SHERLOCK ABOMINABLE BRIDE REVIEW IGN SERIES
SHERLOCK ABOMINABLE BRIDE REVIEW IGN TV

That's because once Holmes and Watson were investigating the case of a murderous ghost, the true intentions of the episode were revealed. And when the story did get going, those aforementioned extremes never really seemed to be reached. Gatiss and Moffat took a mention of 'the case of Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife' from The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual and turned it into a mystery of their own, one that will apparently push Holmes to 'mental and physical extremes.' But it had several false starts, with Mary, Lestrade and a worried wife all asking Sherlock for help before the mystery kicked in, making the first half of the episode somewhat exposition-heavy. Trouble reared its head in terms of the story proper, however. The setting also allowed the writers to put right the wrongs done to Conan Doyle's words to make them contemporary, so our heroes wear their traditional Victorian get-up, Holmes summons people by telegram rather than text, and Watson is back to writing their adventures for the Strand magazine rather than his blog. The episode started out as what appeared to be a soft reboot, re-introducing and re-establishing the characters in speedy fashion, with Watson injured in the Afghan War, meeting and moving in with Holmes, and the pair soon solving crimes for a living. And it wasn't an entirely successful one, the setting marvellous, the performances solid, and the jokes good, but the story itself convoluted and at times a little too silly.

SHERLOCK ABOMINABLE BRIDE REVIEW IGN TV

So this one-off special - which screened in UK cinemas as well as on TV - took something of a chance by messing with that formula, the story unfolding in Victorian London.

And Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were perfectly cast as Holmes and Watson, making their dynamic duo one of the small screen's most winning double acts. Taking Arthur Conan Doyle's detective tales and giving them ingenious modern-day spins creators/writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Mofatt crafted shows that were less television episodes and more self-contained movies. The show has been one of the BBC's great success stories of the last few years. 'Gothic enough? Mad enough?' Well yes to all of those, but unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough either, especially when compared to the previous nine episodes of Sherlock, most of which worked better than this ingenious but ultimately flawed experiment. 'Is this silly enough for you?' asks one character during The Abominable Bride. Doesn't matter if they don't however, this one was so good it really was the perfect after-Christmas present.WARNING: AS SHERLOCK HAS ALREADY SCREENED IN THE UK, ABOMINABLE BRIDE SPOILERS FOLLOW. This was the best 'Sherlock' I've yet seen and sets an almost impossibly high standard for what may come after this. I'm sure there will be Sherlock-oligists who can pick apart the complexities of the plot, which for sure seemed at times like a read-across from Moffat and Gatiss's other re-creation Dr Who, but let them, they won't spoil it for me. The playing by Cumberbatch, Freeman and Andrew Scott as the three main protagonists was never better. There was humour a-plenty and hosts of references to the Conan-Doyle original, including, if I'm not mistaken, the first time this Sherlock has ever said 'Elementary my dear Watson'. As ever, the technical aspects of the production were great, I'm a sucker for the multiple camera-angle, 360 degrees perspective, time-freezing, computer graphics and microscopic zoom shots employed.

SHERLOCK ABOMINABLE BRIDE REVIEW IGN SERIES

Starting with a Victorian-era impossible murder with an even more impossible murderer, guest appearances by all the previous supporting cast including a massively-bloated Mycroft, surely a homage to Sydney Greenstreet and the return of the master-criminal we've all missed, a premonition of another husband-slaying in a big old house after dark, a recreation of the real Reichenbach Fall climax of yore, an ingenious denouement anticipating female suffrage years later but perhaps the best thing of all was the promise of a new series to come. The writing really was terrific with a plot that had more ups and downs than a mountain range, more ins and outs than Hampton Court Maze and more twists and turns than a dozen corkscrews, in short it was a triumph. 'The Fall' re-starts next week although it is my least anticipated of the three, while 'Luther's' comeback was very good but this dazzlingly brilliant episode was the best thing I've watched this Christmas. The BBC has been trailing the return of three (okay, four) of its most popular detective heroes in a clever advertisement showing Stella Gibson from 'The Fall', John Luther and Sherlock (and Dr Watson).

Sherlock abominable bride review ign