First impression was that I loved that episode SO much!!  That twist!  And last week I really didn't like the change in tone and how they shot it.  But it's the complete opposite this week.  I loved the "trippy" nature of this episode.  And I love Mrs. Hudson so much too!  Just fantastic!

sherlocked wrote:

gently69 wrote:

Tbh I was disappointed. Any fear I had were fulfilled. But I still try working on it. To get more references.

I really disliked it, too, at first. I'm still not very fond of it. I found it muddled, too busy with all the onscreen overlays and messages and I didn't like the overall action saturated story arc. But I decided to postpone final judgement until I've seen all episodes. I said elsewhere that the script might turn out to be a lot cleverer and more multi-layered than we thought at first viewing. I do hope I'm right about this. Otherwise the many continuity errors would add up to a staggering number.
While I don't enjoy analysing the episode very much I sure got very interested in how it all will play out in the following episodes.
 

I had a similar response.  All of the visual and tonal weirdness was so jarring that it's made it hard to separate it from what happened (and whether I liked it or not).

ewige wrote:

Maybe the bad rap for the first ep is the price Moftiss are willing to pay for making TV history with this season. I just hope they are not setting up the second ep in the same manner too! TLD reviews indicate that we'll be getting some serious payoffs, so I still trust Moftiss to do the right thing.

I read somewhere, in a short review, that TLD is supposed to be "trippy" and from Sherlock's perspective.  They also said it might be divisive among fans.  And it worries me, considering how divisive TST actually was, that they only thought the second episode would be that way.  Makes me wonder how far they plan to go in episode 2, and how off the wall it might be.
 

Are there different versions of EMP floating around?  I thought EMP said everything since Sherlock got shot was in his mind palace.  So how can the scene with Ella be real and him "doctoring" what happened?

Also, the reason I don't like EMP as a theory is that it seems like it would undo things unnecessarily.  You'd have to explain how everything after a certain point was fake, then go back and retell what actually did happen.  And if multiple episodes are fake, there doesn't seem to be enough time to tell the "true" version and manage to advance the plot any.  Besides, none of the EMP theories go back far enough to erase my least favorite part of the show, which is the inclusion of a baby.

But I will say, if EMP is not true, the showrunners should be a bit embarrassed by all of the inconsistencies that have been pointed out using this theory (and the fact that people came up with an intricate theory to make sense of their mistakes).

I've watched the episode twice now, and below are my impressions.  It may seem like I hated the episode, and I didn't, but there were a few things that stood out as things I didn't like.

I didn't like the change in the style of the show (screen cluttered with weird effects and transitions, bland/generic music, weird camera angles, etc.).  It lacked the iconic "Sherlock" feel and some scenes (John on the bus) felt like they could have been in a rom-com.

Almost everyone felt out of character and their interactions slightly "off."  Sherlock and John teasing Lestrade about being jealous of Sherlock getting all the credit, via John's blog, completely lacked the usual chemistry.  And the idea that Lestrade would actually care seems weird.  He's always freely admitted that he needs Sherlock and isn't a gloryhound (see him giving up the credit for the Waters gang bust, which had nothing to do with Sherlock, to go running to 221B).

The whole bit with the balloon felt weird.  In past seasons, it felt like a funny inside joke that Sherlock would talk to John constantly, even if he wasn't there.  But the balloon thing felt like John being passive aggressively snide or something.  Like Sherlock and John's chemistry was tainted.  In fact, a lot of the callback jokes felt very paint-by-number/let's check this off the list: not remembering Greg's name, it's never twins, Sherlock is not a girl's name, etc.

The whole John flirting/cheating/almost cheating subplot was very weird and out of character for John.  I know the woman will end up having a larger significance and likely targeted John.  But that doesn't excuse his behavior, unless we find out it's some type of weird double bluff and he knew he was being played.

There was just an awkwardness about the whole episode and it seemed that in a quest to make the show darker and more dramatic, they sucked a lot of the warmth and charm out too.  The character building moments, in between the cases, in this episode seeme