Netflix’s “Enola Holmes 2,” based on the Nancy Springer novels, premiered on Nov. 4 with a game cast, but the film falters somewhat under the weight of its premise. 

The movie follows the titular detective Enola Holmes, played by “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown, as she takes on a case inspired by the real-life 1888 Bryant and May Match Girls’ Strike. 

In the movie franchise, Enola is established as the sister of the quintessential literary detective Sherlock Holmes, played by Henry Cavill, and Mycroft Holmes, played by Sam Claflin. 

Following the disappearance of their mother Eudoria, portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, Enola is put into Mycroft’s custody, but Sherlock eventually takes her on as his ward. 

This is a prompt invitation for Mycroft to exit stage left, and he is noticeably absent from this second entry in the series. 

To be fair, it may have been tricky to include Mycroft when the film already has two villains: corrupt Inspector Grail and Mira Troy. However, he should have warranted at least a mention for all the trouble he caused for the other Holmes siblings. 

At the beginning of this movie, Enola is starting her own detective agency but fails to get any cases because everyone wants Sherlock instead. The two Holmes siblings spent most of the first film apart, but their cases intertwine midway through the film. 

This is actually the first time I notice the film falter, as Sherlock’s case is not explained thoroughly enough for viewers to understand how it intertwines with Enola’s. 

There are three things I look for when I’m watching a movie. I call them the three H’s: humor, heart and high stakes. A good film must have a balance of all three, and the first “Enola Holmes” had a good balance. 

Here, though, the balance is somewhat lacking. 

Let’s start with the first of “the three H’s”: humor. The first film had an appropriate amount of humor, primarily from Enola’s signature fourth-wall breaks. However, a large part of the humor also came from her interactions with Viscount Tewkesbury. 

It’s not hard to see why, either. In the first film, Enola and Tewkesbury’s relationship never dips into romance. 

However, in this film, screenwriters Harry Bradbeer, who is also the director, and Jack Thorne seem intent on establishing a romance between them, which quells many attempts at humor. A scene in which Enola teaches Tewkesbury how to punch, for example, turns unnecessarily romantic.

It also seems rather coincidental that Enola’s case would lead her to Tewkesbury when the two have led separate lives following the events of the first film, with the exception of Enola surveilling his preferred walking paths. 

In a world where there are no coincidences, only clues, I would have appreciated a better attempt to bring him into the plot. 

The second “H” I look for is heart. In the first film, much of the heart came from Enola’s relationship with her missing mother. However, after being absent from the plot of the first film, Eudoria only shows up in a couple of scenes here. 

I feel like you have two choices when it comes to a character whose absence, like Eudoria’s, was the primary plot device of a film. They can either be brought into the fold full-time or have the character move on without them. 

“Enola Holmes 2” settles awkwardly in the middle, as Eudoria appears to rescue Enola and tell her that while it’s good to be independent, one also has to have people one can rely on — a lesson I thought she had already learned at the end of the first film. 

Eudoria’s plot point from the previous film, in which she was planning with bombs, is never touched on either. Is she just an anarchist? We don’t know.

In this film, the heart instead comes from Enola’s relationship with Sherlock, as she goes from wanting to be Sherlock’s ward in the previous film to declining an offer to work with him because she wants to succeed on her own merits.

The final “H” is high stakes. I actually thought that this film improved on that aspect compared to the first one. 

The final fight at the theater was much more suspenseful than the climax of the first film because it involved hand-to-hand combat. Also, the stakes are more deadly and serious than the first film, where the biggest thing at stake was Enola finishing school. 

Overall, “Enola Holmes 2” is an entertaining film, but it takes on too much in its attempt to live up to the first film.­

Tyler D’errico is a junior geomatics major at Fresno State. You can read his movie and television reviews at tylerdreviews.weebly.com.