It’s the moment all Sherlockians have been waiting for. After 2 years, the long awaited miniseries Sherlock is returning! Sherlock will air in the United States January 19th at 10pm on PBS. It will be right after another highly acclaimed British show, Downton Abbey. However, Sherlock is much different from the latter.

Unlike the tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which were set in the Victorian Era, Sherlock takes place in modern day London. However, the books are still highly influential in the main plot of the series. For instance, the title of the first episode is “A Study in Pink,” while the first novel of original series is titled A Study in Scarlet.  Instead of Watson recording all of his adventures in a diary, he has a blog.  And of course, Sherlock is still smoking — but not his iconic pipe. Instead, he wears nicotine patches.

Sherlock is currently co-written by Doctor Who masterminds Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (who also plays Sherlock’s brother Mycroft in the series).  The series stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes (The Fifth Estate) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) as John Watson.  Series three will also welcome some new faces; Lars Mikkelsen will join the cast as a new villain. “I’m not giving away what we’ve done with him but I think we’ve done something good.” said Moffat in a statement.  Mikkelsen’s character, Charles Augustus Milverton, will be based on a villain from one of Doyle’s short stories.  He will have a different surname in Sherlock (Magnussen instead of Milverton), and according to Moffat, he “is terrifying.”   Moffat has not confirmed how closely the two will resemble each other in character.

Sherlock also welcomes another new cast member, Amanda Abbington. Abbington, who is currently married to Martin Freeman, will actually be playing his fictional wife, Mary Morstan.  Abbington said in an interview with The Scotsman, “When I was at the read-through, I remember watching them, and the chemistry between them is just amazing. They do have this beautiful relationship, so getting in between that – which is what Mary does, she becomes this kind of third wheel – was scary. Also, the fans love these two together, so I’m sure Mary won’t be particularly liked by them, but I hope that on the whole people really like her, because she’s a great character and she has some fantastic secrets.”

Masterpiece executive producer Rebecca Eaton told Entertainment Weekly that this is to be the best season yet of Sherlock. “They’re fantastic,” she says of the new episodes. “They are jaw dropping. They are like small movies. Benedict and Martin are so in their Sherlock-Watson groove. They are so comfortable with that relationship it’s like being in the room with them.”

“I think there’s such an appetite for Sherlock because every season we do they’re bites; the season isn’t 13 episodes, which we would love,” Eaton notes. “They’re complicated to make and we can’t do more than that. So you never get quite enough even when you get a new season. Even more than with Downton, because Downton is 10 hours and it comes back regularly once a year. So Sherlock creates an unusual appetite.”

Season 4 is heavily presumed to be happening, but the BBC has not confirmed this and the company tends to wait until each season of Sherlock airs until announcing the next.  Sue Vertue, who is the executive producer of Sherlock (and is also married to Steven Moffat) is very excited for the premiere. “We are hugely excited about this next series of Sherlock, and have worked closely with our partners, Masterpiece and PBS, to bring these episodes to U.S. audiences in January. We promise our fans that Season 3 is worth waiting for.”