THE TV COLUMN My dear Watson, Sherlock is back, on AETN

— If you’re like me, you’ve watched a lot of Sherlock Holmes over the years. Do you have a favorite?

Are you old school with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson?

Maybe you prefer the more severe Peter Cushing or even the recent incarnation staring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes with Jude Law as Watson.

The big-screen extravaganza was just fine as a display of untold millions of dollars in special effects, but Holmes boiled to his essence can be found on TV tonight.

Masterpiece Mystery! rolls out the first of three Sherlock tales at 9 p.m. on AETN. The 90-minute episode is set in modern-day London and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the brilliant detective lacking social skills.

Martin Freeman portrays his loyal friend, Dr. John Watson, and Rupert Graves is the long-suffering Inspector Lestrade.

Fans of Holmes and Watson should be pleased with this take on the characters. One good reason is that the series was co-created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, two of the writers for the BBC’s Doctor Who.

That fact should tell you that Sherlock will be witty, fast-paced and leavened with a good deal of humor.

Here’s a glance at the episodes. Each airs at 9 p.m. and is rated PG.

Today: “Sherlock: A Study in Pink.” When an unidentified woman, dressed all in pink, is murdered in an abandoned building, Sherlock must use the science of deduction to catch the killer.

Arch nemesis Professor Moriarty is hinted at in this loose adaptation of “A Study in Scarlet.”

Oct. 31: “Sherlock: The Blind Banker.” When there’s been a break-in at a bank, Sherlock inexplicably springs into action. Nothing has been stolen, only indecipherable graffiti painted on a wall. A bank employee is found dead in his apartment with the windows and doors locked fromthe inside.

The episode is a loose adaptation of “The Dancing Men.”

Nov. 7: “Sherlock: The Great Game.” The “game” is one of cat and mouse. There’s an explosion and a series ofseemingly unrelated cases. Then Sherlock connects the dots and there’s a tense standoff between Sherlock and Moriarty.

Zombies!:

There’s no better way to get into the Halloween spirit than with a good old-fashioned zombie horror series.

Dead Set is a good one for hard-core zombiephiles. The series is not - repeat not - for the squeamish. There’s entrail noshing and eyeball eating and rotting flesh and graphic violence - all the really, really good zombie stuff.

Dead Set, a dark, dark satire on reality TV, premieres at 11 p.m. Monday on cable’s IFC. It runs at the same time through Friday. All five parts air backto-back on Halloween from 7 p.m. to midnight.

A reality satire? Yep. The survivors, you see, are the cast and crew of the British Big Brother series. Cut off from the outside world, they’re unaware of the zombie apocalypse outside.

As the tale unfolds, the cast realizes that their day in the limelight as reality TV stars is over. How they plan on surviving makes for most witty TV.

This is great, but truly grisly stuff.

More zombies: If you’re into zombies (it’s an acquired taste), then AMC has a swellnew series for you beginning Oct. 31. More on that next week. Just have a heads up for Walking Dead at 9 p.m.

AMC put some real money into this one. The blood and guts are top-notch and the suspense is real white-knuckle.

Cable reminder: Mad Men ended its fourth season last Sunday and that means I’ve started getting e-mail from confused viewers. They say things like, “What happened to Mad Men?” and “Has Mad Men been canceled?”

This happens every time a cable series - from The Glades to The Closer - disappears. It’s because viewers don’t notice the many “season finale” ads and forget that cable series typically only have 11 or 13 episodes per season. Network shows usually have 22.

Mad Men, the Emmy-winning best drama on TV for three years running, will be back next year sometime.

Program reminder:

In Treatment returns for Season 3 on HBO at 8 p.m. Monday with Gabriel Byrne as Dr. Paul Weston. The shrink is in for back-toback episodes every Monday and Tuesday at that hour.

New patients this season are played by Debra Winger, Irrfan Khan and Dane De-Haan.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:

[email protected]

Style, Pages 58 on 10/24/2010

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