The Irregulars

Bidwell has created an utterly immersive new take on the Sherlock universe and delivered a dynamic, compulsive set of mysteries.

The further the season goes on, the more it sheds its procedural strengths and leans toward a more overarching story that gobbles up some of the potential to get to know its main characters better. ... Still, the pieces put in place over the course of these eight episodes provide a sturdy foundation for more exploring.

There have been so many variations on Sherlock Holmes that the idea of another -- especially built around teenagers -- didn't provoke much enthusiasm going in. But The Irregulars proves unexpectedly fun, in what amounts to a Victorian version of "The X-Files," revising the most familiar characters while introducing a major dose of the supernatural to Baker Street.

The Irregulars has a lot of good qualities and some fun ideas, but as a whole it doesn’t quite mesh. Clearly, this particular case was a tough one to crack.

An appealing cast saves The Irregulars from being a messier show. Not all the elements come together, but watching this group gel is enjoyable enough to keep viewers engaged.

The flaws point to a show that wants to be for everybody, just not anybody specific. The references here and there will appeal to the presumptively erudite, but that audience will recognize how far The Irregulars falls short of "literate." ... The performances, given through continuity-jeopardizing designer coal smudges, are mixed. ... For all of my tepidness, I thought The Irregulars did a couple of satisfying things in the last of its eight episodes.

The show is something of a grind, the tedium relieved by sometimes appalling gore and uncharming characters.

Don't believe what negative audiences have to say about the series. It is not cheesy & it has its own quality that we never seen in any other series. It's surprisingly fun & thrilling

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This show seems to go completely out of its way to defy expectations, past the point of it becoming pathological. Sometimes this is good, yielding a few unique and interesting moments, but most of the time (especially in the last few episodes) it just cheapens the narrative, abandoning all sense and rationality. As others have said, this is one of those new streaming service shows that puts a huge priority on having non-white, non-heterosexual characters. Unlike some others that leave reviews on the internet, this trend doesn't really bother me when its done well. But this is 1800s, VICTORIAN london. The original Sherlock Holmes stories were set in the 1880s i believe, and while the Holmes and Watson characters have been borrowed for different periods before with great results, this show is very deliberately set in the original era, they even specifically state that the current Queen is Victoria. At this point in time, slavery and the triangle trade were still in living memory, and people of african descent in london were a tiny minority. Showing the difficulties of Victorian-era black people could have been an interesting journey in its own right, yet here the racism and sexism of the time arent just sidestepped, they are deliberately RETCONNED out of existence. They have a black lord as a character, with a white wife, something that doesn't even exist NOW, as well as a huge population of affluent upper-crust black social climbers, many of whom wear makeup and earrings that would seem a bit much in a modern nightclub. If they wanted to show the diversity of the real world, they would have been better off making these characters Indian instead, as there is a historical basis for affluent (and poor) Indians being present in Victorian London. So what are we to make of this? Racism and sexism, indeed prejudice of any kind seems essentially non-existent in this world, so is it intended to be some kind of alternative history fiction, set in a world where international, institutional, race-based slavery never existed? Ok, I can accept that. After all, the entire point of the show is the investigation of supernatural, magical nonsense that clearly didn't happen in Victorian London anyway, so why not? Because the show tries to have it both ways. It spends all this time painting a world where racism, sexism, and anti-gay prejudice doesn't seem to exist, then also stirs in this **** early-industrial poverty meat-grinder which isn't even slightly explained, then it tries to make these points about prejudice in the last few episodes that dont make an IOTA of sense to the world they've tried to portray. And thats the real problem with this show, it doesnt know what its doing or what it wants to say. It seems to know that it wants to say SOMETHING, it just can't figure out what that is. The fact that Watson and Sherlock Holmes are part of this show is almost incidental, there is very little Holmsian investigation, and the focus is almost entirely, not just on the supposed irregulars but the Beatrice character specifically. She's smart, but not enough to figure things out for herself, brave, but not enough to do anything without having her hand held, and cares, but not enough to see past her own personal problems. Though in fairness to her character, that's pretty much the same for all of them. The world is under threat, and London is about to run down the tubes due to supernatural McGuffins running wild, and all anyone seems to care about, Holmes and Watson included, are their own stupid personal subplots. The whole story proliferates with ignominious personal problems, some of which are lifted DIRECTLY from **** books, none of which feel even slightly natural, and most of them don't even make any sense. Its infuriating how unfocused the entire narrative is, it makes you think "Well, if the characters who LIVE HERE don't care about the world, why the hell should I care about their pathetic ham-strung engineered dramas?"

This has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes other than the use of his name. It’s closer to Scooby Doo in tone, poorly paced and badly acted.

Acting: 10/10, Story: 0/10 Horrific writing, terrific acting. Every single actor here should find greatness, all the writers and creators ought to be fired and blacklisted from the industry immediately. I don't care that this isn't about Sherlock Holmes, I don't care about the supernatural either, especially given Authur Conan Doyle's fascination with the occult. The writer knows nothing of how to write a horror story, nor thriller nor mystery. This is a coming of age story for young adults, everyone keeps reminding of that point, and the story is infinitely poorer for it. While each episode is compelling enough, the overall story never truly builds towards a climax, and when it inevitably arrives, it ends in a massive cop-out. So much potential and promise, simply lost. I truly hope they can salvage the world out of this dumpster fire.