The Great Game

The height of brilliance is how I'd describe The Great Game, it's a deeply complex and multi layered story, that on the surface is quite hard to follow, partly because the show is so energetic and pacey, that it moves from one conundrum to another. It all seems to make sense in the end during the first proper encounter between Holmes and Moriarty.

It's eighty minutes of tantalising, gripping non stop energy, and ten minutes of the best TV viewing of all time, Cumberbatch and Freeman are excellent, both so impressive in their roles, but the magic comes from the full introduction of Andrew Scott, his characterisation of the normally sober Moriarty must rank as one of the best performances of all time. Scott is breathtakingly good in the role, drowning in charisma and personality, he played the definitive Moriarty, talk about elevating the show. That showdown scene was simply perfect.

I loved it. 10/10

With the season finale "The Great Game", Sherlock returns to the successful formula of its pilot and makes use of Paul McGuigan as a director, one of the two series creators as a writer, Rupert Graves and Mark Gatiss as supporting actors, and a villain worthy of receiving Sherlock Holmes' attention – and guess what? It works perfectly.

Reintroducing the world's only consulting detective as he interrogates a British murderer in a Belarusian prison and gets more irritated by the man's incorrect grammar and manner of speaking than his actual crime, "The Great Game" starts superbly already and offers one of the best pieces of writing to be found in it: "I'll get hung for this." – "No, not at all. Hanged, yes." What follows doesn't disappoint either and both the development of Sherlock and John's relationship and the crimes they try to solve are a delight to watch. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman show exceptional acting talent in their characters' snide repartee and their actually taking quite a liking to each other. However, there is someone dwarfing them: Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty. Although, when Sherlock's arch enemy makes his first appearance in one of the series's all-time best moments, he's just office romance Jim. The Irishman later returns for an even greater scene in the history of Sherlock and gives an unequalled performance that I'd be perfectly fine with if it were the only one I'd ever see again for the rest of my life.

And even if, as Scott stated himself, this swimming pool scene I was alluding to in the previous paragraph was rushedly written by Mark Gatiss, the result is brimming with witty writing and one of the best ideas the Sherlock creator have had for relocating the classic story into modern times. As has been established, he and Steven Moffat practice such re-writing of the Arthur Conan Doyle story on other occasions as well, and for "The Great Game", the two have come up with some jewels – "I'd be lost without my blogger" instead of "I'd be lost without my Boswell" or Holmes' network of homeless persons instead of the Baker Street Irregulars, to name a few.

The main plot underlying such little references is just as good, merging multiple entertaining cases into a bigger picture that culminates into what I'd venture to judge as a perfect final showdown. Yet all of the 90 minutes of running time are outstanding filmmaking, amusing and suspenseful, well-written and well-directed. One minor drawback of "The Great Game" are its scores of supporting characters, often but rudimentally evolved ones that echo the likes of less original television crime programmes.

This spectacular final episode of Sherlock's first season makes amends for its offering no more than three feature-length episodes and manifests the series as true high-quality entertainment. And though it truly is a finely crafted one, it's not that much the cliffhanger at the end that has your excitement for the second season go sky high, but what the series has accomplished overall.

My detective scribblings: • Una Stubbs is such a lovely little cast member – her facial expressions when being ignored by Sherlock, John, and Lestrade are just wonderful acting and make you want to cuddle her, don't they? • The thought of a woman just sitting in a car in the car park wearing a bombing vest is actually quite a spine-chilling thought if you contemplate it. • Character information: John's lying and Sherlock's astronomy knowledge are about on the same, abysmally low level. • "She was going places. " – "Not anymore." I was somehow expecting Sherlock to put on a pair of sunglasses and transform into Horatio Caine after that statement. • You could argue that the planetarium fight scene John and Sherlock vs the Golem is plainly ridiculous, but I'm a big fan of it anyway: the cinematography, editing, and astronomy trivia heard in the background make it an ingeniously crafted scene and a lot of fun to watch, in my opinion. • "Meretricious." – "And a happy new year." Lestrade has just earned himself an award. • Making his hostage John say "gottle o' gear" makes Moriarty all the greater and really had me bursting into laughter. • Exceptional editing by Charlie Phillips in this episode, I personally loved the transition between Sherlock and John at the train tracks and the two walking to Joe Harrison's flat. • Best line of dialogue: "Stop inflicting your opinions on the world." – What a classy way to insult someone.

In this first real brush with James Moriarty, the notorious arch-nemesis of Sherlock Holmes going back to the original stories, The Great Game presents a kind of plot that is perfect for a Sherlock Holmes story: what happens when the 'Game' of it becomes the whole point, and that a mystery wraps into a riddle and then another mystery, all leading to a painting that may (or may not!) be a fake. At the start of the episode Sherlock is bored with the cases he's been having and is then rocked into one by an explosion that rocks his own 221 Baker street home. Then there's the big 'plot' of the thing, where people keep turning up with phone calls, frightened voices, and bombs attached to them. Will they go off or will Holmes follow the game to where it needs to go and crack the codes and so on?

He does, and the fun in watching this episode/film is how Holmes realizes that the man behind all of this is Moriarty, which makes him have to turn up the stakes for himself (more than usual anyway, which are already petty high), and it becomes one of the better stories for this Sherlock a) Cumberbatch is so good, b) Freeman matches up (or tries to keep up) with his co-star, and c) when Andrew Scott finally appears as Moriarty, he really brings it and makes a big impression. I love this Moriarty as a man who is super-intelligent, but also wants to see Holmes as something more extraordinary, not just another ordinary person. Moriarty is a freak, but so is Holmes, and they complete each other in that odd way of nemeses. That scene alone, the climax of the thing (and how it does a twist, and then maybe another twist, in the showdown), is worth watching the episode all on its own.

A very interesting ending of the season. We are finally getting to the real Sherlock Holmes! The real game will start now!

I was really stunned about Andrew Scott, he did a very good job in this episode!

Much has been made of this updating of Holmes to a modern age and I think that a lot of praise for this has been a little bit based around the fact that the show has generally done well and didn't fall on its face. I'll not join it in this gush of praise over the modernisation though because frankly the show is not hugely different from a lot of other crime shows at the moment. What we have in Sherlock is a brilliant detective who has a "difficult" character but is put up with because he can solve weekly crimes like nobody else. If that sound familiar it is not a million miles away from the main characters in Psych, Monk, The Mentalist, Lie to Me, House and many other shows in the "quirky but brilliant investigator" genre at the moment. I don't say this to belittle the show but rather just to observe that Sherlock is another show in a very crowded genre.

It is this crowded genre that means it deserves praise though, because it does standout and it is enjoyable whereas several shows in the genre do seem to be going through the motions without any reason to watch them over their cousins. Sherlock is of course given a boost by who the character is but it could also have been a millstone around its neck. To its credit the very first episode makes the update easy. Instant messaging and access to information on the internet is brought into it but never to such a point where it is forced into the viewer's face. More importantly, the level below this superficial update focuses on the deductive powers of the detective, the crimes and the relationship with Watson. All of these things are well done and are the reason why the three episodes are enjoyable. It is also telling that the second episode (The Blind Banker) didn't have as good dialogue between Sherlock and Watson and wasn't as enjoyable as a result.

The Doctor Who effect on the tone is present but not to the point where it makes it silly or just loud for the sake of being loud (which that show often can be). Instead it seems to make it energetic and accessible but without making it into a 5pm tea-time family romp. It does have a bit of darkness to it and in particular the first episode does very well to build tension (although the "pill" confrontation isn't as good as I had hoped) but it needs to do it more often. The reveal of Moriarty is OK but not great; his character is probably the most obvious bit of Dr Who in here since he is in the mould of the new flamboyant Master. He didn't quite convince opposite Sherlock but it will be down to the writers in the second series to use this character well to produce some great mental battles. Certainly Cumberbatch is up to the task and I found him very good in the title role, just the right amount of superiority without being annoying or remote while also conveying the intellect side well. He works well with Freeman, who is also very good despite essentially doing the same sort of character he did in The Office and since. With these two working well as they do the show is already done but the supporting cast are generally strong as well.

Generally Sherlock produced perfect Sunday night viewing. It is an engaging show without taking itself too seriously; it is fast paced with humour without being silly or overly loud and it has elements of the New Who in terms of accessibility without taking too many of the negative aspects of that show with it. I found it very easy to enjoy and am one of many looking forward to the second season when it inevitably comes.