The Six Thatchers

Finally - the fourth all-too-short season of "Sherlock" begins. And it's a fitting opening.

As Sherlock waits for Moriarity to strike, even after death, he sits at home following case after case and texting the solutions, even though no one asked him.

Lestrade (Rupert Graves), however, brings him one case and begs him to solve it. For Sherlock, it's an easy solve - the death of a Cabinet Minister's son - but it leads to a more perplexing case. Someone is going around breaking busts of Margaret Thatcher. Sherlock is ready to swear that it has to be Moriarity up to something. But it actually has to do with someone much closer to home - new mother Mary Watson.

This is a great episode, filled with humor, excitement, suspense, and raw emotion. Beautifully crafted and well acted by all involved.

As for Benedict Cumberbatch playing Sherlock, what a perfect mating of actor and role. After ten years of small parts in movies, and leads in TV miniseries - playing Van Gogh, Stephen Hawking, and fictional characters - he hit it big with Sherlock. It was as if lightning had struck. It's made him a huge star. Hopefully not too big so we can get another season out of him.

I like these characters so much that my prejudices will show through. I thoroughly enjoy watching Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in any setting, particularly when Sherlock is explaining something how he solved a case. With that in mind, I have to say that this particular episode was so full of twists and turns and the editing so convoluted, I had all I could do to keep up. Mary Marston (Mrs. Watson) found herself trying to cover up her making a pact with three others as a spy. She's in with dangerous company when one of them shows up. Sherlock gets into the act and the consequences are deadly. This sets up a real change in personality and direction for Sherlock. The next two episodes will hopefully validate this one.

The episode still has great witty dialogue and humorous. It is a little bit of a mess but still awesome as always. I think a lot of people miss the point of watching this show the acting is outstanding every time and it's far better than most shows out there.

I am sure this episode isn't like anyone was expecting, it's not really this important, We don't really care about Mary Morstan or here future, we only care about Sherlock Vs. Moriarty.

That doesn't mean that the episode was bad but it should have been in the previous season or something not in this season "the final". we were expecting an epic start for the name of "Sherlock Holmes" final show.

Can't really imagine why they wasted one of only 3 episodes in this thing and what make them relying on only 2 episode to end this epic war. I can only hope the just don't disappoint us.

I will give it 8/10. Because again it's not a bad episode but it's not the time really.

We saw the first episode on STAN in Sydney on 2 January. We are absolute dedicated Sherlock fans, but were disappointed with the offering. Not because of what happened in the end- that was predictable. It just seemed as though we were watching a pilot that had not been tightened up either that or the authors had grown tired of the writing the series. It was all a bit sloppy with silly and unnecessary dialog that could have been deleted. And it just seemed as though the whole cast was wondering where it was all going. What was the reason for that ridiculous coiffured Dr Watson hairdo? Freeman just didn't seem the same to us. Was this because of his real life breakup with his partner?

But the biggest omission to my mind: where was that thumping Arnold and Price music that kept the pace of previous episodes. All the dynamic music had been 'sucked out' of the presentation and we were left with limpid weedy muzak that reminded me of cheap 80's drama background of distant wailing strings not all that relevant to the story. It sounded like someone had left the radio on in the background. It was pathetic. It left the characters 'naked' with embarrassing dialog in many of the scenes. So were all of these changes because of budget limitations? Sorry I give it a bare 6.5 to 7/10.