Sherlock Season 3 - Let the East wind Come

Two years (around July 2011) ago I was introduced to a TV series called SHERLOCK by a famous Tamil blogger Karundhel. Till that I haven’t explored the TV series at all but the article made me watch it, after that I totally loved the series. Another reason to watch the series was only three episodes for a season. I loved the first season and by the time I completed the series one, Series two was also finished and totally loved it. The second season was better than first one, especially the final episode. The final episode titled Reichenbach Fall leaves the question of survival of Sherlock Holmes. After two years of waiting series three was broadcasted and the result was ????

Series three also follows the same pattern of its predecessor by comprising of only three episodes. By now the actors of the series have become stars and Hollywood as usual exploited the talent and reduced them to mere poster boys. In particular Benedict Cumberbatch who plays the role of Sherlock appeared in more interviews in 2013 than he appeared before all along. He appeared in Star Trek into Darkness as Villain, Julian Assange Biopic Fifth Estate and at the end of the year as Smaug and Necromancer in Hobbit : Desolation of Smaug. While Martin Freeman who played John Watson seen in Hobbit as the protagonist. At the end of year even the Benedict Cumberbatch able to sense his exploitation and apologized in a news paper statement for attending more interviews, making more appearances and made audiences bored by showing his face regularly. I am sure he has understood how Hollywood is trying to sell a movie based on Sherlock fame.

Now let us come back to the season three. The season three’s three episodes are The Empty Hearse, Sign of Three and the Last Vow. Those who have followed the news might have known that introduction of Mary Mosrtan, John’s marriage and Villain being Charles Augustus Magnussen. The character Mary is portrayed by Amanda Abbington real life partner of Martin Freeman, Charles Augustus Magnussen portrayed brilliantly by Lars Mikkelson and the usual cast reprising their roles. The crew also mentioned that this series will be more of an emotional take of the Sherlock Holmes rather than puzzle solving alone or in other words showing the human side of the Sherlock Holmes.

The Empty Hearse is an episode which has to explain the survival of Sherlock Holmes and his reunion with John Watson. Their attempt succeeded to an extent. I liked this episode as the leads did their best. The tributes to the survival theories of the fans are nice and the witty lines are made perfect but as the episode progresses the writing has become a bit sore and at the end I felt, “Why does this need Sherlock Holmes? Am I watching a Tamil film?” I expected a clever way of solving and over sentiment lead to embarrassment. This is the episode where the Sherlock changed from the book version or its previous version.

The second episode was The Sign of three. I forgive first episode as a okayish let them take their time to come back to the story (but only two episodes left). The first episode had only few sentiment scenes to show the human side of the Detective now this episode has very few little scene to show the detective side of the deductionist. In a sit-com a detective is inserted and he feels embarrassed so do we and for this we were waiting for 2 long years. Really that was the moment I really felt that American version ELEMENTARY is better in portraying human side and vulnerability of the Deductionist. This is the episode where I lost my hope on the third episode and the season on the whole but still I watched the third episode.

The third episode is the Last Vow. The difference between second and third episode is just a week’s gap. In the interim I was subjected to read a press release or a spoiler free review of the episode. Which stated that the press reporters are asked not to give away 9 plot twists which may destroys the suspense and totally spoils the enjoyment of the episode. This made me panic and curious at the same time. So being a Cumberbatch fan I can’t control myself from watching the episode and thus came the biggest disappointment. I don’t know why didn’t like the last episode much, still it was better than the second one as this episode had something called story which was not at the first two. The first episode was just made for the reunion and establishment of the fact that Sherlock is alive. The second episode is just to say Sherlock is more of a human and can be easily broken. The third episode had the villain brilliantly played but not given much time as Moriarty. Although the US version follows a template it has clear cut writing which exceeds the third season’s motive of Human Sherlock.

This johncentric season was a bit of unhappy or kind of disappointment to the SHERLOCK lovers but sure they will keep watching it till the next series. I hope they writers bring back the charisma of the previous seasons and bring back the Original High Functioning Sociopath rather than a human uttering the punchline “I am a high functioning Sociopath”. Telling all that I loved the performances of all, but you know performances alone cannot save a series or make it more interesting. It needs a strong script. Let the East wind come and take away all the unwanted trash.

P.S: A friend of mine (Check his note on FB) compared Moriarity to Joker Coincidentally same fate happened to third part of both. 

P.S.S: By any means I am not saying Elementary is better than Sherlock, but this season makes it Watchable. and Image Courtesy BBC one.