These are fairly delayed thoughts as it took me approximately three months to finish season 4 of Sherlock, which consists of a meagre three one-hour episodes.
Initially, it was the thought of savoring the series because I did have to wait a year for the new season to air so I figured I should not rush through it. While there may have been a lot of hype around the season while it was on air, I’d worked hard to avoid reading anything other than the headlines because I knew it wasn’t worth spoiling an already short season.
However, after downloading the first episode, it lay forgotten for about a month until I finally noticed it sitting on my desktop one day. So I sat down (in bed) to watch the first episode … and my first thought was wow, that was unexpectedly dark turn! Then the ending came … to say I was shocked would be an understatement. Wow, the last thing I would expect was for them to kill off a fairly important supporting character.
I was so tempted then to watch episode two (which had already aired by the time I started episode one) but as always, I wanted to savor it. There was also that new unfamiliar tension between Sherlock and Watson that I’m just afraid to see resolved as I’m quite fond of the developing bromance between the two of them.
Then life intervened and I genuinely forgot about it completely.
Fast forward to April, the third and final episode long aired and the season had long since reached its conclusion, I found myself one evening hit with a spot of boredom and decided it was time to watch the next episode.
Then over the last two days, I finished the series and I’ll admit, never in my imagination would I have expected such a plot twist. Things were fascinating initially and captured my attention but it certainly became a WTF moment quite rapidly. Quite bordering on absurb, rushed, ridiculous … yet oddly satisfying in its execution. It will definitely stick out in my memory for a long while yet.
So kudos to the production team because I think the season could have turned out to be a amazing success or a debilitating failure and they certainly have accomplished the former.