I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

The Final Problem — Total Fail

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"Failure, sir; absolute failure." [BLAC]</h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">[</span><b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Editor's Note:</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> this is the ninth in our series of reviews for Series 4 of <i>Sherlock</i>. There are </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>spoilers below</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Do we really need to keep reminding you at this point?]</span><br />
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<br />Total Fail</h3>
I'm gobsmacked at how bad "The Final Problem" was. No amount of rationalization or excuse-making can redeem “The Final Problem.” I'm embarrassed for them…all of them (well, except perhaps Molly Hooper).<br />
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It was not only bad Sherlock Holmes (was it even Sherlock Holmes at all?), it was bad story-telling — preposterous, bloated, tedious, and utterly unbelievable ("She arranged all of this in 5 minutes?").<br />
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I feared that the twist in the ending of "The Lying Detective" would portend something regrettable, but good God, who could have foreseen this? A mash-up of <i>The Bad Seed</i>, <i>Saw</i>, <i>Silence of the Lambs</i>, and James Bond...but no Sherlock Holmes at all.<br />
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<br />"We reach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow. Or worse than a shadow - misery." [RETI]</h3>
Perhaps some credit could be given for ambition — something the series has always had. But my goodness…talk about reach exceeding grasp. The eulogy by Mary at the end (and have no doubt that was a eulogy…almost an apology) was quite wonderful, even thrilling, but far too little and far too late to save this complete disaster.<br />
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I've already read pathetically hopeful comments on Facebook that this last 5-minute epilogue points to a Season 5 that returns to the glory of Season 1. Don't fool yourself in your shocked, embarrassed grief. That was as clear a goodbye as could be. It's over (despite Moffat's and Gatiss's standard prevaricating), and as it turns out it was one episode too many.<br />
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Moffat and Gatiss fell prey to "last episode syndrome," where many a long-running popular series felt it had to end with an over-top-finale (see Seinfeld for a spectacular last episode fail).  It's over, and now I say thank God it's over. Whew.<br />
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When it was good it was truly great. But it's going to be a while before we all get the taste of that out of our mouths.<br />
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I guess the race really does go to the tortoise.<br />
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--<br />
<br />

The Final Problem — Total Fail

"Failure, sir; absolute failure." [BLAC] [ Editor's Note: this is the ninth in our series of reviews for Series 4 of She...

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by Steve Doyle

The Final Problem: Problems Abound

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"It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen" [FINA] </h4>
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[<b><i>Editor's Note:</i></b> this is the eighth in our series of reviews for Series 4 of Sherlock. There are <b><i>spoilers below</i></b>. Don't say we didn't warn you.]<div>
<br />Where to begin? How does one describe this beautiful mess, this sublimely ludicrous end to a season that has delighted and frustrated so many viewers? Well, I guess we have to start with the obligatory <b>spoiler warning</b>. I mean, for the love of all that is Sherlockian, don't think about reading any further until you've watched the final episode of Season 4 of <i>Sherlock</i>: "The Final Problem."<br />
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Let's start with that title: despite the obvious reference to perhaps the most famous of all Holmes stories in the Canon, this episode has little to do with Doyle's story of the same name. Moffat and Gatiss had already plundered Doyle's "The Final Problem" back in Season 2, with "The Reichenbach Fall." So plot-wise, there's not much in the way of references to that source material, other than a certain air of finality at the end of the episode. But more on that point later...<br />
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There are references to the Canon, of course, as we have come to expect from this series: the reference to "The Three Garridebs" (just their names—the plot point is completely different); the "Dancing Men" reference in the final montage. Perhaps other more eagle-eyed Sherlockians will detect other clues. And there was a delightful detail in the final shot, where a placard on a building clearly reads "Rathbone Place," a cheeky little extra-canonical tidbit. But I'm getting ahead of myself again.<br />
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As a fan of comic books when I was younger, I can't help but think that the island fortress of Sherrinford was reminiscent of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkham_Asylum" target="_blank">Arkham Asylum</a> from the <i>Batman </i>series: a place where only the most brilliant of the criminally insane reside. Meanwhile, the writers made the parallel to <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU8jKn7sMwU" target="_blank">Silence of the Lambs</a></i> explicit in the scene where Sherlock first visits Eurus at her cell, and a guard refers to the famous film/novel. Eurus certainly brought Hannibal Lecter to mind right away.<br />
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Perhaps one of the biggest laughs I got (maybe the only laugh, considering the dark tone of the episode) was when the camera panned down through the floor at 221B, to show Mrs. Hudson vacuuming her floor, while listening to Iron Maiden's "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxnN05vOuSM" target="_blank">Number of the Beast</a>" on her headphones. No, that's not right, I did laugh at one other spot: the great musical cue at the beginning of the flashback to Moriarty's visit to Sherrinford, wherein he's listening to Queen's "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOtCLOXgm8" target="_blank">I Want to Break Free</a>." Typical Moriarty flash and cheese, all in one delicious moment.<br />
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<b>The Critical Question</b></h3>
At this point, though, I have to ask myself: canonical references and humorous musical cues aside, what about the rest of it? Did this episode, in fact, make any sense?<br />
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No, I don't think it did. For all their attempts to really wow us, with all the suspense — will Sherlock shoot Watson or Mycroft? Will Mrs. Hudson perish in the explosion? Will Molly Hooper die because she won't say "I love you"? — for all that, much of the action felt horribly contrived to me. If anyone has watched any of the <i>Saw </i>films, there's often a point in those elaborately executed torture traps where the viewer thinks, "How could anyone possibly set all of this up?" In the case of Eurus Holmes, a woman who had been incarcerated for much of her adult life, I found myself thinking the same thing: even with the help of the guards that she had (almost magically) talked into doing her bidding, there was just too much planning and almost superhuman omniscience involved in setting up her elaborate test of brothers Sherlock and Mycroft.<br />
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Speaking of superhuman, we're also forced to believe that Sherlock, John and Mycroft (not to mention Mrs. Hudson) all walked away from the huge explosion at 221B, with nary a scratch on them? For heaven's sake, Sherlock and John were blown <i>through a second story window</i>!<br />
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But this same superhero-style Sherlock doesn't even realize that there is no glass between him and Eurus, the whole time he's talking to her? Nope, sorry, I don't buy it. I've stood in front of glass walls, and it's quite easy to tell the difference between glass and thin air. And it takes that long for Sherlock to figure out that the little girl on the plane is all a ruse? As they have in the past, Moffat and Gatiss seem to have thought we, as viewers, would simply accept their overly elaborate game (that's "not a game any more," according to the trailer), and not notice how far-fetched the whole thing was, or how lame Sherlock has gotten at figuring things out.<br />
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Almost the entire length of the episode, I just kept thinking, "No, that wouldn't happen that way...no, that just isn't possible." Just as they did at the beginning of Season 3, when everyone wanted to know how Sherlock had survived his "Reichenbach Fall," the Sherlock writers simply said, "We don't need to explain it. Sherlock's just the cleverest man alive." Except for when he's not. Which leads me to the end...<br />
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There has been much speculation, especially as Season 4 has progressed, as to whether this will be the last season of <i>Sherlock</i>. The final montage of this episode certainly seemed to lean that way: Mary's final words about her "Baker Street Boys...Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson!" had a definite air of finality about them. Are Moffat and Gatiss going to accomplish what Arthur Conan Doyle failed to do with his "Final Problem"? Will this be the end of the story? Doyle tried to kill off his detective, but ended up bringing him back to life. All of our favorite characters (well, most of them) are still alive and well at the end of <i>this</i> "Final Problem." So I guess the future of the series is still open.<br />
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Of course, that leads me to my final dilemma: how do I view this episode as a series finale, rather than just a season finale, if that's what it turns out to be? I suppose, to a certain extent, this finale demonstrates what <i>Sherlock </i>has always been: entertaining, frustrating, impressed by its own cleverness, slick, modern, and completely in love with its source material. I mean, that's what's kept so many of us coming back, through the long hiatuses and all that, isn't it?<br />
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It's always been clear (to me, at least) that Moffat and Gatiss absolutely adore the characters and stories created by Arthur Conan Doyle. In the end, if it is actually over, the whole series is kind of like a crazy, devoted fan fiction: they have always said, "What if?" What if Sherlock Holmes and John Watson were living in today's world? What stories could we tell about <i>that</i>?<br />
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And they did.<br />
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--<br />
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<br /></div>

The Final Problem: Problems Abound

"It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen" [FINA] [ Editor's Note: this is the eighth in our series of reviews f...

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by Cory Howell

Episode 112: Anno Holmes 130

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"their celebrated colleague" [VALL] </h4>
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<br />
It's 2017 and we're back from the BSI Weekend, with tales of friends, listeners, authors and more. This year marks Sherlock Holmes's 130th year with the public and there is much to celebrate.<br />
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Things we learned included Bonnie MacBird's next Sherlock Holmes novel that involves whisky; a future edition of a Sherlock Holmes companion from Cambridge University Press; the Society of Illustrators has a wonderful cafe, where we held the annual meeting of the Three Hours for Lunch Club, and subsequently, we'll be recommending Frederic Dorr Steele as a future Hall of Fame Member at the Society.<br />
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We debate the possibility of or need for regular electronic updates of the eBSJ archives — or even a concurrent digital option of the Journal — leading to a broader discussion of print versus digital publications.<br />
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And of course we touch on the latest goings-on with <i>Sherlock</i>.</div>
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The Gas-Lamp this time is made up of the lyrics of the Harvey Officer song "On the Road to Baker Street," with abject apologies to Rudyard Kipling, Frank Sinatra, and anyone with a musical ear.<br />
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Sponsors</h3>
This episode includes our two longtime sponsors. Please support our sponsors by visiting their sites:<br />
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<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/ihearofsherlock/ihearofsherlock112.mp3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> [Save As] | File size 27 MB, 58:16</h4>
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<b>Notes</b></h3>
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1:36 Hello, Happy New Year, and freshly returned<br />
4:07 Wessex Press </div>
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5:21 Recap and looking ahead<br />
6:57 The highlights from our latest Sherlockian event<br />
9:00 A view of Sherlock Holmes "from both sides"<br />
12:37 A fascinating tale of Frederic Dorr Steele illustrations<br />
14:30 On the importance of pausing to reflect — particularly in the absence of technology<br />
20:32 Cumulative anniversaries and an electronic future<br />
30:44 LISTENER PARTICIPATION: your favorite Sherlockian publication<br />
32:02 The Baker Street Journal<br />
36:23 Of hotels and reading materials from the BSI Weekend<br />
38:54 News: an update on <i>Sherlock</i><br />
46:10 The Gas-Lamp<br />
51:15 Stories, links, products and the like in our Flipboard magazine<br />
57:30 The game's afoot!</div>
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Links</h3>
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<li><a href="http://bsiweekend.com/" target="_blank">The BSI Weekend</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.societyillustrators.org/" target="_blank">The Society of Illustrators</a></li>
<li>Glen Miranker on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose79" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 79</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Upm9LnuCBUM" target="_blank">A lesson from Mister Rogers</a> on reflecting on those who have impacted our lives</li>
<li>The old <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsmonty/4275180275" target="_blank">wallpaper from the Algonquin Hotel</a></li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/IHearofSherlock/status/815779123989774337" target="_blank">The Easter Egg boats</a> from "The Six Thatchers"</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2017/01/to-sherlock-critics-discerning-and.html" target="_blank">To the undiscerning critic</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bs2_WxT9bI" target="_blank">On the Road to Mandalay</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/flipsherlock" target="_blank">Our Flipboard Magazine</a>, featuring <a href="https://www.chiseledface.com/product/tallow-shave-soap-sherlock/" target="_blank">Sherlock Tallow Shave Soap</a> and news of the <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/ralph-fiennes-hugh-laurie-will-ferrell-holmes-and-watson-1201954176/" target="_blank">new Sherlock Holmes comedy film</a>.<br />
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Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard magazine at  <a href="http://ihose.co/flipsherlock" target="_blank">ihose.co/flipsherlock</a>, as well as on the <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/114565123495685504221" target="_blank">The Sherlock Holmes Community</a> on Google+ (with over 4,000 members), as well as through our accounts on  <a href="http://facebook.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://instagram.com/ihearofsherlock">Instagram</a>, <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2016/04/ihose-on-snapchat-just-in-time-for.html">Snapchat</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Twitter</a>  and <a href="http://ihearofsherlock.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a>.</div>
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Episode 112: Anno Holmes 130

"their celebrated colleague" [VALL] It's 2017 and we're back from the BSI Weekend, with tales of friends, ...

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by Scott Monty

The Lying Detective — or, Wait, WHAT?

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<span style="color: #231f20; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable." [DYIN] </span></h4>
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<i><span style="color: #231f20; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i><span style="color: #231f20; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[<b><i>Editor's Note:</i></b> this is the seventh in our series of reviews for Series 4 of Sherlock. There are <b>spoilers below</b>. Consider yourself forewarned.]</span><br />
<i><span style="color: #231f20; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: #231f20; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“We
often say it’s a show about a detective, not a detective show.”</span></i><span style="color: #231f20; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
– <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/12/sherlock-abominable-bride-interview" target="_blank">Mark Gatiss, Vanity Fair</a> </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333;"><i>“I worry that we’re sort of getting into a world where people
just want warm paste fed to them. Why can’t things be challenging?</i><span class="apple-converted-space"><i>” </i></span></span><span style="color: #231f20;">– </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03f3lzx" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">Mark Gatiss, BBC</a></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">The above quotes are from show runner Mark Gatiss in regards to complaints that “The
Abominable Bride” was too confusing, and it’s what I’m clinging to right now, because
I have to quite frankly admit that I have no idea what is going on. In fact, I’m
feeling a bit like the poor Sherlock Holmes in "The Hounds of Baskerville," wherein he was dosed with a mind-altering drug and <i>could not tell what was
real. </i>Moffat and Gatiss seem to have slipped us a bit of <i>radix pedis diaboli</i>,
and the ensuing fog is deeply disconcerting. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. I’m
fully on the side of Moffat and Gatiss in believing that television should not
be warm paste, and not knowing what the hell is going on is refreshing. It’s
challenging, and it’s exciting. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">In the previous episode of <i>Sherlock</i>, “The Six
Thatchers,” we saw reality and narrative structure break down, mostly because
(as far as we could tell) we saw it all from Sherlock’s perspective, and
something was very wrong with Sherlock. I speculated that the episode was
intentionally nonsensical, a reflection of Sherlock’s disintegrating state of
mind. In “The Lying Detective,” that theory seems to have been confirmed, as
Sherlock has indeed descended into the depths of a drug-fueled madness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">And yet, that doesn’t seem to quite explain what’s
going on. After all, the story has shifted from the first-person of Sherlock’s
point of view – gone, for example, are his voiceovers from the last episode –
to the usual third person, <i>and it still doesn’t make any sense. </i>It’s
furthermore disconcerting because the very nature of Sherlock Holmes, the very
heart of what he stands for, is reason itself. The very premise of Sherlock
Holmes – as a person, as a character, as a set of stories – is that there’s an
inherent coherency and logic to the world ("This agency stands flat-footed on the ground." [SUSS]). Things make sense, and if you just
look at them in the right way and think everything through, the pieces will
fall into place. There’s always clues to read and signs to interpret, and by
the end, the crime is solved, order is restored, and Sherlock explains<i> </i>how
he does it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">The same is usually true of <i>Sherlock </i>(well,
except for some questionable narrative choices in “The Empty Hearse”), which
has always, for the most part, had narrative coherency, consistency, and a
certain logic in its fictional reality. The viewer could know that a clue was
indeed a clue, that a hint or sign we saw had meaning, that a scene we saw <i>actually
happened. </i>If there was a narrative thread left untied, or a detail left unexplained,
there’s usually enough clues and possibilities to go on to construct one’s own
potential explanation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">All that’s out the window this season. Since the previous episode, it’s been very difficult to tell what is going on, if any of it is
even real, and, most importantly, if any of it <i>means anything </i>in the
first place. The world of <i>Sherlock </i>has fundamentally transformed: it’s
gone from a world where questions have answers, clues lead to conclusions, words
have meaning, and signs refer to things, to a world where they….don’t. The
world in which a drop of water leads inevitably to the Niagara has
disintegrated, and the chain of reasoning that takes us there is broken.  <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">In this world, the meanings of words are arbitrary
and unverifiable (as the semioticians would happily remind us). Any clue could
lead in any direction. Any word could mean anything. Mary’s “Go to Hell,” which
seemed so telling and obvious last episode, has (rather predictably, I must
admit) acquired an entirely different meaning of “go to Hell and back for John
Watson.” The iconic phrase from “His Last Bow,” “there’s an east wind
coming,” has suddenly turned into a reference to Sherlock’s long-lost sibling,
Sherrinford. Molly’s statement from last episode that John would rather have “anyone”
suddenly, nonsensically, morphs into the solution of who Culverton has murdered
– “anyone” and everyone, it seems. The game’s either on, or it’s afoot, or
both, but it’s impossible to tell which, and why. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">From the reasonable, logical world of Sherlock
Holmes, we seem to have gone to the very deconstruction of it. Deduction
has made way for the means of lesser men: it’s telling that for the second
episode in a row, Sherlock overwhelmingly eschews deductions and probability in
favor of trackers and listening devices. Cumberbatch’s monologues of
Sherlockian deduction are conspicuously absent from the narrative (a fact
that’s difficult to miss, since they’re such a highlight of the show). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">Sherlock Holmes isn’t going mad; rather, the very
foundation of his existence seems to be evaporating. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">To be quite frank, I’m not sure how I feel about
this. On an intellectual level, I quite enjoyed the episode. There is artistic
merit (and intellectual interest) in taking the world of Sherlock Holmes apart
at the seams and digging into its foundations, as Moffat and Gatiss have done. The
promotions for this season have claimed that “It’s not a game anymore,” and
perhaps that can be taken quite literally: it’s not a game anymore, because the
game is no longer afoot, or on. Moffat and Gatiss have not shied away from
stating that this is their darkest season yet, and it really is. The darkness creeps in as the very foundation
of the Sherlockian world – the guiding light of logic and reason, the coherency
of reality – is pulled out from under us, and we’re left stumbling. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">I loved the fact that the very foundations of the
fiction I have come to love were taken away, so that I had to question
everything I knew and watch actively rather than passively. Moffat and Gatiss
have suggested <i>Sherlock </i>isn’t about the cases, but about the characters
and their world (stating that it’s not a detective show, but a show about a
detective) and quite frankly, I can’t disagree. Granada’s already faithfully,
and practically to the letter, adapted most of the Canon – why do it again? <i>Sherlock
</i>has focused instead on exploring the very nature of the Sherlockian world
and the Canon, and for a mind that rebels at stagnation, it’s much more stimulating
to watch a show that rocks the foundations of a world we’ve come to love rather
than adapting it word-for-word.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">On the other hand, even with everything this
episode gives me to think about, I do miss the Holmes-Watson partnership, and I
recall with fond nostalgia seasons one and two, where there was mystery-solving
and the partnership of Holmes and Watson, where, though the world explode,
these two survive. The comfortable pattern of solving mysteries together and
then returning to 221B is familiar and missed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">Admittedly, there are character moments that shine
through in this episode. Martin “I can do that with a blink” Freeman delivered
his usual BAFTA-worthy performance, but I found my heart breaking for Sherlock
Holmes, who, without his John Watson, is falling apart. Cumberbatch delivered a
heart wrenching performance of a seemingly emotionless man willing to go to Hell
and back for John Watson, and every nuance, every subtle emotion behind
Sherlock’s veneer, every tear skillfully shed by Freeman, tore at my
heartstrings. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">And yet…it wasn’t enough. There were moments of a
partnership I’ve grown to love, glimpses of the trials and tribulations of an
immortal friendship, but they were overshadowed by the narrative derring-do and
the meta-fictional deconstruction of literary reality. My mind, rebelling at
stagnation, was intrigued, but my heart yearned for the warmer, more poignant
episodes of the past. </span></span><br />
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">Heart and mind: it’s a dilemma I’m sure Holmes is more
familiar with than he’d like to admit. </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #333333;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;">--</span></span><br />
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