Sherlock is brilliant, one of the best BBC shows of all time and one of the first to gain truly international acclaim. When it aired first 5 years ago it was a breath of fresh air to a story we all thought we knew and made spellbinding by the star making performances of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.
It’s for these reasons, amongst others, that The Abominable Bride is such a failure for show creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat.
As mentioned above we’re now talking about SPOILERS.
This episode was marketed as a one off special set in Victorian London like the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and when that is happening it’s brilliant, using the period for social commentary while retaining it’s sense of pacing, humor and intelligence.
Then it switches between the past and present because of Sherlock’s “mind palace” and quickly it turns into a guessing game of what’s real or not and rule number one of storytelling is not to confuse your audience. Remember when your English teacher told you never to end your stories with “And then they woke up, it was all a dream”? There’s a reason for that. It’s lazy and insulting to fans who have waited YEARS for this series to come back and for you to have wasted an hour and a half of my life with a self indulgent piece of forgettable nonsense is unforgivable.
Moffat and Gatiss are two of my favorite writers of this century but recently seem to be being treated like George Lucas was when making the prequels. I don’t think anyone is giving them notes, they are getting free reign to write and make anything they want as long as it’s finished on time. Their recent few series of Doctor Who has really turned me off from the show and I hope to god that this is indeed a one off and we never have this kind of Sherlock again or else the viewers will react and react hard.
We’re all giving them a pass on this one based on previous results but this was strikes 1 and 2. Fix it.