Season 2 of updated series returns Sunday on PBS ‘Sherlock’ returns

May 5, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By Mary McNamara

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

For those in pre-emptive mourning for Fox’s Sherlock Holmes-inspired “House,” which comes to an end later this month, a bit of comfort: Season 2 of “Sherlock,” the BBC’s flirty but still faithful contemporary rendition of the unforgettable detective, begins on PBS’ “Masterpiece Mystery” on Sunday night.

As re-imagined by British TV maestro Steven Moffat (“Doctor Who,” “Jekyll”) and Mark Gatiss (“Doctor Who”), this Sherlock, played with aquamarine and alabaster radiance by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a London consulting detective as brilliant, icy and occasionally preening as the original. He resides at 221 B Baker Street with John Watson (Martin Freeman), a military doctor last posted in Afghanistan whom Holmes met during a search for a roommate; the show’s premiere episode was titled “A Study in Pink,” a play on the first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet.”

Watson, undone by his war experience, is content to aid Holmes in his various cases, blogging about such cases as “The Geek Interpreter” and “The Speckled Blonde,” hilarious twists on original titles, so we know the playfulness of the paean will continue. Deepen, actually, to include in this season’s first moments such canon-phile treats as 1895 — the number of hits Watson has on a particular blog is surely a reference to a famous line from one of the first Sherlockian odes — and the appearance of the famous deerstalker hat.

After picking up where the last story left off — Watson swathed in explosives, arch nemesis Moriarty (a crazy-great Andrew Scott) cackling threats in the background — this season’s three episodes tackle the duo’s most famous cases, including “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and “The Final Problem,” all renamed and refurbished with Moffat’s signature alchemy of high-energy tension and cleverly literate humor.