‘Sherlock & Daughter’ review: The detective’s story is tweaked

Straightforward adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories are apparently of no interest to today’s TV executives. Instead, we get various twists. The latest is “Sherlock & Daughter” on The CW, wherein the detective is in late middle age — his trademark charisma dampened — when a young woman from the United States named Amelia Rojas arrives at his Baker Street door, claiming he is her father. He tells her bluntly this is impossible, but she’s stubborn enough to stick around and hope to convince him otherwise. The year is 1896. The place is London. At least the show retains the Victorian setting of the original Doyle stories.

David Thewlis is a decent enough reason to watch. His Sherlock may have an incredible eye for detail, but he’s not presented as a breathlessly superhuman genius. A good choice! Thewlis is appropriately brusque, but he also brings a beaten-down quality to the character. At the moment, Sherlock needs someone gutsy and brash like Amelia, because he’s been more or less sidelined since his best friend Dr. Watson and his landlady Mrs. Hudson were kidnapped. He’s been unable to figure out why — or even where they are — and their abductor has warned Sherlock off taking any new cases. So for the time being, Amelia will be his unofficial assistant.

Sherlock and Amelia are not exactly mentor and mentee, but something less interesting and indistinct. And yet the two of them working together would be a decent enough premise if we actually got to see them working together. The show prefers splitting them up, and when the focus is on Sherlock, it works. That’s not the case when Amelia shoulders the narrative. She has no characterization beyond “headstrong” and it’s a performance that needed considerably more work before the cameras started rolling. As played by Blu Hunt, Amelia carries herself and delivers her lines as if she’d wandered off the set of one of those teen dramas The CW used to regularly produce. (And in fact, Hunt’s credits include the CW series “The Originals.”)

Though generally self-serious, “Sherlock & Daughter” pauses for humor at least once. Mrs. Hudson’s sister and husband have stepped in temporarily as Sherlock’s household help. As far as they are concerned, Amelia is just the scullery maid and the older woman is aghast that Sherlock would communicate with her directly. “If it hasn’t occurred to you by now, Amelia is not only my maid, she’s also my assistant,” he bluntly informs her, and she promptly faints into her husband’s arms. Funny! I also liked the small detail of the Baker Street Irregulars no longer being scrappy preteens eager to do Sherlock’s bidding. His requests are annoying and time-consuming and, anyway, “we’re not 11 anymore.”

Less fruitful is the matter of Amelia’s backstory, which the show dances around uncertainty. “I am the daughter of an Apache mother and a ranchero father,” her mother says in flashback. “And my grandfather was a soldier of Spain. You are a part of all of them and also half English. This frightens people.” It’s information that feels tacked on, rather than developed and given meaningful context from the start. The show would benefit from the kind of pacing and rhythms you get with a case-of-the-week structure, but the series is framed as an ongoing mystery with smaller mysteries dispatched along the way.

There’s also the matter of Sherlock possibly fathering a child, which means we must contend with his sex life. In Doyle’s books, this was nonexistent; Sherlock was turned on by his own brain and the thrill of the chase. Physical attraction was so much more banal by comparison. Weirdly, the show doesn’t do anything to suggest otherwise, which presents some issues. It’s OK to introduce new ideas, but then you have to lay some groundwork and give us a reason to go along for the ride. Instead, we’re left to assume that, if Amelia’s claim is true, Sherlock — portrayed here as an antiseptic loner — occasionally indulged in carnal pleasures with the opposite sex. Why doesn’t this prospect feel the least bit exciting?

One of the strengths of Doyle’s original stories is the way he walks us through Sherlock’s thought process. In “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle,” the sleuth explains to Watson how he has used deductive reasoning to identify the owner of a battered hat. The show needs a similar moment early on between Sherlock and Amelia where he imparts some of his wisdom — his technique — and in the process gives the audience a master class in it as well.

‘SHERLOCK & DAUGHTER’

2 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-PG

How to watch: 9 p.m. ET Wednesdays on The CW