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September 10, 2019 48 mins

Grab your pipe and cap and head to 221b Baker Street, this week we're talking about Sherlock Holmes! Dani and Ify are joined by Author and Host of iHeart Podcast 'Noble Blood', Dana Schwartz to talk about this legendary detective. Learn whether everything you've heard about Sherlock Holmes is fact or fiction and which stories to take a closer look at on this week's episode of Nerdificent!

FOOTNOTES:

Dana on Twitter

Preorder: THE WHITE MAN'S GUIDE TO WHITE MALE WRITERS OF THE WESTERN CANON

The 12 Best Sherlock Holmes Stories, According to Arthur Conan Doyle

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, Hello, Hello, welcome to another edition of Nerdificent. I
am one half of your host Danny Fernandez, if he
will be joining us later in the podcast. But up top,
I have one of my dear friends. She's an author
and host of the Noble Blood podcast. Right here, it's
Danis Schwartz. Thank you so much for having me. You
record in this very studio, In this very studio, I'm

(00:31):
already an expert on where to get the seltzer and
we're the best snap Yeah we do. I know. It's
so funny all the guests that come on talk about
like our snack choices. Um, yeah, that's been upgraded since
we got bought by my Heart. So let me go
on the record and say I'm per snack me too.
And I take the energy drinks here. I think they
got them from me, you know, my I brought them

(00:53):
in so much that they were like, we're going to
start carrying them. I've never had an energy drink. Now,
I'm like, what's in that? What's the I drink coffee
all the time, but what's what's an energy drink? Wait?
I was going to be like, wait, have you done drunks?
I have Okay, I've done scare you. But energy drinks yeah,
because at least drugs I know what they're supposed to be.
Energy drinks could be anything. Yeah, I guess that's right.

(01:14):
There's also I used to be addicted to one UM
that was called Redline. I don't even know if you
could get anymore. Do not recommend you have to be
like eighteen to get it at the UM seven eleven
because it will mess you up. We don't cuss on here,
but it will mess you up. Uh. Well, good to know.
I'm going to continue my pro snack anti energy drink.
What do you what do you have for a caffeine?

(01:34):
So much coffee and I cooke okay coffee, so you
just straight like chug. I'm a black coffee drinker. Yeah,
that's the best way. Yeah. I just I think I
started doing it in high school and I've been doing
it ever since. Yeah. I just I can't have dairy,
so I know that I could have like the other
possible things angels like oat milk and hemp milk. I've

(01:55):
just tried the oat milk that we have here, so
I'm new to oat milk, m coconut milk, though I'll
sometimes treat myself and put that in there. I remember,
like my first day in l A. I go to
a coffee shop and I was like, hey, can I
get like a latte with like non fat or like
low fat, like two percent milk? And they're like, oh,
we don't have two percent have oat milk or hemp
milk or almond milk. I was like, all right, well,

(02:17):
I guess this is this is where I live now.
Of course they didn't have two percent milk. Oh my gosh,
who even ask how would they do that? Here? Well? Um,
today we are talking about something that is near and
dear to your heart. Um. You actually when I was
asking you the things that you are into, you brought
it up. And that's Sherlock Holmes. Yeah. I'm a big

(02:38):
Sherlott comes man. I love mysteries. Sometimes I get in patient.
I think the thing is I love mysteries. I don't
usually like mystery books because I'm too impatient. I was
skipped to the end. But short stories are the best.
You're in, you're out. Yeah, but this is not a
short story like Sherlock Holmes. Some of them are okay, okay,
because the one that I was at first introduced too

(02:59):
I told you was hown to the Baskerville. That's that's
a book. Yeah, Okay, there's a lot of short stories.
And then also, I mean the Sears. There's so many
good adaptations. I'm pretty sure now it's like it must
be in the public domain because so many people adapt him.
But like, there's so many good and smart adaptations, and
I think there's something so human about our want for

(03:19):
a character who just is so smart and always right. Yeah.
So what was your first introduction to him? I think
reading middle school. I think in middle school I read
a few. I read some of the short stories. So
I read like The Speckled Band, and I was like,
oh my god, oh my god, what is this? And
then I remember when I learned that house was Charlotte.

(03:43):
Uh it blew my mind. I was like house homes. Also, technically,
I would have to say my first introduction to him
would be The Great Mouse Detective. Oh my god, I
can't believe I bring that up right. I truly loved
the Great mass dettech Basil of Baker stra Yes, and
the villain was Ratigan. Ratigan he had a song. All

(04:06):
villains should have songs, yes, and um, that creepy little
Hobgoblin bat God was so good. Yeah. That's also the
thing about Carlock Holmes is it brings out the best villains.
Because the thing about Charlotte Holmes is it's so grounded,
like it's so clearly takes place in the real world,
but it's also this real world, like all of his murders,

(04:27):
all the cases he solves, are like plausible, but it's
also like a real world where people have like arch
nemeses and super villains. So it's like we get our
super villain fixed in a totally grounded way. Yeah. I
just remember the Hound of the Baskervilles terrified me. Oh,
that one's so scary. Yeah. And I can't remember if
there was some type of media adaption that I saw it.

(04:50):
I can't if it was a show or something I
also think of. I don't know if this was actually
in it. But um, do you remember the Page Master.
Is that the one with mccullo. Yes, yeah, yeah, Well
they had Jacquel and Hide, but I can't remember if
they also had um like a Sherlock Holmes reference in
there as well. But that's what I think of. Um,
So we should just dive into the history of our

(05:13):
Private Detective that was created by British author Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Great mustache. Uh. He
was a doctor originally, which I like. I like that,
like him and Chekhov that sometimes there's just like men
of medicine that are just like I shall write stories, right, Yeah, Well,

(05:33):
have you read any of his other works? Yeah? I've
read some of his other short stories actually, because I
do um a podcast here called Noble Blood and one
of the uh, Arthur Conan Doyle loved Weird History and
the Occult, and so one of the episodes I'm doing,
we share he and I shared a proclivity for a

(05:55):
certain weird historical case that he wrote about a lot.
And what I also like about him is he sort
of hated Sherlock Holmes really so he it's like the
first instance of toxic fandom. Yeah, so he wrote Sherlock Holmes.
I was kind of mad at how successful it got,
and he was really angry that that was the thing

(06:17):
he was getting known for. Oh that makes sense that
like maybe he had other works that he like, why
don't you guys into this? You're into this, dude? Yeah,
He's like I just wrote this one, but like I'm
writing all these other things. And so then he killed
Charlock Holmes off at the Rick and back falls, but
then the fans were so angry. The fans were outraged

(06:37):
that then years later he brought her He had Sherlock
comes like catch a branch and survived the falling to
his death. He's like, alright, alright, and type type type
Sherlock Holmes actually survived and he's back. I just love
the idea because we didn't have social media, people just
like shouting in the streets colms. But right, can't you

(06:58):
so see that like a character could would be so
beloved that the author kills them off and then fans
are so outrage that they bring them back. So you
were asking about my tattoos and the dragonball Z tattoos
and vegeta, who's this character that it happened to him
exactly a curritory ama. The creator killed him off and
he was like everybody's favorite. He was just supposed to

(07:19):
be a villain. He was just supposed to be there
for like one or two story arcs and saga's and
he's now and I can like they're do He's normally
placed up alongside the main character. He's been there for
decades now. He's like, he's my favorite. So he's he
became went from being a side character to being like
the one of the main characters. Um. But yeah, he

(07:41):
like brought him back, and I think it was the
same thing. He hates him. Everybody knows that about him.
He hates him because he gives him like the worst
story line and he refuses to let him excel past
a certain point. But like, fans would die if he
wasn't around. So I'm reading this this bit from his
Wikipedia because I was curious how they framed it, because
I'm sure it was less colorful than I imagine they were. Like.
In December, to dedicate more of his time to his

(08:04):
historical novels, Doyle had Homes and Professor Moriality plunged to
their deaths together down in the Reichenback Falls. Uh. Public outcry, however,
led him to feature homes in one in the novel
The Hound of the Baskervilles. So he's like, all right, fine.
So Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print in eight seven
a study in Scarlet. Do you remember that one? Yeah?

(08:26):
And that actually is um if you saw the Sherlock
adaptation on the BBC Benedict Cumberband. Yes, the first episode
of that is a study in pink. Okay, there's something
so fascinating about, um, a mystery that is presented and

(08:48):
solved too in a satisfying way. Like we love that
with every story, Like even non mystery stories, aren't they
always just plots that are resolved in a clever way
that make you go ah, yeah, yeah, I can't remember.
We had throw up Van orman on who is a director.
He created Flapjock on Cartoon Network but also he directed
The Angry Birds, and he was saying something about features,

(09:08):
how um, they shouldn't leave you like same with novels,
like they you should feel um completed at the end
of them essentially um. And I love that he said,
like it shouldn't leave you actually guessing for more so
I guess some cliffhangers are not some like movie cliffhangers.
So something about Sherlock Holmes. He is in a Guinness

(09:28):
Book of World Records as being the most portrayed movie character.
I think that has today with him being in public
domain right where it's like everyone can can take their
take a crack at him. Yeah, yeah, and so many parodies,
and obviously he's been referenced in like every TV show ever.
Um oh, I didn't know this, it says Conan Doyle
wrote the first Carlock Comes novel when he was twenty seven,

(09:51):
in less than three weeks, which I hate. What is
everyone else doing with their lives? I'm so mad? I hate.
I hate to like you could do that. I feel like,
lock yourself away for how was it three weeks? Just
lock yourself away? You could totally do it. Yeah, okay,
I still have a year to do it to make
my Sherlock Holmes. So before we dive into more of
his books, can you talk to people about the character

(10:11):
of Sherlock, Like, what does he like? His personality? Yeah?
So it's hard to pin that down because obviously there's
been so many permutations of him that I feel like
it would almost be limiting to only talk about the
book Sherlock Holmes, because I feel like Sherlock Holmes has
become a character of the popular imagination, right, Like he's

(10:32):
bigger than he is in the books. In the books,
people like to point out like he uses drugs, but
like you know he uses ah, well, he smokes his pipe,
his pipe and he does some opium and uh he
he is famously um Kurt and per s nickitty with people,

(10:53):
and there's whether or not regardless. Some people read sexual
tension with Watson, which I don't think was in the
original intent of the book. But of course going back
you can always read that in uh the biggest wait,
I wanted to pause on that moment, So like that
has been Have people talked about that? Yeah? I feel

(11:13):
like people go back to the text and try to
especially we'll talk about this, but like Sherlock the TV show,
people are huge shippers with John Lock, right John and
uh and Sherlock is that they should be together, and
so I feel like people do go back to the
text and they're like, see blah blah blah, look they're together, um,
which you know maybe who knows. And people play with that,

(11:34):
right because there was that elementary where they made Wanton
Lucy lou So sometimes like yeah, yeah, you're right. I
mean I don't think a burdener any situation. It can
be whatever you wanted to be. Yeah, although I would
love to see like an actually gay one, like an
explicitly gay one. That would be fun. I'm sure that
will probably. I mean, it's such a it's I mean,
with everybody making taking these I p s, I feel

(11:57):
like we'll get another Sherlock coming up. It's crazy that
we haven't that we haven't had a gay Sherlock. I mean, yeah,
just like it's people gay Sherlock, gay Sherlock. We've had
a young Sherlock. We're ready for gay Shortock. But so
Sherlock as a character, I think his most like telling
uh quote. And I'm paraphrasing completely because I do I'm

(12:19):
not Sherlock Holmes. I don't have quotes memorized. But there
is an exerpt from one of the stories where he's
describing his brain and he talks about how he doesn't
know he like can identify a hundred and thirty cigars
by their ash, but he doesn't know that the Earth
revolves around the Sun. And he's like, well, it doesn't
help me in my detective work to like know that
workings the planets, but it does help me to identify ash.

(12:41):
And he's like, my brain is like an attic and
there's only so much space, and I put keep important
things there that helped meself crimes. So that's the way
you sort of define the characters. He is someone who
has shed off all extraneous knowledge and social skills and
social niceties and to presuve of his brain to fight crime.
He kind of comes off as like rude or brash, Yeah,

(13:04):
because he doesn't he doesn't care about that he's shed
social niceties. He just wants to solve solve murders. What
I take away from that quote is that he's not
focused on like um, bigger, like larger. He's like focused
on the minute, like tiny small details that people would miss. Yes,
that's exactly. It's very Monk. We love God, we love
a a really smart detective. I mean like Sharrock Comps.

(13:27):
Is that the foundation for so many TV shows like Monk,
like Psych, like any any detective show, Owes owes it
to Sherlock because you need the genius, and then you
need the sidekick who's the audience proxy who asks the questions,
because Sherlock will be like, Okay, onto the you know, Miller's,

(13:47):
and then we need John to be the audience to say, like, wait,
how did you know we're supposed to go to the Millers?
And then he explains, yeah, so can you talk about Watson. Yeah,
Watson is a military doctor. In the original book, he
came back from like the Anglo Afghanistan War. I don't
think it was Afghanistan back then, but Middle East War

(14:08):
in Victorian times, and he needs a place to live
in his mutual friends like try the flattered to make
Surelock Holmes and the books most of them, with the
exception of one or two. And don't quote me on that,
but I'm pretty sure there's one or two exceptions. Most
of them are written as if from from John's personct.

(14:29):
We're reading his eccentric detective he stumbled upon, Yes, his
friend who does amazing things. And there's even a quote
that Sherlock says, where he goes, I would be lost
without my balls Well referencing uh, Samuel Peeps and and
Boswell Boswell who like wrote everything that he's doing. Um,
Johnson and Boswell. Sorry not Samuel Peeps was a diarist. God,

(14:51):
it's I need more caffeine, Boswell wrote, Samuel Johnson with
the diarist, and so he is the one wunting Sherlock,
so he functions as the narrator proxy. So we get
to see Sherlock work through John's perspective and John as
he's usually portrayed, is the human side. What are some

(15:13):
of your favorite stories of his? Well, God, I I
do want to talk. If we can to move to
Sherlock on the b like the BBC Agitation, Yeah, yeah,
because that was the first time where like I feel
like Sherlock had a fandom because I feel like everyone
kind of just like like Sherlock Humbs stories growing up,
and like I liked him fine, Like I was like, oh,

(15:35):
those are fun short stories, but it wasn't like I
felt like any emotional kinship to it. And I think
it jumped the shark a little bit. But when it
first came out and I was like streaming them illegally
in America because out yet, I was like, Jesus Christ,
have you seen this? Have you seen this? Bennett Cumberbatch
wasn't a thing yet, right I only they knew him.

(15:56):
We didn't know him they but I mean he was
starting to become known, he was starting to come down.
We didn't know him. I mean, I'm sure he was
doing things in England. He's in a few things. I
had no idea who he was. He was just this gorgeous,
cheekbone walking cheekbone. He looks like Sherlock Holmes. Martin Freeman looked. Uh,
he was kind of familiar. He was the guy from
Love actually, and he was the guy from the British Office.

(16:19):
He plays the gym equivalent in the British Office. Um,
and it was just amazing. It was also the first
series where oh, and they both are in the m
c U. Oh yeah, now they're both in the m
c uan. It's good for them. I'm sorry, that's where
my brain went when you said his name. They know
fully they both had there. Also, when you said that
you streamed illegally, totally did that with Pride and Prejudice.

(16:42):
ABC version could not. I mean I just sat in
like as I don't know, middle school or teenage Danny
or whatever, just sat watching it in my bedroom like
all weekend. I could not get it legally, had to
extreme it. And then I remember because I became a
fan of it when only the first season was out, um,
and there was a massive cliffhanger. I don't want to
have you seen the Sherlock know so I don't want

(17:05):
to spoil anything, even though everyone should see it by now,
even out for like well over a decade yea like
fifteen years. Season You're Good one and season two both
end with massive cliffhangers, and I was so mad that
I had to wait like a year and a half
for that to be resolved or longer even And now
it's like on goddamn Netflix, and people just like like, oh,

(17:25):
I wonder what happens, And I was like, you didn't
suffer like I suffer. I was. I was trying to
figure out that like VPN stuff to be able to
watch because and in England you get please don't arrest me,
but they get like BBC I Player, and I was
so desperate to see it. I was that was like
I had that like fandom heart flutters for those I
would think. So my favorite episode there, which I think

(17:48):
is a perfect episode, is the season two finale um
where I kind of wish that the show ended there.
I know I'm one of those like you're always like like,
of course you need more and it's so good, but
I always get you never know you're in the good
old days until you saw your Glee, your Glee tweets.

(18:08):
I feel the same way. Back Late Lee peeked and
it was like a shooting star. It was here and
then it was gone. The Glee pilot is one of
the best pilots, and then the show went so off
the rails. Yeah, I was never super into it, but
I do enjoy their soundtrack on Spotify that, unfortunately, I think,
is what what did them in? Oh No, I didn't.
It's like people I feel like that, don't even watch it,

(18:31):
but just but just start listening to them on Spotify.
I think that when they realized how much money they
were making covers of recent songs, they just started like
squeezing songs and we're like in the first episodes, like
the first season few I think only the first season,
like before it was a major hit. They just sang
like Journey songs, like one or two songs in the episode,

(18:53):
and then they just squeezed as many popheads as they
could in to put on iTunes. I'm sorry, yeah, Advy,
it's my fault. We have to take a really quick
break and then we're gonna hop back into Sherlock Holmes
right after this, and we are back. This time we

(19:15):
are joined by the one and only if you, Hey,
how's it going, how's everyone feeling? Thanks for popping in.
You missed the first time you missed the tiny bit
about Sherlock. Yeah, but it's things that I'm sure that
you already knew. No, not at all. I didn't want Sherlock.
Yeah no, no I was, but I was like, no,
I'm gonna keep it all the way from the only
BBC shows really hitting it off with was Doctor Who

(19:37):
in Torchlight and then Sherlock. All the height was there.
There's a lot of crossover with Uvians and I was like,
maybe I should, but I was like, nah, did you
ever read any fan fiction? Um? No, I'm because I'm
not a fan fiction person. I know I've apologished, but
I did. I have seen a lot of like fan
art on tumblers, in the tumbler memes that was like

(19:59):
it was so here and precious for a little while,
and then the fandom went, wait, so what happened with
the fandom? Um, this is we're still talking about the
BBC shelt I mean, they just went crazy. Don't don't
get mad at me, because I'm part of you. But
I think like there was like this obsession with Beternet
Cumberbatch's so hot and like John Mark something in the

(20:23):
first part that I missed that got bit at it.
Do you mean hot in like a figurative since people.
That's because he's sort of like he's like attainable hot.
He's kind of like nerod intellecture, right, He's like not
jock hot. You feel like if you met him at
a bookstore, you have shot. No. Yeah, but I also
feel like he would try to teach me things. I'm

(20:44):
kind of into that though. Oh my gosh, no data
guys that are gonna like man's that are gonna be like,
oh I see you with your I'm taking a dead shirt.
Man's playing, Man's playing. Okay, okay, okay, that's my my
warning to anyone listening. Please don't don't slide into my
m So when I tell you that I'm sort of
into like the older professor, that's true. That's true. Um okay, wait,

(21:05):
so the fandom went a little wild, yes, Like he
was wearing this purple shirt in one episode and it
kind of like bulged across his chest and they call
it the purple shirt of sex. If you wait, what
purple shirt of set that, it will come up look
at it. Hope, Wow, it is him right right, that's it,

(21:26):
because that's all it took for the oh Man. They
need to watch porns like I know, because it's just
that's all it took to get excited. I wish what
world do I live is? It's just like a kind
of tight shirt. It's barely Also if you put the
search purple shirt of it goes sexiness of Sherlock. Yeah,
it's it's a thing. So it was this like fixation
on the minut show. And then the show sort of

(21:49):
leaned into the fandom by making him sexier, yes, and
like teasing him with sexiness like I haven't given him
like a fake love interest for an episode. And then
they also did this thing where they faked his death
allow breaking back falls and then they like make it
like oh, fans have no idea the explanation then like
they it was very meta how they explained him faking

(22:12):
his own death, and so fans got in the same
way that Sherlock. So Sherlock has made um the same
show runner for a time as Doctor Who Stephen Moffatt
to a lot of Doctor Who fanned and Sherlock fans
feel very betrayed by Stephen Moffatt. He'd give it then
to take it away. He ruined Sherlock and like what
he created Sherlock was the fake death episodes have something

(22:36):
to do with like a waterfall or something. No, that's
in the books, Okay, because I saw like some like
Sherlock fan art and it was like bennerdet Common botch
walking and there was like a waterfall there and everyone,
and it was like, oh, yeah, that's the thing. Well
in the in the books, he is in a fistfight
with with Professor Moriarty and they both tumbled to their

(22:57):
deaths or do they ten years later or you know,
Arthur brings up bringing back In the series, he jumps
off a hospital building, but he survives. Yeah. Can you
talk about Sherlock the history of Sherlock with women? Oh yes,
so in the book he's almost totally a sexual okay, yeah,

(23:20):
just he just is a like a machine, machine computer,
just he doesn't exist. People in adaptations don't really like
that because they're like, I don't know, it's more fun
to give him a love interest, and so they give him.
Usually Irene Adler is the female love interest because she's
supposed to be like beautiful and can best homes and

(23:43):
in wits and uh, what is her profession? She's like
an socialite actors? God, right, this is like, wait, don't
you love that they? I totally forgot that we had
those back then. And everyone gives people in our generation
crap for being influencers, and there were literally had social
life as as you're like, right, she was like an

(24:04):
actress or like an opera singer. Maybe she's only in
one story, she's only in a scandal, but she she
has She and Holmes have sort of this like flirty
tete a tete, and then he kind of references her sometimes,
so people always like are like, oh, he holds a
flame for her, But I kind of more think it
was like an intellectual thing and I almost prefer Sherlock

(24:28):
Holmes as as a sexual and you don't give that
to him. And then but people like the Robert Downey Jr. One,
you know, they wanted him to have that fun, flirtatious
thing with Rachel McAdams, which is fun, you know, because
I'm not a snob when it comes to fandom. I'm
Sharla comes as a character. You're not going to ruin him.
I think you can take him and have fun and

(24:49):
do what you want with him. And the books are
still going to exist, and other adaptations are still going
to exist. So if someone goes, well, my Sherlock Holmes
is x y Z, I'm like, great power to you.
I'm not. I'm not a snob in that regard at all.
Like with Star Wars and stuff, like I love the
Ridge Triage um and people are like, oh, the Prequels

(25:12):
ruined it. It's like, no, they didn't. They're just their
own thing. They didn't ruin anything. Yeah, yeah, that's a
thousand percent true. But just before we move on, I
do like that idea of like in a sexual detective,
because I imagine like a character like Sherlock would be
so annoying to date, like oh yeah, I just like

(25:33):
you just all no cap like just someone who's just
a hyper detective and always trying to crack a case.
I just imagine that gets boring on I mean annoying
on the day to day and you're just like, no,
oh god, he would be the worst to date, truly,
because like if you've ever dated someone who puts their
work before you, he would always put his work before you.
I thought you looked at me, did you watch any

(25:58):
house a little? But I caught it one. I think
he had love interests and yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't.
I watched episodes, but I didn't watch regularly enough to
get an arc. But like you know, sometimes it's fun
to give him a love interest and sometimes like right,
like I love me some Rachel McAdams Like that was fun. Um,

(26:18):
she's also the connecting I'm sorry I have to bring
up MC you again, but yeah, she's yeah, see wired,
like Rachel McAdams is um doctor Strange's love interest, and
so that's Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Sugar Sherlock Holmes, and
then she's Sherlock's Holmes love interests in Robert Downey Jr's

(26:38):
two thousand and nine, who's with iron Man? Who is
iron Man? Yeah? So just hopping straight into that right welcome. Um, wow,
has every actor who's played Carla comes got been in
the MC? Or is just every actor now in the
m C? There you go? Uh so we have In
two thousand nine, Sherlock Holmes came out starring, uh, starring

(27:03):
Robert Downey Jr. It was directed by Guy Ritchie Heels
of like iron Man too, so like r DJ was hot. Um.
We also had Jude Law who was This was very
fascinating for me to have him as Watson, because I
always figured Watson was like a I'm sorry, I'm going
back to the great mouse detective, and that was who

(27:24):
shaped Like, that's kind of what I thought him as,
like not bumbling, because but he's like the straight man,
and he's you know, not as sophisticated, not as Debonair.
He's not as dobb Debonair as Sherlock, And so that
was fascinating to have. How did you like this adaptation?
I think Robert Downey Jr. Is really fun and I
like him, and I think he just uses charisma. I

(27:46):
almost think he's too charismatic for Holmes. He's too funny,
you know what I mean. He's too um yeah, like
not sexy. He exudes to sexual energy. He could wink
and pull it off, and I don't think Sherlock Comes
would know how to wink. And I think Jude Law
is also she's sexy for Watson, but then again it's Hollywood. Look,
they gave him a love interest. They made them both

(28:07):
sexy and charming. I'm like, all right, I mean, honestly,
Jude Law, when I look at this picture of him,
like he could have been Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, I almost
kind of wish he was. He looks a little more academic,
doesn't he like a little like Nerdier, Like he spends
more time reading. Yeah. Yeah, So this was based on

(28:30):
the story that you were talking about. So this particular film,
did it include a past Sherlock Holmes story from Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. You know what it included was I
don't want to spoil like the came out in two
thousand thing. It's totally fine, everybody, I'm sorry. But also
it won't take away from the film if you know

(28:50):
parts of it. So you know, Irene Adler, it's a
totally different character then she is in the series, because
again she's barely in the series. But Mark Strong plays
a villain who dabbles in the occult, and like his
whole villain thing is, he's like, the occult is real
and spoiler alert, it's not um. But Arthur kinn and

(29:13):
Doyle was super into the occult. He like loved it
and wrote about it all the time and wrote weird things.
So I feel like they pulled uh from that really strongly,
which was fun. And I do feel like they different
directors and different adaptations choose different devices to show Charlotte
comes thinking, because like how do you externalized thought? And

(29:36):
in this one we got a voice over and slow moo.
In the BBC version it shows up as text on
the screen, Like he gets like a little robot. He
gets to like analyze things. So I just like that
different directors have different approaches, you know. I think the
voiceover kind of worked. I thought it was like a
fun device that he would be like in slow motion,

(29:57):
like see things play out and we get the voice
over and then it would happen in fast motion. I
was like, that's fun. That's a great move. Uh. I
find it also fascinating that Robert Downey Jr. Played to
people that were kind of had issues with women and
money and drugs. Yes, well people love the drug stuff

(30:20):
with saw Holmes, which just look barely in the original story.
I mean it's kind of because well, it's because he's
too square that, you know what I mean, Like he
needs advice. He can't be like this perfect robotic man
that isn't tempted by anything. Well why can his vice
be Like he's bad at social interaction. Yeah, but I
think there's something about him. I think it humanizes him
in some ways, you know, when it makes it so

(30:41):
he's not like this perfect so he is. I mean,
how do you survive every night when you're going to
bed by yourself, when you're you know, if you think
of the life of this man, maybe he is actually
lonely and he's taking part in other things. I've read
that he's not great with money, which is why is
that sometimes why he takes these cases. And that's also
why he needs a room, which is adorable. He's a

(31:03):
middle aged man with the roommate, so he's a flatmate. Also,
he one of his vices is he gets really bored easily,
which like he's so smart that he shoots things into
the into the wall in the series. I think it's
a smiley face in the book. What is it? It's
I think he's it's like he does like his her
royal highness. He does like initials, but he's just like

(31:24):
he doesn't have an adequate read on like violence and um,
like he likes murders too much, and he doesn't have
a read on like causing damage and destruction in his
daily life, which is fun. And then also he does cocaine.
But remember in the Victorian times, everyone was doing cocaine.
It was like and it was like coffee. Yeah, they
like give it two babies and give your babies some

(31:45):
tonic and it was like heroin. Yeah, what about Sherlock
Holmes A Game of Shadows? Did you enjoy that? Um
that came out in also directed by Guy Ritchie. I
didn't like that one quite as much. I thought it
was a bit jump the sharky. How did it jump
the I love Jared Harris, so he's Moriarty and I
really really love Jared Harris, uh doing anything. What I

(32:10):
didn't like in this movie version is they brought Irene
Adler back, who I always just think is stronger in
the periphery because when you bring in like a female
love interest, it just to me seems a little pandery.
It's like, see women can be tough to I don't know,
like it always comes across the little pandery. And I
think my Croft, who Sherlock's brother, wasn't quite right here,

(32:34):
even though I do like Stephen Fry And then they
do them this one is the Game of Shadows is
the Sherlotte comes like face his own death one which
you know we've just I've seen so many times, like
that's a story that people do a lot, and so
I was like, all right, but if they're doing the sequel,
he's coming He's coming back spoiler alert. So what are

(32:58):
some of the other that we hopped to the BBC
version and then the film version, But what are some
of the other stories from Sherlock that you like that
would like stand out to you? Oh? You know, I
always come back to the Speckled Band because that was
on one I read when I was really young, and
that was one of the first ones where I was like,
oh my god, things can be weird because the I'm

(33:20):
going to give it away, but it's it's been so long,
you know, it's the spoiler spoiler hundreds. Um, it's a
the death was caused by a snake with spots on it, Okay,
And it's just it seems so silly to me at
the time that as a writer you're allowed to do
things like that. That that made me really excited as

(33:44):
a child. So I love I love that. I love
when things come out of left field and you just
feel like, oh, they get to make things up. That's
what writers get to do. And it also feels very
modern and like a lot of when you're young and
you read like a lot of Victorian nurture. It feels
very mannered and just like the fact that someone referred
to a snake as a speckled band is just so

(34:06):
like childish almost that you you totally get it. You're like, ah,
I'm reading here now that um they're doing. So. There
was a young adult series called The Nola Holmes about
his little sister who's fictional. She's not in the When
did that come out? Um, like two thousand six? Cute? Um,
And it's gonna be with Millie Bobby Brown, and we

(34:28):
have going to be a movie I think as many
a series, a mini series, not mini series, maybe just
upcoming mystery film, no film, okay, but this was an
actual book series that yeah, it was a book series
with Now it's going to have Henry Cavill as Sherlock.
It's like young sexy Sherlock again. I like in terms

(34:49):
of adaptations, wait, no, oh, are we wait Henry Cavill. Yeah,
he's too hot, He's way too hot. These are this
is wait. Who would you cast? Okay, who would you cast?
Knowing the actors that we have today? Oh god? And
if young you know, it would be a good young
sherlot who he's American, so they would get mad. They
never but I guess Robert Downe Jr. Is American. Timothy

(35:10):
Shallow has the totally because right he looks like if
you must have his hair, that he was up all
night doing cocaine right well, and he's in he's in
Little Women? Is that is that American? Okay? Never mind? Um,
you know I saw how they treated when we had
Bridget Jones diary. That was a big that was controversial,
having Rene's selwigger step into that. You know, British people

(35:32):
do American things totally. Tom Holland, Yeah, Tom Holland, um
and brought to be our favorite American neighborhood spider man.
So Timothy Shalom, he has the look. But now I
want to think of a British person who's like British
and oh, Donald Gleeson, Okay, don't don't know. I think
it's don't know, don't know Gleeson. He also seems like
he could do cocaine and selve mysteries. The thing I

(35:54):
like about Timothy Shalomy is that he seems like he
would be he could play that like so neurotic detective
character you have to talk like doesn't care about women
and actually just wants to, like, you know, solve this thing.
And we're off to the laboratory. Um if you who
would you cast? American, British or otherwise? Um? Yeah, good

(36:16):
with Timmy Tim? I think, yeah, that's your friend, your
friends with Timmy Tim Tim. Yeah, he's a cool cat.
He's more friends with kid Catty. Now he's posting pictures that.
All right, you are kid Cutty is cooler than me.
Do you think it would be too much to have
Daniel Radford Radcliffe? Daniel Radcliffe give him a new franchise? Right,

(36:40):
ell say our friend? Oh do you know who I
would love? He's going to be Batman, so he's not
going to do it. But I do love Robert Pattinson. Yeah,
and he's kind of weird looking, and it would be
he is super weird. They kind of need to be weird.
You gotta be We can't just be hot. Yeah, they
gotta be a little. The weirdness makes them hot. Henry
cavill is not weird at all. I wonder if he
can pull it, but that's we'll see, because remember people

(37:03):
felt that way about Robert and I just think we
are people like, oh, he's like from Twilight. They study
he was hot. I'm like, no, he's a good actor,
especially if you see good time and stuff. But see
my thing with Henry cavill Is, Like we're talking about
that jock hot and cavill Is he has the jaw
of a jock. Yeah, he looks like he would stuff
you in a locker and Sherlock comes has to be

(37:24):
a nerd, has to be has to be tall, has
to be gaunt because he's too busy, like he wouldn't
he's too busy to work out. He can't look like
he goes to the gym. He's too busy studying. Yeah,
I don't like Henry cavill Is. Who is um if
if they were, if they're that obsessed with like jock energy,
I would go with what's his face? He wasn't call

(37:46):
me by your name? With Tim and Tay Army no army,
young arm like armand can probably get away with it
because he got that's felt fit. Yeah, Henry is superman Bill.
He is like and he's doing like the Witcher, so
he's still going to be built for that. Oh my gosh,

(38:06):
I just thought of the perfect person. Rammi Malick, Oh
so twitchy. Sorry, I got fascinating. No, but I mean, like,
neither is Robert Downey Jr. Everyone's just listening to our
fan cast. And he can do Queen so he yeah,
and he and he did Mr. Robot, which is detective.
So he's already been like a detective and he's Freddie

(38:28):
Mercury's British. Oh yeah, yeah, so did I didn't really
remember watching this, But did Robert Downey Jr. Have an accent?
And Okay, I mean he was Okay, let's go. He
did it? Um And I mean Jude Law would have
been a good Sherlock Holmes, Rammi Malick, Rommy Malock. He
would be good. He would be really good. He totally
has like the like the intensity intensity and like you

(38:52):
feel like he was up all night reading. Oh he
would be so possibly doing drugs. Yeah, I will tell
you my least favorite shark come that uptation. So let
me take you on a bit of a story. I
was a humble young film critic for Entertainment Weekly and uh,
as a Jews, I didn't have plans on Christmas, and

(39:15):
my editors asked me if I wouldn't mind terribly going
to see and review a movie that was coming out
on Christmas because the movie had zero press screenings, which
is always a bad sign when they're not gonna let
press and critics see the movie before it comes out.
Bad sign. But since I have no plans on Christmas,

(39:36):
traditionally the song of my pupils to go see movies anyway,
I was like, sure, I'll take one for the team.
So Latin two thousand eighteen, Christmas Day, Young Danish Wards
goes alone to the Grove Movie Theater and sees Holmes
and Watson, starring Will Ferrell and John c Riley. And
it was truly the worst movie I've ever seen. Man,

(39:57):
they're so great together. I feel like maybe they relied
on improv vers so I didn't see it. I think
that was it. I think they had this idea of
just like, hey, what have we put on silly hats
and just talked and made jokes, And it might have
been good if they if the movie was good, But
it was so bad. It was so bad. And I
saw it alone and the theater was silent and people there. Yeah, surprisingly,

(40:23):
but I'm pretty sure as I was leaving, I overheard
someone else be like that was the worst piece of
piece of bleep I've ever seen. The film was nominated
for six Razzies and won four of them, including Worst Picture.
Did they go to pick it up? I love when, um,
when people go to pick up their Razzie. Fun fact
halle Berry went to pick up her raze is fun.

(40:46):
When they do that, that shows that they're good sports exactly.
I feel like, if you're a comedian, it's like you're
due diligence. Also, if you're as successful as Will and
John are, then I think it's like, well, I've also
made the studios billions of dollars. Yeah, so I can't
take it. I'm sure they had fun and I'm sure
they got paid. So I'm like, I have nothing against

(41:07):
Will Ferrell or John c Riley, but that movie was
all put on Netflix. Y'all. We have to take another
quick break. We're gonna hop back into Sherlock Holmes right
after this. Welcome back to Narratives. An issue. Boy, if
you were away sitting across from Danny Fernandez and our

(41:30):
dope guest Dana Schwartz, uh, you know, and now we're
you know, we're coming to a close. We're gonna talk
about the future Dana has some suggestions, and you know,
Sherlock Holmes spans so much, like just looking through the
doctors things that we didn't get to touch on, Like
there was a puppet Sherlock Holmes series that they did
in Japan. There's Miss Sherlock, a Japanese series. But one

(41:52):
that I want to highlight before we ago is Sherlock
Holmes in the twenty one Century, which was this animated
show that I used to where it was Sherlock Holmes.
He like got frozen unfrozen in the future and was
solving future crimes. That's so. But the future like present
day or future like the future, the future in the

(42:12):
twenty second century, that century that is so exciting to me.
I cannot believe I've never watched. Oh yeah, it was ridiculous,
but in the best way. But yeah, you had some
short stories to recommend, right, Yeah, I was going to say,
if you were a fan of the Sherlock series on
the BBC, I had some old Sherlock old well yes, old,

(42:34):
some original Sherlock comes stories that are some of my
favorites that I think I recommend that you would be
a fan of. There's the Adventure of the Six Napoleons,
which is a good one if you remember that there
was an episode of Sherlock where there were a bunch
of busts of Margaret Thatcher, and that is sort of
loosely based. Everything is really really loosely based. But I

(42:58):
think it's a really good strong one is the Venture
the Six Napoleons. There's one called the Adventure of the
Empty House that maybe is one of my favorite ones.
Is very very spooky, and that is the one where
he has to talk about his a miracle survival coming
back from the day when when the fans got mad,

(43:18):
When the fans got mad, um, and I'm learning right now.
Doyle ranked The Adventure of the Empty House six on
his list of twelve favorite home stories. What's his favorite? Um,
let's see, oh the Speckled Band, you guys have good taste,
good job, Arthur Conan Doyle and eighth grade Dana Um.

(43:39):
And then a Scandal in Bohemia is the one with
Irene Adler. So people really like that one, and that's
a good one to go to. Not the premise of
that is there is a scandalous photo. It's like a
revenge porn situation. There's a scandalous photo that's someone needed
to track also in with a lot. Also a really
fun one is a Redheaded League, which I want to

(44:03):
spoil because the resolution is so funny and so like
it seems so modern. It's someone who was like digging
into a bank to rob it, you know what I mean,
like such a thing to like dig through and like
well just sneaking through. So like that is such a funny,
old timey resolution. There's like an old timey villain plot

(44:24):
that it's so charming to me dig under the bottom
and then yeah, you don't see it coming, Yeah, exactly.
I did want to say. So. My favorite the Hound
of the Baskervilles. There was several films of it. There
was a nine nine one. If you want to, you know,
spook yourself out this Halloween, you can watch it black
and white. There was the Hound of the baskerville Is

(44:44):
in nineteen fifty nine. There was also a nineteen three one,
and I was like, I'm pretty sure I've seen an
animated one. There's like two different animated ones that you
can watch on YouTube, um that are really creepy just
because it's creepy old animation. UM. So that's called Sherlock
Holmes in the Basketball Curse. It's three. It's an Australian
animated television film by Graham. Really kind of creepy looking,

(45:07):
but I think that's the one that I saw when
I was little. Maybe that sounds of Scooby Doo. I
love it. Yeah, that's Garville Curse, yes, I think, oh yeah,
And then we have the film, so apparently the film's
coming out. I'm excited. I love I do like detective movies.
It's so pure. It's like I also really liked um.
Not to not to change the subject from comms, but

(45:27):
Hercule Pero, the Agatha Christie UM. And there was that
Kinneth Branda Murder on the Express, which I thought it
was very ambitious to even make a new Murder on
the Orient Express when the original is show beloved and
like perfect. Um. But I heard that they're making a
second one of that too, and I'm excited. I like,
let people indulge in Victorian uh crime solving dramas. My

(45:51):
detective stuff growing up was Nancy Drew. I never got
into Nancy Drew. I did, yeah, my mom kind of
passed that down to me, although I did have the computer.
Oh I loved it. It was very scary. It was
like a haunted hotel. Were you into Harriet the Spy? Um?
I was more into Encyclopedia Brown and Cam Jansen. Yeah. Yeah,

(46:11):
I was definitely a Nancy drew Scooby Doo um loved
though still love those on Boomerang, The Hardy Boys. Harriet
the Spy I definitely did. I was super into spy
and detective stuff. It's really satisfying when you're a kid
because the plot structures are really like the rules of
the plot are really clearly defined, like case clues, red Herring,

(46:33):
case solved. Like I think that when you're a kid,
it's really satisfying and even now as an adult, I'm
always satisfied by that story structure. Yeah. I think it
influenced me as a writer for sure. Um. Yeah. So
the Sherlock Holmes three coming dropping in. It will be
starring Robert Downey Jr. Rachel McAdams, Jude Law. This time
it's going to be Dexter Fletcher directing. Not Guy Ritchie. Oh,

(46:56):
he's a He did the Queen Movie, right, He's the
guy he was the ringer for. He did Eddie the
Eagle Rocket Man, he did rocket Man. No, but he's
the one who replaced Brian Singer on He's he got
a band of brothers. He appeared in Guy Ritchie's lock
Stock into smoking Barrels. Do you think they're friends? Yeah,

(47:16):
it might seem like also did Doom. So I'm nothing
for you to think about it? Sure? Why not? Dana?
Where can everyone catch you on Twitter with Danish Wartz
with three zs and listen to Noble Blood which is
a podcast wherever you get your podcasts, so wherever we're
listening to this, Yes, I'm at Miss Danny Fernandez on

(47:40):
All the Things. Um, I will be at New York
Comic Con. What day is this? I still can't announce
my panels, but I think that I have probably by
now when this drops on Twitter. I will definitely announce
them next week when we're officially allowed to. But if
you're going to be at New York Comic Con, I
would love to see you. I have really don't like
super cool panels. Cannot wait to share them. And um,
thank you to every one that's been buying merch. Definitely

(48:01):
tag as tag if you and I so that we
see it, um and we will retweet it. We will
share it that uh t public dot com. Slash Ner
deficent to pick up all your merch your and yeah,
it's it's your boy. If he if D's on Twitch,
if you wade away on all the social platforms, definitely, yeah,
come come go see Danny at New York Comic Con.

(48:22):
I'll be at twitch Con. There's some things, some panels,
they're there on the site, you know what. And you
didn't follow the social for any show updates and stuff
like that, And as we always say, stay nerdy, elementary
hes

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