9 Years Later, The BBC's Sherlock Has Finally Been Fixed

The BBC’s Sherlock is still one of the best detective TV shows of all time, but it made some huge mistakes in its final season – and now, almost a decade later, Sherlock has finally been fixed. One of the most popular and successful genres on TV is mystery, and shows centered around detectives are the most beloved ones. Many detective shows have been inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, such as Psych, The Mentalist, and Monk, while others have been adaptations of the character.

In recent years, there have been some great TV adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, most notably the BBC’s Sherlock. Created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, Sherlock brought the Great Detective (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), Watson (Martin Freeman), and other characters from Conan Doyle’s books to modern-day London. Sherlock ran for four seasons, and while its first two seasons were a huge hit, the final two saw a dramatic drop in quality, with one of the most disappointing finales in TV history.

Sherlock’s biggest mistake in its final season was the introduction of a third Holmes sibling named Eurus (Sian Brooke), who came up with an elaborate yet very nonsensical plan to bring Sherlock, Mycroft (Gatiss), and Watson down, revealing herself as a criminal mastermind. Now, nine years after Sherlock’s end, another Sherlock Holmes TV show, separate from the BBC one, has fixed this mistake by properly introducing a Holmes sister: Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock.

Young Sherlock’s Holmes Sister Makes A Lot More Sense Than Sherlock’s Eurus

Spoilers for Young Sherlock Season 1

Inspired by Andrew Lane’s book series of the same name, Young Sherlock was created by Matthew Parkhill, with Guy Ritchie among its executive producers. Unlike most Sherlock Holmes adaptations in recent years, Young Sherlock isn’t a modern version, instead staying true to the time setting in Conan Doyle’s stories – the twist, as the title says, is that it follows a 19-year-old Sherlock Holmes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) before he becomes the famous detective everyone now knows.

Young Sherlock follows Holmes as he starts working at Oxford University as a scout, following his release from prison for pickpocketing. There he meets James Moriarty (Dónal Finn), a brilliant student and the only one who can match Holmes’ intelligence. After a professor is murdered on campus and Holmes is framed for it, he and Moriarty set out to clear his name and find the real murderer. However, their investigation takes a turn, and they end up uncovering some disturbing secrets of the Holmes family.

Not only has Sherlock’s father, Silas (Joseph Fiennes), been developing a deadly weapon, but Sherlock’s younger sister, Beatrice (Holly Cattle), is alive and well, so much so that she had been aiding Silas and hiding in plain sight the entire time. For years, Sherlock felt guilty of Beatrice’s death, but he eventually learned the truth, and Beatrice had a moment of clarity in which she sided with her brothers to bring their father down. While Young Sherlock repeated Sherlock’s sister twist, Ritchie’s show did it a lot better by never hiding her existence and actually developing the character.

Eurus Holmes’ appearance felt very sudden, and her connection with Moriarty felt forced and confusing. Sherlock revealed that Eurus met with Moriarty to help him break Sherlock, and Moriarty’s supposed return from the dead was all Eurus’ doing. Young Sherlock, on the other hand, properly developed the connection between Moriarty and Beatrice, with them potentially teaming up in the near future as an antagonistic duo.

How Young Sherlock Can Continue To Avoid Sherlock’s Eurus Mistakes

Young Sherlock already avoided some of Sherlock’s Eurus mistakes, but the show is only getting started and is still at risk of falling into the Eurus trap. Young Sherlock did a great job with Beatrice in season 1, but there’s still a lot to explore about the character, her time with Silas and far from the rest of her family, and where she stands now that Silas is (supposedly) gone and she’s back with her brothers.

Of course, there’s also her relationship with Moriarty, which could lead her to betray her family or be a double agent. Young Sherlock also needs to explore Beatrice’s reunion, reconnection, and relationship with her mother, Cordelia (Natascha McElhone), more so as the latter was gaslit and manipulated for years into thinking Beatrice was dead and she was mentally unstable. All this can save Young Sherlock from repeating Sherlock’s Eurus mistakes, and, luckily, it’s already on the path to success.