Here's hoping it's actually Sigerson Holmes fucking with Mycroft.

 

"You know what happened to the other one."

 

I agree with most of what I'm reading here regarding Moriarty, I very much doubt that he's actually alive.

I'll be honest, the writers actually gained a lot of respect from me when they wrote their characters doing what characters often don't--Using common sense.
I remember being very annoyed by the seeming helplessness John and Sherlock were displaying towards Magnussen when the solution was obvious: Look, ok, his ever-so-frightening Imaginary Sand Castle had them on check, and they were going to jail, they were beaten, etc.
...So, kill him. They're beaten anyway, whether he be alive or dead, they're still presumably going to jail, so KILL HIM. It keeps Mary safe and there's no reason why they shouldn't, given that both are perfectly capable to.
I was literally shouting that at the screen when Sherlock just went ahead and did it--with a gun, no less, 'cause Magnussen is apparently a moron that doesn't frisk people coming into his home--and that instantly shut me up. I got why he waited that long as well: He needed witnesses, otherwise who'd believe Watson wasn't guilty as well? It was a really subtle piece of great writing (gun aside), and it earned my respect.

That's why I'm willing to give them a benefit of the doubt on the Moriarty thing. I'm pretty sure he's definitely dead, and this is a trick.

Now, a trick by whom? My theory is Mycroft, which I don't think has been brought up yet. He had the time to put this together (something I don't think Sherlock did), and the motivation to. I don't believe for one second that he'd let his little brother be sent to his probable death and not do a thing about it. It'd be easy for him to arrange this, have a perfect excuse to have Sherlock back, and let everyone else think he's fighting the terrible threat of Moriarty, unseen. Sure the rest of the British empire will be in a state of constant fear of the shadows, but he'll tell you that a healthy amount of paranoia actually helps get things done.

As for the next season's villain, it's not like Sherlock is going to run out of them any time soon. Magnussen wasn't even hinted at until this season.

Needless to say, I really, REALLY don't want Moriarty to be back. He's dead. Let him be dead.

 

Teaser for the Victorian Christmas special. Looks pretty fun.

 

Double post ftw? But here's the full trailer. Looks suitably spooky - I don't recognise a particular story, but I'm far from an expert on the Holmes stories. Anyone got any guesses, or do we think it's an original story?

 

Christ. Anyone else remember when Moffat had good ideas to back up his dialogue? Sherlock's always been nonsense, but that was bad nonsense.

 

I am so confused.

There was a point, nearing the end, where my flat mate turned to me and went 'what the fuck is going on?'

I could not say.

Spoiler

All the mindscape stuff takes me back to heyday occlumency fanfics. Ahhh, the mindscapes.

 

Basically...

Spoiler

It was one long drug overdose to confirm that whatever else is going on with Moriaty, he's dead as a doornail. There was some nonsense about it being a century old case where a woman faked her death, then killed her husband because he was a sexist little shit, then actually killed herself for the good of the Suffragette movement, by way of lots of other Suffragettes disguising themselves as her ghost so they could also kill sexist men (I may have missed some finer detail, as by this point I'd given up on anything resembling coherence). Time will tell whether this will shatter Moffat's reputation as a misogynist or confirm it once and for all.

 

This is the first time after watching Sherlock, that I consider it time wasted. Even the Hound of the Baskervilles-based episode did not leave me feeling so much like that. I cannot count the times I said WTF during the episode and it also seemed to serve no purpose in the overall story. There are elements that will probably be used in series 4, but nothing that could not wait. What was the purpose of this special aside from milking the fans?

Do not get me wrong. I love the series in general, and maybe it was my high expectations that provided this negativity. I will try to watch it a second time, maybe I will appreciate it more then, but at the moment I would be hard-pressed to rate it anything above 2/5.

 

Wow was it that bad.

Now I'm not sure whether I'm willing to waste that time but then again its new Sherlock so I don't think I can resist.

 

Personally, I enjoyed it for what it was. Liked the fact that they used the episode wasn't just Sherlock in its proper time, but actually was part of the series.

I'm unsure if I like who the culprit was. I figured it out when Mycroft mentioned it's the fight they must to lose and for the rest of episode couldn't decide whether or not it's a good concept to use.

I'm a little disappointed that Moriarty is dead though. While it makes sense to not try create some crazy scenario that allowed him to live, I maintain my opinion that the explanation of Sherlock's survival took away all the drama of my favourite episode. It turned out that Holmes brothers outplayed him like he was an amateur. That said, 4th series could restore some of his "street cred" depending on what plans he left.

Finally, I was expecting a hint about a third Holmes bother if they really plan to introduce him in near future.

 

Well, I liked it. All of it.

And that's that.

 

I probably would have liked it a whole lot more if all of it was set in Victorian London (So no drug overdose) and it was just a fun little standalone episode. Failing that, they shouldn't have switched from the hallucination to reality so much; instead they should have just had Sherlock wake up at like 5 minutes before the end of the episode.

 

Well I watched it and really enjoyed it.

Got that he was in the Mind palace early on, so I didn't end up being confused by any of the shifts.

It also had a very good humor throughout.

Liked The Prestige reference.

Also the nice Doctor Who reference at the end.

 

Liked the episode very much despite all the mixing of the two timelines, even though the drug induced solution to a case more than a century old being a basis for understanding Moriarty's apparent survival felt odd.

 

I liked the two timelines thing up until about the point where he tried to dig up the corpse and wound up at the waterfall. Beyond that point they ended up taking it too far, into too many levels. If they had stuck to the original "figure out how the Bride survived" then I think it could have worked out pretty interesting. Plus, I'm with Celestin in that I always felt the way Sherlock and Mycroft outplayed Moriarty was way too easy (it's compounded by how they don't actually show us the lengths Sherlock has to go to in order to ensure Moriarty's empire is dismantled) and I was really hoping Moriarty was back too, although the timing of his reveal is a little convenient for that.

 

Sherlock: Series 4 Teaser.

And three hint words: Thatcher, Smith and Sherrinford.

 

Maybe I just haven't sufficiently recovered from the pisspoor special at Christmas, but that honestly didn't thrill me at all.

 

A theory time if they really plan to do a third Holmes brother.

Sherrinford is the oldest and arguably the most talented, but unlike Sherlock, he crossed the line and is a criminal. He was captured by his brothers and Mycroft locked him away for life in a place where everyone can forget about him which is what he was referring to in the previous series.

They told their parents he died, explaining why he's not mentioned in their meetings and they agreed to never talk about him with each other. Enter Moriarty who discovered their dark family secret and as his backup plan prepared his escape.

Now Sherrinford is out, wanting to once again play with his little brothers and using resources that the consulting criminal left him. He's also pretending to be resurrected Moriarty because it's simply funny watching his brothers trying to figure out how is that possible.