Netflix’s next Sherlock Holmes project, The irregular, has just received a new preview highlighting the dark, supernatural adventures yet to come on the eight-part series. The irregular, which begins streaming on March 26, follows a group of “troubled street teens” who, according to Netflix, are “manipulated to solve crimes” by the “sinister doctor Watson.
The irregular is based in part on the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of street hedgehogs in Arthur Conan Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes novels that helped Watson and the famous consulting detective get a glimpse of London and some of the busy work on puzzles to solve, to deal with. Netflix’s version, created by Tom Bidwell, seems to take things in a much more moody and ghostly direction.
The Baker Street Irregulars have appeared in some Sherlock Holmes movies and television shows over the years (recently reworked as a “Homeless Network” on BBCs Sherlock), but The irregular‘ the choice to seemingly position Holmes and Watson as people who exploit these young children seems ripe for interesting stories. Bidwell summed up the idea in an interview with the BBC:
Sherlock Holmes had a group of street children he would help gather clues, so our series is what if Sherlock was a drug addict and a criminal and the kids solve the whole case while he gets credit.
The irregular follows Netflix’s recent success with Enola Holmes, focused on the younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. The film prompted Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate to sue Netflix for portraying Holmes’ personality as emotional. An aspect of the character that they say was only later invented in Doyle novels that is not in the public domain.
The lawsuit was dismissed, but it’s a funny coincidence that the aloof, evasive, icy Sherlock Holmes, who probably does not want to care about the supernatural danger the Irregulars face, is also Holmes in the public domain. .
The irregular‘ series of eight episodes is on March 26, 2021 on Netflix.