You may have seen Sherlock Holmes as an adult in films or TV series, as an elder brother in the Enola Holmes movies, but never as a child, one who hadn’t achieved the greatness of a world-class detective. Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock takes you back into the origin story of the world’s first consulting detective and explains why he turned out to be the way he was.

Inspired by Andrew Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes novels, this eight-episode series is as interesting as it gets. Yes, there was a Young Sherlock Holmes film released in the mid-1980s, but the new one is different. Here, hero Fiennes Tiffin stars as Holmes, who is sent to Oxford as a punishment by his elder brother Mycroft, not as a student but as a servant. It is there that Sherlock meets his arch-nemesis, James Moriarty, hones his deductive skills and develops an interest in crime-solving.

The icing on the cake was that Holmes did all the learning while on the run for a crime that he didn’t commit, had to apprehend an impostor who made his life hell, and tried to get to the bottom of a family feud that involved his father and sister.

Does he solve the case of his departed sister? Does he find out who really murdered the professor? How does he and Moriarty get along when the readers know that their paths would diverge in the long run? Answers to all these questions can be found in this series, which has been renewed for a second season as well.

If you are a die-hard fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, then you will definitely love this series, which is available on Amazon Prime. Yes, it could have been much better, but the way the director Guy Ritchie has created a world before Sherlock Holmes is impressive. Both Hero Fiennes and Donal Finn excel as Holmes and Moriarty, while Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone and Max Irons bring Sherlock’s family alive, with the first two playing parents and the latter playing brother Mycroft respectively.

Add Colin Firth to the equation, and you have a series that would definitely not bore you, and may even make you want to relive other Sherlock Holmes reincarnations, such as the series featuring Jeremy Brett as the great detective, or the ones where Robert Downey Jr or Benedict Cumberbatch bring Holmes to life. Don’t be late, the game’s afoot!

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 25th, 2026