Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

My 5-Star Review for Cumberbatch and Sherlock

CBS has brought a contemporary Sherlock Holmes to America and added a whole new look (and gender) to Dr. Watson (played by Lucy Liu) in their hit show Elementary. I hear it is very good. I’m sure it is. But I have a problem with it even though I’ve never seen it.

It’s not the BBC’s rendition of Sherlock Holmes, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the world’s greatest detective, and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. (Freeman starred as Bilbo Baggins in the second installment of The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug, and I kept waiting for him to help Gandalf solve a crime.)

Having read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and novels as a kid, I love that the producers are steeped in the history and nuances of the Victorian Holmes. They have done a masterful job in bringing him to life in modern London while honoring Doyle’s original stories. It is obvious they are raving fans. And thank you to another fan, my daughter Lindsey, who introduced me to the BBC iteration.

Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is clever, quirky, humorous, dark, and intelligent in sufficient measure that fans (like my wife and I) put up with a second full-year hiatus as we waited for Season Three to arrive without abandoning ship. This is not normal TV viewing. The first two seasons had only three episodes each. It helps that each episode is ninety minutes long but I could still do with more.

Consider this my personal recommendation to watch Sherlock and watch Sherlock now. But don’t start with Season Three. It’s hard to find anyway. You have to hope you can find it on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater in those short interludes when they aren’t doing reruns of Downton Abbey. Or you can buy it by the season or episode on Amazon Prime or Vudu or another streaming service. Seasons One and Two are available for no cost on Netflix.

The other reason not to start watching with Season Three is how Season Two ended. So if you haven’t seen that, stop reading now, and consider this a spoiler alert.

Sherlock is so well done that we can (and do) forgive each long wait for new episodes … and for the pain and suffering the producers inflicted on us when Sherlock fell to his apparent death at the end of Season Two. His unforgettable return created a masterful interplay between Holmes and Watson as they painfully … awkwardly … hilariously reconnect. At the end of Season Three’s opening episode, “The Empty Hearse,” you realize “we” were Watson, and we too wondered why Sherlock let us think he was dead without a word for two long, painful years.

But the return was so satisfying that we, like Watson, have to forgive Sherlock. He’s just too fun to be around to stay mad at him forever.

In my humble opinion, Cumberbatch is the best Sherlock ever – and Sherlock is the best show on TV today. Well, at least for three episodes every other year.

Improve Your Life By Improving Your Choices!

Improve your life by improving your choices

New Year – New You?

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

William James

Happy New Year!

It’s time to put up a new wall calendar and it’s the season when our thoughts turn to goals and resolutions that will improve our lives. Advertisers love to remind us: new year, new you. External conditions matter. But internal conditions matter just as much.

The best way to improve your life, as it always has been, is to improve your choices.

I don’t know if the following choices qualify as goals or resolutions, but as I pondered on what makes life better, here are five choices I want to make this year.

1. let go of a grudge.

Life is too short to live in strife. Even if you have been done wrong and own a legitimate grievance … even if the person you have enmity with won’t reciprocate your desire for and attempts at reconciliation … forgive anyway. Let go of hurts, disagreements, and anger. Move on. Say goodbye to the stress and inner turmoil that rob you of joy. If you have a catalog of grudges, start with the easiest one to deal with and work your way toward to the toughest one. That will help you gain momentum and not get bogged down from the get-go.

2. go positive.

Cynicism, sarcasm, mistrust, and other forms of negativity are the prevailing zeitgeist of our age. Be different. Go against the grain. Dare to be considered strange. Look for the good in the world, in your friends and family and colleagues – and in your own life – and see if life isn’t miraculously better … even if nothing substantively changed. Maybe it isn’t “realistic” to ignore the bad, but it’s just as unrealistic to ignore the positive.

3. create or update a budget.

Money isn’t everything. Money shouldn’t rule your life. Money is a means, not an end. I agree. I agree. I agree. But nothing creates stress interpersonally and intrapersonally like money. Know what you make. Know what you are obligated to spend. Plan to sow seeds of grace through generosity and compassionate giving. Set aside something for the future. Refuse to go into debt. Figure out how much is left and enjoy what you can do with it, even if there are some things you can’t get that you thought you really needed. The peace of living within your means will easily outperform any sense of loss.

4. stimulate your mind.

Read a book. Memorize a passage of scripture or a poem or an important historical document – memorizing is almost a lost art! Go to a museum. Pick a topic you are curious about and study it throughout the year. A little mindless entertainment won’t kill you, but not challenging, exercising, and stimulating your thought life with excellence is a sure path to intellectual poverty.

5. get healthier.

I have a friend who claims that we don’t really have a system of healthcare but rather a system of sickness care. He breaks things down so simply that even I can understand the roadmap to better health. If you want to be healthier there are three simple choices to make: eat better; add more physical movement; handle stress. Diet, exercise, and mental health. This isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. It is about starting right where you are and doing better.

Are you ready for your best year ever? I can’t promise that. But I can promise that you can make this year the best it can be by making better choices. Your list may look a lot different than mine, but I’m guessing all of us have some ways we want to improve our lives.

What are you choosing to do this year?