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One of my absolute favorite works is Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: his mastery of language, the complexity of the mysteries, the lifelike personages all contributed to my love.  And Sherlock was the best part: an unpredictable, egotistical, sometimes disdainful drug addict--our hero.  Now, all sleuths must have their defects--a perfect sleuth is not nearly as interesting as an imperfect one--but Sherlock was surely worse off than many.  Having described him above, you will have no trouble believing me when I say he wasn't very popular, and I think he thanked God for it (he's not exactly a "people person").  But when Watson came along, he clung to him: here was his audience, his swooning fan base come to admire the very dirt under his feet.  I'm hardly exaggerating: one reason I put the Holmes stories on hold was for Watson's incessant praise--yes, he's a friggin' genius, get over it.  Most of his praise, however, was warranted (if unnecessary--Sherlock's head was big enough to begin with): with what limited technology and means he might have had in the late 1800s, Holmes managed to solve even the most impossible murder cases.

And so, when I heard that my favorite 19th century detective was being modernized by BBC, I was outraged!  A show set in modern day London in which Watson could hold his own and Sherlock Holmes TEXTED?  The horror!  The injustice rendered my favorite detective, his eloquent ideologies compressed into the ungainly verse of txt spk.  But I had to watch it, to assess the damage, and…HOLY CRAP THIS SHOW IS AMAZING.  Sherlock was, if anything, more awkwardly unsocial and restless than before: he was almost juvenile when waiting for a case

and practically skipped to the crime scene when he found one.  But even better was Watson: no longer was he the love drunk groupie of a sidekick, he was actively involved in the crime solving, and actually saved Sherlock's ass a couple of times.  He kept his praise to a minimum, he got aggravated with Sherlock's childish antics, he treated Sherlock for what he was: not a genius, but a "high-functioning sociopath" (I did my research).   It wasn't just the great detective and his biographer any more: it was the dynamic duo of crime-solving whiz kids

So, while the original Sherlock Holmes is still my number one, Benedict Cumberbatch is a very close second.