A modern classic, modernized

But PBS’s “Sherlock’’ is not just another Sherlock Holmes. The new three-part series, which premieres on Sunday at 9 on Channel 2, is a strange, fascinating, and sometimes brilliant contemporary take on the father of forensic crime-solving. This texting, laptopping Sherlock is part Conan Doyle, part House, part petulant rock star, and part Sheldon from “The Big Bang Theory’’ as he makes social blunders with shades of Asperger’s. Instead of a 7 percent solution of cocaine, he’s hooked on nicotine patches, and he isn’t averse to solving daytime-TV mysteries and having a website to attract business. But underneath the present-day tweaks by series creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the new Sherlock is remarkably true to the spirit of the original, an arrogant, antisocial man fixated on tiny details and deductive reasoning.

The concept may sound gimmicky, I know, but it unfolds quite naturally, not least of all thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch’s focused, hyperactive lead performance. It makes perfect sense that a present-day Sherlock would be Internet savvy, that he would distrust landline phones, that he would arrogantly send a text blast reading “WRONG’’ to a gathering of reporters during a Scotland Yard press conference. He is a geek god, in a way, even while he crawls around London in a Victorian cape and an absurd dandy’s haircut like a pale, fringe creature. Across the century, he rhymes perfectly with Conan Doyle’s brainy bohemian.