Sherlock-Complete Series Two (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	TV Drama Series	Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Sherlock Uncovered Audio Commentary- for two episodes with cast and crew
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	266:24
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Paul McGuigan
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Benedict Cumberbatch Martin Freeman Una Stubbs Rupert Graves Loo Brealey Mark Gatiss Andrew Scott Lara Pulver
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Michael Price David Arnold

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock Holmes) and Martin Freeman (Dr. John Watson) return in the second season of the magnificent BBC series Sherlock. This two disc set of Sherlock – Season 2 contains three episodes; A Scandal In Belgravia and The Hounds of Baskerville, plus commentaries for both, on disc 1 and The Reichbach Fall and a short behind the scenes (19:07) Sherlock Uncovered on disc 2.

     In A Scandal In Belgravia Holmes is called in by his brother Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) to retrieve some compromising pictures of a member of the Royal Family that are in the possession of Irene Adler (Lara Pulver). But it seems there is far more at stake than pictures when CIA killers join the hunt for Adler. It also may be that Adler is the one woman who just might get to Holmes.

     In The Hounds of Baskerville Holmes and Watson take a trip to the country. Twenty years ago Henry Knight (Russell Tovey) saw his father torn apart by a giant hound on Dartmoor near the top secret Baskerville research facility. Now, amid recurring nightmares, Henry has seen the hound again on the moor and Holmes must face fear and doubt in the darkness on the way to solving a deadly mystery.

     In The Reichbach Fall Moriarty (Andrew Scott) allows himself to be caught attempting to steal the Crown Jewels. It is all part of his plan to destroy Sherlock Holmes by using his fame and reputation against him, a plan that leads to fatal consequences and a fatal fall.

     This wonderful second season starts off where the first series ended, at a standoff between Holmes and Moriarty at a public pool and then goes on from there. The shows in the second series are intelligent, witty, laugh out loud funny, wry, intense, riveting and madly entertaining. The casting is pitch perfect, the set design and decoration detailed and stunning, the scripting tight. A Scandal In Belgravia and The Reichbach Fall are breathtaking, and if The Hounds of Baskerville is less successful to my mind this may only be a personal view. The writers have dubbed the three shows “Holmes and love”, “Holmes and fear” and “Holmes and death” which is not a bad way of looking at these stories. This is brilliant television. Buy it – the shows are very rewatchable as each time new delights appear, so dense and delightful is this series.

Video

     Sherlock – Season 2 is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     These are beautiful with exquisite sharpness and detail – pause on the pool in the very first shot to see the ripples and the depth of detail and shadow in the darker background. This sharpness continues throughout the series. Every detail of the cluttered set decoration is clear, colours are deep and clean, skin tones natural. Blacks are solid and shadow detail superb – see any of the night scenes in The Hounds of Baskerville. I saw no evidence of artefacts of any kind

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     English subtitles in an easy to read white font are available. From the portion I sampled they cover the dialogue very well.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is English Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps. This is a dialogue heavy series and this intelligent and witty dialogue, especially when Holmes embarks upon one of his monologues, is always clear, easy to understand and centred. The surrounds are not overused, containing mostly some ambient sound and music. The sub adds a little bass to music. Not an audio to test the system, but then again it does not have to be.

     The original music by David Arnold and Michael Price perfectly matches the tone of the series. It comes across nicely balanced in the mix.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Disc 1

Audio Commentaries

     Commentaries are included for both A Scandal In Belgravia and The Hounds of Baskerville.

     The A Scandal In Belgravia commentary features Steven Moffat Mark Gatiss (writers / co-creators), Sue Vertue (producer), Benedict Cumberbatch (Holmes) and Lara Pulver (Irene Adler). They are recorded together and have great fun chatting about locations, plot points and the production, including Pulver’s nude scene. There is some interesting stuff and a lot of inane chatter meaning this is not the best, nor worst, commentary you will hear.

     The The Hounds of Baskerville commentary features Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss (writers / co-creators), Sue Vertue (producer) and Russell Tovey (Henry Knight). This is still a chatty commentary but it is the better of the two because Tovey actually asks questions about influences, the stories, locations and the others add questions and thoughts of their own. Definitely worth a listen.

Disc 2

Sherlock Uncovered (19:07)

     Behind the scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew explaining how they followed up the success of series 1, some technical information and a look at the three stories that make up series 2. Interviewees: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Lara Pulver and Andrew Scott (cast), and crew Steven Moffat Mark Gatiss (writers / co-creators), Sue Vertue (producer), Paul McGuigan (director), Danny Hargreaves (special effects supervisor) and Arwel Wyn Jones (production designer). This is by no means an “I love everyone” piece and does give some interesting insights into the production. Well worth a look.

     This set is the same as the Region 2 UK release. The Region 1 US NTSC version, out on 22 May 1012 also appears similar. Buy local.

     Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman return in the second season of the magnificent BBC series Sherlock. The shows in the second series are intelligent, witty, laugh out loud funny, wry, intense, riveting and madly entertaining. The casting is pitch perfect, the set design and decoration detailed and stunning, the scripting tight.

     The video is superb, the audio does what is required. The one extra is worthwhile.

     Brilliant television!

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall