Living Words: ‘Sherlock’ and Text On Screen

It’s usually so boring to watch words. Usually.

We’ve written about the ways in which social media and communication technology are usually displayed on screen, but in the abstract with only words as our explanatory examples. You need to see it to really understand.

Sherlock is one of the best shows at this and has some of the most accessible clips for analysis. Its detective plot and hyper-intelligent hero makes for television so detail-oriented that misrepresenting one element of the world (like text) would undermine the show’s invitation for fans to dig deep into the narrative puzzle.

Alessandro Tranchini’s supercut highlights all the different ways the Sherlock directors broached the touchy subject of mixed-media. It’s also a helpful document for understanding the show’s influence on the future of text and social media portrayed on screen. Very few actual screens-within-screens are captured here. Thankfully more creative avenues are explored.