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I FUCKING LOVE IT NOW.

August 1, 2011. My birthday rolls around. I decide to get a movie that I had heard was pretty good- Sherlock Holmes. Guy Ritchie's adaption, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.(I know that by memory now. BY MEMORY. My memory is usually shit.) Mostly because I heard the sequel was coming out soon. Being myself, I forgot to watch it until about November. One day, I randomly chose to watch it. It was great, definitely good enough to make me interested in the sequel, but not QUITE good enough to make me read the stories.

Speaking of, I had read a few of them before- Mazarin Stone, for English class, when I was eleven, and four stories- Speckled Band being the only one I can remember reading- when I was eight or nine. I remember that, because I had read four novels on that day many years ago- a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Frankenstein(For the second or third time), and Dracula(for the fourth or fifth time.) Admittedly, they were all abridged- they all belonged to the school library- but still, four short stories and three novels in a day. Also, I had a copy of Hound of the Baskervilles, but I had never gotten around to reading it.

December 16, 2011. The blessed day arrives- the sequel is out in theaters. Unfortunately, I can't go see it on that day. A few days later, however, I can.

I'm not sure when, exactly, I realized that Sherlock Holmes was going to turn into one of my many obsessions-like House MD, The Daily Show/Colbert Report, and Pokemon(Especially Pokemon) before it- but it probably happened right around the time of the train scene.

Now, as of late I admit diving deep into the slash pool, which before I had only waded in. And I had, of course, known that Holmes and Watson are often paired up. But before that scene, I had the distinct and completely wrong impression that I would leave without starting to ship that pairing.

Then Holmes showed up wearing woman's clothing and makeup, threw Watson's wife out a moving train, got pinned down by an understandably pissed off Watson, had his shirt ripped off by Watson, and wrapped his legs around Watson in an effort to get him off.

You just can't come back from that. Not without at least deciding, "Fuck, these Holmes/Watson slash fans really aren't bending the realities of their fandom to make the pairing work, are they?"

"Care to lie down with a man, Watson?"

Not to say it was all slashy.(For example, there was this: [link]) No, the movie was grand, and I'd have still come home to my laptop with the purpose of cramming as much Sherlock Holmes into my brain as possible before crashing at 3 in the morning, even without the train scene. Or the dance scene. Or the other train scene.  But it helped.

The next morning, I realized that a certain part of the fanart was devoted to something called "BBC Sherlock." I had never heard of it- which wasn't that surprising, of course. But it seemed to be a version of SH set in modern times. I also discovered a crossover fandom of BBC Sherlock/Harry Potter. Just so you know, I will almost certainly consider that to be the greatest crossover fandom ever.

After I'd had time to digest the fact that I had suddenly grown obsessed with the SH fandom, I decided I should find out what BBC Sherlock was. But there was a problem. See, BBC is a TV station in England. Sherlock is a show that runs in England, and on that channel- in order to distinguish the fact that they are talking about the show, and not the fandom in general, people add "BBC" to the title. So, what's the problem?

I live in Mississippi. BBC Sherlock does not run in America, for the most part- I heard something about it showing in May of this year, but...

So I went to the most reliable, useful, completely correct source I could think of- Wikipedia. I found that There had actually been only THREE episodes so far, only about ninety minutes long each. My immediate thought was: "Holy shit. Three episode that aired a year and a half ago, and the fandom is absolutely BOOMING. How does this make sense? How good could this show possibly be?"

I bought the one of two volumes of every Sherlock Holmes story and book at Barnes and Noble. Then I realized that B&N had a section for British TV. I practically flew to the aisle, only to find they didn't have it in stock. Shit. I ordered it. It took a month to get here. At the end of two weeks, I couldn't wait any longer. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

January 1st. While waiting for the 1st season of BBC Sherlock to arrive, I had discovered a set of computer games, all starring Sherlock Holmes, and had begun watching the walkthroughs. I got on Amazon for what was probably the third time in my life, and bought them. ALL OF THEM. Yes.

The first to arrive was Nemesis, than Mummy, then Silver Earing, then Awakened, then Jack the Ripper. They are all in varying states of completion- I had technical difficulties with the latter two, and only got them to start working yesterday. And Awakened is notoriously glitchy. Ripper, on the other hand, is not, and I'm already about 70% thru with it. Holmes and Watson have just finished dressing up the mannequins to look like the witnesses' testimonies. "Find me three mannequins, my worker's costume, my three full wigs, one of your worn garments- yes, that can be used for the workman's outfit- and one of your old suits... oh, and my deerstalker, the one I never wear but everyone seems to think I wear day and night."

Then I realized the world hated me. See, the second season of BBC Sherlock started to air in England on January 1st. And I couldn't see it. I hadn't even seen the first season yet. I scrambled to find a site that at least held the first season, and succeeded. It was some Japenese site, but it had English audio and both English and Japenese subtitles. So I watched it.

HOLY SHIT, YOU GUYS. HOLY SHIT.

My though proccess was, "Ok, now I'm finally going to see why so many people love this show alre- OH MY GOD SOLIDERS WAR DID I WANDER INTO THE WRONG SHOW. Wait, wait, now their's some blonde guy. He looks depressed... wait, cane? That must be Watson... yep... hm. Therapist. 'Nothing happens to me,' eh? He must not have met Holmes yet... credits... Some random bastard... Wait. Suicide? Another suicide? Death? Is it murder... Well, of course it is, idiot, but... Wait, who's the guy with grey hair... he looks familiar- LESTRADE! Awesome, but who's the chick? 'Wrong?' Holmes, I suppose... Cheeky bastard... How? Because he's Sherlock fucking Holmes, that's why! Oh, there's Watson again. Mike Stamford? Isn't he... Yeah, he's the one who introduces Watson and Holmes to each other. Mr. Du ex Machina, who  presumably gets hit by a bus immdeiately after he brings them together, considering the fact that he's never seen again... Are we going to meet Holmes yet? 'Who was the first?' YES FINALLY. Let's see... Wow, so this is Holmes? Not a bad choice... 'Let's start with the riding crop'? What? I- ...*Stares slack-jawed for the next ten seconds* ... I think I love this show now. And who's the girl- OH GOD DON'T TELL ME SHE'S THE LOVE INTEREST. No... It seems she crushes on him, but it's one-sided. I can stand that. ON TO THE MEETING OF HOLMES AND WATSON."

If you haven't seen this show, and you aren't fortunate enough to have been born British, here's the pace where I got to see all the episodes(Season 1: [link] Season 2: [link]) - Season two included. Reichenbach was up a few hours after it first aired in England, which shows how helpful it is. Follow these steps:

1. Click one of the links in "DIRECT LINKS". Make sure it has a down arrow next to the words "Episode (01, 02, 03)"

2. Where it says "Close Add and Watch as Free User," click it. When an add pops up, close it.

3. Click the link again and close the video. Then clink it once more and open it again.(NOTE: Not all work the same. You don't always have to do step three.)

4. This time, where the "Close Add" and "HD Quality" where before, it will say "Start Video now" and have a different "HD quality." Click the first. If an add pops up, close it. Then watch the video. If you want full screen, click the button in the lower right corner.

Anyway. I have officially become a fan of the SH fandom, and from the looks of it, will be for a while now. By the way, should you decide to watch BBC Sherlock and become a fan, be warned: it took a year and a half for season two to air, the third season is scheduled to air in 2013- according to early rumors- and The Reichenbach Fall is depressing as fuck. I am not responsible for your crippling addiction to this show, your year long withdrawl period, or the period of utter sorrow after watching the last episode of season 2.

Also, in case your wondering, here's the final tally:

5 games(All in varying stages of completion)

2 Volumes including every single SH story and book(Read in two and a half weeks)

1 Season one of BBC Sherlock(Watched all the way thru three times so far)

1 Season two of BBC Sherlock(Watched online twice and not owned on DVD yet)

1 Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie(Watched twice)

1 Impatient need to watch Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows again(I was going to see it last weekend. But It went out of theaters a day before I could. I still haven't quite forgiven either parent, because my mother said she would take me weeks ago(But then I got grounded, which I admit was my fault, but she had first promised to take me the week before I got grounded, then decided the next week, THEN I got grounded...), and my father promised the day before it left theaters, but plans were changed at the last second- "We'll have time to see it Monday" my ass...)

1 Desire to watch the Jeremy Brett series(Haven't had the chance, but I've heard he's the best Holmes, and judging by the scenes I've seen on Youtube... he deserves the title.)

Sorry for this random update specifically made to explain to you the origins of my sudden love for Sherlock Holmes. (Oh, and yes, I did only pick "Apprehensive" as my current mood because of the icon.)