The Great Game

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.

Despite gluing my eyes to the screen, and my ears to the speakers, I lost the plot in several places while watching this. I have a number of unanswered questions, but I won't go into them for fear of spoiling the enjoyment of those who haven't seen it yet.

However, it is no secret that Moriarty (not credited) reveals himself in this episode, which is exciting.

In fact the whole thing is thrilling and the fact that I am baffled half the time doesn't put me off.

Cumberbatch is excellent, and so is Freeman, whose role as Watson is harder to make interesting.

Watch this series - it's great.

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!

"Sherlock" is an excellent series. As the series progresses, it gets better, until the amazing climax at the end of this episode. the director has done a great job, he hasn't used too much effects, and instead he has used some amazing editing things like camera movement, unusual camera angles and very nice focus games. All these effects did the series, and this episode especially, so good. I want to point out that the music was amazing, too. the cast did their job on the best side. Cumberbatch gave us an excellent role, which I liked it more than Downey Junior's Sherlock Holmes. I hope that Cumberbatch will do the transition from TV to the big screen. The third episode's plot was very good, the director keep us suspense until the last minutes, with the amazing finish. What can I say? please give us more episodes, and not just 3 more. Elementary, my dear Watson.