Vienna Blood (2019)

[mightymads]

Recently, whiling away time in airports, I watched a mini-series which popped up in recommendations. Created by a Sherlock writer Stephen Thompson, Vienna Blood has many familiar traits. There's a duo of protagonists, one of them tall, dark, wearing a funny hat, and having unusual investigation methods whereas the other is heavily built, more down-to-earth, and can defend himself and his companion.





The series is set in 1907 in Vienna, where a young doctor Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) becomes an assistant to a police detective Oskar Rheinhardt (Jürgen Maurer). At first the policeman is not glad at all that some snotty youth with connections now follows him around and is being clever, but when Liebermann's insightful suggestions based on his studies of psychology prove pivotal in solving crime cases, Rheinhardt grows more appreciative of Liebermann's company. These two definitely have the Dynamic, one being an observer of human nature and the other a man of action, one of middle class and the other of working class, and both stubborn and determined. 

Max's fiancee Clara Weiss (Luise von Finckh) deserves a special note. In the beginning she seems to be somewhat vacuous in comparison with Max the intellectual. He has little interest in her and often runs off to investigate while she, long-suffering and good-natured, lets him—a kind of a shout-out to the canon Mary. Later on, her character has a significant development. She voices her displeasure about being constantly neglected by Max, she tries to understand him and his fascination with crime, she even sets out to help him with an investigation by bravely risking her safety and posing as a bait for a suspect.



Eventually (SPOILER ALERT!), she has the courage to break off their engagement, having realised that Max is infatuated with someone else. Max, on the other hand, is good at analysing others, but when it comes to his own feelings and motivations, he is a mumbling mess. Rheinhardt teases him about it in a kind, friendly way.

Watching this series, it's easy to imagine young Holmes and his first acquiantance with Lestrade, and how Holmes gradually makes a reputation for himself while at first no one takes him seriously. It's interesting that Liebermann and Rheinhardt are on first name terms which is unusual for the time period.

There are only three episodes, but each is one and a half hour long. The cases are complex and multilayered, a real treat even if they lack the edge just a tiny bit (imo). Anyway, I'm looking forward to season 2!

The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman

[recently_folded]

This is a long-running (book #8 is in print; book #9 is currently being written) series about a multiverse in which its inhabitants travel from one world to another according to their own capabilities. The multiverse is inhabited by the fae, who embody and use the forces of chaos; dragons, who are their polar opposites in embracing order; and The Library, staffed by human Librarians who speak a Language that allows them to manipulate objects in their work of keeping humans safe from the two other races. So lots of adventure and politics.

But the Librarian who is the series protagonist is based in a quasi-Victorian world, where she is friends and allies with, amongst others, the part-fae Peregrine Vale. Each fae embraces a particular archetype and their lives enact that archetype's story. Vale's is the Great Detective, the story of which sometimes leads him overenthusiastically into tracking down mysteries. He even has a police contact, the useful Inspector Singh. The writer is sparing but reliable in seeding his portions of the action with both ACD and Sherlock BBC breadcrumbs, as well as giving the protagonist many worries that Vale's chosen archetype endangers him more than he deserves as a person. In other words, Holmes' compulsion to occupy his brain with cases is cast here as a different mechanism, but still one of intellectual seduction. And thus the series protagonist, Irene Winters, can be seen as a casual sort of functional Watson although without the intensity of relationship that typically characterises most Holmes/Watson pairings. In fact, she inhabits a role that might be considered a Watsonified version of The Woman, although there is no sexual tension between the two.

I'll admit to a fist-pump in reading The Dark Archive, book #8, when the antagonist (specifically Vale's antagonist) for the episode is introduced as The Professor. Ooooooh! May we anticipate a waterfall in their future? I haven't finished it yet but I'll be surprised if the writer can resist, even if it's just a slip and fall in the shower.

There's a lot of other stuff going on in this series, but a little Sherlock Holmes fanfic never goes amiss.

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