I thought I’d leave it until all three new Sherlock’s had been aired until I posted my review. Following the first one, which came as a bit of a shock to me I’ll be honest, I thought it was important to see how the series progressed. If you don’t know what Sherlock is then it’s a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant BBC One show that has just aired its third season. Hoorah! I’d definitely recommend it as one of my top ten current TV Shows.
I give it:
MY SHERLOCK SERIES THREE REVIEW: SPOILERS AHEAD |
Oh by the way, please bear in mind that I wrote these reviews as the series went along, so they may not follow on entirely coherently, seeing as things tend to develop and change.
THE EMPTY HEARSE
It took less than seconds to have me flailing. I was honestly foolish enough to believe that Sherlock’s miracle was being revealed in the first two and a half minutes of the first episode. Needless to say I was both disappointed and a little pleased that I was wrong. I’m not sure how I felt about these reoccurring little dream sequence style pieces (please ignore my abismal descriptive skills). Like everyone before me has said, I felt Moffat was trying too hard to do something for the fans and that’s not what Sherlock has been about for the first couple of seasons. I think that maybe the writing suffered a little because of it.
My dad described the episode as a bit slow, and I might have to agree with him there. It seemed lacking in magic moments and brilliant lines. I missed the urgency and the action that we saw in A Study in Pink or The Great Game. And part of me wonders if it’s just not going to be the same without Moriarty. I know we saw his new nemesis (or whatever he was) at the end of the episode watching him, but I’m just not sure if that’s alright with me. The Great Game remains to be my absolute favourite episode of Sherlock, The Pool Scene possibly one of my favourite scenes in all of television history. It’s just not Sherlock without Moriarty.
That being said there were some brilliant bits to this episode. Firstly I love Mary, I think she’s brilliant and so real and relatable. A very welcome addition to the cast in my opinion. I thought the scene between Sherlock and Mycroft playing operation was absolute magic, as well as the bit with his parents. The episode was generally lacking in interaction between Holmes and Watson and the sequence where John continually got angry seemed a little contrived and out of character.
On the whole I enjoyed watching the episode but I feel like it perhaps didn’t live up to all the hype.
THE SIGN OF THREE
I can’t honestly say I’m entirely sure how I feel about that one. I’ve come straight to blog having watched it and it’s all a little bit of a blur. I’m pleased it all came together in the end, the episode felt somewhat disjointed at the beginning. I spent most of the first half exclaiming how much I loved Mary and boy if I had to allow someone else to plan my wedding then I wouldn’t mind for a minute if it were Sherlock.
Like last week I still thought the episode felt slow, lacking so much of the drama that I loved in the first series. But in a way I suppose that’s life and that’s Sherlock. He was having a human moment and I have to admit that I thought the climax of his speech was beautiful and sentimental and all the things I hoped it’d be. That being said one of my facebook friends described the episode as “This week on ‘Tumblr writes Sherlock'” and I do see his point. Once again it was little too fan focused for my liking (and this comes from a dedicated Sherlock fan).
I did enjoy watching it, it’s just easier to remember the bad bits than the good. I still love the show and I’m still looking forward to the final installment, I just hope it’s a little more reminiscent of original Sherlock.
HIS LAST VOW
Did you miss me? Why yes I did, how did you know? Well, well, well Sherlock, that was a bit more like it. Firstly can I say how utterly amusing I find it that I described Mary as “real” in my review of the first episode. MARY’S NOT EVEN HER REAL NAME. Nevertheless she remains to be a wonderful addition to the Sherlock family and I liked the twist much more than I thought I would when I first saw her holding the gun. Of COURSE she had to be some sort of assassin, no ordinary woman would actually LIKE her husband gallivanting around and getting into scrapes with a man of questionable morals. I also really liked the twist they put on John here, how could he have picked anyone normal? He just couldn’t.
Can I just say, I honestly thought than John was going to shoot him but it was SO much better that Sherlock did. Such clever writing. I love that we get to see Sherlock being so much more of real person now, because ultimately he is. It’s also tremendously amusing how normal and lovely his parents are, the juxtaposition is one of my favourite things to watch. Can I also just mention how much Mycroft has grown on he this season. And this is where I begin to feel like I’m gushing. Though I didn’t feel like it was up to the standard of the first series, I still don’t have a lot of bad things to say about this episode. Aside from the fact that of COURSE he had a mind palace, once Sherlock had inspected the glasses, how could he not have known that? Error of judgement that I honestly don’t think Sherlock would have made and a bit sloppy on the writers part I think.
It’s hard to review the episode because it just felt like so much happened, which is great because the fast pace made such a welcome change from the more sedentary first and second episodes. The whole dying sequence was lovely, particularly Moriarty’s little role in that and I hope we get more Molly in the future because I do love her as well.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: SERIES FOUR
I want to know how he didn’t die. I don’t want it to be lame or rubbish or unexciting. If Moriarty is alive then I want a very, very. very good explanation as to how because you know… he shot himself… THROUGH THE HEAD. Seriously though, with Sherlock there was some question but there’s no bringing back Moriarty without sheer brilliance. That being said, I truly hope that Moffat manages to have a stroke of genius because I really want Moriarty back in the show. As much as I enjoyed it, it wasn’t the same without him.
SOURCES AND RELEVANT LINKS |
BBC Sherlock || Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Official Website || My Favourite Sherlock Blog