EDIT: Yes I know Series 3 finished a good two months ago, but I thought I might as well finish it seen as it was about 80% complete (the week after Series 3 finished). Why two months? I don't know and who cares it's not like anybody reads this thing, it's purely for my own enjoyment anyway.
Yay Sherlock is back! And...it's gone again. SEE YOU IN TWO YEARS!
Well that was quick wasn't it? We've waited two whole 'friggin years to see just how Sherlock survived the fall and before you know it Series 3 is over after just two weeks. I mean two weeks? That's barely even a series! Unfortunately we have to savour anything 'Sherlock' that comes our way, but that's fine. I'd rather starve myself for a week and have three substantial meals that were amazing rather than a full week of mediocre small-sized ones. Because that's really what Sherlock has become hasn't it? It's the T.V equivalent of dangling a carrot in your face, you always want more but are left waiting FOREVER. When they finally let you taste that juicy, crunchalicious carrot though OH BOY IS IT GOOD. Here's my quick breakdown of Series 3!
'The Empty Hearse' was quite the opener and an excellent return for Sherlock. The writers made the smart decision to place this episode two years after 'The Reichenbach Fall' so just like the audience Sherlock and Watson had some time to ease back into their old lives, which didn't take long. The moment Sherlock puts on his signature coat and imitates the classic 'hero looking over the rooftops of London' scene from Skyfall, (to the point where I'm 99% sure Cumberbatch was on the same building as Daniel Craig!) we knew we were back in business after so long and it felt good. No scratch that, it felt amazing. There was something so unabashedly cheeky about the opening moments as well, I admit that I was fooled by the method of Sherlock's survival even after Darren Brown showed up. I mean Sherlock must have celebrity contacts right? On any other programme that solution would have been perfectly acceptable and was just about believable minus a few leaps of logic and some insane amount of swagger on Sherlock's part but nope, they pulled the rug from under our faces. Genius. The entire episode is devoted to solving just how Sherlock survived that fall and the, shall we say, emotional outburst that John has over Sherlock returning. A terrorist plot to blow up Parliament was introduced early on but took a back-seat until the last 20 minutes, so you could complain that it lacked a sense of urgency and a clear goal but honestly who cares? Every scene was gold: T.V does not get any better than Martin Freeman head-butting Benedict Cumberbatch in the face, and that's a stone cold FACT. Writer Mark Gatiss didn't set out to create a compelling mystery with 'The Empty Hearse', but rather to expand upon the characters and introduce a new one in the form of Amanda Abbington's Mary Morstan, one of the major players in this series. Mary came across as instantly likeable but I noticed the word 'liar' when Sherlock scanned her first so I was immediately questioning why they would put such a pertinent detail into such a blink or you miss moment. Hmmm. The emphasis was definitely put on comedy this time around, the jokes came thick and fast and all of it was brilliant stuff. Mycroft and Sherlock playing a game of operation with the chess board in the background? Amazing. Remember Watson's moustache? Doomed from the start! Oh and what about Moriarty getting all intimate with Sherlock? Definitely a scene for the fans! And it was all put together so stylishly, there were loads of fancy camera pans and slick slo-mo scenes not to mention Sherlock's classic deductions, the highlight of the show. It was visually arousing and no I'm not talking about Benedict Cumberbatch ladies. It wasn't all fun and games though, 'Sherlock' can still get your heart pumping when it wants to. The sequence where John is trapped inside the bonfire was extremely unsettling and exhilaratingly heart pounding, punctuated by the operatic score from David Arnold & Michael Price while Sherlock and Mary try to track him down. The scene in the train car was also incredibly tense, even if it's lost on second viewings. So as per usual with 'Sherlock', everything on this show is simply fantastic. Literally, everything. There's not one false link in the cast, the score is amazing, the visuals are outstanding and the dialogue is extremely smart and witty. Of course there's nothing much to cover aside from a few story points if it's always brilliant, but that's a good problem for a show to have: 10/10.
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| Sherlock is basically the most lovable bastard on T.V right now |
Well okay, the second episode 'The Sign Of Four' does have some issues. At least 'The Empty Hearse' had SOME sort of mystery going on to keep us going, but for the longest time this episode has literally nothing going on, for 3/4 of it's 1h30 run time Sherlock is giving a best man's speech for godsake! I can accept a more character focused episode, but when your Series has only three stories it's unwise to make two of them appear a bit more experimental with barely any mystery in both of them. Yes there is one revealed to us at the very end but a huge chunk of the running time it appeared to be going nowhere. Take away Sherlock's smart plots and ingenious deductions for a while then what have you got? A fantastic character driven (romantic) comedy where Sherlock is basically Sheldon from 'The Big Bang Theory'. Don't get me wrong it's a great episode but normally Sherlock is all that and more. This is the only real flaw I have with Series 3, while the mysteries and villainous plots are there they take a background so that the comedy and the characters can take centre stage. 'Sherlock' Series 1 & 2 both had an even mix of humour, drama and mystery in every episode but here two out of the three stories feel unbalanced and go on for a long time without any forward momentum to their plots. Again great for one episode but for most of the series? I don't know. This episode will probably stick out as a breath of fresh air if you do a Sherlock marathon though. But making it a 1h30 episode where most of it is set in one room and having Sherlock dole out one heck of a best man's speech is pretty ambitious and I like the idea of a few seemingly unrelated cases suddenly tying together at the end. The problem is in the execution as it goes on for LONG stretches of time where nothing of substance is happening. The 10 minute sequence with a drunk Sherlock and Watson was perfectly hilarious but what was the point of it? I hate to say it but it came across as padding, even if it was a marvellous bit of padding. I guess you could say that when Sherlock resorts to padding it does it better than any other T.V show I've ever seen. As for the two individual cases I thought they were rather standard stuff, and again didn't seem to have any point to them. Thankfully Sherlock's speech tying them together was incredible, it managed to be everything from funny to touching and even tense during Sherlock's mind palace scene, which was by far the stand-out moment. Mary was again rather interesting this episode, I was surprised to see she could manipulate both John and Sherlock into doing what she wanted. It was weirdly disconcerting for such a fun scene.. (NOTE: this was before I saw episode 3!). I also thought the cinematography surrounding Sherlock as he was working out the murder victim was stunning, just that entire court scene was riveting in fact. AND we got a cameo from Irene Adler, which was perfectly understated. Unfortunately the soon-to-be murderer behind it all was boringly uninteresting and was almost Scooby-Doo like, he had a ludicrous scheme that somehow involved him stabbing someone without them noticing and his motives were painfully telegraphed from the start. Oh and while the deduction scene was master-class Sherlock the victim was obviously going to be the Colonel, as he was the only major character introduced in the episode which automatically either made him the victim or the killer of the piece. 'The Sign Of Four' was not the best example of Sherlock and like all the middle Sherlock episodes it comes across as a very generic 'case of the week' format built around an intriguing premise that could have been executed better. It was bolstered though by the amazing humour, the always slick direction and had a few select scenes that were classic Sherlock. And my god can Sherlock deliver a best man's speech! 8/10.
The third and concluding episode 'His Last Vow' (referring to the vow Sherlock made at the end of 'The Sign Of Four', that he would protect John and Mary no matter what) finally takes the show back to it's case solving roots and introduces a new arch-nemesis for Sherlock to beat in the form of Charles Augustus Magnussen, played by Lars Mikkelsen. Lars brother is Hannibal himself Mads Mikkelsen and clearly something evil runs in that family's blood as Lars comes across as the ultimate creep with a playground the size of Great Britain. Magnussen's repulsiveness is evident from the outset: I mean jesus, this guy loves to touch everything with his clammy hands! And that scene when he licks up Lady Smallwood's cheek? Gross. He's basically a bully with disgusting habits and a brilliant memory, his insistence on flicking Watson's eye encapsulates this perfectly. Unfortunately that's all he really is, a bully. He has no intentions of murdering someone like Moriarty (he even states this) he just likes to 'play with his food', and while he is a fantastically despicable creature he hardly comes across as threatening. My issue here is that Sherlock's blatantly murders the guy and I have trouble justifying it. Sure it was the only way he could conceivably stop the information about Mary from getting out but straight up killing him isn't really how Sherlock does these sorts of things, is it? What ever happened to beating a foe with intellect instead of brute force?
SIDE NOTE: Speaking of intellect I found the third series of Sherlock to be rather lacking when it came to Sherlock outwitting his foes. Sure he deduced the murderer in 'The Sign Of Three' but in 'The Empty Hearse' the problem was solved merely by finding the off switch to the bomb and his grand plan is to basically shoot the bad guy in 'His Last Vow'. There was very little of Sherlock using his superior intellect to outwit the enemy and the cases themselves were rather poor. This would be a big issue.....but as I've said before everything surrounding it is just to perfect to ignore so I'll let it slide. Hopefully Series 4 (whenever that is) will perform better in this regard.
Back to the other major part of 'His Last Vow', the big reveal behind Mary. While clues were set up throughout this series to indicate something was going on, was her character being a super assassin really high on my list? Nope, I can definitely say I wasn't expecting that! It does seem a tad unbelievable that John would just stumble upon an assassin and fall in love with her, I mean what are the odds of that, like a million to one? Just like 'The Sign Of Three' I was scared Mary's relationship with John would take up most of the episode and Magnussen would be delegated to a minor villain but no, the 90min format lends the show a lot of time to cram things in which I like. It was all beautifully handled by the main actors, Martin Freeman may just play himself in everything but damn can he play himself well. His outburst was especially riveting. The twist also enabled the best moment of Sherlock ever though: Sherlock getting shot. HOLY. F*CK. That entire sequence in Sherlock's mind palace was outstanding television, I was literally speechless. The various representation of Sherlock's thoughts have been super thrilling to watch but this was on a whole other level. Director Nick Hurran should be applauded for his camera work during this scene (once again proving slo-mo is the greatest cinema invention ever) and the score by Michael Price and David Arnold was the most epic thing I've ever heard. We also found out about Redbeard, which was a neat little reveal.
That final scene then, another shocker. I hope to god Moriarty is still dead, and if you want to see my arguments as to why go back to my review of Series 2 (basically everything that happened in 'The Reichenbach Fall' would be one big fat lie as nothing of consequence would have happened in that episode). Some kind of Saw-esque flashback or pre-recorded message set-up by his right hand man would be much more preferable, and it seems like the show runners are going this way too as Steven Moffat did categorically say that Moriarty clearly shot himself in the head, but that doesn't mean he can't make return appearances (as seen in this episode). I will admit though, I do indeed miss him: 9.5/10
I thought Sherlock series 3 was brilliant overall, but individually the episodes suffered a bit from more focus on characterisation, which is fine as long as your season doesn't consist of just three episodes! Don't get me wrong though it's still the best thing on T.V period. Fantastic stuff, if only Moffat could keep the quality this consistently high for DW, an argument I find myself repeating...
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| Why isn't this guy a Bond villain? He even has a physical defect! |
The third and concluding episode 'His Last Vow' (referring to the vow Sherlock made at the end of 'The Sign Of Four', that he would protect John and Mary no matter what) finally takes the show back to it's case solving roots and introduces a new arch-nemesis for Sherlock to beat in the form of Charles Augustus Magnussen, played by Lars Mikkelsen. Lars brother is Hannibal himself Mads Mikkelsen and clearly something evil runs in that family's blood as Lars comes across as the ultimate creep with a playground the size of Great Britain. Magnussen's repulsiveness is evident from the outset: I mean jesus, this guy loves to touch everything with his clammy hands! And that scene when he licks up Lady Smallwood's cheek? Gross. He's basically a bully with disgusting habits and a brilliant memory, his insistence on flicking Watson's eye encapsulates this perfectly. Unfortunately that's all he really is, a bully. He has no intentions of murdering someone like Moriarty (he even states this) he just likes to 'play with his food', and while he is a fantastically despicable creature he hardly comes across as threatening. My issue here is that Sherlock's blatantly murders the guy and I have trouble justifying it. Sure it was the only way he could conceivably stop the information about Mary from getting out but straight up killing him isn't really how Sherlock does these sorts of things, is it? What ever happened to beating a foe with intellect instead of brute force?
SIDE NOTE: Speaking of intellect I found the third series of Sherlock to be rather lacking when it came to Sherlock outwitting his foes. Sure he deduced the murderer in 'The Sign Of Three' but in 'The Empty Hearse' the problem was solved merely by finding the off switch to the bomb and his grand plan is to basically shoot the bad guy in 'His Last Vow'. There was very little of Sherlock using his superior intellect to outwit the enemy and the cases themselves were rather poor. This would be a big issue.....but as I've said before everything surrounding it is just to perfect to ignore so I'll let it slide. Hopefully Series 4 (whenever that is) will perform better in this regard.
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| My reaction to this scene |
Back to the other major part of 'His Last Vow', the big reveal behind Mary. While clues were set up throughout this series to indicate something was going on, was her character being a super assassin really high on my list? Nope, I can definitely say I wasn't expecting that! It does seem a tad unbelievable that John would just stumble upon an assassin and fall in love with her, I mean what are the odds of that, like a million to one? Just like 'The Sign Of Three' I was scared Mary's relationship with John would take up most of the episode and Magnussen would be delegated to a minor villain but no, the 90min format lends the show a lot of time to cram things in which I like. It was all beautifully handled by the main actors, Martin Freeman may just play himself in everything but damn can he play himself well. His outburst was especially riveting. The twist also enabled the best moment of Sherlock ever though: Sherlock getting shot. HOLY. F*CK. That entire sequence in Sherlock's mind palace was outstanding television, I was literally speechless. The various representation of Sherlock's thoughts have been super thrilling to watch but this was on a whole other level. Director Nick Hurran should be applauded for his camera work during this scene (once again proving slo-mo is the greatest cinema invention ever) and the score by Michael Price and David Arnold was the most epic thing I've ever heard. We also found out about Redbeard, which was a neat little reveal.
That final scene then, another shocker. I hope to god Moriarty is still dead, and if you want to see my arguments as to why go back to my review of Series 2 (basically everything that happened in 'The Reichenbach Fall' would be one big fat lie as nothing of consequence would have happened in that episode). Some kind of Saw-esque flashback or pre-recorded message set-up by his right hand man would be much more preferable, and it seems like the show runners are going this way too as Steven Moffat did categorically say that Moriarty clearly shot himself in the head, but that doesn't mean he can't make return appearances (as seen in this episode). I will admit though, I do indeed miss him: 9.5/10
I thought Sherlock series 3 was brilliant overall, but individually the episodes suffered a bit from more focus on characterisation, which is fine as long as your season doesn't consist of just three episodes! Don't get me wrong though it's still the best thing on T.V period. Fantastic stuff, if only Moffat could keep the quality this consistently high for DW, an argument I find myself repeating...
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| Watson: Is Sherlock Series 4 here yet? Sherlock: NOPE. |
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