The attraction for me of the Holmes stories was not as mysteries or detective stories. As others have already stated most of the mysteries were rather obvious and some of Holmes' methods were far fetched. I just liked the characters; Holmes of course, but also Watson and how they interacted. The predictability of that made each story like putting on a new shoe that might be of slightly different appearance, but was assured to be comfortable. That and I liked how the stories were very much set in a certain time and place.

I never liked the Basel Rathbone films. Rathbone's portrayal was pretty good, but Nigel Bruce's Watson made me want to throw things at the television screen. I also preferred the series starring Jeremy Brett.