I believe in Sherlock Holmes. And also complex storytelling.

source

I read a lot, and I watch a lot of television and a lot of films, and I currently have a good chunk of spare time to spend reading and watching and subsequently complaining and gushing. Recently, I've had a lot of friends recommend the BBC Sherlock to me, so after weeks of brushing it off, I headed over to Netflix and had my mind blown by how flawlessly constructed everything is, from plot to character dynamics to the most convincingly insane villain I've seen probably since Voldemort. For those of you who haven't seen it, the show is a modern day retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. It's incredibly rooted in that canon, but it's a completely fresh, thrilling take. I think if you love the original stories, you'll be thrilled by the hints and the modern twists, and if you're new to it (I was only familiar with Hound of Baskerville, because the imagery of the hellhound terrified me out of Sherlock stories as a kid), you won't feel behind. I highly, I highly recommend it.

It actually felt sort of refreshing, because-- not to sound pretentious-- it made me think, it made me analyze and want to talk about it, and it never assumed I couldn't put two and two together. So I got to thinking, and was trying to decide what exactly it was doing so right, and what exactly frustrates me the most in fiction. (Not just television, really-- novel writers, I'm looking at you too!)

And so, I give you: The Top 3 Sins Against Intellect Committed by Modern Fiction (aka OMG Seriously We're Not Idiots)

1. Inconsistency
A PSA to all authors, screenwriters, editors, directors, show creators: your audience uses the Internet. If your book/show/film has an obsessive cult following, there's a good chance that everything you do will be cataloged forever via Tumblr gifs and rampant quoting on Twitter and angry debates on Livejournal. When you make a choice, you have to stick to it, because our memory spans longer than the duration of a single episode or chapter, and we're going to notice if you completely throw away character development or any attempts to band-aid a plot gone awry.
Big Offender: Glee-- The Sam Evans/Chord Overstreet's Employment Issue, anyone? That's honestly the tip of the inconsistency iceberg for Glee; major events tend to have little to no long term impact on anyone in Lima.
What I Can Live With: Someone's bound to notice that Gilmore Girls changed Jess Mariano's backstory (his father originally left when he was 15, causing him to act out and get sent to his Uncle Luke; later, he'd never met his father) sometime after he'd been introduced. Or that Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games has a special lake spot she's never told even her best friend about, until he convienently needs to be at that spot in Catching Fire. They're little mistakes someone's going to catch, but it's not as grating as knowing whatever you're watching now might not matter in two weeks.

2. Expecting Me to Take Things at Face Value
Look at this couple. They're so in love. I told you they're in love so they have to be DON'T QUESTION IT! And this character! They're evil! I don't have to tell you why they want to blow up that building THEY'RE EVIL! No. If you want me to buy that your characters are in love, it needs to make sense that they'd fit together. If you want me to be convinced by your villain, tell me his motivation.
Obvious Offender is Obvious: I feel like I'm coping out with this, but seriously, I'm supposed to believe Edward and Bella are True Luv 4 Eva because her blood "sings for him?" Really?
Warily Giving it a Chance: Once Upon a Time (which, for the record, is probably my favorite new show this season) sort laid out who we like, who we don't, who's endgame from the get-go, but they get a pass: a) They're based in fairytales so they're sort of bound to set rules and b) they're slowly but surely giving us reasons, even if we've already got a conclusion. It's not my favorite set up usually, but I think it had to happen here.
Winner: Sherlock has this down to an art. We see every dynamic between every character established at one point and morph into another fuller point. We're never told to accept a caricature or archetype even though we have background for it. Sherlock and Watson are literary pair everyone knows, but the show never expects us to just buy their relationship: it grows and they grow. And Moriarty--I would have accepted Moriarty as a convincing villain based on Andrew Scott's vocal acting alone (SERIOUSLY, CREEPY), but here we have a villain who is not only irredeemably evil, and we've been given a context in which "he's bored" is a totally plausible motivator.

3. Leading Me to Important Points
A Really Important Thing is about to happen and this is a Clue of Significance. You know it's significant because there's a nice tight camera shot on the Clue of Significance or the Really Important Thing was just repeated a fifty times in a 30 minute time span. Look, I know you want to make sure we get it, but chances are, we saw. We're paying attention. Feel free to reveal subtle clues episodes or chapters in advance because at the very least, we'll remember what we should have picked up. Foreshadowing doesn't have to be a dying art.
Seriously, we got it: Oh, Lost. Such a smart, involved show. You really have to pay attention. But if you weren't, by chance, and you missed that there are five important numbers on the island, don't worry, Hurley's going to repeat them a handful of times. And they'll pop up anytime anything numerical happens. And we'll zoom in on them on the hatch. And if they pop up and you don't notice they pop up, someone will probably point out them out. And they're in some combination on every speedometer in every car on the show! (I wish I was joking about that.)
My mind is blown WHAT EVEN JUST HAPPENED!!!!!: Harry Potter is a great example of the power of foreshadowing and letting your audience pick apart the details. Seven books, more than a decade, and JK Rowling is threading clues through the earliest book before we really know what we're dealing with. Also, I have to mention that Sherlock's generally pretty great with this: here's a show that's got solving crimes at it's center, and you generally won't have it all picked out half an hour early, but following along isn't hard, and it all makes sense. And the reveal of who Moriarty is at the end of The Great Game actually made me scream WHAT at the TV.

Here's the thing: I'm not saying that I'm so smart that it takes so much to really impress me. I'm fairly observant and kind of a nerd, and I pick up on things. But I honestly think the majority of people are capable of understanding and following a reasonable, intellectual show without being spoon fed.

In conclusion, seriously, Sherlock. Do it. (I also highly recommend Downton Abbey, which is also British, but actually Victorian.)