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victorian221bA new Russian TV series about Holmes is announced. Holmes goes to St. Petersburg on a case. While Watson is left behind in Britain, Holmes teams up with a Russian doctor and even has a love interest—some pretty lady. Somehow I'm not excited.
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Date: 2019-05-23 06:35 pm (UTC)I don't like the "he just left Watson behind!" bit, but I get why they would do it. Like-- I really really like this idea, I want to see Holmes in Russia, and have kind of the meta exploration of both the culture clash and the fact that Russia is really into Sherlock Holmes. That sounds great! And if you accept the premise that Watson is, or can be, kind of the reader or viewer's guide into the mind/life of Sherlock Holmes, or that he is equally Holmes' guide to the normal world, then... it makes sense for them to want to have a local "Watson." Because it sounds like this Kartsev fellow essentially IS Watson, just... adjusted for the primary audience that is going to be watching the show. And I can easily see how that will work better for the story than essentially having TWO bumbling foreigners trying to figure out ow to solve crime all over again.
THAT SAID, I really wish they could have done that without the implication of the actual Watson just being left behind in London for no reason! Seeing as this is already an AU-space, they could have just, you know... made Watson Russian? There is no rule against that, and it would be really fun to interpret all of the different facets of the character-- military service, medical education, political beliefs-- from the starting point of him never having been English at all.
The other way to do it, I suppose, while simultaneously ripping everyone's hearts out of their chests and stomping on them, would be to hire Igor Petrenko as Holmes, kill Watson offscreen (ONLY ACCEPTABLE UNDER THESE SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES, THIS IS STRICTLY A ONE-TIME KILLING OFF WATSON ALLOWANCE) and carry on with a "catch Jack the Ripper while simultaneously fleeing London and your own broken heart to find yourself in a foreign land" tale.
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Date: 2019-05-23 06:45 pm (UTC)It did occur to me why ‘Russian Watson’ is a thing, but you know, instead of making the police antagonists, there could be a Russian Lestrade, who’d help out with local matters while two bumbling foreigners would be hilarious. And this obligatory no homo love interest, just let him be, guys. He might be asexual after all.
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Date: 2019-05-23 08:57 pm (UTC)I mean, that's the silver lining, it's still really annoying that people keep feeling the need to make him hetero at all.
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Date: 2019-05-24 04:23 am (UTC)Holmes and Watson—it’s two or none. I’d love to see a Russian equivalent of Lestrade acting as H&W guide and translator in Russia, but Watson being replaced by some other doctor, just no.
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Date: 2019-05-24 04:27 am (UTC)