Sherlock & Daughter (2025) is a new miniseries from CW that stars David Thewlis as Sherlock Holmes and Blu Hunt as Amelia, a young American woman who believes that Holmes is her true father. It’s set in 1896, which would be fine if the plot wasn’t skirting way too close to fanfic territory for comfort. Holmes and Amelia team up to solve various crimes, all while each has a specific crime that they’re mainly interested in solving and which may actually be linked, but you’ve gotta get through a lot of sassy dialogue between them before the actual plot takes you anywhere productive and/or interesting.
I am distinctly aware that I am not the target demographic for this show (it’s absolutely teen girl territory with a bit of an edge), and I’m also not the sort of person who is going to be super forgiving when it comes to anything that makes me roll my eyes. I wouldn’t say I was bored, necessarily, but it did strike me that I felt like the episodes were twice as long as the 45 minutes they purported to be. David Thewlis is, of course, on another level than pretty much any of the other actors (with the possible exception of Dougray Scott who makes his appearance halfway through the series as a very scene-chewy Moriarty), but even he started to wear on my nerves after four episodes. I checked only to find there were still four more to go, and I weighed the risk of stopping now and possibly missing something good, either in the way of plot or costume, or calling it quits and just writing this post on the half of the series I could be arsed to watch. Clearly, I chose the latter.
The costumes were designed by Hannah Bury, and this show appears to be her first designer credit according to IMDB. My impression was that there wasn’t an especially huge budget for the costumes, and I thought Bury made good choices in light of that constraint. The costumes fit the actors well, there were one or two nice pieces that popped up, and I appreciated that no one stuck Amelia in jeans or trousers as the plucky young Californian fish-out-of-water-in-London heroine.
Have you seen Sherlock & Daughter (2025-)? Should I keep watching? Let me know in the comments!
Find this frock flick at:
The CW really needs to stop doing period pieces, it’s not their forte! The same network that brought us Reign and the terrible flashback episodes of TVD and The Originals!
Not even just the CW, it seems to be any network (or company) that tries to create a period piece that’s marketed to younger audiences – The Buccaneers, My Lady Jane, Still Star Crossed – they ignore historical costuming because it’s not “relatable.” (When going by the vintage tag on TikTok and Instagram, there’s plenty of teenage girls who’d kill for an accurately costumed historical YA TV show).
The Enola Holmes films are the only ones that got it kind of right, and they at least also bothered to come up with a reason for why Enola doesn’t dress traditionally at the beginning, because of her mother’s feminist upbringing.
Also, y’know, because the Holmes family are ALL Blatantly Eccentric (Even if Mycroft sometimes fools people into thinking otherwise).
Looks kind of snoozy to me. I’ll pass.
I’m hanging in there till the end. I want to know what happens and to whom.
David Thewlis being delightfully smarmy and evil was one of the best parts of a “Dinotopia” miniseries my family watched maany times when I was a kid. I don’t really see him as Holmes, but eh, it’s always interesting to consider a different take on the character (even if I very frequently fiercely dislike that take haha).
Amelia’s hair being down is a source of annoyance, but oh well – not gonna win that fight, as you say. Certainly it should not detract from her performance (which I hope is a good one).
I doubt I’ll check this out, but thanks for reviewing it!
Just the idea that Sherlock Holmes has a child is like nails on a chalkboard to me. So VERY VERY WRONG in every possible way. and as for the hair down, I guess it’s supposed to make them “not like the others” or the budget couldn’t afford the stylist and hair pins.