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Talk Back: Sherlock's "The Great Game"

Well, that's it. For now, anyway.

Last night brought the season finale of PBS' addictive Sherlock ("The Great Game") and what an installment it was. For a season composed of just three installments, it delivered quite the requisite bangs and thrills, particularly in this final act, which I rate as strong as the first episode ("A Study in Pink") in the series. (I reviewed the first three episodes of Sherlock here, and spoke with Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Martin Freeman in a feature over here at The Daily Beast.)

It contained all of the elements that make Sherlock just gleeful fun: Mark Gatiss' Mycroft, the banter between Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman), creepy criminals like the Golem, a fantastically deranged performance from Andrew Scott as the terrifying Moriarty, and one hell of an intricate mystery. Or in this case, no less than five interconnected mysteries designed to test Holmes' mettle, a battle of wills and minds between the consulting detective and the consulting criminal.

All this and one hell of a cliffhanger, designed to keep us on the edge of our seats until the second season. Despite the fact that Holmes as Saved Watson's life and gotten that pesky explosive vest off of his partner, Moriarty returned to finish them both off... but Holmes had another idea, shifting his gun from targeting Moriarty to that explosive vest, removed minutes earlier. Will he pull the trigger? Is he that desperate that he's willing to put all of their lives at risk or is it a dangerous bluff? We'll have to wait to find out.

But now that the episode has aired, I'm curious to know what you thought of "The Great Game" and the season as a whole? Did you fall in love with Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss' take on the great detective? And with Cumberbatch and Freeman's performances as the famous sleuths? Were you glad that Watson may have found love with Zoe Telford's Sarah, rather than fall into the monk-like trap that most adaptations have placed him in? Did you gasp with appreciation at just how utterly insane this incarnation of Moriarty is?

And, most importantly, are you dying with anticipation for Season Two of Sherlock right now?

Talk back here.

Sherlock has already been commissioned for a second season by the BBC.

Comments

Anonymous said…
More interested in a Christmas ep to be honest.
HipHopAnonymous said…
I was really looking forward to this series, and I'm happy to say that it not only lived up to my lofty expectations but exceeded them.

There was so much to enjoy about this wildly entertaining cocktail of mystery, brilliant performances, rapidfire banter and callbacks to the original Doyle canon that it actually gets even more entertaining with subsequent viewings. Andrew Scott's Moriarty is even better the second time around, and I've never enjoyed Mark Gatiss more than as Mycroft Holmes. Also, the fight with the Golem at the planetarium may be one of the finest staged sequences I've ever seen in a TV show.

One note on the ending though: I took the standoff at the pool to be Moffat and Gatiss giving us their modern take on Holmes & Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls. Just throwing out a guess here, but if they stay close to the canon, then I'm thinking Series 2 will open with Watson married to Sarah, and Holmes presumed dead, killed in the explosion with Moriarty. Notice that Watson is skillfully positioned beside a large wall that could shield him from the blast in that final scene.

Now here's hoping we get to see Irene Adler and sniper Colonel Moran in the next trilogy.
MouthyLabrador said…
I have to admit, I cringed when I first heard that Sherlock Holmes was being updated and modernized, but I am hopelessly head-over-heels in love with this new series. It's just brilliant -brilliant writing, brilliant casting. They've absolutely kept the integrity of the characters and the feel of the stories intact. I'm a die-hard Jeremy Brett fan, but I think Cumberbatch is absolutely phenomenal as Holmes, right up there with Brett, and I love Freeman's incarnation of Watson, too - he's spunky and snarky all on his own. I know a lot of people didn't care for Scott's Moriarty, but I found him really creepy - he can make his eyes go so cold and dead. I like the way he plays Moriarty as totally unhinged; he has no moral compass at all.

So, yes, I am dying for Season 2. I read an interview somewhere last week where Moffat said the three words that would describe Season 2 are: "Reichenbach, Adler, Hound". I, too, thought the pool scene in TGG was a modern nod to Reichenbach, but perhaps not. All I know is, next fall cannot come soon enough. You can only watch 3 episodes over and over so many times, after all.
grendel said…
I loved this series, despite the fact that I'm writhing in agony because we have to wait FOREVER for the next season. I recently read "Study in Scarlet" and was amazed by how perfectly the original story was updated, and at the same time truly adapted. "Sherlock" had the most believable and complex depiction of Watson I've seen.
Evie said…
It just aired recently on Showcase (in Canada) and I caught it through a weekend channel surfing blitz. I missed about 20-30 minutes of the intro but got hooked within 5 minutes of viewing. It was phenomenal!!! Needless to say, I bought the blu-ray within the week and got my boyfriend hooked on it too!

It seems like second season cannot come soon enough (still not in production phase yet). And I am definitely waiting for it on the edge of my seat…
Beiah said…
I'm so addicted with this brief series and when i saw the great game i hoped to god that it can still play on another season. and it is! i'm so excited! i love the modern take on the classic cases such as the study in pink and how Watson in this modern day version is blogging about it. it's not just about using modern technology but how holmes and watson as a character adapts to the game of crime in this century. criminals in particular at our time is not just dangerous. they are cunning and can be as ordinary as moriarty's character was. i loved every bit of it and i hope they make a remake of the Baskerville's case. that would be exciting indeed! :)

-Beiah from Philippines

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