Warning: contains major spoilers forSherlockseries three.
Though perhaps the most despicable, Mikkelsen wasnt the first on-screen version of the Doyle character.
David Mogentale was a barely glimpsed seedy, down-at-heel version inElementarys season one episode,Dead Mans Switch.
None though, had quite the lank menace of Mikkelsen.
Interrupted by the man himself, the pair hide behind a curtain to see him receive a visitor.
She shoots him dead and leaves.
Before Holmes and Watson flee the house, Holmes burns the remainder of Milvertons blackmail materials.
His Last Vows plot changes gave the story something missing from every other adaptation: emotional urgency.
Casting angular, six foot three Lars Mikkelsen,Sherlockwent against bang out with their take on Milverton.
The episodes introduction to the character though, has much in common with that of 1992 version.
A self-described Agent in the original story, the 1992 Granada Television films Milverton is ostensibly an art dealer.
Better still, who else with a respectable public image would modern audiences so willingly detest?
Just as the original story did,His Last Vowrequires us to thoroughly hate Magnussen.
We have to share Holmes view that what he does is morally justifiable, though technically criminal.
If we dont despise Milverton, then we cant admire Sherlock Holmes.
Isnt there one of those… law things?
the BBC Sherlock asked Mycroft inA Scandal In Belgravia.
Technically criminal yes, but morally justifiable?
Watson, ever the Doctor, asks whether the guard needs help, to which Sherlock replies, Ex-con.
White supremacist by the tattoo so who cares?
They dont come lower than Charles Augustus Milverton.
Of course we hate Charles Augustus Milverton.
If rationality poster-boy Sherlock Holmes is repulsed by him, then who are we hot-blooded mortals to disagree?
Happily,His Last Vowdoes a terrific job at making Magnussen irredeemable in the audiences eyes.
Hes a snake, a shark, a predator of the vulnerable, and entirely without humanity.
That much is clear from the first pressure point identified in the episode: MP John Garvies disabled daughter.
Though pitiable, the blackmail victims of previous adaptations are strangers to Sherlock and Watson.
We dont know them like we know John and Mary.
In the original, Milvertons extortion was aimed at aristocratic women and their statesmen husbands.
Who gives a fig if Lady Farquinton-Doobrey had it off with a stable lad in her youth?
Perhaps in response to this problem, modern adaptations of the story have varied the subject of the blackmail.
A high-profile figure accidentally grooming an under-aged girl isHis Last Vows initial scandal.
Horribly, it isnt scandal so much as psychological torment with which Elementarys Milverton threatens his victims.
Doyle, of course, doesnt write the Sherlock Holmes stories as romances.
Steven Moffat, on the other hand… InHis Last Vow, Lady Smallwood wins audience approval by knowing about the letters and standing by her man.
Its an odd statement.
Marys assassin past makes her atypical of course, but not necessarily in need of a white knight.
InHis Last Vow, Mycroft accuses Sherlock of seeing himself as a dragon slayer.
(Incidentally, one fair lady whose reputation or feelings Holmes fails to protect is Milvertons maid Agatha.
The great detective doesnt want to be beaten.
Even if you pshaw the idea, its a fun take on things.
Holmes asks Watson inCharles Augustus Milverton, when persuading his colleague of the necessity of the burglary.
Its not only Sherlock characterised as a thrill-seeker by Doyle.
[…] Far from feeling guilty, I rejoiced and exalted in our dangers.
As Amanda Abbingtons Mary might put it, Watson finds the whole illegal enterprise a tiny bit sexy.
By shooting the taxi driver in A Study In Scarlet, John saved Sherlocks life.
Years later, Sherlock repaid the favour by shooting Magnussen to save Johns wife.
Read ourspoiler-filled review of His Last Vow, here.
