This video compilation of shots from BBC One’s Sherlock reveals something you may not have noticed while dazzled by Benedict Cumberbatch’s electric portrayal of the genius sleuth. However Celia Gómez noticed, and she’s assembled the clues into a compelling case: The show regularly uses, and gleefully subverts, visual symmetry to show the world according to Sherlock.
For an ordered mind like Holmes’, it only makes sense that the show is filled with symmetrical tableaux. After all, the detective’s genius is finding order in the chaos of what others see. One may even suspect the not-totally-hinged sleuth needs for there to be order in the world. His brilliance is more than a little compulsive, after all. The show’s attention to detail in setting up its shots all but proves this.