greengaramond

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016)

Placeholder for the agonizing fans waiting for full seasons, but a surprisingly good one at that.

This was the first installment from the Sherlock series that I did not get hyped up about beforehand. That being said, I did not hold any high expectations with regard to this episode, as I did not see any purpose to it other than a placeholder aired to alleviate the emotional wounds of the agonized fans, eagerly waiting for the next season. There was after all a short episode they also made before airing the 3rd season, which was rather insignificant, though who can make 7 minutes very significant anyway?

However, I was positively surprised that the current placeholder was actually brought to sort of advance the general storyline of the show, or rather simply to explain it to those bewildered by the ending of the 3rd season. If it did anything, it definitely killed Morianty for the good, this time.

General insight:

Firstly the clever use of the original Conan Doyle and his stories. This show is able to innovatively turn Doyle's 1800's originality into elements advancing the plot. While some might argue it is downplaying Doyle's contributions, I beg to differ. While the use of some references to his original work might appear random, nothing is further from the truth. Particularly the interpretation of the death scene that Conan Doyle originally wrote to get rid of his famous detective is used here to advance the story and to further resonate one of the themes of this episode: that however much we would like to see a legitimate Morianty return from the grave, it is not going to happen: he is simply dead.

Secondly, all who whine about the dialog being "too clever". The story was set in 1880s, the dialog is supposed to be "cleverer" simply because the expressions and the manner of speech which were commonplace then and employed in the show are not widely used anymore. Such a manner of speech and acting simply echo the historical context of the time thus reflecting more on the attempts to maintain historical authenticity of the episode rather than writers who are "trying to be too clever". Additionally, the acting was excellent, nearly sublime at times. Theatrical every so often, yes, but again for the sake of historic authenticity it simply adds value to the episode.

Whereas I simply don't like the idea of a placeholder mainly taking place in an addicts head aimed to alleviate the pains of desperate fans, there is some general logic to this composition. It surprised me with its content and the actual attempt to somehow be useful for the general plot.

All in all, the Abominable Bride is a great watch. It engages you to no end and is definitely entertaining to watch if you are a Sherlock fan. Acting is great, costumes are good and the cinematography is as has become traditional with Sherlock: of an extremely high order both technically and artistically.

Despite all this, due to the placeholder's nature of the episode, I can not bring myself to rate it any higher than 8/10.