friends and long-time readers will know that I’m something of a Sherlock Holmes buff. Tonight I managed to catch most of the new Masterpiece Theater version of Hound of the Baskervilles.
it’s beautifully filmed, and well acted – the fellow who plays Holmes is even good enough for me to get over the image of the guy from the old Mystery! series. what disappoints me is what’s been added. (which is a little strange, usually one complains about what’s taken away) much of the fun of the Holmes stories is not quite knowing what’s going on until practically the last page.
the scene of the Christmas Eve ball was particularly disappointing, because it actually shows the tortured relationship between “Stapleton” and his “sister,” something that (if memory serves) is only alluded to, never shown.
there it is – the stories were always so strongly from Watson’s POV, with Watson’s voice, and this version erases that. oh, and it goes a little over the top with the melodrama and the music here at the end. bummer.