Sherlock

It seems like just the blink of an eye, but it's been five years since the American Cinematheque opened a western annex with its Max Palevsky Theatre at the Aero on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. To mark the anniversary, the Cinematheque is offering a free screening of one of the most sublime comedies of all time, Buster Keaton's 1924 "Sherlock Jr." A master of movement and stillness, Keaton developed a comedy style that was as intellectual as it was physical, and this small gem shows us why he's as purely American a film genius as the motion pictures have produced.

Glamorous characters and monstrous villains. Drama and intrigue presented in regularly occurring episodes. Every installment avidly dissected. Fan outrage over missteps. I know: You're thinking " Game of Thrones . " But for me this synopsis brings to mind the original Sherlock Holmes saga -- and the downside of a bestseller in any era, Victorian or today. In her column, " Bring Me My Dragons!, " this week, the New York Times' Maureen Dowd described her instant conversion to passionate fan of “Thrones.” (I'd insert a catty remark here, except I'm hooked on the "Borgen" saga .)

"Rake. " Greg Kinnear stars as scapegrace defense attorney Keegan Deane … and that's pretty much all you need to know. Who doesn't love Greg Kinnear? In just about anything?  This role, based on an Australian show of the same name, seems particularly well-suited to his talents. "Key" is a man of perpetual optimism and very little self control. He never met a dollar, or drink, he didn't think he could double, counting on his fast-talk and winning smile to get him out of all sorts of trouble.

Germs and detectives might not seem like they're connected. But their link, as a certain fictitious sleuth might say, is elementary. In Thomas Goetz's fascinating and entertaining new page turner of a book, "The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis," we are transported to the final decades of the 19th century. The age of electricity was dawning. And in laboratories and on imaginary London streets, men armed with microscopes and the power of observation first used science to tackle the twin scourges of crime and disease.

Our long and desperate wait is over -- "Sherlock" will finally be back in action on PBS starting Jan. 19, sharing Sunday night with "Downton Abbey," which premieres Jan. 5.  Steven Moffat's and Mark Gatiss' highly acclaimed and thoroughly addictive modern-day reimagining of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective seemed to be on perpetual hiatus as Moffat coped with the 50-year anniversary of "Doctor Who" and the film careers of stars Benedict Cumberbatch...

Benedict Cumberbatch got an early birthday surprise Thursday morning. Following some time in New Zealand working on the next “Hobbit” film, the British actor, who turns 37 Friday, was on his way from a “Star Trek: Into Darkness” promotional tour in Japan to a friend's wedding in Ibiza - you know how it is -- when during a brief layover he discovered his phone had been flooded with messages. Worried something terrible might have happened, Cumberbatch was delighted to learn he had instead had received an Emmy nomination for his performance in “Parade's End,” the HBO/BBC miniseries adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's series of famously dense modernist novels.

"Sherlock" (PBS, Sundays). Wreathed in the glory that is Benedict Cumberbatch's current status as an international sex symbol -- "The Thinking Woman's Crumpet," he has been called, in the land of crumpets -- comes the third season of Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's 21st century update of Arthur Conan Doyle's deerstalkered sleuth. Its return, certainly in public television terms, but beyond them as well, constitutes a bona fide event. If it is not the only 21st century update of Conan Doyle's deerstalkered sleuth currently on television (elementary, my dear readers, there's "Elementary")

Stateside "Sherlock" fans wary of Season 3 spoilers would be well-advised to steer clear of Twitter on New Year's Day: That's when Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's modern-day take on Arthur Conan Doyle's creation will make its long-awaited return to television in Britain with an episode called "The Empty Hearse," the BBC announced Friday. The broadcaster touted the news Friday in London with a black hearse decorated with flowers arranged to spell the name "Sherlock" and hashtag in the driver's window reading "#SherlockLives.

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine. " Before you vacuum up the chip crumbs from the sofa and wipe down the seven-layer dip smears from the coffee table, catch the freshman comedy that swept the Golden Globes in a special post-Super Bowl slot Sunday night. Its low ratings have kept it on the bubble, but by giving it a slot after the big game, Fox is clearly positioning it for growth. And for good reason. "Saturday Night Live" alum Andy Samberg stars as Det. Jake Peralta, a bumbling smart-mouth who is also a very good police officer, but "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" comes from Daniel Goor and Michael Shur, who gave us "Parks and Recreation," one of the best ensemble comedies going.

It will be a happy Easter for Kaye Clarke and her obedience-award winning dog, Sherlock. That's because the Michigan Court of Appeals held Friday that a rule limiting the size of dogs in her condominium complex is unreasonable and unenforceable. The Bear Creek Condominium Assn. filed the suit to force Clarke, 47, to get rid of Sherlock, a 24-inch-tall English setter. Association rules state that dogs living in the complex cannot be more than 18 inches tall.

PBS has become a Sunday night ratings force with "Downton Abbey" and "Sherlock. " The most recent seasons of the British dramas were their highest-rated yet, according to final numbers released Wednesday by PBS outlet WGBH-TV. Season 4 of "Downton" -- detailing the life of a fictional aristocratic family and its servants a century ago -- averaged 13.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen -- up 15% compared with the previous season. VIDEO: Interviews with the women of 'Downton Abbey' Meanwhile, the third season of "Sherlock" -- a modern retelling of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle -- averaged 6.6 million, for a whopping 50% gain compared with Season 2. "Downton" has been renewed for Season 5 via its U.K. maker, ITV, and will presumably re-appear in the U.S. early in 2015.

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine. " Before you vacuum up the chip crumbs from the sofa and wipe down the seven-layer dip smears from the coffee table, catch the freshman comedy that swept the Golden Globes in a special post-Super Bowl slot Sunday night. Its low ratings have kept it on the bubble, but by giving it a slot after the big game, Fox is clearly positioning it for growth. And for good reason. "Saturday Night Live" alum Andy Samberg stars as Det. Jake Peralta, a bumbling smart-mouth who is also a very good police officer, but "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" comes from Daniel Goor and Michael Shur, who gave us "Parks and Recreation," one of the best ensemble comedies going.

"Rake. " Greg Kinnear stars as scapegrace defense attorney Keegan Deane … and that's pretty much all you need to know. Who doesn't love Greg Kinnear? In just about anything?  This role, based on an Australian show of the same name, seems particularly well-suited to his talents. "Key" is a man of perpetual optimism and very little self control. He never met a dollar, or drink, he didn't think he could double, counting on his fast-talk and winning smile to get him out of all sorts of trouble.

Benedict Cumberbatch is living proof of that elusive quality known as charisma. Thin and somewhat awkward, with a long face, a pronounced nose and an impish smile, the British actor has seemingly set the world on fire. Prior to his appearance on Monday at a PBS panel promoting the third (and highly anticipated) season of his television show, "Sherlock," rabid fans could be seen camping out near the entrance of the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. They held signs and autograph books and affected slightly desperate facial expressions, as if they weren't breathing very well and might soon need some form of resuscitation, preferably from Cumberbatch himself.

Hang on to your deerstalker cap: Sherlock Holmes is not dead. This news may come as a shock to some, not least to John Watson, the doctor played by Martin Freeman in "Sherlock," the BBC's contemporary adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective stories. The critically acclaimed show, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the title detective, returns to PBS on Sunday. The new season picks up two years after the last one left off, with Holmes having faked his own death by supposedly leaping from St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

It has been two years, in both real and fictional time, since Sherlock Holmes, as re-conceived by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss for the BBC series "Sherlock," stepped off a roof to fall apparently to his death. The three-adventure third season, with Holmes very much alive (we knew this already, spoiler spotters, and anyway, he'd have to be), begins Sunday on PBS. Some things have happened in the interim, the most important of them, perhaps, not to the characters but to the actors who play them.

As many members of the South Bay community are aware, the Hermosa Beach Police Department lost its narcotics detection canine, Sherlock, on Dec. 3, 1991. In his short career, Sherlock was responsible for the seizure of a substantial quantity of narcotics and over $150,000 in drug money. The department's acting chief of police, Val Straser, and acting city manager, Steve Wisniewski, have since decided that Sherlock will not be replaced. As Sherlock's handler, I would like to publicly thank all of those individuals and organizations that donated their time, money or services to the Hermosa Beach Police Department Canine Unit over the past two years.

"Clue VCR Mystery Game." "Rich Little's VCR Charades Game." Parker Brothers. $39.99 each. Here's proof that classics should be left alone. As a video, "Clue" makes a great board game, and charades a nice parlor game--both sans the electric connection. For $30 more than the original "Clue" you get an overblown, hokey video of 18 whodunits (making you Sherlock by Round 19). And in this silly video version of charades, Rich Little manages to act the Compleat Fool.

"Sherlock" (PBS, Sundays). Wreathed in the glory that is Benedict Cumberbatch's current status as an international sex symbol -- "The Thinking Woman's Crumpet," he has been called, in the land of crumpets -- comes the third season of Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's 21st century update of Arthur Conan Doyle's deerstalkered sleuth. Its return, certainly in public television terms, but beyond them as well, constitutes a bona fide event. If it is not the only 21st century update of Conan Doyle's deerstalkered sleuth currently on television (elementary, my dear readers, there's "Elementary")

As we all get ready for the premiere later this month of Season 3 of the BBC's superb "Sherlock"  on PBS (I know I am), we should pause to give thanks to a Chicago federal judge who saved the world's greatest fictional detective from the pitiless clutches of the Copyright Act. In a ruling issued just before Christmas, Judge Ruben Castillo held that the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, in almost all particulars, are part of...