Well, yes actually, I did, but just like that the third series of Sherlock on BBC1 has exited our screens as quickly as it had returned on New Year’s Day.
After two years of theorising and troubling our little heads over how Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) could have possibly faked his own death and then teased to the point where we might not ever know, creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat decide to drop another cliffhanger and cause even more speculation: *SPOILER ALERT* Moriarty is alive.
Sunday night’s finale, His Last Vow, left me staring at my TV long after the credits had finished, with the image of Sherlock’s archenemy, Moriarty looking back at me. Moffat, who wrote the episode, is an excellent storyteller and the episode was exquisitely well done . The false ending complete with the interrupted opening bars of theme tune was brilliantly playful and clever. It was near perfect in my eyes.
Fans and critics alike expressed their annoyance over a lack of answers in the first episode of the series, The Empty Hearse, and their grievances over a lack of crime-solving and how the second episode, The Sign of Three was too self-indulgent and crime free, but I don’t get it.
The first episode deals with the dilemma of having to bring Sherlock back from the dead triumphantly, or exploits it to the fullest, depending on whether you were one of those critics. Having admired Derren Brown’s work for the past ten years it is wonderful to see his cameo at the very beginning of the episode, unfortunately it was in one of the conspiracies.
Of course the second episode could have benefited from a few chops and changes, but the endless flow of wit, intelligence and originality being delivered by all of the characters helps eliminate these insignificantly small flaws. Whether it’s sharing Sherlock’s shock and terror in tackling his hardest challenge yet: delivering the Best Man’s speech at Dr Watson and Mary’s (Martin Freeman and real-life partner Amanda Abbington) wedding, or Mrs Hudson (the magnificent Una Stubbs), landlady of 221b Baker Street, finding the idea of him making a speech so funny that she could release a sound that could only be described as “torturing an owl.”
As for the last episode, an adaptation of Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton for the modern age, it saw the rise and fall of disturbing antagonist Charles Augustus Magnussen, played by Lars Mikkelsen (The Killing), brother of Mads Mikkelsen, (yes Dr Lecter from the TV show Hannibal) adds a sharp, cold contrast to the unhinged dramatics of Moriarty.
Laced with surprises throughout, His Last Vow doesn’t fail to shock. Some of these include, Sherlock in a relationship and even an engagement with Janine, admitting he faked the capacity to love and only used her as she was Magnussen’s PA, and Janine selling her story to every tabloid that would listen to the second most shocking twist of the episode… Mary shooting and nearly killing Sherlock. Who knew? Mary, the deadly ex-assassin.
Not to mention how incredibly stunning the visuals are. Entering Sherlock’s ‘mind palace’ was a throughly enjoyable experience, even if he was dying. In the three-seconds before he falls unconscious we are treated to appearances from his old dog Red Beard and Moriarty who is in a straitjacket and chained to a padded cell of death.
The fantastic news for us is not only are there plans for series four get under way as soon as Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s schedules permit, (hopefully that doesn’t mean another two year wait) but co-creators announced to the audience at the Bafta screening of the finale that they’ve plotted the whole of series four and five and the ideas are the best they’ve ever had! And after the genius twists and turns of the last episode, you’ll know that’s setting the bar pretty high!
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