# Is Benedict Cumberbatch the best (gay or not) Sherlock Holmes ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2011, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926 "2011-12-31T08:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/1 "2011-12-31T08:13:18Z")
In the comments to this [somewhat snarky article](http://gawker.com/5871870/rich-british-actor-i-am-trapped-in-a-prison-of-wealth?tag=celebrities) people seem to be gushing over how great his Sherlock Holmes is in a recent BBC series. Better than Robert Downey _and_ Jeremy Brett. Are they correct is he the best ever? Is this series worth tracking down? Gay Sherlock? I wonder how that plays out. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/2 "2011-12-31T08:26:30Z")
I like him better than Downey, not as much as Brett. He’s really good, though. And while they keep dropping hints that his Holmes might be gay, if you haven’t seen “A Study in Pink” yet, they drop a much bigger hint that he isn’t: It doesn’t occur to him that a person in question might be a lesbian. Ultimately, he just seems less interested in sex than mysteries, just like his literary inspiration. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/3 "2011-12-31T08:27:37Z")
To answer your first question, yes, I think he’s a very good Sherlock and the BBC shows are well-crafted and engaging. At least the first trio is; I haven’t seen the second trio yet. Gay? There’s a slightly cute scene in the first episode where both Sherlock and Watson think the other is gay and try to address the situation in typical British fashion. Does Sherlock come out of the closet in the new episodes? Cumberbatch sounds like a whiny bitch in that article. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/4 "2011-12-31T08:29:54Z")
Downey is too charming. I like Cumberbatch. He has the kind of cold charisma that suits Holmes, at least in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/5 "2011-12-31T08:31:48Z")
Jeremy Brett beats Basil Rathbone by a whisker. The rest nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/6 "2011-12-31T09:45:17Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Gay Sherlock? I wonder how that plays out. It doesn’t. It’s pretty clear in the series that Sherlock isn’t boning anyone and doesn’t “get” relationships on that level. If anything, he’s asexual. There are a number of briefs bits where _other people_ assume Sherlock and Watson are a couple, but that’s not the case. I’ll note that the issue of gayness came up even in Doyle’s time, which allegedly had something to do with marrying off Watson at one point. Of course, back then it was something dreadful and to be denied at all costs. These days, we laugh at when people make the assumption about the two main characters. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/7 "2011-12-31T11:31:07Z")
Not gay, but yes, he’s the best Holmes, IMHO. And he’s playing a man-eating, town burning dragon in an upcoming film, so apparently he’s not _that_ typecast. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/8 "2011-12-31T12:13:04Z")
In the BBC version, John Watson is a ladies’ man & Sherlock Holmes pours his passion into his work–but they have a great friendship & complement each other well. Just as the characters did in Doyle’s stories. However, in Victorian London nobody gave a second thought to bachelors sharing lodging. Then Freud happened & people began suspecting things. In the modern London of the show, people are glad to congratulate these good-looking fellows on setting up housekeeping, just to demonstrate their open-mindedness; it’s an ongoing joke. Appreciating Cumberbatch in the role in no way diminishes my admiration for Jeremy Brett, my first favorite Holmes. Steven Spielberg, who used him in _War Horse_, called Cumberbatch “the best Sherlock Holmes on screen.” In [a better interview](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8982500/Benedict-Cumberbatch-the-ideal-Holmes.html), an upcoming role is discussed… > [@](#): > > McKellen said Cumberbatch’s Smaug screen-test was amazing, I tell him. Cumberbatch splutters. “Has… has he seen it?” Actually, McKellen’s words were “electrifying - vocally and facially”. He looks ecstatic. “Wow! I’m very flattered.” He seems entirely sincere when he says this. He comes across, in general, as earnest - with a searching intelligence. > > So how did Cumberbatch do the audition? “I went a little reptile on it,” he says, enigmatically. With filming approaching, he is now “starting to look at animations, and Komodo dragons at London Zoo. They have some amazing ones. Snakes, too. So I’ve been going there to see how the skeleton moves differently, what the head movements are like.” He says it’s all in the posture, and he crouches forward, swivelling his eyes snakily, to demonstrate. The 3-episode first series of _Sherlock_ is streaming on Netflix & worth a look. The second series starts New Year’s Day on the BBC… ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/9 "2011-12-31T15:00:21Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I haven’t seen the second trio yet. I’d be impressed if you had! The first episode of the second series is tomorrow (New Year’s Day). ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/10 "2011-12-31T15:37:50Z")
Definitely looking forward to the next trio of episodes, since I thought the first was brilliant. And no, as others have explained, they’re not gay – they merely address the assumption more directly than in period versions. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/11 "2011-12-31T16:42:25Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It doesn’t. > > It’s pretty clear in the series that Sherlock isn’t boning anyone and doesn’t “get” relationships on that level. If anything, he’s asexual. There are a number of briefs bits where _other people_ assume Sherlock and Watson are a couple, but that’s not the case. > > I’ll note that the issue of gayness came up even in Doyle’s time, which allegedly had something to do with marrying off Watson at one point. Of course, back then it was something dreadful and to be denied at all costs. These days, we laugh at when people make the assumption about the two main characters. He’s played like someone who has aspergers. Not someone who is gay. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/12 "2011-12-31T16:48:05Z")
According to what the character himself claims, he’s a “high-functioning sociopath”. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/13 "2011-12-31T16:55:05Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > I’d be impressed if you had! The first episode of the second series is tomorrow (New Year’s Day). Ah, ok. There was a thread in Cafe Society where the title gave me the impression they’d aired in the UK already. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/14 "2011-12-31T16:58:29Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > According to what the character himself claims, he’s a “high-functioning sociopath”. Yea, a Holmes with Aspergers doesn’t make sense. His whole schtick is to empathize and put himself in the shoes of his quarry. He isn’t a jerk because he has trouble understanding social conventions, he’s a jerk because he’s a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/15 "2011-12-31T17:25:47Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Yea, a Holmes with Aspergers doesn’t make sense. His whole schtick is to empathize and put himself in the shoes of his quarry. > > He isn’t a jerk because he has trouble understanding social conventions, he’s a jerk because he’s a jerk. They split the difference by first having Holmes simply fail to react at all when the lab tech breathlessly makes eyes at him – _is it that he genuinely doesn’t realize it, or that he just doesn’t care?_ – before he then needs her help in the second episode, at which point he focuses his attention and flirts the poor girl into a puddle of acquiescence. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/16 "2012-01-02T01:22:55Z")
New series - first ep is brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/17 "2012-01-02T01:27:29Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > New series - first ep is brilliant! _Dizzyingly_ brilliant! And directly addresses the title of the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/18 "2012-01-02T02:57:47Z")
My vote goes to Jeremy Brett, although BC’s take on the character is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/19 "2012-01-02T08:07:08Z")
You could try for a thousand years and never come close to approaching the fidelity and excellence of Jeremy Brett. He nailed it, and the new BBC series wisely does not attempt to repeat his perfect game. They do something new and interesting instead, and as a result, have made something quite wonderful. Counterpoint: the disaster that is Guy Ritchie’s vision of Sherlock Holmes. RDJ is awesome, but those movies stink. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/20 "2012-01-02T09:26:26Z")
No. Brett is the quintessential Sherlock. Hands down. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926.md?page=2)