Frankly, when I first started watching this on Amazon I did not know it was a Russian production. When I saw that it was in the Russian language and had English subtitles that didn't turn me off. I enjoy watching other language Productions with English subtitles if they're well done.
That being said, I have to admit that it was a slog getting through the first three quarters of the first episode. But then something happened, I stopped paying attention to the Russian that was being spoken and started to hear the English through the subtitles. And then I really started paying attention to the story. The production values are very good. Costumes locations and actors are all outstanding. Even though when they show backgrounds of London Bridge and a few other places in the show I started noticing that these backgrounds were computer-generated. But that's to be understood to keep the cost down.
The episodes themselves are all very slickly done and entertaining. The one thing that I have that to me was a drawback is the Holmes character himself. All the other people in the series playing a character are recognizable for being who they're playing whether it be Watson, mrs. Hudson, Professor Moriarty, or lestrade. Holmes however was a little off for me. I like my Holmes to look like the Holmes in the books. This Holmes is more like the character from the American TV series Elementary, or the Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey jr. . He is scruffy, fidgety, and wholly unkempt looking. But I overlooked that because the stories were so well done. By the way, near the end of the series there is a humorous part in the story which addresses this very thing. I enjoyed this series which is only 8 episodes long so much that I devoured it in a day and a half, each episode being an hour and a half long.
I highly recommend this for any Sherlock Holmes enthusiast or just somebody who doesn't mind subtitles who wants to see some good mystery shows. The Russians did a great job with a great English character. Or was he just a character????
