TV series: Sherlock
Genre: Crime drama
Created by: Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman
New Year brought along a great deal of joy for the fans of mystery and detective genre of drama series. Anyone who was desperately waiting for the season premiere of the BBC’s teleseries, 'SHERLOCK', had a reason to celebrate the amazement, get perplexed, and in some areas be a little disappointed.
As a viewer said, “…a tad complicated and twisted…”; indeed, this 4th Season of Sherlock was notable for its liberal usage of mystery wrapped in the shrouded-past of the continual narrative, while delving heavily on the nostalgia around the opulent personas of the famous ‘Consulting Detective’ and friends. The season made a smart-attempt to expand on the previous sub-plots into cover-stories. However, (SPOILERS ALERT) what struck oddly were those moments of unexpected and uncalled for tragedies.
Since the last 7 years, the series and characters that many were so affixed with seemed a bit different from the memory. As always, there were the fine-performances by Benedict Cumberbatch as 'Sherlock Holmes', Martin Freeman as 'Dr. John Watson', the ensemble and guest-stars (notably Toby Jones of 'Captain America' & 'Hunger Games', and Andrew Scott as the arch-nemesis 'Moriarty') made it a hefty-affair. Though, what some would call "turned matured" on a gentler note others may term as a “little too much of grown-up” citing the scanty few spectacular-signature deductions, supplied abundantly in the previous seasons.
Be it the shift of narrative into a bit more of melodrama, subsequently broadening into not-so-mysterious, manic-mongering characters seeking a bifurcated and twisted game of “reasoning and death” – seemed a bit of clichéd with the series’ standards. The well-intended plot by the Emmy Award-winning duo of Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (also popular for the phenomenon “Doctor Who”) was thus, fair but could have been onto a higher ground.
Personally as an ardent and sincere follower of the series, I wasn't particularly disappointed per se but a little lesser-excited from the on-screen distress.
Then again, why anyone should watch it? The simplest answer being “to enjoy the first-hand thrill of detection”. The series is, without any doubt, remarkable in its carrying forward of the sleuthing-recital of Sir Conan Doyle’s classics amalgamated into a modern avatar in the backdrop of present-day world order – right in the middle of everything, just like its viewers.
That said, all of that combined together into four of three-part series and a commemorative Victorian-era special easily available on BBC One, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix online, not to mention the countless reruns on television which already have garnered a fair-fandom all over, especially in the South East-
Asia.
As I sit in the afterglow the many sparkling and some dull surprises that the series has offered so far, I still hold a belief that it’s not “The END” and SHERLOCK shall return with more tricks down its hat.