History YMMV / SherlockHolmes

** In a recent twist, the urge to dismantle the CommonKnowledge about Sherlock Holmes has led to the creation of an entirely new piece of CommonKnowledge - the portrayal of Literature/SherlockHolmes as a mentally disturbed, emotionally crippled loner, solely devoted to the solving of puzzles - the portrayal seen in the Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Junior and Hugh Laurie adaptation portrayals. This is, however, an exaggeration of the books where Holmes is seen as being solitary, subject to occasional dark moods and occasionally tactless but is in fact warm-hearted and sympathetic -- even in the first adventure he takes his time to listen and understand Watson's horror over the murders -- who absolutely hates any sort of cruelty or evil and fights tooth and nail for all of his clients (plus he appreciates the arts and enjoys going to concerts and plays).

** [[Creator/JossAckland Arjen Rudd]] is Edward Rucastle. Here, [[Film/LethalWeapon2 he doesn't resort to diplomatic immunity]].

** [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk Colonel Dietrich]] is the King of Bohemia.
** [[Film/LethalWeapon2 Arjen Rudd]] is Edward Rucastle. Here, he doesn't resort to diplomatic immunity.

** Mrs. Hudson is sometimes seen as Holmes's housekeeper, but in the original canon she wasn't any kind of servant; she ''owned'' 221 Baker Street, and rented 221B to Holmes and Watson. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' even harps on this, with Mrs. Hudson insistently pointing out that she's their landlady, ''not'' their housekeeper. That being said, she is often mentioned as cooking for them (no doubt as part of their room and board) and she sometimes brought visitors or clients up to see Holmes and occasionally brought him cards or telegrams as well, so it's understandable why people would assume it was her job as opposed to being courteous to her lodgers.

** Sherlock himself is this, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny though this has become the standard]].

** The titular "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the King of Bohemia's affair (back when he was Crown Prince) with Irene Adler, an opera singer whose career in the 1890s was one step at most above [[TheWickedStage being an]] ''[[TheWickedStage actress.]]'' These days, when acting on the stage/opera singing are both respectable and highly desired professions, and several modern royals have been publicly revealed to be involved in far worse scandals, readers may wonder why the king's fiancée would make so much fuss over a brief, consensual liaison that happened five years ago and long before they were even engaged. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' actually updated Adler to being a ''lesbian dominatrix'' in order to translate the scandal to the 21st century.

** Some fans wonder just how accurately Watson portrays himself and Holmes, and whether he occasionally bends the truth in his stories. It's commonly speculated that Watson changes names and dates in his stories to protect Holmes' clients. ''Literature/TheSevenPercentSolution'' is explicitly built on this with ''The Final Problem'' as a cover-up for Holmes' treatment for his cocaine addiction.

** Even though it's true that Holmes' drug use tends to get a lot more focus today than it ever did in Doyle's day, the fact that his drug of choice is cocaine is actually a common misconception. Watson specifically says that Holmes frequently uses both cocaine and morphine [[note]]His first mention of Holmes' drug use comes when he asks Holmes "What is it to-day, morphine or cocaine?"[[/note]], but his 7% cocaine solution is the only drug that we actually see him using in-story.

** In a recent twist, the urge to dismantle the CommonKnowledge about Sherlock Holmes has led to the creation of an entirely new piece of CommonKnowledge - the portrayal of Literature/SherlockHolmes as a mentally disturbed emotionally crippled loner, solely devoted to the solving of puzzles - the portrayal seen in the Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Junior and Hugh Laurie adaptation portrayals. This is, however, an exaggeration of the books where Holmes is seen as being solitary, subject to occasional dark moods and occasionally tactless but is in fact warm-hearted and sympathetic -- even in the first adventure he takes his time to listen and understand Watson's horror over the murders -- who absolutely hates any sort of cruelty or evil and fights tooth and nail for all of his clients (plus he appreciates the arts and enjoys going to concerts and plays).

* FairForItsDay: Although Doyle often reflected the prejudices of his day (Wikipedia specifically contrasts it with the cowardly and brutish Steve Dixie in "The Adventure of the Three Gables"), he nevertheless occasionally displayed surprisingly liberal values, as in "The Adventure of the Yellow Face", in which [[spoiler:a husband immediately and without reservation accepts and loves his wife's mixed-race child from a previous relationship]]. And a later story, "The Five Orange Pips," treats [[spoiler: the racial violence of the Ku Klux Klan]] with condemnation at a time in history when racial violence was often seen as an acceptable counter-reaction.

** In "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor," Holmes expresses a hope that the U.S. would rejoin the U.K. An...eccentric position when the story was written, but with the popularity of [[Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers USUK]], [[FanPreferredCouple he has plenty of support on that,]] [[{{Shipping}} albeit in a different sense]]. An additional layer of hilarity is that this is one of the goals of ''the villain'' in the 2009 Holmes film.
** The plot of "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" concerns an ImpoverishedPatrician who marries a wealthy American in order to offset his dismal financial situation. Where does his bride get her wealth? Her father owns a ''[[GoldDigger gold mine!]]''[[note]] This story was published in 1892 and GoldDigger didn't become slang for someone marrying for money until the 1920s.[[/note]]

** Sherlock himself is this, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny though this has become the standard]]

** One of the signs that Dr. Grimesby Roylott in ''The Adventure of the Speckled Band'' is wicked is that...he's friendly with the local Romani people, lets them live on his land and spends time in their camps. Helen Stoner and Holmes also immediately suspect them of being involved in Julia's death, on very paltry evidence, and Holmes only dismisses the thought when he learns there would have been no way for them to get into the house. Tellingly, in ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmesAndDoctorWatson'', Holmes states during TheSummation that he had dismissed them as suspects right away and took Helen's words to be nothing but common prejudice.

* PeripheryDemographic: Both the producers and Creator/JeremyBrett were surprised to learn that their TV series was very popular with kids, who seemed to see the lead character as a SuperHero. As such, Brett got permission from the granddaughter of Arthur Conan Doyle to have Holmes beat his cocaine addiction and bury his needle [[note]]Holmes actually did eventually give up drugs in the original canon, as was mentioned in an adventure that was never adapted to the screen (Missing Three-Quarter)[[/note]].

** The ending of "The Adventure of the Crooked Man". [[spoiler: While Nancy and Henry are cleared of any wrongdoing in the Colonel's death, it's hinted that Henry is dying...so even though the former lovers are now free to be together, Henry's holding the locket with their silhouettes with a saddened expression implies that they won't be together..]]

** Poor Aggie in "The Master Blackmailer" fell in love with Holmes's false identity, and though she doesn't blow his cover, recognizes him when he shows up at Milverton's house as himself. Holmes is quite subdued and regretful at the end, as well, telling Watson he's not proud of some of the things he did for the case.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Briefly, when the production team decided to retool the series from hour-long episodes to feature-length ones: "The Master Blackmailer", "The Last Vampyre" and "The Eligible Bachelor." While the first is consider a decent AdaptationExpansion, the latter two bear absolutely no resemblance to anything Conan Doyle ever wrote.

** Mrs. Hudson is sometimes seen as Holmes's housekeeper, but in the original canon she wasn't any kind of servant; she ''owned'' 221 Baker Street, and rented 221B to Holmes and Watson. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' even harps on this, with Mrs. Hudson insistently pointing out that she's their landlady, ''not'' their housekeeper. That being said, she is often mentioned as cooking for them (no doubt as part of their room and board) and she sometimes brought visitors/clients up to see Holmes and occasionally brought him cards or telegrams as well, so it's understandable why people would assume it was her job rather than her being helpful towards her lodgers.

* FandomRivalry: ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' vs. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' aside, you would see fans butting heads on each other regarding which actor played Sherlock Holmes the best. Usually, it would be Creator/BasilRathbone fans vs. Vasily Livanov fans vs. Creator/JeremyBrett fans. Then, toss in Creator/BenedictCumberbatch fans, Creator/RobertDowneyJr fans, Creator/JonnyLeeMiller fans, and Creator/HenryCavill fans and it's an all-out war. The only thing that most fans agree on is that none of them like Henry Lloyd-Hughes's portrayal because he bears little to no resemblance to the character himself.

** In a recent twist, the urge to dismantle the CommonKnowledge about Sherlock Holmes has led to the creation of an entirely new piece of CommonKnowledge - the portrayal of Literature/SherlockHolmes as a mentally disturbed emotionally crippled loner, solely devoted to the solving of puzzles - the portrayal seen in the Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Junior and Hugh Laurie adaptation portrayals. This is, however, an exaggeration of the books where Holmes is seen as being solitary, subject to occasional dark moods and occasionally tactless but is in fact warm-hearted and sympathetic (even in the first adventure he takes his time to listen and understand Watson's horror over the murders) who absolutely hates any sort of cruelty or evil and fights tooth and nail for all of his clients.

** Creator/JamesPurefoy as James Mc Carthy.

* SeasonalRot: Beginning with "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" the series began to decline, not helped by Jeremy Brett's ill-health. For the first few seasons, the production team had cherry-picked many of the best and most well-known stories to adapt, now they were left with largely average to mediocre ones . Special mention goes to "The Last Vampyre" and "The Eligible Bachelor" which were especially dreadful and bore little resemblance to anything Doyle wrote.

** The titular "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the King of Bohemia's affair (back when he was Crown Prince) with Irene Adler, an opera singer whose career in the 1890s was one step at most above [[TheWickedStage being an]] ''[[TheWickedStage actress.]]'' These days, when acting on the stage/opera singing are both respectable and highly desired professions, and several modern royals have been publicly revealed to be involved in far worse scandals, readers may wonder why the king's fiancée is making so much fuss over a brief liaison that happened five years ago and long before they were even engaged. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' actually updated Adler to being a ''lesbian dominatrix'' in order to translate the scandal to the 21st century.

** The titular "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the King of Bohemia's affair (back when he was Crown Prince) with Irene Adler, an opera singer whose career in the 1890s was one step at most above [[TheWickedStage being an actress.]] These days, when acting on the stage/opera singing are both respectable and highly desired professions, and several modern royals have been publicly revealed to be involved in far worse scandals, readers may wonder why the king's fiancée is making so much fuss over a brief liaison that happened five years ago and long before they were even engaged. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' actually updated Adler to being a ''lesbian dominatrix'' in order to translate the scandal to the 21st century.

** The titular "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the King of Bohemia's affair (back when he was Crown Prince) with Irene Adler, an opera singer whose career in the 1890s was one step at most above [[TheWickedStage being an actress.]] These days, when acting and opera singing are respectable and desirable professions, and several modern royals have been publicly revealed to be involved in far worse scandals, readers may wonder why the king's fiancée is making so much fuss over a brief liaison that happened five years ago and long before they were even engaged. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' actually updated Adler to being a ''lesbian dominatrix'' in order to translate the scandal to the 21st century.

** Some fans wonder just how accurately Watson portrays himself and Holmes, and whether he occasionally bends the truth in his stories.

** The titular "A Scandal in Bohemia" is the King of Bohemia's affair (back when he was Crown Prince) with Irene Adler, an opera singer whose career in the 1890s was one step at most above [[TheWickedStage being an actress.]] These days, when acting and opera singing are respectable and desirable professions, readers may wonder why everyone is making so much fuss over a brief liaison that happened five years ago. ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' actually updated Adler to being a ''lesbian dominatrix'' in order to translate the scandal to the 21st century.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Mormons are given a bad rap in "A Study in Scarlet". The story even indicates that Young has a group of secret killers who murder other Mormons for any act they deem religiously wrong or just speaking out against their faith in any way. In Doyle's defense, though, only Brigham Young's original polygamist followers get this treatment, not every Average Joe on the street who follows the religion. He also apologized for that portrayal.

** Sir Arthur's depiction of the Mormons as a ReligionOfEvil in ''A Study in Scarlet'' was completely uncontroversial at the time, whereas his portrayal of the KKK as a murderous secret society in "The Five Orange Pips" was not. [[AcceptableTargets Nowadays, it's the opposite.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Holmes's return in "The Empty House", and the revelation that he'd survived Moriarty's attack in "The Final Problem" and just gone into hiding for a while.

** One of the signs that Dr. Grimesby Roylott in ''The Adventure of the Speckled Band'' is wicked is that...he's friendly with the local Romani people, lets them live on his land and spends time in their camps. Helen Stoner and Holmes also immediately suspect them of being involved in Julia's death, on very paltry evidence, and Holmes only dismisses the thought when he learns there would have been no way for them to get into the house.

* DorkAge: Briefly, when the production team decided to retool the series from hour-long episodes to feature-length ones: "The Master Blackmailer", "The Last Vampyre" and "The Eligible Bachelor." While the first is consider a decent AdaptationExpansion, the latter two bear absolutely no resemblance to anything Conan Doyle ever wrote.