ABSTRACT
Discussing the interpretations of Dutch fans of Sherlock, I seek to understand how viewers make sense of the series in relation to other texts and what kind of literary competence they display in their reception. The study is based on seven in-depth interviews with Dutch fans of the series. WThese interviews show how a local audience makes sense of the transmedial elements in the series. In their discussion of Sherlock, the interviewees focused on its modern aspects, its characters, and its Englishness. I argue that fans understand the narrative in highly individual ways by “naturalizing” it. In other words, viewers explore Sherlock through their implicit understanding of related genres, local and global popular texts, as well as their own experiences of what constitutes plausible character behavior.
