99 Words About … The case for PBS”Sherlock’

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He’s pretty flexible for a 125-year-old.

Robert Downey Jr. made Sherlock Holmes an action hero. “House” borrowed his best aspects for a medical drama. A potential CBS drama would transport him to New York.

Then there’s “Sherlock” (9 p.m. Sunday, KLVX-TV, Channel 10).

A modern-day Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) whose exploits are chronicled by a blogging Watson (Martin Freeman) sounds like the stuff of bad community theater.

Yet, somehow, it’s a remarkably faithful, funny adaptation that breathes new life into the Holmes legend.

In doing so, it makes so much of the rest of TV seem, as they say, elementary.

– CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE