# 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:** 4
**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:** [January 8, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/61 "2012-01-08T14:33:41Z")
Mycroft’s weight problem has been referenced in the BBC show; we really don’t need an enormous guy playing the role. Just as we don’t need the show to become _Intervention!UK_ to deal with Sherlock’s drug use; again, it’s been referenced. I thought that Stephen Frye was a great choice for Mycroft; that was almost enough to make me want to see That Movie Part 2 on the big screen. Then I heard he has a nude scene… ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/62 "2012-01-10T03:00:22Z")
Did anyone watch last night’s episode(Hound of the Baskervilles)? Yes, I couldn’t wait, so I got it and watched it. Sue me. Anyway, I have a question about the end. Spoilers below. Who did they release at the very end? Was that Moriarty? Did Mycroft have him imprisoned and released him? If not, who is it they released? My wife and I did not get it. ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/63 "2012-01-10T03:32:13Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Did anyone watch last night’s episode(Hound of the Baskervilles)? Yes, I couldn’t wait, so I got it and watched it. Sue me. > > Anyway, I have a question about the end. Spoilers below. > > Who did they release at the very end? Was that Moriarty? Did Mycroft have him imprisoned and released him? If not, who is it they released? My wife and I did not get it. Yep. That’s who it was. ---
**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 10, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/64 "2012-01-10T04:09:47Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > My wife and I did not get it. I don’t think you were supposed to. All will be revealed next week… ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/65 "2012-01-10T06:54:51Z")
Bit of a let down after a scandal in Belgravia. ---
**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 10, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/66 "2012-01-10T07:08:24Z")
I agree. Felt somewhat like a Scooby Doo episode. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/67 "2012-01-10T08:52:15Z")
I really hope they get Adler back for the finale, although its unlikely. Pulver and Cumberbatch have excellent chemistry and I would really enjoy seeing more of it, even if only a cameo. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/68 "2012-01-10T13:26:43Z")
> [@planetcory](#): > > Yep. That’s who it was. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > I don’t think you were supposed to. All will be revealed next week… Uh, so was it or was it not who I said? Anyone know for sure? ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/69 "2012-01-11T00:37:31Z")
[quote=“BrassyPhrase, post:36, topic:607926”] I haven’t seen this particular version but I’ve loved Sherlock Holmes stories since I could read. I’ll definitely look for it. My big interest in this thread is b/c of one of my favorite movies _Secrets and Lies_. I didn’t know Cumberbatch was a real last name! I thought it was something made up, like out of Pratchett or C.S. Lewis] Silas Tompkin Cumberbatch was the alias used by SamuelTaylor Coleridge when he ran away to join the British army ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/70 "2012-01-11T03:26:15Z")
_Hounds_ was weaker than _Scandal_, but I thought it was substantially better than the middle episode from last series. They seem to be following a pattern of: 1. Introductions and fast-paced adventure 2. Sleuthy detectivey investigation 3. High-stakes, dangerous, mindbender ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/71 "2012-01-11T04:41:32Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > _Hounds_ was weaker than _Scandal_, but I thought it was substantially better than the middle episode from last series. They seem to be following a pattern of: > > 1. Introductions and fast-paced adventure > 2. Sleuthy detectivey investigation > 3. High-stakes, dangerous, mindbender I agree. When you have a series (season) with only three episodes, if you want to have one that’s predominately a “murder of the week” then you don’t have a lot of options. I just heard that Watson’s blog is (sort of) real! Complete with a hit counter reading 1895. Read about [The Geek Interpreter](http://johnwatsonblog.co.uk/blog/16june), [The Speckled Blonde](http://johnwatsonblog.co.uk/blog/13july), and [The Aluminum Crutch](http://johnwatsonblog.co.uk/blog/02september). Especially, [The Woman](http://johnwatsonblog.co.uk/blog/12march) - the best part of which is the comments section, with comments back and forth between Holmes, Watson, and Mrs. Hudson. 😃 ---
**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:** [January 11, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/72 "2012-01-11T04:59:34Z")
You can see Doctor Watson’s blog at [Sherlockology.com](http://www.sherlockology.com/links). Plus Sherlock’s, Molly’s & the late Connie Prince’s–set up last series & updated. Not, apparently, Irene Adler’s… Why is John’s counter stuck at 1895? > [@](#): > > Here dwell together still two men of note > Who never lived and so can never die: > How very near they seem, yet how remote > That age before the world went all awry. > But still the game’s afoot for those with ears > Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo: > England is England yet, for all our fears– > Only those things the heart believes are true. > > A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane > As night descends upon this fabled street: > A lonely hansom splashes through the rain, > The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet. > Here, though the world explode, these two survive, > And it is always eighteen ninety-five. [221B](http://always1895.net/post/11857862603/starrett1-birthday-week-2011) by Vincent Starrett… ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/73 "2012-01-11T20:02:51Z")
We watched the new episode last night and thought it was fun. Not as complicated as the last one, but fun. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/74 "2012-01-12T19:08:24Z")
It was fun, definitely, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as _Scandal_ (though what a standard to be held up to!); however, the ‘mind palace’ scene where Sherlock consults his memory using the interface from _Minority Report_ was just painfully silly. I’d have preferred an _actual_ mind palace Sherlock wanders through in blurr-o-vision, and I would not have liked even that much. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/75 "2012-01-12T20:12:11Z")
The mind palace is a memory technique, not made up for the show. It’s actually called that. You probably knew that already. I don’t think there was any way to portray it that wasn’t a bit silly. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/76 "2012-01-12T20:34:23Z")
Isn’t there a passage in one of the original (Arthur Conan Doyle) stories where Holmes lectures Watson to the effect of “some facts you use all the time are like the furniture in your living room, other facts you don’t use often and you put in the attic to be taken down only when needed”? [Checked the Internet. :)] Close but no cigar. Holmes says in _Five Orange Pips_ that “A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.” ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/77 "2012-01-19T15:54:21Z")
On point with the OP, _The Telegraph_ published a list of the [20 greatest Sherlock Holmes](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8998228/Sherlock-the-20-greatest-Sherlock-Holmes.html) portrayals. The usual suspects are in the top 5, with number one being Benedict Cumberbatch. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/78 "2012-01-19T16:59:18Z")
I am sure you will all be thrilled to hear that [CBS is planning a new Sherlock series](http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115338-CBS-Investigates-New-Sherlock-Holmes-TV-Show). Climb on that bandwagon. ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/79 "2012-01-19T22:06:19Z")
On the gay Sherlock thing, the clincher must be that no gay would ever live with that wallpaper. ---
**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:** [January 20, 2012, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926/80 "2012-01-20T09:15:29Z")
Mrs Hudson has several wallpaper patterns in her rental property;[the most distinctive](http://www.sherlockology.com/props/wallpaper-living-room) is £98.00 per roll; I’m betting it’s been used on some rather stylish walls. In “A Scandal in Belgravia” a certain female character shows up; her bedroom boasts [this wallpaper](http://wearsherlock.tumblr.com/post/15301005412/timorous-beasties-devil-damask-wallpaper-as-seen#notes), a bit more pricey at £816 per roll… (Why, yes. In the long waits between series, some _Sherlock_ fans get rather obsessive about the details.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-benedict-cumberbatch-the-best-gay-or-not-sherlock-holmes-ever/607926.md?page=5)