10 Shows Like 'Young Sherlock' You Should Watch Next[html]
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
Sherlock Holmes is only recently in the public domain (at least in full), and hoo boy, are creators going to make the most of it—there are at least three major Doyle-adjacent works streaming in 2026, and I'm probably missing a couple. Not that IP was ever much of a barrier, as evidenced by the hundreds of films, books, porn parodies, etc. released in the near-century since Arthur Conan Doyle's death. Which is all to say that Holmes is pretty resilient as a character, and, while I wouldn't have said that we need a zippy, Guy Ritchie Sherlock prequel—Young Sherlock is unique, and quite a bit of fun. It's stretching the character to nearly his breaking point, for sure, but maintaining at least a reasonable bit of respect for the canon, with a well-cast lead in Hero Fiennes Tiffin alongside Dónal Finn as Moriarty.
Here are some other entertainingly stylish period (mostly) dramas for your post-Young Sherlock viewing enjoyment.
The Artful Dodger (2023)
Artful Dodger serves as a sequel to Oliver Twist, finding Jack Dawkins (Thomas Brodie-Sangster of Queen's Gambit and Wolf Hall) having made a life for himself as a surgeon following a prison escape: Turns out those nimble fingers are good for more than just picking pockets. It's all going great until his old mentor Fagin (David Thewlis) shows up on his doorstep, using their history to nudge Jack back into helping out with criminal endeavors. Thewlis and Brodie-Sangster are well-matched in the surprising and funny series that sees Jack torn between his roguish impulses and his desire to go straight. Stream The Artful Dodger on Hulu.
The Irregulars (2021)
What sounded like a desperately unnecessary Sherlock Holmes pastiche involving the Baker Street Irregulars (led here by Bad Sisters' Thaddea Graham) layered an unexpected exploration of grief into the dark supernatural mystery at its core. Here, Watson (Royce Pierreson) hires the damaged but resourceful urchins to aid in cases involving occult activity, as well as to help track down an aging, and missing, Sherlock. Holmes angle aside, the show works as a darker, Victorian-era Stranger Things. It was canceled before its time, but comes to a reasonably satisfying conclusion. Stream The Irregulars on Netflix.
Murdoch Mysteries (2008 – )
Kicking off in 1895, the show follows Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) of the Toronto Constabulary as he and his team solve Upper Canada's most baffling crimes. The chemistry between the leads has powered the show through 19 seasons (and counting), as has the show's whimsical attitude toward historical accuracy, throwing in real-life figures and innovations into a mix that just as readily includes technology that borders on steampunk. A bit cozier, perhaps, than Young Sherlock, but sometimes that's the perfect vibe. Stream Murdoch Mysteries on Tubi.
A Thousand Blows (2025 – )
A spiritual follow-up to Peaky Blinders from that show's creator, this one goes back a bit further, to the 1880s, during which an all-female crime syndicate is running London's East End. True story! Erin Doherty stars as Mary Carr, leader of the Forty Elephants crew, specializing in shoplifting and confidence schemes. In A Thousand Blows, Mary and her gang come up against Stephen Graham's Henry "Sugar" Goodson (another real-world antihero), running an illicit bare-knuckle boxing organization. Coming between them is Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), a recently arrived Jamaican immigrant who introduces us to this gritty world and its competing factions. Stream A Thousand Blows on Hulu.
Vienna Blood (2019 – 2024)
Vienna Blood creator and writer Steve Thompson was a screenwriter for the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock series, as well as for the Young Sherlock series in question, so it perhaps makes perfect sense that this Edwardian-era crime procedural has Holmes in its DNA. Matthew Beard plays Doctor Max Liebermann, a student of Sigmund Freud who's recruited, early on, by police detective Oskar Reinhardt (Jürgen Maurer) to offer up some psychological insight to the investigation of several grisly murders. Liebermann makes brilliant deductions about character traits just as Holmes does with physical evidence, just with a bit more action and serial murder. Stream Vienna Blood on PBS Passport or buy it from Prime Video.
Death Comes to Pemberley (2013)
This isn't a sexy, action-packed update to Pride and Prejudice, but puts a bit of a spin on the source genre much as Young Sherlock does. Adapted from the novel by P. D. James, one of the 20th century's most accomplished crime novelists, Pemberley finds us several years after the events of the Austen novel. Darcy (Matthew Rhys) and Lizzie (Anna Maxwell Martin) remain contentedly, if not always blissfully, married, and have arranged one of those balls for which Pemberley is famous. On the way there, Lizzie's sister and her husband George Wickham are traveling with Captain Denny. Wickham and Denny have a fight, disappear into the woods, and Denny turns up dead. Lizzie doesn't have time to get bored in her giant house—not when there's a murder to solve. Stream Death Comes to Pemberley on PBS Passport or buy it from Prime Video.
Perry Mason (2020 – 2022)
Speaking of Matthew Rhys, there's this addictive odd duck of a show that takes the Perry Mason of print, film, and television, and places him in a dark and gritty Depression-era prequel. Rhys is fabulous, naturally, as a brilliant but hard-living defense lawyer, going through a divorce while still facing trauma from the Great War. He's hired to investigate the case of a kidnapped and mutilated child, one which ends up having ties to crooked cops, local business leaders, and politicians in 1932 LA. Juliet Rylance co-stars as no-nonsense legal secretary Della Street and Tatiana Maslany as a creepy evangelist. Stream Perry Mason on HBO Max.
Monsieur Spade (2024)
An original drama from Scott Frank (The Queen's Gambit) and Tom Fontana (Homicide, Oz), Monsieur Spade finds Hammett's Sam Spade, of The Maltese Falcon fame, living a quiet life in retirement in the South of France. It's all going well for the rumpled former detective—until six nuns are brutally murdered at a nearby convent, the same convent that's been home to Sam's ward for some time. Naturally, he finds his past has caught up with him, and is forced to surrender his idyllic life in order to help uncover the complex mystery that endangers his (very few) loved ones. Clive Owen is great as the rumpled, emphysemic detective, and the story feels like a fitting sequel to the original novel. Stream Monsieur Spade on Prime Video and AMC+.
