Thursday, January 21, 2016

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (2016)

Music world knows supergroups where band consist members of other bands who want to do music together. Band get together when their other commitments let them get together. Sherlock is closest thing television has to supergroup. Benedict Cumberbatch is one of top male actors at the moment. Martin Freeman starred Hobbit trilogy. Steven Moffat is show runner of Doctor Who. Andrew Scott was in Spectre. These are the ones I know. Probably there are others too.

Getting group like this together is not the easiest task. Which means we only get three episode long seasons every now and then. The Abominable Bride is Sherlock's New Year Special which buys more time for next season. It is not necessary to watch for Sherlock's continuity. Most of it happens in 1890's. It starts reminding us how good Sherlock was and where it ended. Then we go to 1890's.

Making this happen in 1890's was interesting idea but it stripped Sherlock of many things which made show so good first place. Same actors play 1890's versions of their Sherlock characters. It is period piece which meant more serious tone and smaller role for women. Humor and women have bigger role during last half hour which makes that part better than first hour.

Like Doctor Who's Christmas Special The Abominable Bride was disappointment. Not as big as thought. This time problem was it reminded how much better normal episodes were. Beginning was boring because it showed 1890's version of events we saw in first episode. Episode start to works when Sherlock start to investigate the case. Story would have worked better without Moriarty. When he appears story becomes a mess. Humor and bigger role for women come right after Moriarty which make last half hour better but it would have been better without Moriarty.

I understand why Moriarty was there and what they tried to accomplish with him. Problem was he didn't fit the story which was good enough without him. It felt like Moriarty was added because he is Sherlock's nemesis and they though 1890's version of him was required for this one special occasion the series went to 1890's. The Abominable Bride is watchable. It could have been better if it was what it was marketed as. Now I want next season even more.

No comments:

Post a Comment