Picture: BBC

I had heard about stories of Sherlock Holmes and his mysteries since my childhood but did not show much interest on it. Eventually when one of my friends recommended me to watch this series, I got a bit skeptical about its storyline, characters and the acting portrayed as I was not a fan of Sherlock Holmes and his stories like my friend was. So as I began watching the series, I saw a gangly young man in a furrow coat who addressed himself as Sherlock Holmes. In one hasty order, the gangly man, in his first meeting with a veteran soldier Dr. John Watson described him, his profession, and his relationship with his brother all by a single glance on his cell phone which got me completely awestruck. At this moment, I found Sherlock Holmes quite cool so eventually, I developed certain interest towards this series. In the first episode itself, Sherlock Holmes becomes friends with John Watson and the duo together solve all the intimidating crimes happening in the city. The most interesting part of this series is that its storyline constantly left me at the edge of my seat and made me wonder about what was going to happen next. Ultimately, this increased my eagerness to seeing it till the end. Furthermore, the suspense of every episode at the end was completely enthralling and out of the box which got me hooked to the series. Apart from mysteries and solving crimes, the eye-catching and fun elements of this series include the blog created by John Watson containing the details of the mysteries that he and Sherlock had solved together. Sherlock completely disliked this as he didn’t want to be famous and the duo argued with each other regarding this and ultimately ended up laughing. Also, the deerstalker hat that was given to Sherlock as a gift from one of his fans is another eye-catching element. Sherlock clearly didn’t like the hat but was urged to wear by his buddy John Watson who later amuses it as “it is no longer a deerstalker but a Sherlock Holmes hat.” Apart from these, the acting and chemistry between the actors seemed commendable too. Benedict Cumberbatch was well suited for the role of the high functioning sociopath- Sherlock Homes. Cumberbatch brings out the beautiful charisma; the intelligence of Sherlock Holmes to the viewer’s making us all fall for his personality. On the other hand, Martin Freeman as John Watson portrays his character as an everyday common man, looking for meaning and purpose of his life after returning from the war in Iraq. His delicate and honest character complemented Cumberbatch’s Holmes wonderfully. The supporting characters- Mrs. Hudson, Molly Hooper, inspector Greg Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes and Mary Watson made the series more interesting and worth watching with certain twists in the plot.