Holmes’s Condition

If this is going to be the last season, and I believe that it is, but wish that it were not, the show runners have given us an engrossing and potentially heart-rending season arc: the gradual erosion of Holmes’s perspicacity. It’s telling that, when Holmes told Watson that, when he envisioned his eventual diagnosis, it fell into one of two categories: increasingly diminished cognitive ability, and death, and that he hoped for death. Fact: Sherlock Holmes, in terms of book sales, is the most popular character in literary history, more than James Bond, more than Harry Potter, and his popularity rests on his personality, methodology and mind. He is far from being perfect. He is an addict. He is blunt and abrasive. He is also irresistible. We admire him for his genius, but we love him for his flaws. Remove the genius, and with what are we left; because, with what is HE left? I loved how the story linked his sobriety to his ability to use his mind to do the work for which it was designed. Lose (the ability to do) the work, descend again into addiction, madness, damnation. “How is my brain going to get better if I become an addict again?,” said with real fear and helplessness! Impressively big stakes for what is commonly perceived as being yet another CBS cop procedural for old people.