This New Year’s Day special was set in 1895 and made my head hurt. Holmes and Watson meet. They become famous and bitch at each other. Mary Watson shows up to bore and annoy. A murderous bride/unloved lost soul, Emelia Ricoletti, kills people. Molly Hooper poses as a man, Holmes does not notice. Mycroft is fat. A man receives five orange pips. Moriarity is dead or maybe he isn’t. Things don’t make sense and go deleteriously. People are distraught and there are no intentions or strategy apart from Holmes scoffing and sneering.
There is no subtext. Irene Adler’s photo shows up. Morarity shows up to be repellent. There is no renewed sense of moral purpose just hints of the gathering past that becomes all about tawdry nightmares and reality making. This was much emptier than I hoped. There was comprehensive negation of sense and things got increasingly retrogressive. There is casual malevolence, emoting, evil women, malicious intent, the mind palace and hints for series 4. The question does remain though: which one is the essential, irreducible core identity? Who is hallucinating who?
Best Lines:
“You’ve been in Afghanistan I perceive.”
“He’s always been like that.”
“Dismembered country squires.”
“An unsavoury companion of dubious morals.”
“Impossibly imbecilic.”
“Pray continue with your fascinating narrative.”
“An unprincipled drug addict was some kind of gentleman hero.”
“I assume she was capable of finding a reason.”
“I am your closest friend.”
“I concede it.”
“All emotion is abhorrent to me.”
“He will seek you out.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
“Hasn’t this all happened before.”
“Ricoletti and his abominable wife.”
“I should be inclined to stop you.”
“Heighten my thought process.”
“DEAR GOD ABOVE!”
“His mad sibling.”
“A league of furies.”
“Gothic enough?”
“Short-arse.”
“A trifle lurid.”