Abstract: Bachelor thesis

Topic: The re-imagination of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in a contemporary context on the basis of the TV series “Sherlock” and “Elementary”

When it comes to detective fiction, most people immediately think of Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is characterised as an adventurous genius whose greatest interest lies in the science of crime. Therefore, he does several experiments isolated in his chamber in 221B Baker Street, London, or at the medical laboratories of Barts University, consumes drugs and is accompanied by his flatmate Dr John Watson, who writes down Holmes’ adventures in a journal. However, this classical image of the famous “consulting detective” is depicted slightly differently in two recent TV adaptations called “Sherlock”, created in 2010 by the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC), and “Elementary”, created in 2012 by CBS in the USA. Both shows are set in modern times, one in London and the other in New York, and through putting Sherlock Holmes into the present he is able to use modern technologies as well as cases become more complex. Apart from that, the characters’ psychoses are emphasised to a great extent as they become apparent to the spectators from the first episode onwards. In both series, Sherlock is a high-functioning sociopath with neuroses, who clashes with the people around him because of his social incapability. In “Sherlock”, John Watson suffers from depression as an aftermath of his military service in Afghanistan where he practised as an army doctor, while Joan Watson, the female companion in “Elementary”, gave up her profession as a surgeon because of a medical malpractice that caused her patient’s death during a surgery. Above all, James Moriarty, who appears in “Sherlock” as the antagonist and is said to appear in “Elementary” simply as M., is clearly categorised as a psychopath since he commits crimes and murders out of boredom and wants to challenge Sherlock, thus, he even plays with human lives and tortures his victims just to enjoy himself.

But why do the creators put such an emphasis on the characters’ psychoses, which cannot be found in Doyle’s stories, at least not to such an extent, and what do they aim for by doing so? Do modern times require a certain amount of psychological issues and edgy characters in order to satisfy today’s audience? And if so, what is the fascination of sociopaths and psychopaths that appear so often as protagonists and/or antagonists in TV series nowadays?

In my Bachelor thesis, I want to cope with those questions and deal with the approach of detective and crime fiction as well as the classical image of the Victorian Sherlock Holmes in contrast to his re-imagination in contemporary media, in this case television, but also with the medical discourse of sociopaths and psychopaths as the protagonists in both TV series show features of said mental disorders. Another psychological point of research I want to look at is the meaning of social relationships to Sherlock Holmes. While Doyle’s original does not have any need for deep social interactions despite with his companion Dr Watson, although this relationship can hardly be categorised as a deep friendship by contemporary means, “Sherlock” and “Elementary” show that Holmes fancies to not work all alone on his cases and befriends Watson, even becomes somehow dependent of his flatmate, but also socialises with Lestrade, Mrs Hudson and Molly Hooper in “Sherlock” as well as with Gregson and Bell in “Elementary”.