Sherlock Holmes

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MisterBadger

Lifer
Oct 6, 2024
1,203
10,578
Ludlow, UK
The first episode, A STUDY IN PINK (both versions), was great. After that it slowly got worse and worse. Looked to me like the writers shot their blot the fist time and after that.... puffy

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That whole series is an utter travesty, if you ask me. Holmes and Watson are, and should always be, Victorians, and should act and dress like it. Besides which, Benedict Cucumberpatch is one of my least favourite actors, like old Sir John Gielgud: always his same old boring self, whatever role he's playing.
 

MisterBadger

Lifer
Oct 6, 2024
1,203
10,578
Ludlow, UK
Wasn’t aware of this detail. I wonder if the blend was something like Gawith‘s Kendall Dark:


I purchased a 2oz sample years ago and still have finished it because of how strong it is. Somehow knowing that SH smoked something like this stout shag makes me only slightly more interested in packing a bowl of it.

View attachment 436562
That would be about right; another candidate from my earliest smoking days was a villainous fine-cut black shag called Pritchard & Burton's Boar's Head, like a tarry oakum picked out from old ships' cable, very high in nicotine and, frankly, disgusting. No longer obtainable, as far as I know. Another was Ringer's Black Bell. Both issued to Her Majesty's prisoners for rolling cigarettes, back in the day. I think that must have been part of the punishment.
 
Aug 11, 2022
3,099
24,073
Cedar Rapids, IA
The first episode, A STUDY IN PINK (both versions), was great. After that it slowly got worse and worse. Looked to me like the writers shot their blot the fist time and after that.... puffy

View attachment 436568
That's what really stings about the whole thing. The first episode showed so much promise, and then it became the "Holmes and Moriarty show" and hardly any case-solving after that. :(

For a well-executed modern adaptation, I can't recommend "Elementary" highly enough.

P.S. +1 for GH&Co Dark shags as probably being the closest you could get to what the canonical SH smoked. @MisterBadger makes a good point that the character wasn't a connoisseur of tobacco, quite the opposite. He smoked the cheapest and strongest tobacco he could get, smoked it fast, and didn't baby his pipes. And was content to get his nicotine fix from cigarettes or cigars when they were more convenient.
 
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HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
6,687
47,337
Midwest
I haven’t tried SH, probably because I find pipe smokers’ infatuation with Holmes kind of annoying (no offense to anyone-that’s just me).

However, I do like Royal Yacht quite a bit, so I’ll be trying some SH, I always like something that can scratch an itch at a cost savings.
Now if someone can direct my to a budget black twist sliced at almost shag thinness (ironically probably something SirACD’s character would’ve actually smoked), I’m all ears!
Haha - my interest in Holmes started when I read my first “adventure” in fourth grade - took me over 50 years to get interested in pipes! For me, nice they coincide. I do think Peterson was genius to work the connection and continues to sucker me, lol.
 
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Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
6,622
90,615
Casa Grande, AZ
Haha - my interest in Holmes started when I read my first “adventure” in fourth grade - took me over 50 years to get interested in pipes! For me, nice they coincide. I do think Peterson was genius to work the connection and continues to sucker me, lol.
I actually just watched “Dressed To Kill” after making that post and the scene in the tobacco shop with the huge “Peterson’s Tobacco” jar with a giant bent billiard over Basil’s shoulder is some crazy product placement for the era.
 

krizzose

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,756
26,462
Michigan
My favorite Sherlock will always be Jeremy Brett.

That being said, I did like BBC’s Sherlock for what it was and how it interpreted and referenced the canon. I did particularly enjoy how geopolitical happenstance made it perfectly plausible that the modern John Watson had been an Army Doctor who served in Afghanistan.