Sherlock – Transmedia Elements, And Why It Works

This weekend I watched the BBC’s Sherlock, several months after its broadcast debut.  The premise behind the show is straightforward: it’s a contemporary retelling of the classic Arthur Conan Doyle novels set in modern day London.  The execution is spectacular; four-and-a-half hours of entertaining television spread across three distinct mysteries, and ending with an absolutely breathtaking conclusion.  I believe that it’s still available to steam through the BBC iPlayer and on the PBS website for a limited time here.  Failing that, it’s well worth picking up on Amazon.

Sherlock features some rather progressive Transmedia elements, which I’m going to discuss later in this piece.  Before that though, I’d like to speculate at why Sherlock works and dozens of other reboots and “re-imaginings” have not.

An Understanding of its World and Characters

A lot of contemporary adaptations utilize bits and pieces of the original property and liberally dispense with other elements without appreciating what made the original property tick.  It’s a tricky balance to strike.  If you change too much, you lose touch with the original story and risk offending people.  If you change too little (or the wrong things), the presentation feels anachronistic.

Sherlock strikes the perfect balance, maintaining the heart of the original while situating it in a believable contemporary setting.  It does this by concentrating on the fundamentals of Conan Doyle’s work – the eccentricities of Sherlock’s personality, the dynamic between him and Watson, and the depiction of London as a living, organic entity full of theft and murder.

A Strong Theme – Order vs. Chaos

Underscoring these elements is Sherlock‘s clear and omnipresent theme - order versus chaos.  It permeates every aspect of the series.  Sherlock himself is consistently torn between these two opposing forces.  Much of his personal life is a scattered mess (clutter everywhere, personal addictions, heads in the fridge), in stark contrast to the order of his unusually analytic mind.

The theme expands out to Sherlock‘s London setting, and its plot – many of the mysteries revolve fundamentally around the question of how much we can control in the world around us.  This comes to a head with the final episode, a chase around London in which Sherlock can only maintain control by using his incredible cognitive abilities.  It’s a rare connection between plot and theme that you rarely find, but often signals something special.

A Great Antagonist

There is no doubt that you can tell a compelling single story without having a clear antagonist – internal conflict or indecision can create drama, as can a conspiracy of fat and circumstance against a protagonist.  However, it is nigh on impossible to sustain a property without a clearly defined protagonist.

Sherlock is lucky to have inherited one of the all time classic antagonists – Moriarty.  I don’t want to spoil how he is used in Sherlock, but suffice to say that he possesses all of the classic qualities of a great antagonist.  He reflects the theme – creating chaos – and mirrors many of Sherlock’s own qualities as the only character in his world capable of matching him.  This highlights an important point – only by understanding your protagonist and his world can you craft an antagonist capable of consistently challenging and threatening him.

A World Outside the Story

It is hard to judge the sustainability of the BBC’s Sherlock after a mere three episodes.  However, it does a good job of creating a world that continues to live after the events onscreen.  While we are party to a key first meeting, the first episode establishes that Sherlock has been solving mysteries (and annoying the police) for long before we join the action.  There are existing dynamics already in place, and any necessary exposition is handled with a delicate touch.

There is also the strong inference that Holmes and Watson take and solve cases that we do not see onscreen – thus establishing a world that exists beyond the parameter of the three episodes.

Handling Technology Elegantly

It is my belief that the invention of the cellphone has created an enormous problem for modern storytelling.  Characters can contact each other instantly, destroying the potential for dramatic irony.  On the other end of the scale, text messaging and the internet facilitates lazy writing.

Sherlock handles technology in the most elegant way I have yet to see.  Not only do characters use devices such as cellphones logically, and in a way that complements the story, but the show also uses technology to enhance the aesthetic.  Text messages, emails and visual symbols are displayed on screen (instead of read out, or shown in a closeup of the device), seamlessly worked into the composition of the frame in an artful way that actually encourages the viewer to pay closer attention.

The Transmedia Elements

As I mentioned in the introduction, Sherlock uses Transmedia elements in a rather progressive manner.  On multiple occasions across the 4 1/2 hours, characters reference online assets that have been established by the BBC as in-canon presences: Sherlock’s website- The Science of Deduction, Watson’s blog, as well as websites for some other supporting characters (here and here).

What I like about the Transmedia implementation in Sherlock is that it is well integrated into the show itself – the Driving platform.  Characters talk about (and use) these sites in a natural way that doesn’t seem like a forced plug for the online content but nonetheless prompts the viewer to check them out.  I’m very encouraged that the BBC would be so amenable to this kind of integration in one of its flagship programs.  Unsurprisingly, a fan community has already sprung up around the property – complete with fan fiction competition.

The content of the sites themselves is a mixed bag.  While the “voice” of the blogs is fairly authentic in places, none of the sites seems remotely realistic.  The message board for one character (note, spoilers here) doesn’t look anything like any internet message board I’ve seen.  Furthermore, Sherlock’s “personal” site really doesn’t seem to fit his personality at all.  There are quizzes (puzzles and wordgames) online in which Sherlock asks the audience for help.  This, while well intentioned, fundamentally fails because Sherlock is established in the show as an arrogant genius who would never ask for help.  Furthermore, I simply cannot see him writing the phrase “some anonymous guy.”  The principle is this: you cannot disregard the rules of your character or world to contrive additional content.  It ruins the consistency of the property.

The message is here is clear: it is wonderful that the BBC is open to expanding the content of a story online, but it doesn’t yet truly understand the principles of Transmedia.  It is also, arguably, a problem that the only way I could find this in-story web content was through the BBC’s website for the Sherlock show (doesn’t this lift the veil?).  Nonetheless, I am extremely excited to see what is going to come from the BBC and other European broadcasters in the future.