"Sherlock" The Final Problem (2017) Reviews

• Heartbroken

  xine_jan2017-01-18

  After reading loads of reviews and interviews of the writers.... I think the series went for a bad path since Mary as ex-assassin...and a worse path since the hint of third Holmes...and the worst path that there is a forgotten sibling who is a superhuman. All these would involve elements that are usually alien to general audience that it is just getting harder and harder to relate to. Series 1 and 2 were so much more successful because the criminals (cabbie, smugglers, camera man...) and victims (just random people getting into a taxi, passengers on a plane, MPs in the Parliament...) are among us. It is a lovely dream to the public that a consultant detective is so plausible in modern day London. So when things turn too unbelievable, a humanized, emotional detective seems not so helpful in such context, and thanks to the writers, always reminding Sherlock that he is slow and stupid in almost each episode since HLV. But Benedict and Martin are still brilliant in TFP. I feel very sad really.

• How the mighty have fallen

  ian-litchfield2017-01-19

  After being thrilled by the first three seasons of Sherlock it was with dismay that I watched the 4th season slide ever deeper into a convoluted mess. I am actually quite surprised the actors actually agreed to make this crap. The story in "The Final Problem" is so bizarre I think Moffat must have been on the same drugs Holmes used in the previous episode. Totally unbelievable throughout, it tries to be way too clever for its own good and ends up being stupid, and worse it makes Sherlock look stupid. If this is the way it is to be from now on I would say please don't bother with another season, not unless you get a new writer. I give it 5 only for the fine acting which was the only thing that made this bearable to the end.

• Masterpiece of butchery, slaughtering brilliant franchise in the most painful way

  aleksandra-jaworowicz2017-01-17

  I could have not expect bigger disappointment from this episode. After solid first one and great second, there comes the presumably series finale that makes you feel extremely grateful for it to come to an end. Did not see that coming... I cannot even list what was wrong with this episode without writing a book on it. Suspention of disbelieve required from the viewers is much greater that could even afford. So, we start with a dream-like sequence of Mycroft being 'hunted' by horror clichés,Sherlock's way over-the-top means to force him to admit Holmes sister existence. Like Watson telling he met wasn't enough, but whatever. And it only gets worse. We get a super high-tech grenade that conveniently need 3 seconds too explode. We get people jumping of the window without a tiniest scratch. We get a super-secure and secret facility that gets infiltrated without much effort by... pirates (?). Well, at least this one was fun. We progress to see,for the first time, really dumb Sherlock, who cannot distinguish violin sound heard from behind the glass and without the glass. And stupid Mycroft, who was not able to control his sister in the facility, giving her... Christmast treats (?). The worst thing is, we get Eurus. A well-adapted sociopath with perfect knowledge about the world, who was supposed to be locked out since she was 5. Apparenty, she's an X-man, because she can control people's minds without any limits. A very talkative X-man, because she must have talked to ALL people in the facility, as all of them are cooperating in a really big action. Taking her from and back to the island, putting cameras in Molly's apartment, buying drones, grenades and coffins, kidnapping three men and finally killing them. She's also X-man teleporting people to houses supposedly burnt down years ago, but well, whatever. Oh, and she cannot feel anything ('She asked me which one is pain'), except of jealousy. She killed her brother's best friend because they wouldn't play pirates with her. She's also fixated since early childhood on hurting Sherlock. Because with her brilliant intellect and possibilities she did not come up with other forms of entertainment. Or simply because the script says so. Oh, she's also a ventriloquist, but among all of her talents this one does not even matter.But please, dear viewer, feel sorry for her! Her whole life all she needed was a hug... Moffat tried desperately to over dramatize the episode, and I guess that's the reason why it felt so flat. Flicking red lights, seriously? It's way too cheap show-off for this series. Scenes that were supposed to have tension were plainly boring. Sherlock about to kill Mycroft or Watson? Why even drag this scene and make him point the gun? Everyone watching the show knew he won't do it, making it like he's about to only made me cringe. Readbeard revelation... Not really a twist, one could see that coming from almost the very beginning of the episode, but still, a well that no one knew about? It must have been within walking distance from the house. They were playing around. And none came up with it? Where were Victor's parents? And when John told Sherlock he's in a well, he still could not recall its location? Fortunately, there was Eurus riddle. One asking her brother, basically, to come to her room and help her. Either did she compose it as a child thinking of 'reusing it' like 30 years later, or when everyone was asking her about Redbeard she already wanted them... to come to her room and save her from the plane. Pick your favorite option. Fortunately, Sherlocks hugs her and as a result they can through a rope inside of the well (because apparently chains around Watson's ankle got already rusty because of the water and fell off). All ends up with a sweet happy end - she goes back to THE VERY SAME facility she took over, playing sweet violin duets with Sherlock, and a bit cheesy montage takes us back in an adorable, but super naive manner to where it all started. So Sherlock did not wreck Molly emotionally by forcing her to say she loves him, John did not became a widower and single dad, nor was he betrayed by Sherlock pretending to be dead. Basically, the whole character development went to hell. This episode would be WAY more believable if they actually resurrected Moriarty. I cannot think of ways Moffat could have done it even more of unbelievable, chaotic, messy, overdramatised and disappointing piece of cheesy cliché. I'm giving it 4 stars because of brilliant acting (especially of Gatiss), Mrs. Hudson vacuum cleaning scene, Mycroft trying to trick Sherlock into killing him, Molly/Sherlock phone call (Quickly ruined by not exploring its consequences, but the tension in the scene was good, and the whole episode was about not dealing with action consequences, so why would they make an exception here...) and my utter sentiment for the series. If the 5th season actually happens, I might be too scared of watching Moffat in action again to check if the series will redeem itself...

• Sherlock has a officially "jumped the shark"

  contactsteverogers2017-02-06

  I'm not writing this for other viewers, but to add to the heaps of letters of disappointment that hopefully the show's creators will see and eventually realize that they have gone far too far off the rails with this show. The show is no longer even true to it's source material - Conan Doyle's Sherlock stories were about Sherlock solving mysteries. In Season 4, these shows have no mystery - the villains are offered up to us in the first few minutes (like and old Columbo episode) and Sherlock spends more time acting like a crazy person and jumping out of exploding windows that doing deduction. It's pathetic - the series' faithfulness to the original stories is what differentiated these shows from Elementary (which is just crap) and the over-the-top Robert Downey Jr. movies. But now, Season 4 is almost entirely focused on the relationships between the 5 or 6 characters in the show and doesn't seem to care a hoot about solving mysteries. I was elated to see that they killed off Mary in the first episode of the season but then felt like I was being tortured when when returned as a sort of ghost whose only purpose seemed to be repeat everything that Sherlock and Watson were saying. But as for Episode 3: The Biggest Problem. For a show that showed so much energy and originality in the early episodes, I almost felt like crying when I saw how ridiculously derivative this episode is. Sherlock and co. take off to a top secret maximum security prison (Face/Off) to meet the sister Sherlock didn't know he had and for some reason dresses a bit like Sadako (The Ring), who is being held behind glass in a super-secure prison cell (Silence of the Lambs - or Magneto's cell in X-Men, if you prefer). Then Sherlock and co. are led on game of "kill-or-die" puzzles, which is basically the same device as all 19 Saw movies, not to mention about a fifth of the crappiest thrillers you find on Netflix. But the entire story ultimately has to do with some mysterious unresolved family problem from Sherlock's youth and he must return to the country estate of his childhood, which should be called Skyfall, since that's obviously the movie the writers were watching while penning this episode's climax And to make things more frustrating, the final mystery that Sherlock solves (using erroneous dates from tombstones) is completely impossible for audiences to solve, or even follow at this point, throwing out the basic notion of this being a "mystery" show. For some reason, I always had the impression that Cumberbatch was a bright guy, so I can only assume that since he's becoming a big star, he saw this script as an opportunity to show the powers that be in Hollywood (like Jerry Bruckheimer) that he was capable of wielding handguns and jumping out of exploding buildings.- since this kind of nonsense has nothing to do with traditional Sherlock Holmes.

• What a profound disappointment

  joehug2017-01-18

  I have to admit that I'm enamored with the show overall. Cumberbatch is probably the most delightful Holmes I've ever seen. Also the writing and cinematography are arguably second to none on TV. However, this episode blows chunks. My wife and I were equally disappointed in how contrived and unbelievable this story line was. I hope this isn't the final installment in the series because it would be difficult to get the aftertaste out of my mouth. I won't devolve into spoilers. Suffice it to say, however, that one would have to suspend reality on an incredible scale to believe any of the elements could ever happen. If "the game's afoot", I think someone needs to scrape something off the bottom of their shoes on this one.