It was great to see “Sherlock” back, even if, as @pedant rightly points out, it was “intense”. The show runners told us it was going to be darker this time around and they didn’t exaggerate.
One of the recurring pleasures of the show is how Gatiss and Moffat draw upon previous incarnations of the stories. And not just the Conan Doyle originals. Gatiss, in particular, when he is the main writer of an episode is fond of drawing on the Basil Rathbone SH movies of the 1940s. I am not sure enough people are aware of just how much Gatiss and Moffat draw on, and play with, the whole constellation of SH incarnations in this show.
Last night, for example, owes at least as much to the Basil Rathbone movie “The Pearl of Death” (a very loose retelling of “The Six Napoleans”) as it does to Conan Doyle. Indeed, there is a character in the Basil Rathbone version who is a gigantic killer called The Creeper who crushes his victims and breaks their backs. He wasn’t in The Six Thatchers, of course, but, re-named The Golem, he was in the 2010 Gatiss-penned The Great Game. This is one of the things I love about the show.
Mind you, I am not sure everything worked about last night. A team of four assassins going on jobs together with memory sticks containing all the facts about their compatriots doesn’t seem the best sort of security to me, but then I’m not part of a team of assassins. So who am I to say?
Cannot wait till next week, even though it promises that the main characters will be thoroughly miserable (Holmes newly humbled and Watson both grief-stricken because of his loss and guilty because of his indiscretion). And what are we to make of Mary’s cryptic statement at the end of the credits? Oh yes, looking forward to next week!
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