MovieChat Forums > Andrew Scott Discussion > Jim Moriarty in BBC's 'Sherlock'

Jim Moriarty in BBC's 'Sherlock'

posted 14 years ago by TexDoc
9 replies | jump to latest

Just finished watching the last of the three episodes of the first season of "Sherlock" (4 if you count the unreleased pilot, which was excellent). I was having some trepidation about their introduction of the character of Sherlock Holmes' "arch-nemesis" Moriarty, wondering how they could pull it off. I was SO impressed by the character I immediately searched out information on the actor, "Andrew Scott". Brilliantly played, taking an excellent series and managing to uplevel it significantly...exactly the right balance of confidence, edginess, sociopathy and charm. Pushed a "must see" series right into "wouldn't dream of missing". Congratulations to Mr. Scott!!

[–] TheLankyOne 14 years ago

I quite agree. He managed to portray a brilliant but certainly mad villain.

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[–] mrslivingston 14 years ago

Yeah, he was creepy. Much different to his character in Foyle's War. Weird thing is, he looks like Lee Harvey Oswald to me.

[–] paudie 13 years ago

I probably shouldn't say this about a fellow Irishman but I thought Andrew's performance as Moriarty was a bit too mannered and uneven for me. His voice changed a lot.

I thought he could have made the character more sinister with a more restrained performance.

Still looking foward to seeing him in Series 2.

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[–] thedesolateson 13 years ago

He's bloody AWFUL as Moriarty.

The Guy Ritchie film is flawed, but Jared Harris nailed Moriarty. This guy's terrible.

[–] everlone_2000 13 years ago

He's bloody AWFUL as Moriarty.

I've only just seen the first series of Sherlock, but yeah. I thought his performance at the end of The Great Game was really hard to watch, he turned it into a total pantomime. I wondered whether they were trying to deliver something at the other end of the scale to the restrained way that Sherlock was portrayed, but whatever the motivation the performance didn't work at all to me - all I saw was an actor trying to act 'mad'.

I don't think the script helped either. There's a lot of terrific writing in the TV series, but none of it was in evidence for Moriaty in that scene. It didn't seem to me like they had a clear idea of what they wanted with their Moriaty, and that stood out even more given that they had such a clear idea of what they were doing with Holmes and Watson.

[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

Its a different take on Moriarty. We have a young Sherlock, so it makes sense to have a younger Moriarty.

Last year there was criticism that Moriarty was played as an Irishman. Ironically, In the recent movie, another Irish actor played Moriarty!

Its that man again!!

[–] everlone_2000 13 years ago

A younger Moriarty is fine and great and makes total sense. It's not the fact that he's young that made his performance hard to watch, it was the hamminess and the writing.

[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

The writing from his first appearance in Sherlock in 2010 was from Bafta award winner and multiple Hugo award winner, Steven Moffat!

The actor plays Jim as required by how he character is written and viewed by the director.

Its that man again!!