The Blind Banker | Episode 2 | Season 1 | Sherlock TV Serial On DVD | Personal Reviews

The second episode of the TV Series Sherlock is titled as The Blind Banker. Like all the detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (on which the TV Serial is based), this tale also have a totally new case to deal with. Though the life of some permanent characters; including Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and others continue to move on. This episode interestingly takes stuff from the following Sherlock Holmes stories:

• The Valley of Fear
• The Adventure of the Dancing Men
• The Sign of the Four

It all starts with Chinese pottery expert Soo Lin Yao and her appearance at National Antiquities Museum. Be it the scene where she explains the stuff to the visitors or she is chatting with a boy, or she is performing stuff in after working hours; from a viewer point of view you may feel that the girl is in trans. It could be more effective if the girl’s acting was natural.

The entire title sequence and especially the background music is simply lovable.

The scene where we see Dr. Watson getting frustrated in the shopping mall as his card is unable to be used to pay (as he is seriously running out of money) and Sherlock was attacked by a man with sword; both running parallel; at different locations; is very effective. The small conversation between Holmes and Watson in the following scene is fueled with witty one liners. You gotta enjoy it, if listen with attention.

Not happy with the current economic situation Watson was ready to get any job and Holmes got a call from a bank. It was by an old friend of Holmes, named Sebastian. And they plan visiting the bank the next day.

The modern bank is setup in a place which is actually not a bank. The additional footage on the DVD tells a lot of stuffs associated with the episode, which is almost unknown or less-known. You can change the track and you got to hear the commentary and other stuffs while playing the episode; so it can be easily relate to the scene it is talking about. The audio and video quality is great. But, you can enjoy the stuff properly if you have better sound system. If you try watching it with mono or stereo or reverse stereo mode; and you may be a little disappointed. But if you have at least 5.1 channel sound system, it is fantastic experience to watch this DVD.

Here they got to know that there was a break in-to the bank last night. Though no valuables taken but there was some stuff marked on the wall and posters with paint. Sebastian offers good money to Holmes to resolve the case. You will find it interesting to see the reaction of both Holmes and Watson to this offer. For Holmes the exercise to the brain is important then anything else. It is kind of addiction to him we can say. Money never comes into the picture in such matter for him. The thrill is all he require. He uses nicotine patches otherwise! Watson however is realistic person who have his own priorities and know the rules of the real world. It is presented pretty well.

Action lovers will like to see the scene in which Sherlock enters into the flat of Van Coon from the balcony of the flat located above it. However Van Coon was found dead inside the flat!!! The conversation between the police official and Holmes-Watson duo is interesting. And it ends with the famous line by Holmes: Finally you are asking the right question!

So who is Van Coon and why he is murdered? Is there any link between this murder and the message at bank? What about the lady working at the museum? How all these stuffs are related (if they are)? How will Watson and Holmes able to solve the case? It is the rest of this 88 minutes long episode.

Of course Benedict and Martin are the top performers and they look the characters. We can say that they did all convincing efforts to redefine the famous characters of Holmes and Watson respectively. After seeing two episodes of the TV show and seen them playing the lead characters you cannot think of any other actor in these roles (the same we can say for the actors playing Mrs. Hudson, Mrs. Watson, Sherlock’s brother and some other characters).

The modernized sets and present day locations fits into the story pretty well, like characters. The dialogs are first rate. Though, there are places where you may like the protagonist to speak it with slower speed; but it fits with the attribute of the character in the way it is filmed and recorded. The background music is all the way fantastic.

The emotional and thrilling scenes with Soo (the Chinese girl) suffers some unnatural acting. On the other side some chases are filmed really well. Sometimes it gives you the feeling of watching a quality movie. You can say it is the success of the TV Serial.

Short summary: The script is well defined and even better at some places than the previous episode. Sherlock lovers will surely like the modern avatar of the detective, his aide, his family and his enemies.

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