Review by C.J. Bunce
When you hear the phrase “it’s all been done before,” that applies to pretty much every book, movie, and TV show ever done. The key is usually putting a new twist on the old, via new technology, new tropes, new characters, or new times and places. It certainly applies to more than 140 years of adaptations of Sir Arthur Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. CW’s new series Sherlock & Daughter gives you a big clue to its subject in the title. But as much as being a story of Holmes with a surprise daughter from America–which hasn’t been done at least on a TV series before–the idea that it’s a CW series is part of the package. This is very much your classic A&E or BBC Sherlock Holmes story but merged with young adult-targeted shows like Riverdale and Smallville. With three episodes aired, the series is off to a fun start. If you’re a fan of Holmes, of Edgar Award nominated producer James Duff, of Harry Potter franchise, RED 2, and The Big Lebowski actor David Thewlis, The Originals and The New Mutants star Blu Hunt, or of stories of strong young women–or all of the above–Sherlock & Daughter may be for you.
Three key features make this work. First, everyone has an expectation of Sherlock Holmes, every Western reader for more than a century. And David Thewlis, who played one of the Harry Potter series’ best characters, Professor Lupin, was born to play Holmes. At age 59 Thewlis has arrived at a place where those who loved the old Masterpiece Theater Holmes will be quite happy. As in the original Doyle books, Holmes is kind, not the mean guy seen so much in 21st century adaptations.
The second key component is Blu Hunt. Her all-new character Amelia Rojas is smart, clever, and industrious. On her mother’s death she finds her way across the sea to find Holmes–at her mother’s instruction. Holmes doesn’t remember meeting Amelia’s mother–or does he? What is that backstory and will we ever get to know if she is really his daughter? This is a CW show, so the answer is most assuredly yes, but it’s also a James Duff series so we can bet a lot more is up his sleeve for these characters.
The third component that makes this series work is the setting. It’s not a perfect, meticulous revisitation of late Victorian London. But it works in the same way that the successful, 12-season Canadian mystery series Murdoch Mysteries worked. You can’t deny that television series don’t have movie studio budgets. The key to each episode of Murdoch Mysteries, and it looks like the route to be taken in Sherlock & Daughter, is the story, the characters, and of course the mystery, with a dose of just enough historical fact, costumes, and vintage technology that the viewer will be reeled in and want to stick around for the ride. It also has the same vibe as CW’s Canada series Wild Cards, also a fun daughter-father mystery (reviewed here).
Aidan McArdle is a great choice as the detective from the police constabulary, Chief Inspector Whitlock. And The Closer and Major Crimes’ Phillip P. Keene is a great choice for Ambassador Anderson, whose daughter Clara (Gia Hunter) a young woman Amelia meets on her voyage to England, who is kidnapped in the first episode–a concept that echoes the long-plot of Veronica Mars, where Amanda Seyfried played the victim of the series’ key crime–the show’s MacGuffin. It’s that kind of callback, genre-bending and mash-up fun that can make a series like this stick around.
Catch Sherlock & Daughter on Wednesdays on the CW Network and Discovery+, streaming free on the CW app the next day, with the first three episodes now available.
