Monday, August 22, 2016

Sherlock Parody by The Hillywood Show®

Well, well, Hilly the chameleon and Hannah the director extraordinaire are at it again. Sister duo The Hillywood Show's long-awaited Sherlock Parody premiered on Saturday and has quickly gained over half a million well-deserved views.


Perhaps it is strange of me but I first watched season one of Sherlock about three years ago--and kept on putting off watching the rest. Hillywood's announcement of their next parody gave me reason to finally finish watching this spring (I confess that, while I enjoy the show when it's on, I find that I don't overly care for it, which might be a good thing given that there are such long season breaks). 

It's been a properly long wait for the parody, too. But when you see the final video, you see why it was worth all the time and resources. Hilly and Hannah have traveled to such places as Washington and I believe Florida for their videos before, but Sherlock Parody took them all the way to England. There they filmed at action locations from the show, indoors and outdoors. This was in addition to carefully-crafted indoor sets. I think it's easy to say, then, that this parody had their best sets yet--and their sets are always good.

We're always amazed at how well Hilly can play such a variety of characters and also look like those characters--Sherlock was on a whole other level, too. I almost don't know how Hilly managed to get the makeup just right: she not only sculpted the cheekbones but also changed the shape of her eyes to match Benedict Cumberbatch's face. And she really knows how to move both her face and her body to mimic a character. Again, some of her best work here.

Duplicating sets and characters aside, what is so rewarding about Hillywood parodies is the way in which they match the tone of the original work, providing humor and lightness in a way that celebrates rather than belittles said work. So for this parody, they chose a song that somehow set a British tone and also showed Sherlock's way of talking quickly and bouncing from serious to insignificant comments. I'll also add that ever since they started not just changing the song's words but also having someone else do the singing (as opposed to just remixing the song and keeping the same singer), the lip synching has been more congruous and smooth and in character. And the whole thing feels more original.

Oh, yes, and then there are the cameos. Osric Chau from Supernatural has returned for his third Hillywood production. Chris Rankin, aka Percy Weasley from Harry Potter, played a perfect duplicate of Mycroft. And Steven Moffat, co-creator and writer of Sherlock and also writer of Doctor Who, makes his appearance there at the end--Steven Moffat. I know how they met Osric a couple of years ago, but how did these other appearances come about, I wonder?

(One more note that is so small that I have to put as an aside. This is the third time Hillywood has had to put a viewer discretion notice at the beginning of one of their videos. The others were for blood in Sweeney Todd and The Walking Dead. This one is for language. As the years go by, it seems that they're willing to keep including more and more in their videos, of different types of things. Not that I'm asking for it all to be G, but I just hope that they put a cap on at some point and don't just keep allowing more and then more.)

Also don't forget to watch both behind the scenes videos as these are also some of their best. I used to watch their behind the scenes and parodies equally because they were both equally entertaining. But lately the technical aspects have required so much and the shoots have been so tight and busy that their behind the scenes have been more informative and fascinating than strictly entertaining to watch. While I've enjoyed seeing those, the behind the scenes for Sherlock Parody made me realize how much I missed the old behind the scenes vibe. Lots of information about how things were put together but also lots of fun, an hour and a half total of it, too. So don't miss those and give Sherlock Parody another watch while you're at it.

Here's to a million views and more.

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