Sherlock - The Great Game

It was hyped to hell before broadcast and seems to have won quite a few people over now it has been broadcast, but for me the season finale of Sherlock just didn't work.

On the plus side, it was well-directed and very well-acted. The banter between Holmes and Watson was extremely enjoyable - something that Martin Freeman needs the lion-share of the praise for, since I think it is far easier to play the abrupt and rude Holmes than it is to play the more humble and, well, normal Watson effectively. And I also liked the idea that Watson was blogging Holmes' cases - and exposing some of the gaps in Holmes' knowledge - in particular, about how the earth goes around the sun.

And there were a number of interesting plot threads in last night's episode; some interesting cases and some interesting concepts. The problem - the massive, glaring problem - is that there was so much crammed into this 90 minute installment meaning that nothing was given enough time to breathe. Sure, some plot threads - like the boy drowning in the swimming pool decades before - did not need the time to breathe, since they were concepts more than stories. But Watson solving a case on his own deserved an episode on its own, and the cold, cruel lack of empathy in Holmes leading to an old woman being blown up needed far more attention that it got in this episode.

Then we had Moriarty. He'd been trailed - lumpenly and predictably - in the previous two episodes, so we knew he was coming. However, he wasn't built up into the menacing character that this episode assumed we would consider him to be. He had links to a psycho, and killed a mafia boss. Fair enough, but it hardly makes him Ernst Stravo Blofled now, does it? Perhaps, though, they were deliberately trying to underplay the big M since when he actually appeared in the story, he was anything other than menacing. And that was even after he had wired Watson up to explode at the same time as putting a sniper on him. Moriarty was weedy in physical appearance and both manic and irritating in the way he came across. In some respects, he reminded me of the most recent incarnation of the Master, albeit lacking that character's air of malice. I didn't so much want Holmes to defeat Moriarty's evil scheme as give him a clip around the ears and send him home with a note to his mother.

And the ending - which was trailed as something that would make sure that Sherlock was never the same again - was actually just pretty darned predictable. We always knew that Holmes would meet Moriarty - and the idea that the show would end on a cliff-hanger is not that exciting. In fact, it is becoming pretty much the norm for a season finale. The ending was more "oh" than "wow" for me.

Ultimately, this episode seemed to assume that we were much more involved in the world of Sherlock than we were ever likely to be, given just two episodes preceded it. Had this story come at the end of Season Two, or even at the end of an eight-part first season - then it would probably have packed more a punch. But this episode seemed to be trying to mess with our expectations of what an episode of Sherlock might be - something it was always going to struggle with since it has yet to raise those expectations. A good season finale should leave you wanting more and here, for me, The Great Game failed. It left me feeling that I would probably watch further episodes should they appear, but equally I wouldn't be too disappointed if the series never returned.