Yes, I thought they were funny. I think Moffat liked what he did to Scandal and used the same approach again. These were the ones I discovered:

There were some callbacks, like Lestrade filming Sherlock on his phone and the smoking scene with Mycroft.

Both start with a piece of canon story: the Illustrious Client and The Man with the Twisted Lip, and they occur at 1/8 or the story. 

Both stories have the plot of the original story (Scandal and Milverton) at the first half of act 2.

They both end in a twist that leaves Sherlock incapacitated at midpoint. 

Both act 3s contain things that fly: airplane and helicopters (this might be an coincidence though). 

Sherlock lets sentiment affect his deductions , he gets conned/blinded to the truth.That mistake leads him to a danger night to end all danger nights.(get hurt)
He tries to put things right by doing what he thinks best.
Ultimately he lets sentiment affect that too.(he saves/protects the damsel in distress).
He ignores Mycrofts warnings.
In the end he has left mistakes behind that could return to cause him problems in the future.

IMHO Irene was for himself. Mary was for John.
Sentiment is not an advantage...kinda theme.
Likely it is with Irene (friend), so not with Mary (foe).
Sherlock will learn to balance how sentiments affect his logic.

Last edited by lil (January 28, 2014 9:27 pm)

ASiB and HLV:
Sherlock enters an aircraft.
Moriarty makes a short appearance.
Christmas scenes

Mycroft didn't in SIB!

Instigated, even!