One holiday season many years ago I worked at Barnes & Noble, happily ringing up book sales and spreading goodwill towards men. As part of our bookseller orientation we were to find our favorite book in the store and then sell it to the other trainees i.e. why this is a great book everyone should read. I grabbed a big ass hardcover version of "The Complete Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" and launched into my pitch with glee because, obviously, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are the Best. Fictional. Characters. Ever.

How can you deny something which has kept fans enthralled for over a century? When poor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill off our eccentric hero back in 1893, the public went batshit crazy so that ten years later he finally gave in and wrote "The Adventure of the Empty House" a.k.a. "My Bad, Sherlock's Totally Alive. JK/LOL."

I have no idea when or why I picked up my first Sherlock Holmes story, but I think it was probably love at first read. When I visited London for the first time in 1998 the first thing I did with my free time from class was visit 221B Baker Street which then, and I'm assuming still, is lovingly recreated as Sherlock and Watson's flat (I'm ignoring that pesky time when Watson got married and wasn't living there. Whatever, Watson.) My favorite part of the museum is a book and displays with letters from all over the world that people have written to Sherlock and John as if they were real detectives.

Of course there have been countless incarnations of Holmes & Watson on both the big and small screen, some of which take the names but nothing else, and others which are pretty much letter perfect. One of my favorite modern twists on the plot are House & Wilson on House, M.D. I was so very excited a few years ago when I heard they were making a Sherlock Holmes movie and Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law were cast. Then my heart sank and broke into a thousand pieces when I saw the first trailer, complete with CGI and supernatural hokum. I almost couldn't bring myself to see the film, but felt it was my duty as a Sherlockian. The irony of Guy Ritchie's film, to me, is that the scenes with just Holmes and Watson are terrific. If the movie had stuck closer to its source material and just had H&W solving a case together in their quirky methodical way, I would've quite enjoyed it. Too bad it became the Festival of Excess it was. My favorite part of the movie is the end credits, which you can check out here: end credits of awesome.

So, all this is to say that when I heard the BBC was releasing an update and modern-day I was...nervous. Praying to the altar of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "please let it not suck, please!!" Although I do not live in the U.K. I have managed to watch all three 90-minute movies and they are freaking awesome. It's like a British fangirl took little bits from all the stories like the way Sherlock sometimes sits in his chair, his use of underground street informants, Mycroft's general 'I could take over the world' at any momentness, etc. and seamlessly integrated them into the scripts. In short, BBC's Sherlock: You're Doing it Right. In long:

-The casting is brilliant. BRILLIANT. Sherlock Holmes is a larger than life figure who cannot be played by just any actor, and we have to believe Watson is a trusty sidekick, but not a pushover, right away. And Moriarty? I'll just let you wait and experience that craziness for yourselves.

-Watson is a soldier and a doctor. In the books what is the FIRST thing Sherlock says to John? "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive." Gee, I wonder if this can translate to 2010? I wonder, I wonder...

-The wardrobe is amazing. Sherlock's suits - good lord. He looks good. Ridiculously good. I never gave much thought to what Sherlock was wearing as he traipsed about London except ACD does mention his coat a lot. Well, score one for a freaking fine-looking coat, wardrobe people. Click here for a GQ U.K. Wardrobe love article.

-The clever, clever modern stuff that is still totally in character: Of course Sherlock would text everyone instead of calling - a lot of times he communicates via telegraph and ads in the post; John writes a blog rather than writing up the cases for the paper

-In the last episode there are overt references to "the Five Orange Pips," "The Naval Treaty" and "The Final Problem" and I have a feeling once I rewatch it I'll be able to catch even more.

In conclusion, I am completely obsessed with a television program that has not even technically aired in the U.S. yet. I repeat, I have frakking listened to DVD commentaries for a show that has not aired in the U.S.

I'd say need an intervention, but people, this is Sherlock bloody Holmes.

Sherlock's first episode "A Study in Pink" airs Thursday, Oct. 28th @ 9 p.m. on your local PBS station. God give me strength, almost two months! AGGH!

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These are a few of my favorite things...

Remember those awesome credits I mentioned above? magnuscharm made Sherlock BBC credits in the same style, because the internet LOVES ME: end credits of awesome/BBC style

Marriage certificate of graphic awesomeness by cassiopeia13

Movie poster of graphic awesomeness by ibshon