The Empty Hearse

I waited keenly to see the conclusion of the Reichenbach fall, and we get the Empty Hearse.

I enjoyed it as it continues to be bursting with exuberance, it's fun and wacky, but it is not the best, the plot is a bit on the thin side, and it just feels overly self satisfied. I could imagine Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat laughing maniacally and patting each other on the back during its creation.

It feels a little like we have a 15 minuted story with 75 minutes explaining Sherlock's bizarre survival, the on/off switch has been slammed many times, I need not add to that, it just seems a wee bit lazy.

There are great points though, some of the imaginings of Sherlocks death are fun, his actual parents are brilliant, the bonfire scene was superbly done, and Louise Brealey continues to shine brightly as Molly.

It delivers largely, but the bar has been set so high more was expected, 7/10

DISCLAIMER- Yes, you are reading this article as a movie review. It is so because I believe these episodes are more like a series of TV films; 90 minutes long TV films, and not a TV-Series! That being said, now you continue with the review. So it has been a little under two years since we last saw Sherlock Holmes fake his death. But the painful 717 days wait finally came to an end with the splendid "The Empty Hearse". Both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have found fame in Hollywood with movies like Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hobbit. But it is indeed a huge relief that the series has returned; even though if it's only for another three episodes. With no more Moriarty in the picture, the opening instalment of Sherlock teased a new foe for the Baker Street detective and explained just how and why the lead character vanished from London for two years… well almost! "The Empty Hearse" then tells us the reason of detective's return which involves an underground terrorist cell planning an attack on London. It also shows the two year old John Watson preparing for his marital life whilst trying to move on with the grief of his best friend's death.

Like the rest of the Sherlock episodes, this Season 3 opener is brilliantly shot, astoundingly edited and stunningly directed by Jeremy Lovering and team. Though "The Empty Hearse" is a little more about the Watson-Holmes reunion; throughout the episode, there are plenty of intriguing moments that we've come to love about this series, both with certain visual and stylistic cues. Although it still feels surprisingly new and viewer friendly.

PS: There are some interesting new wrinkles added to the Sherlock Holmes myths – his parents – as well as some genuinely very funny moments for fans (Molly's fiancée). But to conclude it all, "The Empty Hearse" is indeed the best Sherlock episode till date. I would undoubtedly rate the entire series a flawless 10, but for once I just wish if there was something beyond 10 reserved for this masterpiece.

"The holiday is over… Back to Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes…"

2 years is a pretty long time to wait for something so excellent.Being a big fan of the source material,I've followed this show from the beginning and this episode lived up to our expectations..the wait was worth it!We finally got an explanation to the riddle which had been bugging our minds so long.

Is there something better than Sherlock and Moriarty about to make out, and Sherlock's parents, and Sherlock's scarf, and Sherlock kissing Molly, and John repeatedly attacking Sherlock, and Anderson's first name?I think not. This was by far one of the best episode of this show and provided a full dose of spectacular performances by Benedict and Freeman with a script full of amazing wit,whizz and humour.Also the way Sherlock explains the fall is stunning and it opened with a breathtaking sequence. And hats off to the creators for such an excellent episode. It deserves a 10/10.

My favorite episode so far. It's badly bashed online because it really has its flaws. The main argument is that this episode is more of a parody to Sherlock than it is new Sherlock story. The fact is that this episode does not bring new complicated crime and Sherlock's genius solution, and to a certain extent I can understand the disappointment of those who waited two years for this episode. But I, who waited for it just a few minutes, really cannot recall last time I had so much fun. It may be bad from the crime/mystery genre point of view, but it's not written in the stone that every episode must follow that pattern. It's premium entertainment and I am thrilled.

9/10

However, I have one objection. It is not a big deal and most of the audience won't even notice it, because it is obvious only to former Yugoslavian audience and Russians, but it needlessly undermines the quality of this awesome show. I will quote Bosnian guy who presented this issue par excellence:

"Besides Serbs always being the bad guys, torturing someone when they have nothing else to do, how come they wear Russian parade uniforms and talk their Serbian like a parrot with Aerosinusitis, which is hardly intelligible. I know that Mycroft had few hours to learn Serbian, but the other Serbian guy speaks his mother tongue like a text-to-speech software. It seems that using google translate instead of human keeps production costs low... just as the quality of it."

With the last seasons being such a great spectacle to witness, the expectations were held high by all – would the new season's starter be able to repeat the success of the last season starter? Well, it definitely matched up to it in a way, but was always to be a slightly different episode, as the main events of the episode were be the explanation of how Sherlock's still alive, rather than planting a new villain story and also offer a deep mystery to solve in the first episode. All this would not fit into 90 minutes, would the editors provide maximum attention and detail to everything, it's going to be too intense and too much mystery would make the episode a little too twisty would not provide enough integrity - it would be all around the place. So the balance had to be found between all of these aspects and boy, wasn't that balance found! All of it was wrapped up into a perfect sequence of events that rolled open in front of our eyes and none of the sequences dominated the others... too much... and hence created an episode with excellent integrity. The acting and especially the visuals were always to be spot on, there is no other option with Sherlock. I can't compare it to Scandal in Belgravia and say its better, since they are not really comparable, as in Scandal of Belgravia, the directors needed about 5 minutes to close all the loose ends from the previous season and start another great mystery. This one needed a lot more of it and yet still made a great episode. 9.5 out of 10.