Irene Adler is one of my favorite characters from the Sherlock Holmes books, and that is probably why I don't like any of the newer adaptations of her. Not even the Irene in BBC's Sherlock series worked for me. She was a great character, but I didn't like her as an Irene Adler.
One of my main beefs with these adaptations of her is that they leave out her husband, Godfrey Norton. Even though there has been made countless adaptations of the Sherlock stories, few people even know that Irene got married in her story. I can understand that they leave him out so Irene can flirt with Sherlock, but they usually make her such a selfish bitch anyway that I can't see why that would stop her.
For those who don't know, in "A Scandal in Bohemia" she has an affair with the Bohemian king, and he is so in love with her that he allows her to take a picture with him. But then he leaves her because he can't marry a common singer. Later he hires Holmes to find the picture that Irene still has, because the King thinks she'll use it to harm his reputation. Holmes goes looking for it, but finds out that she don't want to use it to hurt the king, but to protect not only herself, but also her fiance whom she's worried the King might want to hurt out of jealousy. They marry in secret for the same reason.
Once, just once, I'd love to see a cool Irene Adler as Godfrey's "white knightess" who saves and protects him. I'd love to see a bit of a role reversal for them with him as the "dude in distress" and were Irene's seemingly selfish actions are really to protect him.
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
Personally, though I absolutely ADORE BBC's Sherlock, I hated their Adler. The actress is brilliant, but I just didn't like the way they wrote her.
If you haven't already, check out the Irene Adler books by Carole Nelson Douglas. I have a feeling you will adore them--especially the brilliant characterization of Godfrey Norton, who is easily the most awesome dude in all Victorian literature.