In season 1, Sherlock introduced an interesting new interpretation of John Watson, a character who is often written as a buffoonish sidekick to Holmes’s prickly genius.
It’s time to talk about the inexplicable subplot where John Watson sexts a woman he met on the bus. But while Sherlock and Mary were certainly shortchanged, John’s characterization is unforgivably bad. Sherlock and John’s banter proceeds on autopilot, with no vitality or meaningful friction until Mary’s death splits their friendship apart. Benedict Cumberbatch is uncharacteristically lackluster as Sherlock, with writer Mark Gatiss failing to deliver the snappy dialogue we’ve come to expect. Mary’s death is a classic example of fridging, arranged to create as much conflict as possible for the male leads. “The Six Thatchers” does a disservice to all three of the lead characters. A superspy who abandons a life of peril and adventure for John Watson and a marriage that already seems dull and passionless after three episodes. To avoid characterizing her as a buzzkill or a third wheel, Sherlock went all-out and turned her into a superspy. Mary Watson has a tricky role in any modern Holmes adaptation, a wife who was barely more than an afterthought in Conan Doyle’s short stories. In the episode’s final showdown, Mary died as she lived: fueling character development for the men in her life.
#Season 4 review sherlock nyt full
Why keep a memory stick full of top-secret information about you and your colleagues, an item clearly begging to be stolen and used against you? And if she’s so impressive, why do John and Sherlock constantly undermine her abilities by trying to “protect” her? We’re even treated to a long and pointless montage where she assumes several false identities and travels the world undercover, only to find John and Sherlock waiting at her destination because they planted a tracker on her before she left.
In the classic vein of spy stories told by excitable 10-year-old boys, Mary (Amanda Abbington) is allegedly a hyper-competent badass, but her characterization makes no sense whatsoever. Murder charges quickly forgotten, he embarks on a case inspired by the classic Holmes story The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, retitled “The Six Thatchers.” Someone has been breaking into people’s homes and smashing statues of Margaret Thatcher, although for some reason the show never acknowledges the most obvious explanation for this crime: Lots of people really hate Margaret Thatcher, to the point where some celebrated her death by burning her in effigy.Īs in the short story, the real explanation is that something was hidden inside one of the statues, in this case a memory stick about Mary Watson’s days as a spy/black ops specialist. The main characters don’t even seem to enjoy each other’s company anymore, a fatal flaw in what basically reduces Sherlock to a buddy-cop show.įollowing its brief foray into the Victorian era, Sherlock returns to its original alternate reality: a world where almost everyone in London is white, and Sherlock Holmes can blithely shoot people without consequence.
This time around, fast-paced storytelling was fully replaced by Sherlock‘s trademark flashy editing and love of montages. The fourth season premiere, “The Six Thatchers,” is the first time it’s managed to be boring.Įven at its worst, Sherlock usually maintains a palpable sense of fun, energetically propelling itself from one plot twist to another. Sherlock is consistently inconsistent, veering between compelling drama (Sherlock’s death at the end of season 2) and self-indulgent nonsense (“ The Abominable Bride“). This review includes major spoilers for “The Six Thatchers.”
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