The Six Thatchers

The Six Napoleans has to be one of my favourite stories from Conan Doyle, so I was intrigued to see what work would be done for The Six Thatchers. The result was something quite wonderful, you can truly see that plenty of time and effort was put into every detail, from the script, to the casting, to the shock ending. Loaded with twists and turns, this has to be one of the best episodes of Sherlock to date, if this one is anything to go by then the series is going to be wonderful.

They played an absolute blinder with Marcia Warren, such a talented actress I always associate with humour and lighter roles, the ending she helped create was spectacular. Best episode I thought for Amanda Abbington, given a big story, to which she put an amazing performance into.

It will be interesting to see how the dynamic between Holmes and Watson develops....

Thrilling 9/10

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.

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.

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.

I was so hyped for this season of Sherlock, after all it's been years since the last present-day episode. But this one was not anything like what I expected, and not in a good way. First of all, it takes a long time for the plot to get moving, with many irrelevant scenes, which while funny are obtrusive in what's supposed to be the darkest season yet. And the plot itself is convoluted, lacking a clear focus. It's mainly about Mary's backstory, which is annoying as it requires you to recall details from Season 3 which was about three years ago. There's also not much of a sustained sense of threat, very little tension expect in a few scenes. There's no traditional murder case to solve and it feels like a generic thriller rather than a Sherlock episode. And one other thing- that action movie-style fight in the pool is unintentionally goofy and silly, which I would not usually expect from a Sherlock episode.

That's the bad, but the episode is still clever and fast-paced, despite lacking a clear focus. The ending sets the tone for rest of the season, marking a clear change in Sherlock's personality and explaining this season's tagline 'This isn't a game anymore'. So not the best Sherlock episode, but the sets the scene for the rest of the season.