The Tiger Poet vs. Sherlock

(Warning: Spoilers Ahead.)

What is going on with Sherlock at the moment?

Don't get me wrong, I've been watching Sherlock since it debuted back in 2010, and I still think it's a terrific show with great acting by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, great camerawork, great atmosphere and mostly great everything. However one thing has been lacking of late, especially in recent years, and that is consistently great writing.

The first two series of Sherlock are among the most brilliant to have graced British television.
It cleverly brought the creations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle into the 21st century with a host of novel approaches to adapting the source material. It was also great to see a modern Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson solving crimes in London with the ever-present threat of Jim Moriarty lurking in the background. Then The Reichenbach Fall happened in 2012, and the internet went mad. Numerous theories by fans and news sites tried to crack the mystery of how Holmes survived his fall from the roof of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Come the premier of Series 3 in 2013, we were all waiting to see how the writing partnership of Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Stephen Thompson would continue with the show.

The Empty Hearse was where the warning signs first appeared. Although the episode was still brilliant in many regards, there was the sense that the writers had let success get the better of them, with the mystery never properly explained, the character of Moriarty somewhat deflated, and the inclusion of one too-many nods towards the fan-base. Then came The Sign of Three, which played out more like a Christmas or Comic Relief special, and demonstrated the shift from individual cases to overarching series-long plots. His Last Vow was a great ending to the series, with a terrific villain in Charles Augustus Magnussen and with more development given to Mary Watson as a character. Then a new twist appeared and we had to wait another couple of years.

I still don't know what to think about The Abominable Bride. It was in many ways an admirable attempt to try a meta-storytelling approach with Sherlock, but it turned out to be too meta and self-indulgent than necessary. Now we arrive at the new series, and these problems are still present. It's not that the episodes themselves are not well produced, because they are still a cut above most others on TV, it's just that Moffat and Gatiss appear to be making the show far more convoluted than it needs to be. That's not saying that Sherlock should be completely easy to follow, but now it just feels like the writers are trying to prove to the audience how clever they are.

The Six Thatchers started off well enough, with an intriguing initial case, but the moment the old plotline of Mary's past surfaces the whole thing is thrown for a loop. Sherlock Holmes doesn't deduce too much; instead we are treated to a story of special agents and governmental betrayal like something out of the Bourne films. I had no problem with Sherlock besting a special forces agent in combat (as if one is familiar with the Conan Doyle stories, it's completely in his character), but I did have a problem with the great detective running out of chances to do some detecting.

I'm pleased to say I liked The Lying Detective a bit more, as it presented a clever adaptation of a Conan Doyle story which is quite difficult to adapt, and also because Sherlock had a lot more deducing to do. However the same problems of over-complication are still there, and the sense that the writers are trying too hard is difficult to escape. I never quite believed that Culverton Smith's friends would be so willing to hear his murderous confessions before allowing their memories to be altered, and as for the episode's cliffhanger? I'm not exactly worried about Sherlock and Mycroft's secret sister killing John because I know we've still got one episode to go. It was tense enough to learn the identity of the secret Holmes sibling; it didn't need a gunshot.

Still, I'm still liking Sherlock very much. Hopefully many questions I have now will be answered in the final episode next week, in particular if the much-debated potential return of Moriarty will ever get some definite payoff. Ultimately, Sherlock is still a terrific show, but let's hope the writers don't get ahead of themselves on this one.