Sherlock

[rdhopeca]

Freakin' love Ms. Hudson. Yeah, that was a MUCH better episode, but still some things seemed very contrived.

Spoiler

Yes, even good people do stupid things, but I really have to say that I just can't buy that Watson would cheat on his wife. The fact he was being played softened the blow a bit, but made it feel all the more contrived because it was a person that they were working into the show. So ready for the payoff in the next episode though.
That serial killer guy was creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy. His love of confessing was very well done, as the BTK serial killer who killed in the 70's around Wichita Kansas when and where I was growing up got caught in the 2000's, and after he was caught, he apparently had a grin on his face while confessing his crimes. He still seems the bogeyman to me.

Spoiler

Watson didn't cheat, really. He just sent some texts...we could debate whether that actually constitutes cheating in another thread. I thought I was well-handled given the stress he was under with a new baby and a wife who is as honest as your average loan officer in Las Vegas...

[StevieG]

Oh man, I thought the series finale SUCKED for the most part. Very disappointing.

[Cagliostro]

Yep, me too. Sucky sucky sucked sucked. There were some good bits, but for the most part, one of the cleverest shows got especially lazy with so many inconsistencies that I couldn't believe it was the same writers who had written the rest of it. And then I realized that Arthur Conan Doyle had probably written all the clever bits, and they were good at stringing it together so that it made them look clever. But I might be wrong.

For instance:

Spoiler

The end of Ep. 2 had the sister revealed and she says something about putting a hole in John's face. We see the gun smoking like at the beginning of the episode and we realize that what we thought we saw was Mary being shot was actually this new information. Cool, right? Until we are told that John was just shot with a tranquilizer. So what was that crap about putting a hole in him? And why was the gun smoking? Tranq guns use compressed air or gas to push the dart out. If you use gunpowder, it would do the trick of putting a hole through Watson, more than likely. Which is why early guns, known as the blunderbuss, would use gunpowder and rocks, and still the idea behind shotguns. It would certainly break the skin, which isn't the point of a tranquilizer gun. I'm not Sherlock Holmes or anything, but that was a frickin' cheat on a show that I've always found so clever that when they did give a cheat, they did it in a clever way (Sherlock's death as "explained" at the end of the first episode of Season 3, that then they immediately show a flaw in as if to say, "does it really matter?"). So right off the bat, I was pissed. And with them not showing how clever the sister was, and rather just insinuating it, it just really didn't work for me. All I could tell is she had a superpower, and it was dumb. So many things to complain about in this episode, and I never thought that would happen with this series.

[aTOMiC]

Well I guess I'll eventually view the series finale however I have only just begun watching. I have completed season 1 this past weekend and have been very entertained so far. I'm not great with fast talking British slang and accents however after completing the first episode I was able to follow a high percentage of the dialog. I'm sure it will improve going forward. Quite surprised there as so few episodes. Last time I was this shocked by a episode count this low, based on the popularity of the series, was when I first started watching The IT Crowd. But I'll take what I can get.

[wayfriend]

Not sucky, really. Just unshackled from the constraints of plausibility. Otherwise, there was some interesting character work and a good bit of psychodrama. Taking it in the spirit that it was given, I give it a 6/10.

[MsMary]

Oh man, I thought the series finale SUCKED for the most part. Very disappointing.

Yup. Very disappointing, and frankly, some of it was just horrifying.

Spoiler

Specifically, the revelation that Redbeard was not a dog.

[StevieG]

Yes, that was very disturbing.

[drew]

If you enjoyed the Finale, I wouldn't read this:

The finale was easily the worst episode in the series, to me at least.
The finale from the last season was also disappointing, but I liked this one even less.

If this is the Series finale, it will probably be considered on par with other disappointing finales: Lost. The Sopranos. Battlestar Galactica (Disclaimer: I actually liked the final episode of BG, but it is my understanding that a lot of people did not)


Everything I have to say from here on out is a Spoiler. I'm not 'Spoilering' this entire post, and the episode is months old at this point anyway.

Be forewarned:


What really made me find it unbelievable from a Sherlock point of view was Mycroft:
Everything that we've seen from Mycroft in the series up to that point showed that he would have known that his flat was broken into by the time he turned the key in he lock. Later, at Sherinford, it was Watson who noticed the voice on the videotape was the Warden. Mycroft never noticed it all, even though he knew the man personally. Then when it came time to shoot the warden; Mycroft refused and was physically repulsed by the idea. Again completely out of character for him.

Also, granting Euros a Five minute 'Unsupervised' meeting with Moriarty was something that he would not have agreed to. Given his conniving attitude, not to mention his connection with every sector of the British government, he could have easily had the conversation recorded. Even without Euros noticing.

Sherlock himself noticed the hole in the plot that Euros planned the whole thing in five minutes. Ridiculous.

I felt no empathy towards Sherlock's missing/murdered best friend from his childhood, as the audience had no connection to him at all. The writers could have had some exposition towards something like 'How quickly Sherlock made friends, while Mycroft and Euros never did'. But nothing. There was no mention of any sort of investigation, though this boy dissapeared on the Holmes' property

She had given enough hints in their childhood about Yellowbeard being drowned; how could no one, including Mr and Mrs Holmes and this obviously very important 'Uncle Rudy' not have thought of looking in the abandoned well in the property?

Some more questions:

How was John able to free himself from the well with a rope ladder when his feet were chained to the well?

Where was Mycroft during the ending? If John was thrown in a well, and Sherlock was trapped in the fake room, what did Euros do with Mycroft? Just let him be? That doesn't sound like her.

What would have happened to Euros had Sherlock not figured out that she was the imaginary girl in the plane in time before she imaginary crashed it in to imaginary London? If this story had been going on in her head for most of her life, why was time so important?

How was Scotland Yard (or whomever) able to completely re-staff Sherinford in no time at all, considering that the entire staff had been compromised?

Why wasn't Mycroft punished for basically setting the entirety of the events into motion?

Why were Mr and Mrs Holmes never permitted to visit Euros in the past, and were even duped into believing that she had died; yet after Euros demonstrated that she was capable of masterminding countless murders and subterfuges while still in custody (many of which committed in the name of her family) were they and Sherlock permitted visitation?

Lastly: What was with the Corny-as-all-HELL ending monologue from Mary???

[peter]

And what about Molly!!!!l

We needed to see her rescued from the emotional wrecking that Sherlock had given her! Yet she was cast aside like so much dross. Loose ends that tell me another series must have been planned, but like Sneaky Pete before it, will probably never be made.

What is it these people don't get that a story must have a beginning, a middle and an end! This means there must be nothing left untied unless it is for dramatic purposes alone! The greed for more money overweighting the need to adhere to the rules is what it is. The makers so want to leave a hook to bring you back that they care not if the most basic rules of storytelling are trashed in the process. It's all fine as long as the next series gets made - but if it doesn't.......

I'm fed up with these series that never have the courage to wrap it up (there would always be a route to reopen it again even if they did).

And yes: the whole trajectory of both Holmes brothers characters was trashed at whim whenever it suited the writers in this series; they go from dispassionate calculating machines to quivering simpleton wrecks (and back again) at the writers will. In 'reality' Mycroft was a Sherlock raised to the power n; he'd have cared zilch about any deaths that his sister brought about, never mind vomiting into the skirting boards. Never mind the fact that he (as a matter of principle) never left the Diogenes (I think) Club. There were scores of occasions where Mycroft would have seen what was transpiring in an instant - but instead he seemed gormless and out of his depth (the ridiculous charade of getting him to reveal the existence of his sister being a case in point).

But despite it all (and wanting to slap the adolescent legs of the writers with a ruler as punishment for their transgressions) I've had fun watching this series. I give it the thumbs up and recommend it highly.