Film and Television in Social and Cultural Context.

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by its uniqueness.” Luis Ramos.

Full review.

The concept of a modern Sherlock Holmes has been perfectly portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the series created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. Over the past years we have seen a lot of different versions of Sherlock Holmes (with or without the name) in movies and TV shows, and they couldn’t immortalize the character as the british actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who achieves a perfect combination of genius, irritable, charming and unwillingly funny on this newer version of the famous and acclaimed literature originated detective.

The format of each season consists on three hour and twenty minute episodes, and each one presents a major life threatening case that Sherlock has to solve. But here is the best part about the format: even if each episode is a different case, there is a line to the story, and a very interesting one. So the audience is required to follow the series episode by episode, getting all of us hooked, and with an anxious hunger for the next story that this amazing series brings to us.

The direction of each episode is spectacular; the focus is, of course, the two main characters: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Achieving to have a “connection” with Sherlock’s mind is a very difficult thing to do, and it was perfectly done in this case, when the close-up camera shots pointed out details, as if we were deducting the same thing as Sherlock, showing us the elements of how he is going to connect everything and then make sense. And when it comes to John Watson, the character couldn’t be better played, as Martin Freeman does it. The actor convinces the audience of the role he plays, as the also intelligent but not as much as Sherlock, patient but also constantly annoyed by his crime-solving partner, gullible and not as rational in all matters, character who has to put up with all the methods, and unexpected actions of our main man.

One of the attractives that this project of Sherlock brings to the audience, is the selection of the locations for the shooting. During the seasons, the spectator is able to see the best of England’s locations, and even if these aren’t famous, they manage to make them very appealing to the eye. One example is Sherlock’s apartment, the one that shares with his all time partner and best friend, John Watson. The directing job in this one is incredible because after a few episodes, the spectator feels Sherlock apartment as their own, and it gives us the opportunity to see different interactions and the building of relationships in it.

This is a different attempt on crime-solving television shows that successfully gets the attention of the audience by presenting an authentical character whose best quality is to get us charmed by its uniqueness. This Sherlock breaks the paradigm of how detectives work and brings us something fresher than what we were used to with shows like CSI (CBS, 2000-2016), Law and Order (NBC, 1990-2010) or Bones (Fox, 2005- ).

Conclusion

The way that the television industry works has been affected by the feedback that it gets. Having a selling interests has created the need for it to respond to the critics by trying to produce better content. That’s why website such as Rotten Tomatoes exist. To have a expert and non-expert discussion forum, but majorly to provide users a rating that works as a filter to decide on what film or TV show they are watching next.

The user has a very important role on the website, because he/she consumes the entertainment and takes the decision, even if the user isn’t an expert the person will demand a standard of quality. Also, the user has its own section on personal views of the content reviewed with the Audience score.

It has been shown by the priorities of the website that television is secondary on the interests of media consumption, when it comes to quality demanding. There is less rating content on it, there is less expectation for it, and there are proportionally less reviews.

References

2016, B., Genre, T., Time, B., 2015, B., Year, B. and Theaters, C. (2016). Top Movies - Best Movies of 2016 and All Time - Rotten Tomatoes. [online] Rottentomatoes.com. Available at: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].

Bones (Fox, 2005- )

CSI (CBS, 2000-2016)

Flixster.desk.com. (2016). Flixster | Who are the approved Tomatometer critics.... [online] Available at: https://flixster.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/62675-who-are-the-approved-tomatometer-critics- [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].

Law and Order (NBC, 1990-2010)

Rottentomatoes.com. (2016). Rotten Tomatoes: Movies | TV Shows | Movie Trailers | Reviews. [online] Available at: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].

Rottentomatoes.com. (2016). Sherlock. [online] Available at: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/sherlock/s01 [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].

Rottentomatoes.com. (2016). Top TV Series - Best TV Shows of 2016 and All Time - Rotten Tomatoes. [online] Available at: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/top-tv/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].

Sherlock (PBS-BBC,