So, Enola Holmes premiered on Netflix yesterday, and it's been receiving great reviews from audiences EVERYWHERE.
It's a fresh new take on the Sherlock Holmes stories, focusing on Sherlock's rebellious younger sister Enola and her quest to find her mother.
It stars the likes of Millie Bobby Brown, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sam Claflin, so you already know there was humor, drama, chemistry, and a TON of messages to unpack.
So, armed with absolutely no expectations and a lot of opinions about stuff in general, I decided to watch it and share my first reactions and thoughts...
🚨WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD🚨
1. The fact that "Enola" is "alone" spelled backwards...is her mom okay?
2. I love the breaking of the fourth wall thing that movies and TV shows have going on. Enola might just be joining the ranks of Fleabag and Chewing Gum.
3. Who abandons their daughter on their 16th birthday?? Well, actually, clearly Enola's mom.
4. I know they're supposed to be jerks, but Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft Holmes in this film could, like...get it.
5. I take it back, did Mycroft just slam on feminism because he saw a single book in his mom's room? I know this is 1884, but please try and relax, sir.
6. Ah, now the hot, sexist brothers are playing pool and discussing Enola's future as a "proper woman" without her in the room. You know, to re-emphasize that they're massive douchebags.
7. More pool. Oh, pool. It's golf for rich white dudes who hate the outdoors.
8. Okay, so I guess Mycroft hates women with personalities, he wants her to go to finishing school with some rigid old lady who smacked her across the face.
9. Note to Sherlock: If your sister is mad at you for taking away her autonomy over her own life, maybe don't try to bond with her right at that moment. LOL.
10. That's right, Enola! Run away from your weird, pale brothers. Take your mom's clues. It's an adventure, baby.
11. Whoa, she actually did it. With a wad of cash, for good measure.
12. She's made it out! On the train! BREED: DIFFERENT.
13. A new character emerges! A boy in a suit, Mary Poppins-ing himself out of a carpet bag. He looks like Aiden Gallagher and Timothée Chalamet's love child.
14. Oh, there's an assassin out for Mr. Mary Poppins, who we now know as some kind of British lord of Tewkesbury. I'm guessing this bloodthirsty murderer will come back later to stress us all out.
15. Enola outsmarted the creepy killer and saved this kid's life, and he didn't even thank her. Ugh, the 19th century monarchial elite, am I right?
16. And now they're runaways for the night, foraging in the forest like this is hot girl revolutionary Grimm tales.
17. Isn't it kind of dangerous for two kids to be alone in the forest? Sleeping and stuff? Like, what if there are bears?
18. To disguise Tewkesbury Chalamet-Gallagher, Enola takes a pocketknife and chops off all his hair. This I have a gripe with. There's no way the haircut ever looks that good if you just hack at it with a knife. Speaking from experience.
19. They've made it to London, and I have to say, 1884 London feels pretty accurate in terms of how gray it is.
20. Hey! Votes for working class men and also women! Am I sensing...a theme?
21. In some velvet smoking lounge, another slam from Mycroft on giving "uneducated" people the right to vote. This man never rests.
22. Enola waved a wad of bills at a shopkeeper and got herself a new disguise AND housing. As Nicki Minaj might say, "You just got cash? Blow some more."
23. A rat in her tiny, overpriced lodging? Is this 1884 London or modern-day New York City?
24. Looking for her mom, this girl is running through the city in a full-on gown. That's also how you'll see me after quarantine. Believe it.
25. We've followed the clues to an attic-based martial arts women's resistance above a macaron shop. That's pretty fire, I have to admit.
26. This martial arts teacher, Edith, is EVERYTHING. She can fight, she cares for Enola, but needs to protect the resistance. Can we please follow her for a minute?
27. This search for The Mom is hinging on a pretty random recurring memory. When I wake up from a slumber and walk around the house, I'm usually not awake enough to memorize details of my mom's secret revolutionary meetings.
28. The clues are leading Enola to a random dark alleyway, so yeah, my stress levels are spiking right now.
29. We're learning that Mom is a part of some underground feminist resistance slash militia in London, and Enola is freaking out. Either way, word.
30. I know this isn't the point, but what's with the use of the Chinese dragon and characters all over the place for the resistance? Wasn't England, like, hooking China on opium around this point?
31. Right outside the secret feminist lab, THE MURDERER HAS CAUGHT UP TO ENOLA! ALLEYWAYS, I'M TELLING YOU!
32. AHH! BIG FIGHT SCENE! SHE'S KICKING HIS ASS! OR, SORT OF?
33. Okay, she didn't kick his ass. But at least she's alive!
34. Um, Sherlock is looking for Enola now I guess, and tracked her to the macaron shop. This man really is good, huh?
35. Edith is laying INTO him for benefitting from the system as a white man, albeit one with a jawline chiseled to mathematical perfection. As she should.
36. Once again for the official record: I'm on Team Edith.
37. Meanwhile, Enola is on the hunt for the Teweksbury golden child. Does anyone in 1884 England have a normal job around here?
38. Not Enola pretending to be a widow while looking like a high schooler I–
39. The police are on the scene — I repeat, the police are ON THE SCENE.
40. Enola and the Scottish Yard officer arguing over who knows Sherlock Holmes best is me and anyone I know. Someone meme that or something.
41. Of course Mycroft is friends with the Scottish Yard dude. And of course they get their beards trimmed together. To re-emphasize that he is a total douchebag.
42. I will say though, Mycroft's mustache is top-tier. The facial hair game in this movie, I mean, chef's kiss and all that.
43. ENOLA FOUND THIS LITTLE TEWKESBURY BOY AND WENT, "You're a man when I tell you you're a man." I'M SORRY, PERIOD??????
44. Mycroft using the police to find Enola is...just so much.
45. Oh, so he did find her. And of course, she took one for the team and let Tewkesbury escape. That's upsetting.
46. This movie is making me hate Sam Claflin (Mycroft), and I really don't want to hate Sam Claflin.
47. I have no idea what finishing school is like nowadays, and clearly this one is meant to be a misogynistic drag, but what's with those collars? It's giving me Cabbage Patch Kid meets Handmaid's Tale vibes.
48. Yeah, why need to know basic analytical and critical thinking skills when you can embroider "patience is virtue" onto a piece of cloth?
49. Hot Sherlock is visiting Enola at finishing school. I know this is a big cathartic and healing moment for these characters, but...he could've actually bailed her out of that school right then and there. So, dude, hello?
50. Tewkesbury coming to save Enola and no one recognizing him just because he has a haircut feels very ripped off of Hannah Montana.
51. SO HOW DID THEY ESCAPE EXACTLY??
52. Ooh, big decision time on a hijacked old-timey car. This movie just keeps the suspense high.
53. Once again reiterating how much I love this fourth wall thing.
54. They're riding into the belly of the beast — right into the Tewkesbury mansion.
55. I swear, if that creepy murderer is there waiting for them...
56. SJKDGHD HE WAS WAITING FOR THEM! HE WAS WAITING FOR THEM! HE'S SHOOTING! HE'S SHOOTING!
57. This is completely sadistic, which I know is the point, but also, AHHH!!
58. The metronome beat behind this entire fight-for-your-life scene is adding a WHOLE new level of emotion to the potential murder of these two.
59. Wait a minute, the GRANDMA was the one behind all this? The one as old as a hill?? Why would you spend your last days on Earth planning to kill your own grandson?? This is why people need hobbies.
60. SHE DID WHAT?? SHE DID WHAT??
61. Oh cool, so they're both alive, with some luck.
62. I swear if these two kiss right now, I'm throwing this whole movie in the trash.
63. WHEW.
64. I don't understand why they hold on the grandma's face for so long. Clearly they're not going to fight and kill an old woman, so does she just walk away and go to bed or something? How do you exit out of these situations?
65. Ah, resolution. Enola is an independent lady pushing her bike through London, the reform bill has passed thanks to Tewkesbury, and he kisses her hand right in front of his mom (scandalous), which feels like a good compromise here.
66. Is this the part where she finds out that she's a wizard or something?
67. And now, for your viewing pleasure, Sherlock realizing that his sister solved the case before him. A little win over the boys, as a treat.
68. In the ranking of the Holmes siblings, Enola far outranks these two corn stalks, and between the men, Sherlock is beyond Mycroft, just because he's not as prejudiced and bitter. I mean, how low of a bar do we need to dig here??
69. Oh! MOM! Out of nowhere. But this is nice. I love Helena Bonham Carter. This woman just be Apparating and Disapparating in and out for the cause (I'm sorry).
70. Ah, the smokestacks of London. One day, decades later, Dick van Dyke will dance on those same rooftops to sweep chim-chiminys in Mary Poppins.
