The Archetypes of Holmesian World: A Study of Sherlock (BBC) and Elementary (CBS) as Appropriations of Archetypes

The idea of Sherlock Holmes or what I am calling Holmesness has evolved with each of Holmes’s onscreen representations and with it has evolved his Victorian England. My paper argues that Holmes has become an emblem of victory of good over evil, thriving in his ecosystem comprised of other characters, incidents and Holmes’s Victorian England; and Holmes can only be successfully represented along with his ecosystem. To support this, I will analyse two recent television adaptations of Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock by BBC and Elementary by CBS and highlight how these series have successfully adapted Holmes and his ecosystem emblematically—not as narrative laments, but as archetypes. The chosen adaptations have not only appropriated Holmes in contemporary time, but also have appropriated his world as well.