BBC's Sherlock

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This might sound blasphemous to say, but after both Season 3 and the Christmas special, I haven't been completely on board on where the series has been heading. Back when the first season aired, I was totally in love with this show for being a modern but faithful retelling of the Holmes stories. But recently I've felt like the show has been shifting from it's roots as a mystery story to a psychological thriller (that genre seems to be all the rage these days).

I think the most sad thing is that the lead character doesn't feel like Sherlock Holmes to me anymore. :unsure:
 
The series has lost a lot of focus since season 2 ended. What they need now is an overarching villain with a plot that spans the three episodes like in season 2. Much of the charm has given way to the more actiony stuff with Mary being an agent etc. I hope this episode (without spoiling) will be the last of the more action-centric plots and instead lead to more character driven stories like in seasons 1 and 2. The series has felt a bit off for a while so I wonder if the first two seasons will be the only good ones. I read that season 4 is likely the last one they'll make so it seems that the series will have rather tragically ended by going more downhill as it went on if this episode is anything to go by.

I'd give this episode a 5/10. Occasionally lazy scripting with rather obvious attempts at humour that mostly don't work. Mary has never interested me so this episode focusing on her was dull. Mostly great acting but Sherlock doesn't get points for that anymore. The points I did give it are for the first 20-30 mins with Sherlock breezing through cases and is back in his groove.
 
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Hmm, after giving it time to digest, I've formulated my thoughts on the episode.

I thought the episode was enjoyable if flawed. I very much enjoyed the first half an hour of the episode which followed a modern day version of The Six Napoleons, had the entire episode been focused around that then I would've been entirely satisfied. But of course they added a further twist, that being the AGRA subplot rearing its head again. I can't say I've enjoyed Mary's character in this adaptation so the majority of the episode focusing on her kinda took me out of it. Hell, the whole confrontation with AJ felt like it lacked any proper resolution with him being killed off so quickly and Mary not long after. Watson having an affair also seemed way out of character and just a way to make him not so perfect. I can't help but feel that the whole standoff with Norbury would've been solved so easily by just wearing a bulletproof vest, but I guess that's supposed to show Sherlock getting too cocky. I am hyped about that "Sherrinford" tease by Mycroft though, very exciting.

TL;DR - I think Sherlock Holmes (in general) work better as the mystery stories they were originally meant to be, rather than an action filled thriller that Sherlock has slowly morphed into. Here's hoping that the next two episodes improve of this one.
 
It wasn't great. I've become less and less interested as the series have gone on.

I'd like to see a return to solving seemingly unsolvable cases and less soap opera/action movie stuff.
 
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I was hoping the R in A.G.R.A stood for Rachel.... just cause... :cool:.

That government dude Mycroft knows was the butler from Parent Trap.

I enjoyed the episode and thought it was a fun romp.
 
It was incredibly convoluted - to the point where I was genuinely confused as to what the hell was going on.

A very elaborate way of getting to the point, although I am still unsure of what the point was.

As ever, Mrs Hudson is a motherflipping boss.
 
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Angel said:
It was incredibly convoluted - to the point where I was genuinely confused as to what the hell was going on.

A very elaborate way of getting to the point, although I am still unsure of what the point was.

As ever, Mrs Hudson is a motherflipping boss.
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Pretty much what I thought, everything just seems so needlessly cluttered & convoluted that you forget what point it was trying to make. Some parts work well but others seem to be self gratifying nonsense that has so much information coming at you at once at such a speed you just get lost until the final reveal. You cant remember the method of getting there being clever just frantic and confusing. I get what they are trying to do but it would really benefit from longer seasons instead of fitting about 10 episodes worth of information and plot into 3 episodes. They never seem to give you time to absorb anything or give characters any time to reflect its all at 100mph all the time.
 
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Okay, I've slept and am refreshed. Now time to organise my thoughts without rambling too much.

Oh where to even begin, I guess at the start. John is seeing a therapist about the death of his wife, but the conversation quickly swerves to Sherlock before they're interrupted by all hell breaking loose. The we cut to Sherlock interviewing a client which is 80% him showing off his brilliant deductions and 20% actually about a case. We meet Culverton Smith and his incredibly dark secret he wants to confess...he's actually just an unsubtle Jimmy Savile clone. Thus starts the battle between Holmes and Smith which sadly repeats many of the same beats of Season 3's Magnussen. And it's Smith that I have the biggest gripe about in this episode, don't get me wrong Toby Jones is an incredible actor and he really nails it here. But the whole time it didn't really feel like a battle of wits that it should've been. Instead Sherlock is ten steps ahead of everyone (barring Eurus but we'll get to that) and so the threat of Sherlock failing comes from his own drug taking rather than anything Smith did. Seriously, the whole "I planned everything three weeks ahead including where everyone was going to be standing" was stretching the suspension of disbelief so hard it finally snapped for me. Oh lets talk about Sherlock's drug taking and how the show repeatedly puts Sherlock above the real consequences of taking drugs and addiction and instead uses it as fuel to make him even smarter. I did laugh at the nod to no consequences when John said "We watched him shoot a man in cold blood and we let him off because it was fun." And of course we have to address the elephant in the room, Sherlock's secret sibling Sherrinford! Or Eurus I'm not really sure, are they the same person? Is there a fourth sibling? Y'know someone once said to me that they feared that the "woman on the bus" would turn out to be connected to the villain and I said there was no way that would happen...well now I just feel stupid. Indeed, looking back I don't like it either, by changing the one link John had to a normal life (now that Mary is gone) practically everything now revolves around Sherlock and now it feels like a simulacrum of reality within the show. I do call BS on how neither Sherlock nor John recognise Eurus. Anyway I think I've ranted enough for one week.

TL;DR - I wanted to like this episode, I really did. But various gripes with it meant that it kept coming up short.

Also I've been writing this since the morning...how is it the afternoon already?
 
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Mrs Hudson FTW :cool::thumbsup:.

Mycroft has weaker game than Sherlock:whistle::sleep:.

The character beats were great but the mystery itself felt superflous (like the empty hearse).

I don't really know what to make of the last reveal:blush:.

Fun fact- i thought it would have been cool if CBS's elementary was about Sherinford rather than sherlock.:angel:
 
So... The final episode, the final problem and it is all finally over.

Just...what...?

Utter crap.

Seriously hoping this is the last ever Sherlock unless they are going to return to their roots and make it more like series one and two again.

although the sister is truly mental. One part Jigsaw, one part Moriarty, one part utterly insane and the other completely genius. And twisted as all hell in a blender. Drowning Sherlock's best friend in a well when they were little? Also, how in the name of teabags did Sherlock and Watson escape ANY injury jumping out of an upstairs window onto the pavement below?

I really wanted to like this. But I didn't. Wasted an hour and a half for nothing.
 
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Z218 said:
@Blackquill I just watched The Last Problem, it was something else.
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Indeed, it felt like I was watching Saw or Zero Time Dilemma rather than Sherlock, I half thought it was my fever playing tricks on me.

Hmm, for me this solidifies the fact that Sherlock is writing for a different audience from the first two seasons and I'm not a part of it. I long for the old days of Seasons 1 & 2 where they solved actual cases. Funnily enough, when they referenced The Dancing Men at the end of the episode with the montage of cases, I thought "Gee, wouldn't it have been nice to have seen that be the plot if this episode instead?"

And don't get me started on Eurus! A third Holmes sibling sounded exciting in concept, but talk about wasted potential! She was such a generic super-villain that I was falling asleep whenever she was on screen. Not to mention all her "amazing deductions" and brainwashing was all Tell Don't Show and so it came off as such a stretch.

All in all, a disappointing finale to a disappointing season. If there is a Season 5 (seems unlikely) then I genuinely might not watch it.
 
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