Netflix closes the case on supernatural Holmes adaptation The Irregulars
Dashing our dreams of a universe in which its plucky London orphans/hemophiliac princes could cross paths with that other Arthur Conan Doyle-canon agnostic teenager, Enola Holmes, Netflix has closed the case on its YA Holmes adaptation The Irregulars. The series, developed by Tom Bidwell, centered on the group of street kids frequently featured as informants and errand runners in the original Holmes books, reimagining them as a crew of savvy operators working under the auspices of a mysterious Doctor Watson and a thoroughly drug-addled Holmes. Also: Magic!
The supernatural series starred Thaddea Graham, McKell David, Jojo Macari, Harrison Osterfield, and Darci Shaw as the Irregulars themselves, navigating a gritty version of Victorian London in hopes of discovering Holmes and Watson’s various mysterious secrets. (Bird magic! Tooth fairies! Aleister Crowley’s Golden Dawn!) And while it’s not totally clear where The Irregulars’ demographic interests were pointed—a TV-14 series in which one man messily devours another in the middle of a London street walks a very particular sort of line—we ended up quite liking the series, which offered up a fairly fresh take on Doyle’s endlessly reconfigured books, and solid performances from each of its leads.
But no more: Even though, as Variety notes, the show was reported to be the most streamed show going in the week it debuted—although those numbers come from Nielsen, whose ability to gauge these things has been hotly contested by Netflix over the years—the series will not live to solve another mystery. The show’s first (and now only) season aired on March 26.