Sherlock's "The Six Thatchers" episode will air on 1 January
December 20, 2016 12:56 PM   Subscribe

Sherlock Returns! The first installment of the much-anticipated Season 4 kicks off the new year.

According to the blog of Dr. John Watson, "I'd taken Sherlock out Christmas shopping which, looking back, wasn't the best of ideas. He'd shouted at a Father Christmas that he was bored and wanted a nice juicy murder for Christmas - in front of a bunch of kids and their parents. Escorted back to the flat by the police, we found a student, Sally Barnicot, waiting for us. After Sherlock had managed to insult her about her looks and the way she was dressed, she told us about a murder that had taken place at her university."
posted by I_Love_Bananas (35 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
After fighting with the stupid uverse site for five minutes it turns out my DVR is already set to record this!

Here's to hoping it gets progressively more over the top with each series and will be Vanilla Sky meets Inception meets The Congress.

meets Sherlock Holmes, sure, whatever
posted by GuyZero at 1:08 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


the reunion of Benedict Cumberbatch as the eponymous high-functioning sociopath and Martin Freeman as his sidekick Dr John Watson.

I don't always agree with Deadline Hollywood, but when I do...
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:17 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


I find myself wondering if the extended hiatuses between seasons dulls popularity. I find myself ambivalent about this news. I would have expected to be excited, but I'm not.
posted by INFJ at 1:18 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


I want to know how Sherlock will determine which of the six Margaret Thatcher impersonators is the killer.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:30 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


The two minutes of Lestrade will be brilliant, but the 20 minutes of mind palace shenanigans will be excruciatingly bad and possibly the worst television of 2017.
posted by betweenthebars at 1:32 PM on December 20, 2016 [8 favorites]


I wasn't thrilled by the Sherlock promo I saw on PBS. It looks like more Drama Llama and less fun. Hmm, that feels familiar...
posted by charred husk at 1:36 PM on December 20, 2016


They couldn't move it one day earlier to make 2016 slightly less awful?
posted by uosuaq at 1:38 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


I find myself wondering if the extended hiatuses between seasons dulls popularity.

A two-year wait (2014 to 2016) for a one-episode special, then another year for the new "season" of 3 episodes is quite a lull. I wonder when season 5 will be released (In January 2014, Moffat stated that a fifth series had been plotted by himself and Gatiss, with Cumberbatch confirming he was signed for a fifth series.)

Also, the U.S. series Elementary has become my headcannon Sherlock, and Joan Watson is more fun than this John Watson.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:39 PM on December 20, 2016 [10 favorites]


Please, Moffat, please tone it down a bit this time. Sherlock is not Dr. Who, nor the Kwisatz Haderach.

And quit humanizing Mycroft, I love him just as he horribly is.
posted by praemunire at 1:43 PM on December 20, 2016 [9 favorites]


Great Performances has been running The Hollow Crown:The War of the Roses and, hokey smokes, Cumberbatch really chews-up the scenery as Richard III (in a good way) Just sayin'.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:19 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


A two-year wait (2014 to 2016) for a one-episode special, then another year for the new "season" of 3 episodes is quite a lull. I wonder when season 5 will be released

I was more surprised there are any more of these. Given how big Cumberbatch seems to have got since they started, and Freeman also grabbing some big roles it seems to me the BBC is doing well to get them back at all.
posted by biffa at 2:34 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


the U.S. series Elementary has become my headcannon Sherlock

I watched a couple of episodes of that, but the writing and plot lines didn't strike me as anywhere near the same standards set by the BBC show. To each their own...
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:40 PM on December 20, 2016 [7 favorites]


I want to know how Sherlock will determine which of the six Margaret Thatcher impersonators is the killer.

Five of them have "THIS IS A FAKE" written in modern-day Sharpie underneath her makeup.
posted by The otter lady at 3:00 PM on December 20, 2016 [8 favorites]


I want to know how Sherlock will determine which of the six Margaret Thatcher impersonators is the killer.

The ones that show kindness to a human being are fake.
posted by GuyZero at 3:12 PM on December 20, 2016 [17 favorites]


I'm pretty much done with this show after the literal cliffhanger and then the BS, no real explanation for how Sherlock survived the fall.
posted by octothorpe at 3:26 PM on December 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'm pretty much done with this show after the literal cliffhanger and then the BS, no real explanation for how Sherlock survived the fall.

I've got bad news for you about the original stories.
posted by GuyZero at 3:33 PM on December 20, 2016 [17 favorites]


I find myself wondering if the extended hiatuses between seasons dulls popularity.

to me it is mostly that season 3 was unbearably awful
posted by paulcole at 3:45 PM on December 20, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm pretty much done with this show after the literal cliffhanger and then the BS, no real explanation for how Sherlock survived the fall.
HE DIDNT JUMP OUT OF THE COCKADOODIE CAR
posted by paulcole at 3:45 PM on December 20, 2016 [6 favorites]


I've got bad news for you about the original stories.

Doyle's dead so there's not much point in getting mad at him.
posted by octothorpe at 3:46 PM on December 20, 2016


Doyle's dead so there's not much point in getting mad at him.

But if the whole show is very much an homage to the original stories then it stands to reason that they stick with the original where Holmes comes back to life with no explanation after being very clearly killed with no chance of escape. Twice even.
posted by GuyZero at 3:49 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


The show might be an homage but that doesn't mean they're proscribed from trying to be better. Just because something is and was popular, that doesn't mean it wasn't badly plotted.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:06 PM on December 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


The entire appeal is how transparently badly plotted it was because Doyle was sick of Holmes and didn't want to write any more stories.

If you don't like fanservice that's fine, but clearly Gatiss and Moffat like it.
posted by GuyZero at 4:13 PM on December 20, 2016


Yes, I want to be excited about the new season, especially after waiting so damn long. But, I want good old persnickety, scathingly smart Sherlock, not a Sherlock that's being packaged as a nerdy James Bond. They are two vastly different characters, and I'd like to not see them conflated, thank you very much.

Also this comment by paulcole - HE DIDNT JUMP OUT OF THE COCKADOODIE CAR - made me laugh like I haven't laughed in a month. Well played, paulcole! Well played.
posted by but no cigar at 4:14 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


I found the ambiguity, and the follow-up teasers that ended up not actually being "how he did it" (or at least, the show didn't admit that one of them was the actual method) to be pretty amusing. Why does anyone feel they have to have the mechanics of that bit handed to them on a silver platter? Seems like a relatively minor thing to hang your dislike of the show on.

I mean, you don't have to like the show, that's fine. I don't care, and it won't stop me from enjoying it whether or not it's "perfect". I just don't get why that particular thing bugs anyone so much.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:16 PM on December 20, 2016


"But if the whole show is very much an homage to the original stories then it stands to reason that they stick with the original where Holmes comes back to life with no explanation after being very clearly killed with no chance of escape. "

If I remember correctly, Watson never actually sees Holmes die in the original story. He just notices footprints or something to that effect.
posted by I-baLL at 4:17 PM on December 20, 2016


I watched a couple of episodes of [the US version], but the writing and plot lines didn't strike me as anywhere near the same standards set by the BBC show. To each their own...

There's a lot of stock procedural drama fluff and nonsense in the US version (they have over 100 episodes to date), but the characters (via their actors) have really grown on me. Less of What A Twist and more of interesting people dealing with life. Also, Sherlock is less of a raging asshole because he has a superior brain, which can be nice.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:17 PM on December 20, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm really looking forward to all the as-yet-unexplored feminine tropes showing up as characters
posted by tigrrrlily at 7:46 PM on December 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


(and yes i'll still be watching raptly)
posted by tigrrrlily at 7:50 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


TIL the biggest cliffhanger copout in television history was actually brilliant homage. Thanks, Metafilter!
posted by whuppy at 6:19 AM on December 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


I stopped watching this show back when Holmes allowed Watson to believe that they were both about to be blown to kingdom come. The narcissistic sadism really bothered me.
posted by Coventry at 8:05 AM on December 21, 2016


I am both highly anticipating and deeply dreading this new season. I love this show; it's one of the few I will stop and set my clock to watch (also, Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't hurt). However, this season looks so doom and gloom (how many people will die? who will betray and be betrayed?), that it's taking out some of the fun for me.
posted by ElleElle at 8:37 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am both highly anticipating and deeply dreading this new season. I love this show; it's one of the few I will stop and set my clock to watch (also, Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't hurt). However, this season looks so doom and gloom (how many people will die? who will betray and be betrayed?), that it's taking out some of the fun for me.
posted by ElleElle


I agree. I understand that these episodes were produced months ago, but the real villains we have (and have made for ourselves) are sufficiently scary for the time being, thankyouverymuch. I'll take killer of the week over evil mastermind for a while.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:07 AM on December 21, 2016


There's a lot of stock procedural drama fluff and nonsense in the US version (they have over 100 episodes to date), but the characters (via their actors) have really grown on me. Less of What A Twist and more of interesting people dealing with life. Also, Sherlock is less of a raging asshole because he has a superior brain, which can be nice.

Also Jonny Lee Miller deserves an award for the sheer variety of disgusted-by-humanity faces he makes as Sherlock.
posted by biscotti at 9:39 AM on December 21, 2016 [6 favorites]


"I watched a couple of episodes of that, but the writing and plot lines didn't strike me as anywhere near the same standards set by the BBC show. To each their own..."

Have you seen season 3 of Sherlock? Where they took most of the mystery elements out of the plot and made Sherlock be a magical wizard who could figure things out with no explanation
posted by I-baLL at 4:45 PM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


I still enjoyed it more than the episodes I watched of the American version, and I stand by my words - including "To each their own".
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:31 PM on December 21, 2016


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