Young Sherlock review: Guy Ritchie's return to Holmes is messy, throwaway fun

The opening scenes of the creatively titled new Sherlock Holmes prequel, Young Sherlock, find our hero engaged in a prison brawl, before being made to work as a porter at Oxford University by his brother Mycroft.

The sight of Holmes bruised and dressed in prison garb is actually only fleeting here, but has been used extensively in marketing, clearly suggesting this is how Prime Video wants to sell the series.

It's not far off from the vision of Holmes we saw in the previous films from Guy Ritchie, who is a director and executive producer here, but it's been stressed that the two projects are not linked.

So, Holmes as a bruiser, is that what we're going for here? Well, not exactly. In truth, having now seen all eight episodes of Young Sherlock, I'm still not quite sure what version of the detective this is, so muddled is the journey it takes both us on.

Is that a problem? Yes, undoubtedly. The series is messy, disjointed and will be an absolute turn-off for die-hard Arthur Conan Doyle fans. However, for everyone else there is another point that has to be made - Guy Ritchie knows how to make damn addictive entertainment.

As already explained, Young Sherlock quickly establishes the titular hero, a reprobate youth who has taken to pickpocketing just for the thrill of it, working at Oxford University.

There, he meets James Moriarty, a student attending the university on a top scholarship, and the two become fast friends due to their matched intellect. Of course, we know how that story goes - the duo will one day be arch-enemies, but don't expect a speed-run up to that point.

Sherlock's first unofficial case sees him investigating a stolen scroll, nicked in transit to the university by a Chinese princess.

However, that's just the beginning of things, as the case leads both he and James into a world of murder and conspiracy, eventually bringing him all the way home to reconnect with his mother, Cordelia, who has been committed to an asylum for years, and his father, Silas.

You get the picture - this isn't your 'case of the week' Holmes, like in Sherlock or Elementary. It's not only tonally aligned with Ritchie's films from 2009 and 2011, but also structurally.

It follows a similar formula, in that it starts out with a relatively simple case, which then balloons to the point that Sherlock is travelling the globe on the trail of a wider conspiracy, with the audience left wondering exactly why he's doing so or quite how he got there.

It has to be said that while that sort of plot can work quite handily in a film, where things move at such breakneck speed that it's hard to stop and thinking about it all too much, across a series it does leave things feeling disjointed.

Episodes 1 to 3 feel like a totally different story than the middle chapters, and particularly removed from the final few. And this isn't just an issue of location, but also one of tone and characterisation.

On that note, we have to talk about Sherlock. If one were being generous, you could say that he goes on a journey across the series. If one were being honest, you would say his characterisation is all over the place.

Sure, he does come across some personal trials which could explain his rapidly changing demeanour, but the cheeky chappy of the earlier episodes does seem to completely vanish come to midpoint of the series.

His level of morality and emotional sincerity also seem to both be in flux - if the character weren't called Sherlock Holmes, viewers would be left with little clue as to who this hero is actually meant to be or what he's meant to represent.

This isn't particularly the fault of Hero Fiennes Tiffin, it's really in the script. Fiennes Tiffin is fine in the role. It would be stretch to say he excels, or will be a particularly memorable take on the character in years to come, but he is watchable, and doesn't detract from everything else that's going on.

His relationship with Dónal Finn's Moriarty is probably the most interesting element of the series, with the 'friends to foes' angle playing out with surprising subtlety, and the end result yet to be realised. This is aided supremely by Finn's impressive turn, with a twinkle in his eye which sells the character's mischief and inner darkness, even as he is outwardly all justice and light.

The rest of the cast are impressive too, whether it's established names like Natascha McElhone and Joseph Fiennes (both of whom are having a whole lot of fun as Sherlock's parents) or relative newcomers like Zine Tseng. Max Irons is particularly impressive in his role as Mycroft, and one wonders whether he himself would have made a good young Sherlock 10 years ago.

Oh, and Colin Firth pops up too. In all honesty, the show is probably starrier than it deserves to be.

It's also absolutely not one for Holmes purists. At times, as with Ritchie's previous takes on the character, one wonders whether he or anyone else behind the programme has all that much interest in Conan Doyle's character.

Elements of the story could be transposed into any other action/adventure series, and there is little display of Holmes's deduction skills in full force.

Of course, you could argue that this is because the character is in his early days, and is yet to hone his craft. Instead, I would argue that, beyond a couple of displays of Holmes's mind palace in action, the series has much more interest in Holmes as a Ritchie style gentleman action hero than it does with him as a deductive genius - even if that does make it all the more generic.

All that being said - the messiness, the weak characterisation, the lack of fidelity to the source material - it has to acknowledged that Young Sherlock is not a slog to get through. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

No matter the strength of the material he's working with - from the highs of The Gentlemen to the lows of Fountain of Youth - Ritchie usually manages to maintain a level of entertainment quality which escapes many directors and creatives, perhaps because he's so willing to shake things up and play fast and loose with source material.

Even with all its faults, Young Sherlock is a proper rollicking adventure, with a sense of fun that prevails even as more brooding elements descend.

The action is well-staged and inventive, the plot is largely propulsive, the character interactions are charming and the locations are stunning.

With all the criticisms I had across all of the eight episodes, my level of enjoyment never really cratered, and instead I was left wanting more come the end of the run. I wanted to find out what happens next to this version of Holmes and Moriarty, perhaps because they are so unrecognisable from their literary counterparts.

Whether we do get to see more adventures, who knows. If audiences flock to the series like they did to watch the trailer, then it certainly seems likely.

In the end, one wonders whether it wouldn't have been better to make this an official prequel to the Ritchie films. Little would have had to change, but it would have at least made clear what the end goal is, and given the characterisations some grounding.

As it is, we've got a fun, messy, throwaway adventure series, with nominal ties to Sherlock Holmes but little of the substance. It's got much closer ties to Ritchie's back catalogue than to Conan Doyles - and your willingness to go along with that will no doubt determine your enjoyment.

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