Okay, this has been bugging me for a while and I need to rant about it:

There is no reason for a modern reimagining of Sherlock Holmes to play violin. He should be playing guitar or composing music via software. Yet every single time someone "reboots" Holmes, there's a violin.

The reason this is a problem for me is that it's just rote regurgitation of the Sherlock character. He played violin in the stories so he plays violin now. It never examines WHY he played violin in the original stories.

In the late 19th/early 20th century, violin was a common musical instrument and used in a wide variety of popular musical styles at the time. It was small and portable (unlike a piano), easy to learn the basics but difficult to master. That's why Holmes played violin.

It was a way to reaffirm several character traits of Holmes. That he is a man of his time, that he is such a genius that even his mindless hobby is something he excels at, and it was an instrument fitting across multiple classes in society.

Holmes was frequently described as "bohemian", which translated to fit modern vernacular would be like saying he was punk. He rebelled against societal norms. "Bohemian", like the modern "punk", was also particularly attached specifically to artistic pursuits.

A man of Holmes's social standing in the 19th century SHOULD be playing parlor music on a piano, not the violin. It was a trait that said something about his character. So transferring it by rote to the modern day diminishes that aspect of his character and, in fact, changes it.

Outside of a few styles of folk music and Flogging Molly, there's not a lot of call for violins in modern popular music. It's considered archaic, which is the opposite of Holmes's character. Holmes was always on the cutting edge of his time.

Today, the violin is generally considered an instrument of the upper classes who can afford to attend classical orchestra performances. To the point that some people make a distinction between the violin and the fiddle depending on the apparent class of the musical genre.

So why, when attempting to modernize the Holmes character to the 21st century, do writers continually keep him playing the violin? He SHOULD be playing an instrument that is more in keeping with the times.

And the choices are pretty obvious in the 21st century - Guitar is fairly easy to learn to play but difficult to master. It's used in almost every genre of music made today. Hell, even I will pull out my guitar when I "need to think" sometimes and I SUCK at guitar.

The other option would be electronic composition using a DAW or MIDI interface or something like that. Similarly to playing an instrument, it becomes rote and allows part of your brain to focus on the task while the rest of your mind wanders.

The reason why this bothers me so much is that it implies some parts of the character "sacrosanct" when adapting them to the modern era and that's the opposite of what you should think. Don't just transfer character traits over, examine WHY they're character traits to begin with.

So let me expand this one, tiny, insignificant thing into a greater lesson: If you're adapting something, pay attention to what you're adapting. What you keep is as important as what you change and you should know why you're doing both.

And if this seems like I'm overthinking it...it's Sherlock friggin' Holmes. If there was EVER a character that invited overthinking by their very nature, it's him.

PS. People trying to convince me of different scenarios in which a 21st century Holmes would play a violin are missing my point while getting my point. It's not the violin itself, it's thinking about WHY a violin and what it tells us about the character that he plays the violin.

You don't have to convince me I'm wrong about my suppositions of a modern Holmes, but you should be thinking about what it means about YOUR modern Holmes. The same goes for every character trait and what they said about him in the Victorian era and how to translate that to today.