[QuickTidal]

How do we NOT have a thread on this yet after a few years?!

Anyways, Series 3 premiered earlier today, and following on the terrific and emotional cliffhangery THE REICHENBACH FALL...THE EMPTY HEARSE picks up 2 years later but wastes no time!

SPOILERS....big, fuck off spoilers for up to series 3 first ep!!





you were warned.










Man, this is probably Mark Gatiss' best script to date (including his DW scripts and SPACE AND TIME and previous SHERLOCK eps), it handles the aftermath of Sherlock's survival and Watson's resulting upset perfectly. It's chock block of suspense, humour, and Sherlockian shenanigans that we've come to expect from Cumberbatch, Freeman, and Co.!

I wasn't expecting Mary. Usually in these tales Watson's betrothed is normally a stick in the mud who begrudges John for spending too much time with his nutter friend....but Mary embraces it and sees Sherlock's genius as well. That was not only pleasant, but welcome since she has a few scenes where she had me grinning ear to ear. Well played Mark Gatiss, well played indeed.

The mystery int he ep is less important than the wound healing of Sherlock's death, resurrection, Watson's coming to terms with it, and the myriad versions of how he might have pulled it off.

And I LOVE that we are never told which is REALLY the proper story. Brilliant.

Can't WAIT for next week!

[worry]

Martin Freeman killed it.

[Tiste Simeon]

I don't shave for Sherlock!

[tiam]

QuickTidal, on 02 January 2014 - 03:23 AM, said:

How do we NOT have a thread on this yet after a few years?!

Anyways, Series 3 premiered earlier today, and following on the terrific and emotional cliffhangery THE REICHENBACH FALL...THE EMPTY HEARSE picks up 2 years later but wastes no time!

SPOILERS....big, fuck off spoilers for up to series 3 first ep!!





you were warned.










Man, this is probably Mark Gatiss' best script to date (including his DW scripts and SPACE AND TIME and previous SHERLOCK eps), it handles the aftermath of Sherlock's survival and Watson's resulting upset perfectly. It's chock block of suspense, humour, and Sherlockian shenanigans that we've come to expect from Cumberbatch, Freeman, and Co.!

I wasn't expecting Mary. Usually in these tales Watson's betrothed is normally a stick in the mud who begrudges John for spending too much time with his nutter friend....but Mary embraces it and sees Sherlock's genius as well. That was not only pleasant, but welcome since she has a few scenes where she had me grinning ear to ear. Well played Mark Gatiss, well played indeed.

The mystery int he ep is less important than the wound healing of Sherlock's death, resurrection, Watson's coming to terms with it, and the myriad versions of how he might have pulled it off.

And I LOVE that we are never told which is REALLY the proper story. Brilliant.

Can't WAIT for next week!

Ive read alot of the original stories and didnt realise Mary was so against Sherlock in the books. I did thoroughly enjoy it though seen as this is supposed to be the Empty House a mention of why he didnt tell Watson would have been nice. At no point did he say he had to die or John would be killed or he couldnt tell him because Johns grief was the main testament to the sincerity of Sherlocks death. It just makes out like he told everyone but not him and unless I missed it no proper explanation was gained.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

I loved it, though it took me until about 2/3 of the way through to realize that most of it was fanservice (but good fanservice).

I read this theory on /r/sherlock that I thought held some weight:

Spoiler

Quote

Almost every single character acted as a reference to some party of the fan base.

Lestrade: The fans that moved on when the actors took other jobs. Falling back on his old habit of smoking, aka watching old shows. But embraces the shows return.

Anderson: The people who are convinced the returning show can't live up to its expectations. Sherlock explained the fall to him (likely in actual fact) knowing that what ever he said wouldn't be believed because lets face it, its too boring, this is SHERLOCK HOLMES!

The Fan Girl: People who make Tumblr gifs of this show that are homo-erotic

Molly: The people who never lost faith in the show

John: The people angry the show was off the air for 2 seasons.

The Fan Club (Anderson's Sherlock club): This Subreddit, basically-ish

Mycroft: The writers reaction, that the show needed a break to re-gather itself

The show basically proves that its a meta-narrative of its own return at its own end Cumberbunches pops his collar, and puts on the hat (which he hates) and says, "Lets go be Sherlock Holmes". Which basically just says the show is 86 minutes of it poking fun at its own fans and hype of its return.

Source: http://en.reddit.com...nderson/cef7ed4

[QuickTidal]

I'm just impressed that it not only lived up to my expectations, but surpassed them in nearly every way.

Yeah, it was mostly fan service...but damn what a ride!

Also, if Gatiss is next up for Showrunner on Doctor Who, I will SO support that.

[QuickTidal]

Trailer for Jan 5th's episode!

[polishgenius]

Despite a startling improvement in his scripts in the last year in this, Who itself and Adventure in Time and Space, I think Gatiss needs to prove himself for a while longer before we start touting him as showrunner.


This was pretty awesome though. Having not seen it for so long I'd forgotten how delightfully odd this show is.

[QuickTidal]

There is a small part of me that is at war about the length of the series.

Part of me thinks that 3 eps at 1 1/2 hrs each is a really short series and I'm always wanting more...but the other part of me loves this fact because there is much less room for filler and I'm happy. My brain usually allows the latter to win out, quality over quantity. I think the worst thing that could happen to this show would be for it to become 13-episode series police procedural of the week (and no offense to those who like ELEMENTARY, but that's how I see that knock-off show).

These are clean, delicate, quirky little snippets of Sherlock and I can't help but love the obvious restraint involved in only doing 3 eps each series (not sure how much of that restraint comes from time constraints due to Moffat and Gatiss' other duties).

[tiam]

QuickTidal, on 02 January 2014 - 05:24 PM, said:

There is a small part of me that is at war about the length of the series.

Part of me thinks that 3 eps at 1 1/2 hrs each is a really short series and I'm always wanting more...but the other part of me loves this fact because there is much less room for filler and I'm happy. My brain usually allows the latter to win out, quality over quantity. I think the worst thing that could happen to this show would be for it to become 13-episode series police procedural of the week (and no offense to those who like ELEMENTARY, but that's how I see that knock-off show).

These are clean, delicate, quirky little snippets of Sherlock and I can't help but love the obvious restraint involved in only doing 3 eps each series (not sure how much of that restraint comes from time constraints due to Moffat and Gatiss' other duties).

The stories lend themselves to that alot more aswell which is why im surprised theyre not doing it. You could easily have a short story 45 minute episode with some of the longer ones being the main books though theyve mostly been covered.

According to Wikipedia the first episode to be done when the BBC picked up the show was the Great Game even though it was the last in the series because of Moffats ommitments to Who so that might be why.

[polishgenius]

The time gaps between the series are down to other commitments (not just for Moffat, Cumberbatch and Freeman are busy men too after all) but I don't think the length of each individual series is - BBC budget will come into that, and I think they've just decided that format is the best use of what they've got. Five and a half hours is short but not incredibly so for a BBC drama. Luther isn't longer in seasons 2 and 3.

I'm glad it's that way- we'll see about this one, but in the first two series the middle episode was substantially inferior to the first and last, so I'm all for keeping it trim.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 02 January 2014 - 08:01 PM, said:

I'm glad it's that way- we'll see about this one, but in the first two series the middle episode was substantially inferior to the first and last, so I'm all for keeping it trim.

I enjoyed HOUNDS (S2 Ep2), but yeah, THE REICHENBACH FALL blew it completely out of the water in terms of quality.

[frookenhauer]

I was happy...NAY delighted to see Sherlock again after a millennia of waiting, but the episode was merely good rather than the brilliance of S1 & S3.

A loose floor plate and an off switch?!? Well really, that was rather disingenuous...wasn't it? I just hope its all part of the plot, that's all I'm saying.

[worry]

I thought it was a great twist. I hate bomb plots anyway, they're always exactly the same, so this was a breath of fresh air.

[Coco with marshmallows]

So, the guy watching Sherlock on cctv at the end.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[QuickTidal]

frookenhauer, on 02 January 2014 - 09:40 PM, said:

A loose floor plate and an off switch?!? Well really, that was rather disingenuous...wasn't it? I just hope its all part of the plot, that's all I'm saying.

Actually I think the point was subverting the expectation that it was going to be something insane, and complex and instead it's got an off switch. Perfect. I LOLed.

[Tiste Simeon]

So looking forward to the next episode. They filmed part of it in my old place of work. And I got to watch. And shared a cinnamon swirl with Martin Freeman.

This post has been edited by Brent Weeks: 03 January 2014 - 12:25 AM

[Ukjent]

Oh, fuck me its good to have something amazing on TV again. The show have everything except it's way to short but again, its BBC, they never make enough episodes of quality shows.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Brent Weeks, on 03 January 2014 - 12:25 AM, said:

So looking forward to the next episode. They filmed part of it in my old place of work. And I got to watch. And shared a cinnamon swirl with Martin Freeman.

Is that a euphemism?

[Tiste Simeon]

I wish nope just the delicious cake goodness of a real cinnamon swirl!