I agree with Kazza. I think first and foremost you should go with the pleasure and excitement of the entertainment.  That's what Moftiss would want and why they put this series together .  But trying to figure out how it was done is also part of the pleasure - so make sure it does remain pleasure and not an obsessive ordeal.

I do know what you mean though about searching out those clues. I re-watched the breakfast scene in aSiB the other day and could not take my eyes off that headline in the paper Sherlock was holding up. "Refit for Historical Hospital". It was constantly on camera and so "in your face".  I kept pausing and trying to read it and look more closely at the picture.  Was it a clue to TRF?  Probably not.  But I couldn't stop looking at it......

carrot wrote:

I just wanted to ask you if it's only me or if you have this "problem" too:

I can't watch Reichenbach anymore and really enjoy it because all I do is looking for hints or hidden details I could miss. I rewind the DVD a hundred times because I think I saw something everybody else missed or over-interpret every single word they say, because I suppose THIS is the essential clue...

It's such a pity, because I love this episode and it's so nice watching it !!

When you get to the point where you have every word of dialogue memorized, yeah, it's probably time to back off. I'm only now coming back to it again, a couple of months after I first saw it about 5 times in a row. Now that I have the DVDs, can put the subtitles on, etc, I can visit it like an old friend. It can get tedious if we over-indulge past a certain point, I guess. As for the clues, I've given up on that. The writers and show-runners are playing with us. We'll all know what we're supposed to know, as soon as they figure out what that's going to be. I think sometimes even *they* don't know.

Davina wrote:

I've done the same thing. I have done a deliberate cold turkey with both series for the past three months and I know when I do go back and watch them again I will gain more pleasure and probably notice things I missed before.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

OMG, bless your pea-pickin' heart. You had to go into Sherlock rehab and find sobriety? *smile*
I think if Ben and Martin knew that, they'd be grinning ear to ear. I imagine they need a break when they get done filming each season as well, glad to go off and do/think about something else. Sherlock is *intense*.