Banana Scoop

Benedict Cumberbatch has been all the rage this year.  Before then he had modest career, never really catching my eye [but maybe my eye isn’t as tasteful as others], starring in some major movies as only a minor character.  But back in 2010, he starred in Sherlock, the contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes set in modern London.  The series got a cult following relatively quickly and I like to believe [after recently catching up on Sherlock] it helped him get the role of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness.  In this post, I confess my man crush to the incredible Benedict Cumberbatch.  To do this, I go over how I nerdgasmed with his portrayal of Khan, got into Sherlock, and how I’ve permantly joined the constantly expanding club known as “The Cumberbitches”.

Who is Benedict Cumberbatch and Why is He in Star Trek?

I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness this summer because I absolutely adored the first one.  Sure everyone knew Eric Bana as the first film’s villain, but I had honestly never heard of Benedict Cumberbatch before this summer.  The well educated in pop culture immediately knew him as Sherlock and even pointed out his roles in more well known movies such as War Horse.  Had I been as educated as them, I would’ve squealed at the idea of Sherlock possibly playing the  Augment Khan, but I was ignorant.  So as I marveled at everything that made the first Star Trek amazing, I was completely floored with the incredibly entrancing interpretation of Khan.  Cumberbatch delivered such an eerie, cold, and calculating villain that made Star Trek Into Darkness one of my favorite movies of the year.  Though, when the months passed after Star Trek was released, he slowly migrated to the back of my mind…That is until…

The Poster Sale at my University

Being at University, there is a ridiculous need to decorate the room you live in.  Poster salers know this and they make stupid amounts of money selling posters of the top five Google searches for the given piece of pop culture [ie Audrey Hepburn, The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, etc.].  That being said, I’ve been a sucker for the past four years, throwing my money at them, to confirm my love for everything movies and television.  So when the poster sale came by this Fall, I naturally took a stroll, not really being impressed by the same things that have been around for the past four years, minus a few season updates for the latest television shows.  What did catch my eye was how many people were taking away Sherlock posters.  I even overheard a guy said, “yeah this is one of our most popular posters.”  I was honestly befuddled and went home, upset that I wasn’t involved in something as popular as this “Sherlock”.

So I went home and cooked dinner and began watching the first episode…Long story short, I went to the poster sale the next day and bought the poster listed above.

Catching Up on Sherlock

Catching up followed relatively quickly, the way Sherlock is organized is a bit different from American television, given it’s BBC origin.  Seasons are known as “series” and episodes are an hour and a half compared to the hour long length of normal American dramas.  That being said, there are only three episodes in a series.  I already love this format because it’s different from normal American dramas, where wrapping up a storyline can feel even rushed with their forty two minutes of screen time.  An hour and a half allows amazing character development between the lovable duo, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, and allows engaging and entrancing stories.

I’m sort of diverging from the topic of Cumberbatch, but I was simply trying to give you all some background on how I generally just love the series Sherlock.  Cumberbatch naturally carries the series with his well written lines of dialogue and his bewitching delivery and execution.  It’s simply impossible to keep your eyes off him when he goes on Sherlock-esque rants.

I’m Begging for More and I Won’t Be Disappointed

It seems that Cumberbatch is getting more and more popular.  I like to think he’s similar to Cristoph Waltz and Javier Bardem: prominent European actors who have made an incredible impression on American audiences, with the hopes they do more American-prone movies so we see them more.  I’ve taken a screenshot of his IMDB page and as you can tell, he’s going to be very busy and we’re going to be seeing [and hearing his voice as Smaug!] him a lot more in the times to come.

My Name is Patrick Figueroa, and I am a Cumberbitch

So yes.  I am a Cumberbitch.  I am obsessing over Sherlock and am crying that series three won’t be for a while now.  Now here’s a .gif where the man himself acknowledges the ridiculous name of his fanbase.

Other man crushes for the weirdly interested:
Hugh Jackman
Michael Fassbender