationship from the original stories, bringing that to the modern milieu that again reflects a certain level of cynicism, distrust in what the government is telling us and acknowledgement that there's an awful lot of stuff being kept secret from us and we just don't know shit. And we don't know and we can't be sure whether it's being kept secret from us for our own good. or because there's, because if we learn that secret, we're going to learn this other secret, which is all about, like,

you know, bad shit being done. You know, and so, you know, I think I think it's this remarkable encapsulation of all that stuff I mentioned about, you know, the British world view in the 20 teens. So now, last part of my thesis, last example for my thesis, we're gonna move forward two years from 2010. So Sherlock luck. Sure you do. Before you do. So, microthed is a powerful but thoroughly unreliable narrator. Yes. I like that. Yeah. I like the description. Yes. Yeah. Well, there you go. Okay. Yeah. So in 2012, while Sherlock is still this huge thing, elementary debuts on CBS. So this is another American interpretation of Holmes. And there was immediate criticism of everybody behind elementary because they were saying you're just trying Okay, of homes and there was immediate criticism of

Everybody behind elementary because they were saying you're just trying to capitalize on the popular Sherlock like this is knock off Mm-hmm. This is gonna suck Johnny Lee Miller plays homes and He and Cumberbatch actually are good friends and There there was actually some back and forth thing, friendly mockery between the two of them when one Miller took on the American version of the role. And Lucy Liu plays Dr. Joan Watson in a casting choice that made a lot of fans, a lot of Holmes fans distinctly nervous. Yeah.

Well, okay, not entirely for the reasons you're thinking of. I mean, there was a lot of the reasons you're thinking of, but we'll get to, we'll get to the reasons why, like, I was concerned in a minute. So Holmes is still an Englishman, but the show takes place in New York because Because as we find out in the first episode, Holmes had to leave England because the crime in England wasn't interesting enough. So as I said, this is another modern adaptation. We've got surveillance cameras, cell phones,

all the modern trapping, so this kind of stuff. And now here's the thing, this is a very different take on Holmes though. And now here's the thing, this is a very different take on homes though. Johnny Lee Miller's homes is covered in tattoos, has a very short buzz cut. And he is, and these are some of the outward sides like the visual shorthand for him being a fucked up individual. And when I say that I don't mean like morally bankrupt, I mean he is damaged. Well, very often the psychology of tattoos, especially with people who have been deeply

traumatized, you will see quite often a higher degree of tattooage on their bodies and it's because as has been explained to me at least The scars on the inside they cannot control However tattoo is a beautiful scar Okay, so it's a sense it's it yeah, it's a it's a reclamation thing So reclamation empowerment kind of deal. Yeah. And honestly, they touched on that a little bit in house of cards with one of the characters.

Oh, OK. Yeah. So it seems to honestly fit with the veterans that I know, like, it comes to get really tatted up. It's like, yeah. They've seen you dealing with some shit. Yeah. So this whole thing. You fucked up individual. They've seen some shit. Yeah. So, so this home.

Yeah, this home says massive daddy issues. His mother was an opiate addict. He spent several years in a drug doubt state because he thought, love of his life had been murdered by a serial killer. And at the start of the series, he's introduced to Watson because she's going to be his sober companion. Oh. Joan, there is no, I'm looking for an apartment. Somebody recommended that I go find this guy who's looking for a roommate to help and

pay the rent. None of that, it is no no. Joan Watson gets hired by Sherlock's father to be his sober companion because he's come out of rehab. Okay. And, you know, if I'm going to keep sending him money and letting him live in one of my properties, I own a New York, then he's got to stay clean and you're going to make sure he does.

Now, this is currently two different series wherein somebody without Holmes' knowledge has hired or attempted to hire a second person who has those tabs on them. To keep tabs and to be a caretaker of sorts. Yeah. And it's out of a concern, but it's a remote fucked up, I can't actually express a concern. Whereas before, it was, you had basically Aunt B, hand-backing over him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's clearly a thing with Sherlock Holmes. Someone has to take care of him.

He's not a complete person, no matter what the iteration of him it is. Whether he needs, yeah. He always needs a caretaker. He needs an ordinary person to keep him grounded. Yes. But now it's much different. It's a little more clandestine and based on wealth. And there's a duplicity that's involved in even the asking, but it's a duplicity seeming to come from a good place. Yeah. Well, and here Watson, like Watson shows up on the front step and says,

Hi, your father hired me. I'm going to be your sober companion. Like there's no, there is, it's not an all clandestine. It's because the nature of being a sober companion is such that I couldn't be kept a secret. It is without his, without his full consent. Yes. Yes. Like, you know, know, and, and the lack of enthusiasm in his consent is made very clear, pretty quickly in the first episode. But Miller's Holmes is a very American version of the character.

In that, he, we go back to him having a superhero's kind of drive to catch the bad guys. The thrill of the hunt thing is still there. Sure. But the emphasis now moves away from house and Sherlock being more about the game and he's he's a lot more interested in stopping the bad guys because they're the bad guys doing morally bad things Then then cumberbatch or Lori were You get the sense in watching him

That Miller's interpretation of Holmes is he's detached in a loop and dismissive Not because of his arrogance. He does know he's the smartest guy in the room He is arrogant and and like he knows it. But because he's scared to death of getting attached to anyone and getting hurt either by abandonment or by having them get hurt because of him. Sure, okay.

Instead of a mind without a heart, he's a mind with a big soft raw bleeding heart that he's trying very, very hard to protect. Okay, I want to, I want, he's time along the way we've compared it. So, yeah, I want to hear this. Well, hold on, I'm going to get into his relationship to the other characters first. Okay. So Sherlock shows, shows Holmes as somebody nobody trusts because he's weird and detached. Elementary shows him as somebody who people distrust because he's a former junkie and he's

damaged goods. Lestrade in this incarnation isn't exasperated by Holmes and actually it's not Lestrade. I don't remember the inspector's name, which is a shame because it's a great performance, but he's not exasperated by homes. He's out. He is out to try to protect him from himself. I need to keep him busy because if I don't bring him in number one, it's useful for me because he is you know smarter than all my own people. Gregson, it's Inspector Gregson in this show. Gregson keeps him around because he's useful, but also because like,

I saw what he did for Scotland Yard. I was over there on a, you know, trade program. Right. And I saw what he did in Scotland Yard and I saw the work he was able to do and he he helped me out an awful lot. And so I owe it to him that I've got to try to keep him busy and keep him employed. And as long as these employees not going to kill himself with drugs. Okay. The relationship with Watson is very different, not just from the outset with relationship with Watson is very different, not just from the outset with the introduction of Watson as explicitly a no no, I'm here to keep an eye on you and You know keep you out of trouble

but also in elementary Holmes starts training Watson to be his protege. He says I'm gonna take you on as my apprentice Because I see that you have an analytical mind that's being wasted in the job that you're doing right now. Joan Watson in this series was a surgeon. She doesn't have a military background in this version. She was a surgeon who left surgery and basically left an entire life behind when she had a patient die on the table. And she's running from the trauma of that and running from that failure. And there's all kinds of, they get into a lot of remarkable psychology and character development for her character. And as the series progresses, the two of them become more like partners,

really than any previous pair of homes. Not just your tagging along and let me explain it. Yeah. I'm literally depending on you for your part on this. Yeah. Yeah. It's not just, you know, I mean, because the original home said, I wouldn't be, you know, I wouldn't be anything without my Boswell. Sure. You know, and there was always a very deep friendship,

but on an emotional level, homes needed Watson. Gotcha. But here, he actually says, no, no, you're you're going to be my partner. You're smart enough. Mm-hmm. You have the potential to learn how to do what I do. Right. And there are tons, a couple of times where there might be some kind of sort of romantic tension. And that was what I was worried about. Okay. That was what worried me about. It wasn't Lucy Liu, who's an amazing actress and I knew whatever they did with her. She was going to be I was worried about the fact. Oh, no, this is an American TV show So there's and they're happy and there's gonna have to be a will they or won't they right, you know they and fortunately They they don't ever get caught in that trap. They managed to avoid falling into that and it actually turns into a great

in that trap, they manage to avoid falling into that. And it actually turns into a great partnership between friends without turning into a romantic thing. And I loved seeing that because it's very refreshing, especially when you choose to change Watson to a woman, then. Right. Then not, not going into the well, obviously, they're going to fuck like, you know, not doing that was nice to see. Now, the same time, Moriarty and Irene Adler get combined spoiler alert, get combined into the same character in the series, played by Natalie Dormer Irene Adler and and I think Ann Morier both of them are aliases. I don't know if we are a final real name as She as Moriarty she was this Coordinator of other criminals and

She had gotten close to homes in order to keep tabs on him while he was investigating her, what's Godlet Yard? Then when he got too close, she faked her death in order to disappear and get away before he caught her. She had also caught feelings for him and needed to get away. And this is what at the beginning of this, we find out at the beginning of the series, her apparent murder by a serial killer was what drove Sherlock Interhones into his descent into addiction, which he is now crawling out of at the beginning of the series. And even she, at one point after she winds up

getting revealed, like she shows up first off. She's back from the dead as Irene Adler. And he's stunned and, you know, he is very clearly, very profoundly emotionally affected, he is very clearly, very profoundly emotionally affected, which is a change from earlier incarnations the character who was again, a mind without a heart. And then he finds out that she's actually more ready and the betrayal is immense. And he tries to catch her as revenge for the betrayal. he, you know, he tries to, you know, catch her kind of as revenge for the betrayal.

And she gets away, but she then later shows up and basically tells Watson to keep taking care of is trying to protect him. Everybody is drawn to his incredible, this, the combination of his incredible intellect and his, like, deep vulnerability. And they're all trying to, trying to help him. Over the course of the show, Sherlock relapses, recovers, and then we find out, I want to say, it's the last season that he suffers from post-concussion syndrome. And he goes through most of a season dealing with, you know, trying to recover from post-concussion syndrome. Now this is not unprecedented, this kind of arc of, of collapse and recovery, because even the original stories, Holmes has to be forced to rest after suffering nervous exhaustion. And then a separate set of circumstances has to kick his cocaine addiction. But the emphasis here is on Holmes as a genius wubi.

And I'm borrowing the term wubi from TV tropes. The wubi is the character that you feel compelled to protect. This character is vulnerable. We got to protect this character. Got it, to protect. This character is vulnerable. We got to protect this character. Got it. Okay. He's amazingly brilliant and capable in a thousand ways,

but on a couple of fronts, he's armored with tissue paper and everybody must protect him. My point, again, being he's a complete fucking mess. He's a brilliant, compelling, energetic dumpster fire. And this is an American interpretation of Holmes in 2012. Hegemoni had turned into disaster for us as the world's superpower.

Right. The writers of house eight years before had made Holmes an asshole in the wake of the Iraq invasion. Presidential administration later, homes is now a superhero with massive kryptonite problems and a raft of unhealthy coping mechanisms. He's also remarkably feminist. Again, Moriarty, the biggest villain in the entire series, and Irene Adler are the same person who is a woman, who is, who is, who is, who is only, you know, in the original series, she's the only woman,

the originally very sexist, Holmes considered as equal. And now in this series, Watson is a woman who he explicitly says, I think you can learn to do what I'm doing. I'm going to teach you to do it. Right. Now, when I was talking about Sherlock,

I didn't mention 9-11 because Sherlock was a BBC production. But here it's relevant because this is an American series and it's set in New York. Right. Holmes clearly has PTSD in this series. And his past trauma is a reflection again, just kind of like with house is a reflection of our mass trauma. Right. Very Clinton was secretary of state in 2012, appointed over the loud grumblings of Republicans because nobody could even try to argue she wasn't tough enough for the job. And even if you hated her, you had to recognize how goddamn smart she was.

We were still in Iraq and Afghanistan because we had broken it and now we bought it and our leadership couldn't find a way to extricate us from either place without leaving a dangerous mess behind and or looking like they'd been defeated. Right. We were seeing an increase in our standing on a world stage. Our president at the time won the Nobel Peace Prize largely for not being his predecessor as far as I can figure. Yeah. I mean, I was joked that next year he would win it because he'd made broccoli taste like cotton candy despite there being no evidence. Yeah. And we were clearly moving again in an internationalist, cooperation list kind of direction. But we were still doing imperialist hegemon shit and we couldn't figure out how to stop.

Yeah, it was an addiction that we had grown dependent upon. We were full of that. Our view of ourselves as hegemon was complicated. We felt like we were still the most powerful nation in the world as Britain had been when Doyle created homes, but attitudes about that had become ambiguous, and we'd been deeply damaged by 9.11 and everything that came after.

We felt wounded and damaged. And this homes was a wreck because of it. Yeah. And and that's that's what I've got. Yeah. That's that's that's that's it. That's that I've got. Like that's it. That's the show. It goes back to what we said in the very first one is that he was an avatar for the zeitgeist of people

in which he was, yeah, he is the avatar of empire. He was the avatar of hegemony. Yeah. And at the height of the British Empire, he's a tower of intellect and justice. Right. After the empire, after the empire disappears, he becomes a figure of nostalgia. In the 21st century, he's shifted between being a total jerk ass, detached genius who doesn't understand how exactly it is he's hurting people, but he is hurting people, and a damaged superhero. Yeah. Depending on current events, and exactly it is he's hurting people, but he is hurting people, and a damaged

superhero, depending on current events and who it is who's telling the story. Yeah. So based on all of that, what's your take away, what's the striking thing you're going to remember about this? Or, you know, I think it's dead on with what you said that he in his flaws and his virtues, he represents what what people know that they are. Yeah. I think it's funny and funny as in a little odd. It's a little bit funny that he ultimately is how to put this. Everybody always thinks they're the smartest person. Not everybody. I know some people who are actually like overly humble. They think they're idiots. I'm like, no, you're not. But everybody thinks they're they have that they're good drivers, everybody thinks they have a good sense of humor and everybody thinks that they're smart.

And so no matter what the shape of the avatar, no matter how flawed he is, he's still a super genius. Now, that's obviously part of the draw of the character, but at the same time, there were other aspects that they completely left out after a while. And there were other aspects that they emphasized over others. Like the Robert Downey Jr. one was really good at fighting and look at when that was, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah. And so you could have taken away the super smart,

but they didn't. I think, yeah, I see what you're saying. I think it would have been difficult to sell it in Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, I mean, it is a defining feature of an dope. Yeah, you know, but you could have had him as it could have been a drug-induced inspiration. Okay. Yeah. You know, you could have had him take his smart smoke, you know.

Yeah. I, you know, there was one series that you didn't, you didn't really mention and I don't know that we have time for it, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention there's a series called The Good Doctor. And it's about a neurodivergent surgeon who is, I mean, the actual plays him, I'm not sure if he's actually neurodivergent, but he literally is like, I mean, would have been in a special class. Yeah. Neurodivergent. And does not talk well to people, makes no eye contact, talks very much in the same tone

all the time, and talks with us all the time. But he is a brilliant, brilliant surgeon who is a diagnostician. So I mean, it just, it has echoes of homes in it. But, uh, but anyway, uh, yeah, I just not a jerk ass. No, he's not. He's not at all. He, uh, and he's actually aware of what he is. He just, I mean, it's the bottlenecks syndrome, like it all bottlenecks in there, you know. Yeah. But anyway, I, I really like that. I, I would like, I would like it better if he was a bell weather and not a trailing indicator. Um, because then if we ever saw homes that was like a nice guy who was well adjusted, I'd be like, Oh, cool. Guess what's coming, y'all. a nice guy who was well adjusted. I'd be like, oh, cool.

Guess what's coming, y'all? Oh my God, Utopia is it right on the court? Yeah, I heard that. Yeah, finally, Alms, finally, international cooperation, and good old toward men. Yeah, yeah. Good stuff.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. We don't have time to plug things or. No, sadly, we don't, but I do very quickly before we go. Just want to say if you have not watched them, all of the TV series that I mentioned in this episode, deserve your eyeballs. Oh, by the way, the one with Jeremy Brett. Yeah, Jeremy. Yeah. I mean, Jeremy Brett. Okay. Jeremy Brett, those are on Amazon Prime.

I am so happy to hear that because in doing the research for this, I was like, you know what? I want to go back and watch more of those. But also Sherlock is absolutely amazing TV and elementary is great. And I think John, Johnny Lee Miller's portrayal of homes is the most human homes. Anybody's done. And it's also worth noting that Miller is at this point the actor who has portrayed homes for the most episodes of anybody ever. Oh, there you go, which is kind of cool. Bruno San Martino of Sherlock Holmes. There you go. Cool.

All right. Well, for a geek history of time, I'm Damien harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock. And until next time, the games of foot.