Sherlock (The BBC's TV series)

Well, hello, Charlie !

As a great fan of this TV series, I had to make an article about it someday...

This magic day happened !

(The protagonist is happy about it, apparenty :D )

I have seen several posts have been made about it, so, if you want to know more about it, I suggest you read them :)

I/ WHAT IS THE TV SERIES ABOUT ?

As its name suggests,Sherlock is a TV series about the extremely famous Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You may (or may not) have read the original books, but you have surely at least heard the name of the detective !

The show itself is an adaptation of the original adventures, except this time, in the modern times.

 

I know, right ?

(You may also think about Elementary, which is also a modern-time adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, but, just so you know, Elementary also brings other major changes to the books, because Dr Watson is a woman, and Sherlock is american. (Quite far, huh ?) As I've not seen it, I can't tell you if it's good or not, but I have to admit, all these changes scare me.

BUT A N Y W A Y S )

Sherlock is the story of John Watson, a former military doctor suffering from the trauma of the war, who is looking for a flatmate. Quite simple, isn't it ? Well that's how he meets the greatest detective of all time, Mr Sherlock Holmes. He works sometimes at Scotland Yard, without getting paid, he just loves solving murders, that is how he is. He is definitively strange, and extraordinarily arrogant, but they will eventually form the most beautiful relationship, while living exciting adventures, and solving amazing cases.

                                             II/WHO ARE THE (MAJOR) CHARACTERS?

So... I'm only going to talk about the major characters we all know : Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson , to avoid any spoilers. But of course, other character are important and these two men are just the protagonists :)

Sherlock Holmes

Portrayed by : Benedict Cumberbatch (You may have seen him in Doctor Strange, Twelve years A Slave or The Imitation Game. He also makes a small appearance in 1917)

Personality : Endowed with extraordinary intellectual abilities, Sherlock is able to deduce the lives of those he meets in a single glance. But, unlike the idea we have of the character, Sherlock has his faults. He is a "cold-hearted", socially maladjusted man who fails to show his emotions and to appear sympathetic to most people.

Occupation : Consulting detective.

Hobbies : Playing violin, mostly.

Dr John Watson

Portrayed by : Martin Freeman (You may have seen him in the Fargo TV series adaptation, The Hobbit trilogy, or Love Actually)

Personality : Often seen as an incompetent and foolish man in today's culture, the John Watson of the series overturns the stereotypes that surround him. He is intelligent (even if Sherlock is more intelligent than him, but that's kind of the subject of all Sherlock Holmes adaptations, isn't it?), knows how to fight, and brings humanity to a series that would perhaps seem too complex without him. 

Occupation : Former army doctor,general practicioner.

Hobbies : Writing a blog. (You can visit the blog at The blog of Dr. John. H. Watson (johnwatsonblog.co.uk) which the BBC adapted from the series, but be careful to the spoilers !)

                                                     III/THE FANDOM

There is a lot to say about our AMAZING fandom, but there is already a great article telling a lot about it : Charlie's OIB: BBC Sherlock (oibstcharles.blogspot.com)

If I had to describe the sherlock's fandom in one word, I would choose:

CRAZY.

But I love it. Aha. I'm okay. Uh. Yes. Ahaha.

                                     

                                       IIII/ WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH SHERLOCK

So, in my (unsurprising) opinion, Sherlock is one of the greatest series of all time. And don't worry if you know nothing about Sherlock Holmes, it was my case before watching the series !  Talking about the original version of the detective, I am well aware these adventures have been told a countless number of time, but for me, this one have something special, whether you like it or not (That being said, I don't know a single person who have seen it and hated it ). It breaks the stereotypes about the character, and shows the icon under a whole new light : Watson is no longer the annoying, idiot sidekick and Holmes is no longer the perfect hero.

That being said, you need to watch the TV series, because I think it can please absolutely anybody.

For example, you can focus on the cases, the riddles and the murders if you are more a thriller fan but you can also focus more on the well-constructed relationships between the characters.

Also, since we are at the beginning of the holidays and there only is 4 season of 3 episodes each, plus a christmas special, I think you can manage to watch everything ^^

Well, I think I'm done now, I was very happy to write this article UwU If you have anything to say about the post, the TV series, or you just want to chat, don't forget to comment :)

Have nice holidays ! 

Iconic series : "Malcolm in the Middle"

Dear Charlie,

I hope you all are doing well! This is my first article on the blog and I am going to speak about my favourite series (I mean the only one I have ever watched, shame on me) :

Sorry, this one is not for the “My Wife and Kids” fans lol ! “Malcolm in the middle” is one of the most iconic series in the 00’s (already twenty years old !!), but I was way too young (or not even born yet) at the time, so I never watched it until … quarantine ! It was available on “6ter”, in French unfortunately, and I watched the seven seasons with my family.

The series was created by Lindwood Boomer and as you may already know, the story is about an American stereotypical family of six (the parents and their four sons). It is quite realistic and I love the silly humor it has. Here is a little description of the characters :

 

Malcolm is obviously the main character. He is played by Frankie Muniz and is eleven years old at the beginning of the series. He is very smart and egocentric.

Reese, a bit older than Malcolm, is the "silly bully", and according to me, the funniest ! He is good at cooking too. He is played by Justin Berfield.

Then there is Dewey, the youngest. Malcolm and Reese are jealous because he is Lois’ favourite and they often hit him. But he is also smart and, later, we discover he is a great pianist.

Their parents really love each other. The mother, Lois, runs the house, and she terrifies everyone when she is angry. She sometimes feels lonely as the only woman in the family. The father, Hal, is immature and really close to his sons. He often does stupidities with them. They are played by the famous actress and actor Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston.

(The latter also played in “Breaking Bad” (don’t spoil me I haven’t watched it yet !), and a lot of people say both of the series are related. I love this theory lol)

 

And finally, Christopher Masterson played the role of Francis, the oldest and extremely turbulent brother who was sent to a military school by his parents.

There are a lot of other characters but I let you (re)discover them 😉

My favourite episode is the fifth of the sixth season (titled “Kitty’s Back”).

Here is the music of the generic if you are nostalgic : https://youtube.com/watch?v=J8y8Ziwswe0www.

I hope I made you want to (re)watch the series, and if you already saw it, then tell me what you thought about it !

Finally, I would add : Reese graduated high school, so can we !

Bye Charlie !

HE IS BAACK

Hello Charlie, 
I have the greatest news for you, Sherlock is back !! 





Yes we missed you !! 
















If you don't know sherlock it's a serie that is absolutely awesome, like really, it's just the best ( Julie will agree) There are three seasons so far. 
And the 4th one is out now !!!! 

You can check out the trailers : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlcWFoNqZHc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOXZgRTfSUA




Enjoy your sherlock time, with some hot chocolate, or a tea !! 

Take care 

Alberta 

A TV show set in medieval times better than Game of Thrones?

Hey there Charlie.

So in Canada, since I didn't have much things to do in my family, I started to think while watching some anime, and I realised something: to me, GoT is not the best medieval TV series.

Yes! I dared to say that! Let me be clear, it is awesome, the plot is great, the characters too, it's really well directed and the locations are breath-taking... On the cons, I would say that the first seasons were too borderline for me (too much sex and gore).

But I know what you're about to say, what could be a better show than GoT? Well, actually, this series is not on the same type of series at all: it's actually a comedy series. And you know the best part? It's french! Yup! So maybe some of you now can guess what I'm talking about (please, I don't want to be the only one to know it). With no more waiting, the TV series that I'm talking about is...

So now you either know why this show is awesome, or you're just making fun of me for talking about a French TV show, but hold on! Let me explain why Kaamelott is awesome.

The show is divided into 6 seasons and 3 films are apparently in the making, the episodes are generally 5~10mn long (pretty much little sketches). The first 3 seasons are mainly dedicated to fun short stories, and the 3 last seasons are dedicated to the plot, so they tend to be less funny but very interesting to follow.

But I think I should present to you the reason why I love this show, it's because of one person: its writer, director, main actor and producer, the French equivalent of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss: Alexandre Astier!

If you don't know this man... first of all shame on you! and then, he's a very famous French artist, an actor, an awesome musician, a writer, a voice actor, a playwright and many others. He was in charge of the last Asterix movie (the god's domain), and he also made two stand-up/plays ("Que ma joie demeure" and "L'exoconférence"), I really advise you to see them, great stuff. Anyway! in this show, he plays the role of King Arthur, the king of Brtianny, foundator of Kaamelott and seeker of the Holy Grail.

And this leads us to the second point: the humor and wittines of the show. Basically, it tells the strugle of King Arthur in his quest to discover the Holy Grail with the knigts of the round table (I think this is how you say it)... but not everything goes as expected, particularly when the "knights" are for the most part complete idiots. The show is clever, the characters are extremely diverse and attaching (from the cynical King Arthur, to the stupid Perceval)... You laugh at every episode.

At the opposite of Game of Thrones, the show can be watched by pretty much everyone (I remember discovering it on M6 when I was probably 6 or 8, I didn't get all the gags at the time but it was still pretty funny). And if some jokes can be difficult to get, overall the show is pretty accessible to everyone.

And that's all, I would have love to share some of the different sketch but they are hard to find due to copyright and all... But you're free to look for them!

Have a good day Charlie, hope I made you (re)discover a good French TV show (at least there is one!).

Bye!

Kellian

BBC Sherlock

Hi Charlie !

Judith and I want to talk to you about one of the greatest show in the world : Sherlock !
So what is it about ?
It's the story of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes but in our century.



Even if there is one case per episode, all of them are linked in some way. But the plot is not the only thing that is interesting, the characters are all developed and amazing.



For example, Sherlock, the "high functioning sociopath" to quote him, is easily hated at first but we quickly start loving his sarcasm and his unusual way of seeing things. Moreover, we have to say that he is very classy and handsome (even if you might not think so at the beginning).



Like in the books, John was an army doctor and seconds Sherlock in every cases. He is also very sarcastic, mostly toward Sherlock, and as human and disoriented as we are.



Molly Hooper, a secondary character, is as well developed as the main characters. She is even crucial at some stages of the show.

The fact that it is tranported nowadays is original and very well done.It is very naturally incorporated in the story, for example instead of writing books, John writes a blog and Sherlock texts Scotland Yard.

The way it is filmed and edited is very aesthetic and unique :

(Sherlock in his mind palace)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fangirl part :

First, the fandom. It is huge and interprets anything that you can think of. Some theories are even very complex and well thought. It also manages to have 560 000 memes and 33 000 gifs that come from (ONLY) 10 épisodes, even tho they reach 1h30min long each. That stops us from becoming crazy during the hiatuses ( the YEARS of waiting between two seasons).



As you may know, fandom always create ships (When you think that two characters should be together). Ours are, among others, Johnlock, aka John and Sherlock, and Sherlolly, aka Sherlock and John (don't judge us).

Judith and I.

PS : As long as we're waiting for season 4, doing a marathon of the show takes only 15 hours in your life. Just saying.

Mr.Robot

Hello everybody ! :D

It has been two weeks that I upset the class by talking about this serie, so I decided to make an article in this blog, so that anyone can read it and watch it if they want. Enjoy ! J

I watch a loooot of tv shows but I only have two favorites : (BBC) Sherlock and Mr.Robot, and today we are talking about the last one : Mr.Robot.

Mr.Robot is a new show (the pilot aired in june 2015) but it’s not very famous in France (because it’s not translated yet, I guess).

What is it about ?

The series follows Elliot Alderson who works as a security engineer by day and is a hacker by night. He is constantly struggling with social anxiety disorder, which pushes him to hack people to get to know them.  He is recruited by a group of hacktivist who wants to break the capitalism.

Two teasers :

Also, the tv show is really well perceived by the critics :The premiere had so much success that the series was renewed for the second season before the first season has premiered on USA Network on June 24, and  after the season 1 (which ended two weeks ago),  critic websites such as Rotten tomatoes,  Metacritic and IMDb  have rated him 98/100, 79/100 and  9,1/10.

 I begun to watch it since the pilot aired (yes I know : beginning a tv show just before the brevet wasn’t a good idea ^^), and I immediately liked !

The thing that I like in the show is that it always surprise you in a way or another ! So much that the fans often change the title to "Mr.Robot" from "WTF" or "HOLY F*CK" :

Also, I really like the characters of this show, who are all very well played and  imagined, like Elliot. I like the idea that he is completely vulnerable because it breaks the picture of the hero (confident and handsome, possibly rich, has eventually superpowers etc..) , Elliot is an anti-hero,  he is a drug addict and has social anxiey disorder, he don’t even has the power of friendship (because he has like one friend and a fish named Qwerty) .Even the secondary characters like Trenton, Tyrell, Angela, Shayla and Darlene are well imagined, they are not only a decoration for the main characters but really achieve things,, some of them have even a side plot inside the big intrigue.

So, yeah..watch it if you want and tell me in the comment if you liked it or not ! :D

How to get away with murder !

Dear Charlie, 

I decided to share with
you one of the best series ever. For those who did not plan anything
(though we have some books to read) for these vacation you will find
something to watch.

It's called How to get away with
murder, quite a confusing title but it tells the story of a lawyer
and teacher named Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) who hired five teenagers ready to
do anything to get the trophy of the best investigator, however
things get complicated when a girl is murdered and when Annalise, who
was hired to defend her best friend, Rebecca, discovers that the
people she knows might be involved in this murder. We follow the
events through every episode and we learn more and more about this
murder and another one more surprising.

 We get into the lawyer's world and learn a lot of thing on trials and of course on how to get away with murder.

Hope you'll enjoy it! 

 -Amina

Why they're teaching "The Wire" at Harvard

In case you weren't fully convinced, here's a link to an interesting article on how a TV show can be used in academic context.

You might relate this to what's happening  in "Charm City" right now...

Even David Simon, the creator of the the show and a former journalist for the Baltimore Sun, stepped in yesterday... 

Community

Dear Charlie, 

Once again I am here to talk about a tv show. I have been sick for the past three days therefore I’ve been binge watching series (and doing homework obviously). 

This entry’s topic: COMMUNITY ! The most hilarious series I have EVER WATCHED. 

It’s about Jeff a former lawyer creating a study group with a bunch of students: Abed a massive nerd, Britta an activist, Troy a high school jock, Shirley a christian mother, Annie an intelligent and innocent girl and finally Pierce an old millionaire. 

The whole point of this show is that every episode has its own theme (i.e: zombie movies, western,  mob movies, cop series…) and they use clichés to parody it. It is full of pop culture reference (thanks to Abed understanding people’s reactions and feelings through pop culture).

It is a sitcom: it only lasts 20 minutes so you don’t have time to get bored ! 

I know it looks stupid and boring, but it’s really cool and funny ! 

My favorite character is the college's dean who's always interrupting them with a dumb play on words dressed in a stupid costume.

The show is starring Donald Glover (alias Childish Gambino a rapper) and Ken Jeong you may recognize from the Hangover. 

True Detective, one of the best Tv series

True Detective is a Tv serie about two detectives investigating on a serie of murders. The story is very intriguing, thrilling. The suspens  is heavy because the investigation is complex and lasts the whole season. Unlike other crime tv series as NCIS or Who Are You. 

It is set in Louisiana, creating an atmosphere really morbid and sometimes even kind of scary. The music is great, it truly matches the whole mood of the serie and helps creating this odd tone. 

The relationship between the two detectives is quite interesting: they have absolutely nothing in common yet we see their friendship grow through the years.

It’s rather short (only 8 episodes) therefore each episode is dense in story development. The pace may be sometimes kind of slow but don’t worry it’s still extremely addictive!

It’s starring Mathew McConaughey whom I’m now a fan of. He also starred in Dallas Buyer’s Club and Mud which I both deeply recommend; Interstellar which I really want to see; and Magic Mike, I wouldn’t call it one of his best movie. What I like the most about Mathew McConaughey is his deep voice and southern accent. 

Both he and woody Harrelson are great actors, they truly bring the characters to life.  

What I really liked was the two different timelines happening at the same time: one is set in the 90s (we see the detectives investigating) and the other one around 2012 (the investigators after the case was closed). 

I’m very impatient for the second season to come out but I’m pretty sad the same actors won’t be starring in it .

Sherlock

Hello Charlie, I hope that you’re well. I’m doing great!

 The last few months I’ve literally fallen in love with a TV program: «Sherlock” .As you may have guessed it’s an adaptation of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They as been many adaptations of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson .What is very interesting about this one is that it takes place in London at a modern period and that the personalities of  the characters are perfectly adapted to our time. In this series you are always surprised by the way Sherlock behaves and his attitude who  is very weird and often shocks people around him . He  is very good at solving  mysteries  that’s why Scotland yard calls him when they are stuck on a murder.There is a link if you want to watch the trailer 

 I Also think that you will love the voice and accent of the lead character played by Benedict Cumberbatch…I’m personally a big fan :-) 

Love,

Julia