Sherlock: Sunday 9pm, BBC1
SIAN GARDINER
With the arrival of the New Year came the eagerly awaited second series of the BBC’s modern reimagining of Conan Doyle’s famous detective, the eccentric Sherlock. After the worldwide and slavish critical acclaim of the first series, the creators, including Steven Moffatt of Doctor Who fame, had a lot to live up to.
They certainly didn’t disappoint; new episode A Scandal in Belgravia once again brought the story seamlessly into the 21st century, complete with the brilliant script and faultless performances of unconventional duo Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman) that made the first series a runaway success. Much of this success is owed to its lead, Cumberbatch, who plays the iconic detective with a mixture of icy cool and impatience at the rest of the world’s comparative stupidity. He somehow manages to charm as a character whose behaviour borders on sociopathic; he dismisses cases not quite juicy enough for him with a disdainful “Boring!” and rates a murder case as a “six”, when “There’s no point in leaving my flat for anything less than a 7.”
With the same mixture of comedy and thrills that audiences enjoyed during the first series, Cumberbatch mesmerises with his trademark quick fire deductions, with Freeman looking on and sharing the astonishment and exasperation that endeared him to audiences the first time round. Cumberbatch fans will also have been pleased to find a little more of their favourite detective on display than they may have expected; nudity seems to be a theme for the episode, with Sherlock meeting his intellectual match in the sexy, scantily clad, Irene Adler, played seductively by Lara Pulver. While Adler is traditionally seen as Holmes’s only real love interest, the show’s creators avoided falling into the trap of a mundane love story, and audiences were treated to seeing someone finally get under Sherlock’s skin. Featuring everything from espionage and murder to Royal scandal and Islamic terrorism, I look forward to finding out what else the remaining two episodes have in store.
Kourtney and Kim Take New York: Thursday 7pm, E!
KERUSCHKA SHUNMUGAM
The show Kourtney and Kim Take New York has attracted 3 million more viewers since Kim Kardashian’s opportune divorce from basketball player, Kris Humphries, just weeks before the US premier of the show. The pair got married after dating for six months, in a well-publicised wedding that was then turned into a tow hour long special: Kim’s Fairy-tale Wedding.
The focus of the show is now on whether their marriage was a sham or just a whirlwind romance gone wrong. KKTNY promises us drama and the weird sensation of watching a real-life celebrity marriage crumble right before our very eyes, with the knowledge that the demise is inevitable. The promotions promise us the drama of Kris leaving the country and Kim finding out about it on Twitter, as well as Kris moving out because he cannot handle the peculiar behaviour of Kourtney and Scott.
Although the sole focus of the show is the Kim/Kris drama, we cannot forget about the extremely entertaining yet still bizarre relationship between Kourtney Kardashian and her long time beau, Scott Disick. Their dynamic promises to entertain us with Kourtney following the weird Hollywood trend of holism, preferring to get oil colonics and do naked yoga than follow traditional methods as well as Scott flashing his cash by buying a baby grand piano and his failed attempt at helping Kris become a Kardashian man.
KKTNY is classic marmite TV. Not surprisingly then, there are as many critics denouncing its mere existance as there are singing its praises. The truth is, if you tune in you will enjoy it, even though you may not enjoy the fact that you’re enjoying it.
Whether you are watching the show or not, the Kardashians are everywhere, you cannot escape their ever-growing Empire and the media’s obsession with their family. This family has done it all from sex tapes to quickie weddings, unexpected pregnancies and 72 day marriages, the question now becomes what more can they do to keep us fascinated with them?