... so, earlier tonight I watched this with my niece, nephew, and mum. 
It's a fun enough romp in the let's-pretend-it's-Victorian-England. =P
***WARNING: SPOILERS***
***I WARNED YOU!***
So, departures from the original books:
1. Enola Holmes is not a character there;
2. Sherlock plays the violin and smokes opium (he doesn't in the film);
3. Mycroft is a government official, not an officious, punctilious busybody.
So much for the books. What else can we find that we didn't know about the world of Sherlock Holmes?
1. Pretend-Victorian London's streets, aside from one (one?!) pat of horse doings, are remarkably clean. There is also, apparently, no smell from the polluted Thames. The roofs are also very clean.
2. Enough money can get people to do anything, even get people to swap clothes with you.
3. Most glaring and confused of all is the timeline. The film is supposedly set in 1884 ... but a so-called Reform Bill is due to be debated in the Lords. I caught a few things:
a. A man in the streets of London shouts about "Give men the votes!" which suggests this is the 1832 Great Reform Act ... BUT ...
b. ... Enola's mum is one of the more violent suffragettes ... and violence for women's suffrage didn't happen until 1903 (and even then, they used arson, not bombs or explosives, as the film shows).
c. Then again, the servants on the Tewskbury (sic) estate are wearing Georgian uniforms and powdered wigs. These would've certainly be incredibly out of place by the 1880s.
d. Later on in the film, someone uses a double-barreled shotgun. Someone else (I won't mention who) is shot by escapes death by wearing a steel breastplate. IRL, these would not have saved you.
e. Also the breastplate is riddled with lots of tiny holes, not one big hole. This suggests grapeshot, but a rifle can't shoot grapeshot (and besides, we see the spent cartridges fall).
f. ... not to mention that the cartridges encased in plastic ... which only came about in the 1960s, so totally out of place in the Holmes era.
... and I'm sure there are many, many more.
But hey, it's Hollywood Logic(TM). What else can we expect? Best to turn off our minds and enjoy this piece of masquerade-Victoriana, which has as much social conscience as an flatulent farm-horse. It's what TV was made for.
It's a fun enough romp in the let's-pretend-it's-Victorian-England. =P***WARNING: SPOILERS***
***I WARNED YOU!***
So, departures from the original books:
1. Enola Holmes is not a character there;
2. Sherlock plays the violin and smokes opium (he doesn't in the film);
3. Mycroft is a government official, not an officious, punctilious busybody.
So much for the books. What else can we find that we didn't know about the world of Sherlock Holmes?
1. Pretend-Victorian London's streets, aside from one (one?!) pat of horse doings, are remarkably clean. There is also, apparently, no smell from the polluted Thames. The roofs are also very clean.
2. Enough money can get people to do anything, even get people to swap clothes with you.
3. Most glaring and confused of all is the timeline. The film is supposedly set in 1884 ... but a so-called Reform Bill is due to be debated in the Lords. I caught a few things:
a. A man in the streets of London shouts about "Give men the votes!" which suggests this is the 1832 Great Reform Act ... BUT ...
b. ... Enola's mum is one of the more violent suffragettes ... and violence for women's suffrage didn't happen until 1903 (and even then, they used arson, not bombs or explosives, as the film shows).
c. Then again, the servants on the Tewskbury (sic) estate are wearing Georgian uniforms and powdered wigs. These would've certainly be incredibly out of place by the 1880s.
d. Later on in the film, someone uses a double-barreled shotgun. Someone else (I won't mention who) is shot by escapes death by wearing a steel breastplate. IRL, these would not have saved you.
e. Also the breastplate is riddled with lots of tiny holes, not one big hole. This suggests grapeshot, but a rifle can't shoot grapeshot (and besides, we see the spent cartridges fall).
f. ... not to mention that the cartridges encased in plastic ... which only came about in the 1960s, so totally out of place in the Holmes era.
... and I'm sure there are many, many more.
But hey, it's Hollywood Logic(TM). What else can we expect? Best to turn off our minds and enjoy this piece of masquerade-Victoriana, which has as much social conscience as an flatulent farm-horse. It's what TV was made for.
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