Sherlock & Daughter
Of all the famous literary characters the world over I do not think any of them come close to Sherlock Holmes when it comes to adaptations. There are the canonically accurate adaptations but there are just as many parodies, pastiches, and perhapses. And one must never forget the mice. With the freedom to fully explore the world that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created there is one trend that surpasses almost all others, and that's bringing greater visibility to women within the Sherlockian oeuvre. We have his housekeeper, his wife, his sister, his woman, any female presence stepping forward to compensate for the dearth of women in the original stories and solving crimes in their own right. There's a reason Irene Adler is "The Woman" in the original stories. She's really the only one. Sure Watson has a wife, but the death of his first wife and then his remarriage is barely mentioned in the stories so I don't think they technically count. Women just don't figure into the world of Sherlock Holmes and that is why so many people have been trying to right this wrong. Which brings us to our newest entry, Sherlock and Daughter. Yes, he has a daughter. But the twist is he didn't know about her and she didn't know about him and they are so similar and pig-headed that they spend most of their time arguing or trying to prove the other wrong instead of working together. This show is a perfect fit for the CW feeling very much in the vein of Reign minus the obligatory pop standards. I mean Riley's wife from Buffy the Vampire Slayer even plays a pivotal role! If that doesn't scream CW I don't know what else does? Well, the costumes. They're not really accurate and look a little cheap, but with a cast consisting of Fiona Glascott, Aidan McArdle, Ardal O'Hanlon, and Dougray Scott deliciously chewing the scenery as Professor Moriarty while living in the lap of luxury in prison, this is a who's who of actors beloved for years of work in British period dramas which means I'll forgive a lot. Though I should probably mention that most of them are Irish. And Father Dougal McGuire kind of deserves his own category. Which brings us to a man who is in a category all his own, David Thewlis. David Thewlis plays a Sherlock Holmes worthy of any category of Sherlockian adaptation. He could just as well have been the equal of Robert Downey Jr. but instead he's embracing his new role in life, playing father figures to Victorian scamps. I mean, between this and The Artful Dodger he could be employed in this paternalistic pattern for years to come. He brings a pathos to the role and Blu Hunt as his daughter, Amelia Rojas, has just the right combination of smarts and recklessness that are needed to solve the mystery of the red thread. Because of course there is a worldwide conspiracy afoot that brings the two together. And of course the perpetrator is Moriarty's own son who can also serve as a love interest to Sherlock's daughter. I mean, it's the CW of it all, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. Here's hoping that this show that has just the right light touch returns to grace our screens for years to come. Because I really do need a regular David Thewlis hit and the release date of season two of The Artful Dodger hasn't been announced yet. Myabe I'll go back and watch An Inspector Calls again.... Or because it's the right time of year perhaps The Island of Dr. Moreau....
The Dead Boy Detectives have had a rocky go of things. It seems like they are destined to forever be DOA. Ironic really. They premiered in The Sandman comic way back in 1991 in issue #25 and despite having read and reread "Season of Mists" quite a few times they were completely and utterly forgettable. Or at least that's how I felt. But I have issues with The Sandman. In the intervening ten years between their introduction and Ed Brubaker writing them a four issue miniseries which you just cannot find anywhere Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne picked up their raison d'etre with the moniker of "Dead Boy Detectives." Their first appearance on screen was in Doom Patrol in 2021 with Sebastian Croft and Ty Tennant, yes David Tennant's stepson Ty, playing the roles. Which resulted in Max wanting to do a spinoff that got stuck in developmental hell and when Netflix realized they might have a hit on their hands with The Sandman it seemed logical for them to scoop up Dead Boy Detectives. But not as Max had envisioned it. A whole new very peak CW version starring Jayden Revri and George Rexstrew with in-universe crossovers with The Sandman. Because two dead boys are kind of in the remit of Death... So yes, this show has Death! And when this show premiered on Netflix it got a loyal following almost instantly. It's like all of Neil Gaiman's shows put into a blender and coming out as a show that could air between Smallville and Veronica Mars. I mean Blake Neely even did the music and he did ALL the Arrowverse! Which, yes, I know, it's not peak CW, but at least it's CW. It was a cute show with overarching themes of acceptance and love while also sticking to a slight monster of the week format. The show consists of eight episodes and for me personally it didn't really click until episode three, "The Case of the Devlin House." Our leads get caught in a murderous time loop with "Owner of a Lonely Heart" proving that it's a song that doesn't get annoying no matter how many times you listen to it. This is when I finally connected to the characters. This is when I realized I could watch ten seasons of this show and never get bored. I should have remembered that Netflix hates their viewers and never wants them to be happy. Though personally, I don't blame this cancellation on them. But before I go into that I need to discuss Lukas Gage as the Cat King. Lukas Gage is having a moment. Within the last three years he has shown up in seven shows I've been watching. And been spectacular in all of them. Even when he's a complete a total asshole, he's such a spectacular one you have to applaud him. He was perfect as the Cat King. He WAS a cat! But more importantly, he was a wonderful sexy foil for Edwin. He helped Edwin come to accept himself while also being so damn sexy. I mean, I know we're not getting more of this show, but can I get a Cat King spinoff? And that's the sad truth, we're not getting ten seasons of this show. We're not getting more than the eight episodes we've gotten because of Neil Gaiman. And for those who claim, this isn't fair on the fans and he didn't have anything to do with this show... Um, first, he created the characters AND wrote all of Death's dialogue, but more importantly, he is an abuser and Netflix and his fans can't condone this by turning a blind eye so they can be entertained by a show. There are bigger things in life than television shows. So yeah. I'm sad that this show is more collateral damage from the truth of Neil Gaiman being revealed. But I don't know if I could go back and watch this show knowing what I know. Things have shifted. This dark yet hopeful world that Gaiman created in his works was a false reality that he used to lure his fans into his web. And that web needs to meet a blowtorch.
I can't be the only one who knows Catherine de' Medici from the guilty pleasure that was Reign. Yes, yes, I know, I did know vaguely who she was before than but needless to say, I was intrigued by this new series and was sold once I heard that Charles Dance was playing Pope Clement. The weird thing about this adaptation is that while it obviously has better production values than the CW could afford, there's still a bit of a low budget feel to it. This though could be due to the bizarre music choices that start and end each episode, much like the 2018 adaptation of Vanity Fair, or the arch knowing tone that wants to be Gentleman Jack and fails. Yet, it still has charm. The driving force though is really just waiting for Catherine to go full on serpent queen and embrace the dark side. To watch her line up the pawns and knock them all down, getting exactly what she wants. Yet she's willing to play the long game and thankfully in the meantime we have Ludivine Sagnier as Diane de Poitiers. Diane was the mistress of Catherine's husband Henri. Diane had a lot of power and spent a lot of time rubbing this in Catherine's face. But Ludivine who I previously admired on The Young Pope/The New Pope, plays a character you love to hate so perfectly she is what I envision Catherine will become, well maybe not bathing in gold, but you never know. This back and forth between the two women, and later between Catherine and her daughter-in-law Mary, is really at the heart of the show. Women vying for what power they can hold onto. Which made my mind just explode. Because I just realized that ANY royal historical drama could never pass the Bechdel Test. Did these women EVER talk about anything other than men or how they will derive power due to their male protectors? No they did not. It's all men and marriages and alliances and male heirs and men men men. Seriously, why have I never noticed this before? This is brought home even more here because all the main stars of the show are female yet everything is about the men. And the star with top billing is Samantha Morton. I'm not sure I really get how she's approaching this character. She's playing the role very quiet, very reserved, and oddly very love-struck. The weird mystical aspects are shoved off onto Ruggieri, played by one of my favorite actors, Enzo Cilenti. But Catherine is almost a nonentity. She is the spider at the center of the web, but only because she's worked her way there slowly and methodically. I think more than anything that is why this show got a second season, viewers need to see her at the height of her power, not some woman barely holding onto her marriage, or a baby factory, or a widow, she needs to seize control. And the last two episodes showed us what's coming. France and Catherine's enemies better hold on tight.
The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
If last fall, after I'd watched a few episodes of the "dark reboot" of Nancy Drew, you'd tell me it would end up being my favorite adaptation of the year I would have laughed at you. Yes, I admit I'm all about the "dark reboot" having devoured the first season of Riverdale over a harsh weekend in 2017, but a dark Nancy Drew? Sure I was interested, but not sure I'd be hooked. I viewed it as a nice Wednesday night paring with Riverdale. But as Riverdale's quality continued to tank I looked more and more at Nancy Drew to be my Wednesday fix to get me through the rest of the week. Though I do applaud Riverdale for the nice twist of fate in that they were doing their own Hardy Boys tribute with this season's Baxter Brothers. A coincidence? Hell no. Do I care? Not as long as it entertained me. So what changed? What made me push aside an old favorite and choose a mildly diverting show about the residents of Horseshoe Bay, Maine, and the recent high school grads working at The Bayside Claw, a perennially failing restaurant? Much like Perry Mason, this isn't your parent's Nancy Drew, but I think that's why it works. And aside from the fact that it grows on you, I loved that the mysteries they tackled each week made all the characters personally involved. Their history, their backstory, their past relationships, everything tied into the narrative to make this bay side community rife with crime and more importantly the supernatural. The fact that the supernatural is real here still makes me giddy. It's not just hinted at or intimated, ghosts are REAL! And I love me some ghosts and ghouls. What's more, Nancy is being haunted by the ghost of Dead Lucy, the local urban legend which is very much based in truth and very much important to Nancy's backstory. Yet, my favorite character, hand's down, is George's mother, Victoria Fan, played by Liza Lapira. George was Nancy's former nemesis and now boss and George's mother knows everything there is to know about the supernatural. She's usually drunk and hostile because she's trying to shut herself off from the supernatural goings-on, but when she strolls into the Claw, you know it's going to be a kick ass episode. I would watch a show just about her! Until that day I at least have Nancy Drew. 
There's nothing nicer than a pleasant surprise and that's exactly what Stargirl turned out to be. Ever since the end of Smallville I haven't been a fan of the direction all the DC series have taken on the CW. I swear I tried to like them, but after I think only three episodes of Arrow I was done. That was it with me and DC. I declared myself a Marvel girl and moved on. That is until this most recent "Crisis on Infinite Earths." Yes, they lured me back in with bringing back Tom Welling! Damn you CW! But add to that Brandon Routh returning as Superman, Wil Wheaton as a doomsday protestor, Russell Tovey, Kevin Conroy as the bleakest Batman you could imagine, Ezra Miller, and Lucifer Morningstar himself, Tom Ellis, and I couldn't NOT watch! While the cameos were fantastic, the episodes were lackluster, reinforcing my opinion of the DC universe on the CW. Yet the Crisis Aftermath show hosted by Kevin Smith dissecting the episodes and seriously geeking out were wonderful. It was during this that I first heard of Stargirl. Geoff Johns, the creator of Stargirl, was on discussing his work on everything DC from Smallville to Doom Patrol. I was interested because he talked about how he turned a personal tragedy, the death of his sister Courtney on TWA Flight 800, into creating a new brand of superhero with Courtney Whitmore, AKA Stargirl. Now this could be something I could get into I said to myself. He might have also mentioned Luke Wilson... I'm hazy on that part. Mmm, Luke Wilson. Anyway when the show came around my DVR was ready and yet it took me a few weeks to finally bite the bullet. What if the CW let me down, again? Then oddly my rewatching of Upstairs, Downstairs forced my hand, how could I resist the chauffeur becoming the villain? I was delightfully surprised. This show reminds me of Smallville at it's best. It's earnest without being cloying. It's dark without being bleak. It's a light in the darkness that we're all facing right now. Even if I'm a little shaken that I'm now the age of the parents on this type of show, Stargirl is a show I'm very glad will be coming back to the small screen with a second season and MORE Joel McHale! Joel's the original Starman, FYI. 
Right about now you're probably thinking that she can't be serious including the dark reinterpretation of the Archie comics on her "must watch" list from the last year's television viewing? Oh yes I am. Deadly serious! Like when Jason Blossom's body washed ashore serious. Firstly, as a kid I loved reading the Archie comics, and yes, when I heard they were making Riverdale I was skeptical. In fact I didn't even watch it when it aired on the CW, instead, during a dark and trying weekend I really needed an escape and Riverdale was on Netflix and I binged it. I binged it hard and I loved every minute of it. It quite literally got me through each day knowing that at the end of it I could watch it. From eighties teen icons being the parents to me finally actually feeling something other than loathing for Veronica, I was shocked how much I enjoyed it. The show had a very specific target it was aiming for, trying to make Riverdale land somewhere between Veronica Mars and Twin Peaks and it hit the mark. It also didn't hurt that Betty's mom was played by Twin Peaks alum Mädchen Amick. There's a murder to be solved, there are shady dealings, gangs, and Jughead Jones becomes a Holden Caulfield for a new generation. Though once you realize that yes, that IS Skeet Ulrich as Jughead's dad you may start to feel a little old. I can't wait until it returns and I can tune into even more deadly teen drama with secret pregnancies, liaisons with teachers, and some kick ass music by Josie and the Pussycats. Just leave your high school hangups at the door of Pop's and grab a shake, just watch out for Archie's dad bleeding to death on the floor. 
