I’ve come to notice that fellow bridgeurs often share a love for good fiction, too.
Bridge represents mysteries played out with 13-card hands. Deduction, reasoning, calculating, and available evidence are all things that matter to the match. Couldn’t the same thing apply to the mystery novel, procedural stories, and horror fiction?
This week, I’ve been stuck on adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes canon.
Movies, television shows, and a selection of weird fan-fiction that doesn’t fit anywhere else. All of them make good for viewing. That’s especially true if you’re a bridge player.
If you need more suggestions for movie night, why not Sherlock? Consider it appropriate research in deductive reasoning for the bridge table.
Here’s why binge watching adaptations of Sherlock is good for bridge (and where to start for just a handful of suggestions).
Sherlock: the great thinker
I’ve always imagined that Sherlock Holmes would make for an excellent (though somewhat frustrating) bridge partner.
While there are different versions of Holmes in each adaptation, one can identify personality traits that appear in most. The great detective always appears as a great thinker, with just a hint of sarcasm.
Superior reasoning skills, a highly detailed eye, and occasional chaos theory are other attributes that make up almost every adaptation out there.
Sherlock is often depicted playing chess, checkers, Operation (thanks to BBC’s Sherlock), though not all that often games of contract bridge.
Even though this is the case, bridge players can still learn great things from observing Sherlock. Faced with problems, Sherlock combined with Watson finds appropriate solutions.
Doesn’t that sound appropriate for bridge?
Where to start with sherlock
Start with the original stories, of course!
Become familiar with the original depiction of Holmes first. I recommend this for emerging Sherlock fans because it’s far too easy to get stuck on a depiction and have Sherlock forever look the same in your mind’s eye.
After reading the original tales, form your own image of Holmes. Next, move towards adaptations. This way adaptations will enrich the character, and not confuse it.
There are so many popular adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories that it could take half a lifetime to see them all. That’s a stretch for most, so you’ll have to begin somewhere.
- BBC’s Sherlock:
The BBC-adaptation of Sherlock bas become one of my favourites. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d recommend it to any overall fans of mysteries and detective novels (and here, to bridge players).
It’s faithful to the original, while showing an incredible level of creativity Sherlock’s creator himself would have been proud of.
What makes it great?
Other adaptations tried to veer too far. The BBC-series remains loyal, and kept the best bits of Sherlock’s character in-tact. - Elementary:
Elementary is a long-running television series, depicting the pair of Watson and Sherlock in a modern environment – still, of course, solving crimes.
The character is radically changed. Expect it while watching and you’ll enjoy this version more for it. It’s one of the only adaptations where Sherlock enjoys sobriety, and Dr Watson is (gasp!) female. - Robert Downey’s Hollywood Holmes:
The character Robert Downey Jr. depicts as Sherlock is still Sherlock, but with more twists to the mix. Expect to see familiar characters, although not depicted like you’ve seen before.
What’s the biggest change to the Sherlock character you’ll spot here?
Imagine Sherlock Holmes combined with James Bond, and was far more likely to shoot.
What adaptations of Sherlock do you feel have helped your bridge game better? Which ones do you imagine might have made depictions of how the great detective thinks worse?