Crime fighters range from the absolutely well-dressed to those who can’t even manage to get the crumbs off their shirts. Can you imagine Magnum without his Hawaiian shirts or Columbo without his trench coat? Clothes make the detective, or help turn an ordinary character into an icon.  Below you’ll find the Crime Fighter Fashion Awards, the good, the bad, and the super sloppy.

Don’t Mess with Me Award

Winner: Joe Pike from the books of Robert Crais.

Joe Pike always wears his sunglasses— always—so you can never see his eyes, but the real fashion choice that delineates his character is the famous red arrow tattoos on his arms. His natural scowl and man-of-few-words-style doesn’t hurt either.

Honorable Mention: Ranger from the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich.

Ranger might have made it to number one, but since we always see him through Stephanie’s eyes, his description is always a bit biased. According to Stephanie, “Ranger only wears black, smells warm and sexy and is one hundred percent pure perfectly toned muscle. He gets his dark complexion and liquid brown eyes from Cuban ancestors.”

Most Feminine Wardrobe

Winner: Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, The Closer.

Instead of hiding her femininity to succeed in the male dominated world of law enforcement, southern belle Brenda Leigh Johnson wields it like a weapon. Pastel colors, flouncy flowery skirts, and twin sets make for a wardrobe that helps her lull suspects into a false sense of security while she wrings confessions out of them. And of course there is the fabulous big black bag that she carries everywhere fit to hold Twinkies and hand guns alike.

**Wouldn’t you like to have an amazing purse like Brenda Leigh’s? Keep reading, because you can win one right here!

[Bring on that Bottomless Black Bag. It’s Criminally Fashionable!]

Aren’t ordinary people adorable?
 —Jim Moriarty to Sherlock Holmes

You know the type he means: the ones who are certain that good is good, bad is bad, and dead is dead. Truly adorable, those gullible, fallible creatures.

Moriarty would keep them as pets. And Sherlock? Well Sherlock is facing a bit of dilemma over this ordinary people thing. At one time he’d have agreed readily with Moriarty. Problem is, he’s coming to realize that ordinary people—the ones who actually feel; the ones who actually care—aren’t necessarily inferior. They have their uses; even their advantages (although he’s loath to admit it). That’s never been as clear to him as it is in “The Reichenbach Fall,” the final episode of Sherlock series 2 on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery.

As Sherlock goes head-to-head (brain-to-brain?) with his archnemesis Moriarty, the ordinary people in the drama provide us with the landmarks we need to find our way through. We identify with them. We understand them. And we recognize their strengths.

[Oh, the humanity!]

More mash-up goodness! Sherlock, Watson, Mulder, and Scully investigate...

“A 20-year-old disappearance.  A monstrous hound. Wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Literally climbing the walls—or at least the furniture—for lack of a case (it’s positively been minutes since his last one!) Sherlock is bored /nonplussed/ repelled /intrigued by the scenario Henry Knight presents to him: 20 years earlier, Henry’s father was mauled to death by a “gigantic hound” at a place called Dewar’s Hollow. Henry, just a little boy at the time, saw the whole thing happen. Now he’s gone back to visit the site—on the advice of his therapist, no less—and he’s seen the hound again. If he’s to unravel this mystery and come to terms with his childhood trauma, he’ll need more than a shrink to help him: he’ll need Sherlock Holmes.

Upon a nanosecond’s reflection, Sherlock agrees to take the case, and before you can say “weekend in the country,” he and Watson are off to the wilds of Dartmoor in the picturesque county of Devon.

[Emphasis on “wilds” . . .]

“What are you typing?”
“A blog”
“About?”
“Us.”
“You mean me.”
“Why?”
“You’re typing a lot.”

Sherlock and Watson (as if you couldn’t guess).

As we begin Season 2 of Sherlock on Masterpiece Mystery, Holmes has become an Internet phenomenon. He’s learning to deal with the fame.

Meanwhile, my friends at CrimeHQ have presented me with the monumental task of blogging about the new series of Sherlock airing on PBS this month.

Monumental for two reasons:

1) The deeply Sherlockian, immensely talented Lyndsay Faye watched the U.K. feed of Sherlock Season 2 and provided commentary here. With my limited knowledge of the Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes canon, there is no way I can surpass her insights. (Here’s what she said about “A Scandal in Belgravia.”)

2) I’m dazzled by “A Scandal in Belgravia” (Season 2, Episode 1) and I’m still trying to sort it all out. If Dr. Watson has trouble keeping up, where does that leave me?

With those caveats in place, I commence.

[Yes, do get on with it. . .]

Yes, I really did name my puppy after Sherlock Holmes’s assistant Watson. And yes, this was an excuse to look at pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch without his shirt. Enjoy.

Sherlock has seen a few different incarnations lately. I’m mostly thinking about the modernization with the wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and the action hero we see in Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes and soon Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu will enter the Sherlock universe. But there’s one more new Sherlock that will join the ranks—Indian Sherlock.

While the movie so far is being called The Indian Sherlock it’s looking more like Sherlock-esque detecting in modern India. The way the character is described he’s not really going to be anything like the Sherlock we’ve come to know and love—quite the opposite. According to a NY Daily News article our Indian Sherlock, Vish Puri, is “portly, persistent and unmistakably Punjabi.”

Now to some, that name might sound familiar. That’s because he is. The screenplay for The Indian Sherlock, is based on the novels by Tarquin Hall.

The man producers hope to play Vish Puri, Anil Kapoor, is a semi-familiar face outside of the Indian film industry as he was in 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire. Anand Tucker is the director behind The Indian Sherlock and is equally familiar to American audiences as he directed Leap Year and Shop Girl a few years back.

There seem to be a lot of variables still up in the air about this particular Sherlock movie, but it’s definitely got us thinking! What about you? What do you think about a Holmes away from Baker Street?
 

Jennifer Proffitt is a Midwest transplant to New York City. She spends most of her time reading and writing about romance and watching crime shows, but you can follow her other adventures on Twitter @JennProffitt.

Read all Jennifer Proffitt’s posts on Criminal Element.

A few weeks ago we presented to you the Cumberb-otter sensation. Now we’re gearing up for a whole new season of Sherlock on PBS in just about a week and as we prepared our pipes and hunting hats, we happened to Google Sherlock and what to our wondering eyes should appear but... Sherlock pick-up lines. It tickled us so much that we thought we’d share a few here. Give us your best Sherlock Pick-Up Lines in the comments!

[I would follow you anywhere, even with a psychosomatic limp.]

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Friday the 13th could prove lucky for you! Sure, there’s intentional crossover between crime and horror, but during Undead April, we thought it would be grody-good fun to combine zombies with some of our site’s other favorite themes. For that, where else could we turn but to geekdom’s geniuses at that mecca of mash-ups, Draw2D2?  Our first fan-tastic offering is by artist Jason Welborn and shows Sherlock’s Team Freebatch confronting the zombie horde. Text Message: splatter.

Oh, yes, it is awesome, measured in megatonnage. But if you’ve gone all clammy-palmed and covetous, let us not delay mentioning someone will win it from us! For your chance to win a copy of this original work (hi-res, poster or portrait-sized, your choice), comment on this post and tell us the perfect place to hang this masterpiece! We’ll pick one winner at random.

To enter for a chance to win the original fan art of “Sherlock Meets Zombies” by Jason Welborn, make sure you’re a registered member of the site and then simply leave a comment below.

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Genius can be dangerous. Who understands that better than the Great Detective?

If you haven’t yet seen Season 2 of BBC’s Sherlock, watching the incredible video below—where a critical 9 minutes of the season’s final episode “The Reichenbach Fall” are re-enacted with the original soundtrack and Legos—will be the most GIANT SPOILER you could have INFLICTED UPON YOURSELF *

*For those already prepped who watched, magnificent, isn’t it?!

The three episodes which make up Season 2 of Sherlock will air for the first time in the U.S. on PBS stations, beginning May 6th, so not much longer now!  And if you can’t safely watch this Lego masterpiece (yet), below is a consolation trailer from Masterpiece Mystery that’s COMPLETELY UNSPOILED, and still exciting, FOR ALL VIEWERS.

Hat tips: Lyndsay Faye and Baker Street Babes.

You know, that Sherlock Holmes is one weaseley little character. Always ferreting out the bad guy and such. Never one to be skunked when he is on the job, Sherlock is always there with his friend and flat-mate, John Watson.

Okay, I think all the bad puns are out of our system now. I hope the above picture brought as much enjoyment to your morning as it did to ours here at Crime HQ.  If you want to see even more Cumberbatch/Otter comparisons, be sure and check out tumblr user Red Scharlach who put this all together. And if you haven’t gotten enough of our furry, semi-aquatic neighbors, be sure and check out Criminal Element’s own otter-themed cozy mystery ideas.

And if it’s the less-furry, predatory mammal that has your attention, check out our collected articles about BBC’s New Sherlock.

We won’t be seeing a great deal of Benedict Cumberbatch in The Hobbit because—as Smaug—he’s mostly just doing motion-capture stuff. But he has been on set, and apparently, according to MTV, that’s been an entertaining experience.

[Cumberbatch] admitted that the only trouble he had while on set was keeping a straight face when he saw his friend and “Sherlock” co-star Martin Freeman in costume as lovable Hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

“It was great. I got to hang out with him, and I kept a straight face for a bit and then I started giggling because I know Martin, I don’t know Bilbo,” Cumberbatch said with a grin. “For Martin to be sitting there playing Bilbo is amazing. He’s going to be amazing, he’s going to be fantastic in this film.”

It is rather hard to imagine Dr. Watson as Bilbo, but you can easily imagine both Freeman and Cumberbatch laughing in the face of ultimate evil.

Yesterday in Part 1, we examined three Watsons (speaking of which, did you catch The Two Watsons comic?), but there are more modern Watsons yet to peruse.

As I said when we began: this one’s for the lovers of brave soldiers, able medics, and steadfast friends. And here’s to John Watson, who flew that flag before it was cool. This one’s for the other half of the partnership: the narrator, the everyman turned superhero, the teller of tales, the conductor of light. Sláinte.

[Watsons, Watsons, everywhere...]

“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

Yes, Watson, there is, only she beat me to it! I hadn’t even gotten to writing this post when a producer of BBC’s Sherlock, Sue Vertue, who—it must be said—lives hours and most likely gajillions of brain cells ahead of me, voiced the same concern to The Independent about CBS’s casting for its own Sherlock update, Elementary.  (For our earlier, related grousing about the squicky title and other general suspicions, here’s that link.)

In specific, CBS just announced that it has cast Jonny Lee Miller in the lead role as The Great Detective. Now, Miller is a fine actor, and I expect actors to want to work. Loved him in the TV series of Austen’s Emma and as guest killer Jordan Chase in Dexter, for two. The new series will be based in New York City, and Miller’s had the American accent down since at least 1995’s Hackers. (Yes, I’m a cyber-crone.) But, his talent and my sentimentality aside, the first thing I thought upon hearing the news was what a weird way it was to get as close as possible to Benedict Cumberbatch.

[Under the skin, are we interchangeable monsters?]

Perhaps you’re a little late getting a Valentine’s Day card for your favorite crime buff? Over on Tumblr, a cartoonist by the name of “Robbicide” has some excellent ones based on the BBC’s Sherlock that you can print out. Just click on the “Sherlock fan art” link to see all of them. No one will ever know you waited until the last minute!

My opinions are subject to revision, of course, but when first hearing the official news (hat tip: digital spy) about CBS’s Sherlock-series pilot late last week, I thought, UGH! Can’t possibly NOT suck.

I know, I know, there are talented Justified alums involved, but that doesn’t guarantee lightning strikes twice. Are any of these hard-core Sherlockians like the UK version’s producers, creators, and writers, the team of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, who also stars as Mycroft? Or, are these talented types just coming in as hired guns, so to speak? 

Well, I took the cowardly position that if I couldn’t say something nice, yadda, yadda...

Back in September, we reported the non-specific network inklings about a similar franchise update in the works for U.S. television. Now we know. CBS has firmly announced its own contemporary, Sherlock-themed series called *shudder* Elementary, which will be set in New York. We at HQ are, as before, dubious about its prospects of not sucking donkey danglers.

Since that very recent news, however, the plot has thickened considerably! The Daily Mail reports that the producers of BBC’s Sherlock are now threatening legal action if CBS’s series has too many similarities:

[Does this mean war, Watson?]

In December of 1893, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was guilty of the premeditated and willful murder of Mr. Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, a consulting detective of some public renown. “I have had such an overdose of [Holmes] that I feel towards him as I do toward pâté de foie gras, of which I once ate too much, so that the name of it gives me a sickly feeling to this day,” he had said previously. He wasn’t just whistling Dixie. In a reader response famed for its brevity and the universality of the sentiment among Victorian fans, “You brute,” a woman penned to the author, whose greater work—he imagined—was unfairly shackled to Holmes.

(Perhaps unfairly, SPOILERS abound for those daring to read on.)

The suggestion that people wore mourning bands in the streets to honor the fallen character may be apocryphal. But if I had a mourning band, I’d likely be sporting it today. So maybe it isn’t. And the Strand Magazine did lose approximately 20,000 subscriptions.

“You brutes,” I now address Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, creators of BBC’s hit series Sherlock. But “brutes” as in the High and Holy Poobahs of Most Excellent, Thoughtful, Affecting, and Generally Heart-Incinerating Creators of Dramatic Television Content, Department of Ferocious Winning. Just to be clear.

[—Crystal. Go on!]

This morning I was at a brunch, the closing event for the Baker Street Irregulars’ birthday weekend of festivities in New York. (Almost English breakfast—much meat of various compositions and shapes! Beans on toast!) Sherlockians have come to regard January 6th as Holmes’ birthday, and therefore, annually, there’s a nearby celebration in New York City among the BSI, the largest and oldest group. Read more about the calculation of this birthdate at the NYT City Room blog, from which I also grab this:

The Baker Street Irregulars gathering, started in 1934 by the literary essayists Christopher Morley and Vincent Starrett, has become incredibly elaborate, featuring a full-dress banquet, an endowed lecture, a theatrical performance, cocktail parties and special breakfasts over several days. The Baker Street Irregulars, which is named for a ragtag group of street urchins that Mr. Holmes occasionally hires in his book, has included among its members Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Isaac Asimov.

Until the early 1990s, the organization was open to men only. (In response, women formed the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes.) [ASH]

At this morning’s cozy gathering of BSI and ASH, I met Sherlock fans whose knowledge is impressively deep and wide, not to mention coursing with dangerously lively current. One subject under discussion was the third and last episode of this season’s Sherlock on the BBC, entitled “The Reichenbach Fall” and set to air in the UK tonight, well, their tonight which was still our yesterday. Anyway, we’ll get it over here on PBS in May.

If the mere R-word doesn’t curdle your marrow with dread, and you’re spoiler-averse, be cautious about following the Project Reichenbach link. If you know what’s up, then you must be both distraught and fascinated to learn what Gatiss and Moffatt will unpack in their unique re-invention of The Great Detective. The fabulous Baker Street Babes are certainly discomfited, and have created a funny, fan-centric video guide, Project Reichenbach, to make sure you never forget “The Adventure of the Empty House” will happen. . .

Dear Sherlockians. You are not alone. Learn what your provisions must be. Get mentally prepared. And don’t let what happens to Curly, happen to you. Oh, and enjoy the hedgehog.

For extra juiciness, here’s a spoiler-free clip which aired during a charming Martin Freeman appearance. (Viewing complete interview especially recommended for lovers of ’shipping and hobbit-y sideburns.)

Get Ready to Fall!

Image via An Unexplored Wilderness.