The Final Problem

Some critics have been complaining about season 4 of Sherlock, but in spite of all the flaws, from with the utterly ridiculous denouement of episode 0 on, the series' high style and wit had me feeling that yes, the show is a mess, and yes, it's ridiculously over-the-top, and yes, it's painted itself into a corner, but man is it ever fun.

I was still feeling that way by the halfway point of The Final Problem. Sure, there were issues, but what a blast.

Somewhere around the middle, I started just getting annoyed at how stupid it all was.

The episode is a classic example of how the series keeps painting itself into corners. This begins with the antagonist, who is the super-est, most unstoppable antagonist ever.

This is because the series felt an obligation to out-do Moriarty, who was previously the super-est, most unstoppable antagonist ever. This shows a fundamental difference between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Steven Moffat. Doyle used Moriarty as a way to tell stories for a while, then got sick of the supervillain thing and killed him off. Moffat decided killing him off just meant he needed something more spectacular as a replacement. It reminded me of the way in Xena Warrior Princess Calisto had to keep becoming more and more powerful because once Xena beat her, she had to up her game. And finally, they had to kill her off because there was just nowhere for the character to go.

Moffat doesn't seem to accept that there is a limit to how big and crazy something can be. Instead, season 4 displayed a palpable desperation to be the very biggest, craziest, wildest Sherlock season ever. This means that the stories had to be insanely complex, and the solutions even more so.

The first half of this episode created such a build up that the second half floundered trying to match it, resulting in a crazy series of deadly puzzles that relied on a weirdly misguided trust that the game was being played fair. When the case was solved it was maudlin nonsense. The show followed up on that with this bizarre little speech by a dead character about how swell Sherlock and Watson were. It wasn't remotely in keeping with the rest of the episode and was so out of place that I thought it must signal that this was the final season and they wanted a kind of happy-goodbye sequence. But apparently, a fifth season is probably going to happen anyway.

This final episode shows how much fun can be had from Sherlock, but also feels like it's not just jumped the shark but has jumped on the shark for a soft-shoe routine. Overall, this season has been fun, but it hasn't necessarily been good.

"Because Sherlock Holmes is a great man. And I think one day - if we're very, very lucky, he might even be a good man." -Lestrade in 'A Study in Pink'

This is what this season was about - Sherlock becoming human again, the only thing that was missing from a truly epic story told over the span of four seasons. In this mind numbing psychological thriller, the brilliant acting and inspired direction is only surpassed by the emotional undertone that makes Sherlock find his humane touch - something that he had locked away somewhere within his psyche since his childhood. But that humane aspect of Sherlock's character, though not superficially apparent, always found expression in his love for Dr. Watson and Mary, more so than ever in this season of this epic series. Truly, as Mycroft explains - the man Sherlock is today, is a result of memories suppressed and modified and of deep seated psychological trauma.

Why then is he a sociopath and not a psychopathic villain like Moriarty or Culverton Smith? Because, he was always a good person deep down even though he did not know about it himself. The finale does a stunning job at giving us an insight into his past, and his troubled childhood, while at the same time giving us a glimpse of his genius intellect as in other episodes. It's a shame that some people are criticizing it for being overtly about psychological twists and less about solving crime. I ask them if they ever truly would have been satisfied with 'Sherlock' if there had been so many unanswered questions at the end of what could well be the last episode ever for the series. This was a story that needed to be told - and told it was, in the most magnificent and epic way possible - something that is well captured in the following quotes near the episode end:

Police Officer - "He's a great man sir."

Lestrade - "He's better than that. He's a good one."

As Mary put it aptly at the end - it's all about the legend, the stories and the adventures - a story that might well be the greatest detective story ever told!

I am sad to say season 4 turns out to be my least favourite season of Sherlock. All of these trippy dream scenes and psychological drama are not what made the first three seasons such an enjoyable show for me, and this episode definitely has too much of that. Also, there are some plot holes and implausible scenarios. The scene with the glass is very questionable from a physics viewpoint, and as for the plane, without going into too much spoiling detail I can say that I saw this coming (whether that is necessarily a bad thing is something I leave up to you). I'm not saying it's not a gripping story, but perhaps it would have been better as a standalone film. It's not what I hoped to see on Sherlock. It feels a bit like the writers were overcomplicating things and going in the wrong direction thematically in an effort to create their masterpiece finale.

This was an episode that could have been an awesome movie (like shutter island)... The last 10-15 minutes were very confusing and a bit rushed. It would have about 30-40 more minutes to make a smooth ending if it were a movie, and although it had its roots based on the continuity, it was still apart from the normal story like Hounds of Baskerville... There were a few plot holes and many things were left unexplained, also the ending of the previous episode (which was great) was not utilized to its potential. I still think it was a very good episode in itself and would rate it somewhere between 8.5-9... But if it's the final episode of the show (as the talk is), then the rating will go down to about 8 for the unexplained things throughout the episode. This should not be the last.

Absurd skill of a character, this is getting out of control, they have gone empty of ideas. Illogical Mycroft behaviour. There is an out of tune song, sadly. Poor and predictable ending. Nothing is surprising more.