There are three ways to turn Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes into a tv series or movie. The first is to do something akin to House, where the bones of the character are there but little else. The second is the Sherlock or Elementary route that reimagines the detective for the modern world. Finally, there is the platonic ideal of the canonically accurate Sherlock of Victorian-era London, which is what Sherlock & Daughter has done.

Sherlock and Daughter finds itself back to basics, but with a new take to differentiate it. Even within this canon-compliant version, the whimsy that has permeated the property is all but gone. What we are presented with is a London that veers much more towards Penny Dreadful than the Robert Downey Jr. films.

A new detective in London in Sherlock & Daughter

The series is in an odd place where it wants to have a back-to-basics Sherlock Holmes,...