The “…and then he woke up and it was all a dream” twist is maligned for a reason, but if it takes talent to make a good cliché work, making a bad one brilliant is Holmes-level genius.
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That’s when the penny drops – or rather, when we realize that it’s been dropping just at the corner of our vision the entire episode. It’s not the Reichenbach Fall that will kill you. Oh yes, it’s shot beautifully, but the anchronisms are painful – does 1890s Mycroft really need to use the phrase “a virus in the data”? How did that not slip past the poor intern on historical accuracy duty?Īnd then Moriarty breaks into the even-more-fictional-than-normal Baker Street, unapologetically flirting with Sherlock at a time when that could get you imprisoned or worse, twirling Chekov’s gun like a music hall villain’s mustache and reminding us that the abominable bride’s death mimics his own in the “Sherlock” universe we all know. In fact, the whole thing feels like a sporadically enjoyable but generally irritating conceit – a real shame when Mark Gatiss gives such good historical telly. If one happened to be a reasonable expert in 1890s Britain, there are a number of inconsistencies at the beginning here that could be jarring, not least the inexplicably gloomy morgue lit by flickering gaslight – compare that to the nice, bright, clean(ish) morgue in fellow BBC stablemate Ripper Street and you wonder why Molly Hooper bothered with the fake mustache at all. READ MORE: ‘Sherlock’ Star Benedict Cumberbatch On the Sleuth’s Sexuality and How His Own Stock Has Increased Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey To quote a certain nemesis – “Is this silly enough for you yet? Gothic enough, mad enough, even for you?” And it certainly isn’t Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
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But before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle starts rolling in his grave – always a tricky feat for someone who was buried standing up – this is not your average carriages and corsets period drama. It’s a wonder no one ever thought of it before. It’s a genius concept – take those most modern of detecting duos, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, and transport them to the 19th century.