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This week sees the debut of Sherlock & Daughter, a new spin on the Sherlock Holmes mythos that does two interesting things: firstly, it introduces a new sidekick who believes Sherlock Holmes is her father, and secondly, it lets David Thewlis play the great detective. That last one should not be underestimated; Thewlis is one of the greats, as anyone who’s seen Naked can attest to. However, the new show got us thinking: there really have been a lot of “Sherlock Holmes, but here’s the twist” shows across the years. Hell, there’s already one on US network television right now, in the form of the wonderful Watson. (Dual twists: it’s a contemporary series, and it’s about Watson after Holmes’ apparent death.) So, bearing this in mind, may I present for your consideration: three more Holmes But Not television shows.

(But seriously: check out Watson. Think of it as a bonus recommendation.)

This is For Your Consideration, in which we try to come to terms with the inescapable fact that, honestly, there’s too much out there to have time to watch, read, or hear everything — by making some suggestions about things that you might have overlooked but would enjoy, anyway. Think of it as recommendations from a well-meaning friend.

House: What if Sherlock Holmes had a different name, a different profession, but was basically still a jerk?

Sure, technically House isn’t a Sherlock Holmes show because there’s no Sherlock Holmes, Watson, or Moriarty in it. Except the producers never made any secret of the fact that the show is an attempt to plug Holmes into a medical show to create a “medical whodunnit,” with an irascible genius at its core. Also, as many people pointed out, what is Ho(l)mes if not a series of Houses? Ah, the pun. Somewhat similarly, James Watson becomes James Wilson, and we’ll all just have to be sad we never really got a true Moriarty character before the show ended an impressive eight season run in 2012. Come for the Holmes riffs — although they arguably overdo the addiction theme by the time the show ends, if you ask me — stay for Hugh Laurie’s convincing accent work, which doesn’t slip the entire time.

Streaming on: Hulu

Elementary: What if Sherlock Holmes got dropped into an American network procedural show?

As Benedict Cumberbatch was starting making a name for himself as a contemporary Sherlock Holmes for the BBC starting in 2010, CBS decided they could go one better by creating their own contemporary Sherlock Holmes show, but with a couple of added twists: this one would be set in America, and Lucy Liu would be a female Watson, who proved to be a far more effective foil than the traditionally more passive male incarnation. The show, Elementary, proved to be a big hit for the network as soon as it debuted in 2012, perhaps because at heart, it was really just an opportunity to plug an exceptionally smart man with a very familiar name into a well-made police procedural. For all the Holmes-ian moments and twists, Elementary succeeds less because of anything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did, and more because it hits all the targets of the genre with such ease.

Streaming on: Paramount+

Miss Sherlock: What if Sherlock Holmes was a woman?

Even as Elementary was entering its final season on US television, HBO Asia and Hulu Japan (unaffiliated to the US company of the same name as of 2014) thought that the world was ready for the obvious next step: a contemporary Sherlock where not only was Watson gender-flipped from the original, but so was the main character. Meet Sara Futuba, “Sherlock” to her friends, and Dr. Wato — two consultants for the Metropolitan Police who have a knack for solving the unsolvable, and confounding the police and criminals alike. The brief eight-episode series speeds through everything you could want from a Sherlock series, even going so far as to hit the apparent death of the lead in its final episode. But… as every true Sherlock fan knows, that never sticks for too long.

Streaming on: Max

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