The Irregulars

A supernatural spin on Sherlock’s sidekicks that, while far from ground-breaking, is a big step up from The Baker Street Boys.

An appealing cast saves The Irregulars from being a messier show. Not all the elements come together, but watching this group gel is enjoyable enough to keep viewers engaged.

Though never less than a romp, The Irregulars is puckishly irreverent towards Holmesian lore, feeling as much inspired by 19th-century ghost stories as by Arthur Conan Doyle. But it at least tries to be different. And whatever hardcore Baker Street buffs make of it, lovers of hokum will find the time passing at a giddy clip.

The flaws point to a show that wants to be for everybody, just not anybody specific. The references here and there will appeal to the presumptively erudite, but that audience will recognize how far The Irregulars falls short of "literate." ... The performances, given through continuity-jeopardizing designer coal smudges, are mixed. ... For all of my tepidness, I thought The Irregulars did a couple of satisfying things in the last of its eight episodes.

Part of the problem is the direction here too often feels flat and shapeless, bouncing characters around a costume drama in which they don’t always look comfortable or genuine. The show is most effective when it gets the gang together and drops them in an atmospheric setting and case.

A story that’s all gruesomeness and little joy. For all that we’re told these kids are special, they confront their duty with a sense of glum obligation; there’s little of the high-stepping curiosity and possibility that is present in the best of Holmes, and that one might expect from a show in which teens attuned to voices from other worlds avert the apocalypse in Holmes’s London.