The Final Problem

There is a distinct, dusty charm to the premise of The Final Problem: in the spring of 1959, an aging Spanish actor who made his reputation playing Sherlock Holmes finds himself trapped on a storm-lashed islet off Mallorca, forced to solve a genuine killing at an exclusive hotel. The setup promises a delightful metatextual puzzle, balancing theatrical vanity against real-world panic. Yet across its five episodes, this period miniseries chooses stiff solemnity over brisk deduction, resulting in an exercise that feels suffocated by the very vintage tropes it means to celebrate.

What preserves the series from sinking under its own leaden pacing is Jose Coronado. As Basil, the retired performer whose face is forever linked to Arthur Conan Doyle's sleuth, Coronado grounds the theatricality in heavy-lidded exhaustion and quiet humiliation. He captures a man keenly aware that reading scripted revelations is worlds apart from facing real corpses and calculating killers.

Reviewing the performance, K-waves and Beyond accurately noted that "Jose Coronado’s Basil is the best thing about this Netflix Spanish atmospheric whodunit with plenty of suspicion." He does not caricature the great detective; instead, he leans into the actor's lingering muscle memory, observing dinner napkins and muddy boots with the reluctant habit of a craftsman pulled out of comfortable obscurity.