Interesting to see.

Thanks for the link, very interesting! Although I am wondering if Morgan could be a reference, seeing as that was out in 2016 and S4 was shot spring 2016 (so the scripts would've have to be finished very early in 2016, I assume).

Me too!  Even though I often don't get them.  I wondered about the 2016 film too (if it was a little too late to be referenced).  But yes, I wonder if that was one of the reasons that the episode wasn't so liked by some ... not just the references, but the confusion over genre - it did verge a little into horror territory at times.  Mind you, so did the old Rathbone/Bruce films. 

It's not my favourite genre, but I do love some.  Cronenberg's body horror, David Lynch strays into horror at times, Alien, The Shining, The Others, Don't Look Now, The Night of the Hunter, some of the old classics ... I like quite a lot that could fall into that category, and I did really like the horror aspects of TFP.

I suspect a bit of both.

I do not think so, Schmiezi, and I am sure this is because S1 - 3 created their very own style. I cannot remember any review or fan ever talking about parallels with other films or genres. Sherlock's enormous success has been due to its being something new, finding its own visual language and style. 

And therefore I can understand that many people are unhappy with S4, especially TFP. I still like the episodes, there is still brilliance in it, but I sometimes feel that they lost or gave up their very own Sherlock style. And never more so than in TFP. 

For me, the most obvious parallel is Bond. If I remember correctly, S2 came out before Skyfall and I remember watching the film and thinking of TRF at once. But S4 was filmed after Spectre and I think it shows. 

What I do not understand about these references is this: They had something amazing and original, a show that has been admired and copied by others (even here in Germany) and then they went and made an episode that was in many ways ... not Sherlock. There was no need to do this. 

Oh, very intersting stuff. Thanks a lot!

Vhanja wrote:

I think this might go back to "insane wishfulfilment". They just let out all ther fanboy-ism and put into Sherlock a lot of stuff from different genres they might want to do, but never had the chance to.

Yeah, I agree. I think they wanted to try out things, do really "cool" stuff they had in mind. Like they went "Hey, just imagine Sherlock is in this or that situation. You know, just like in the film/book xy? You know, we've been talking about these things for a long time. Dreaming about the endless possibilities there are to explore. What fun would it be with our Sherlock characters. Let's do the things we love with our show, that we love."
And they did it now, because they don't know, if they ever continue.

Last edited by Rache (March 9, 2017 3:34 pm)

Yes, me three to all of the above.  It was an indulgence, a bit like TAB was an indulgence (the chance to do a Victorian episode).  I think Sherlock has always been a bit of a mix of genres anyway - part drama, part thriller, part detective story, part comedy, etc.  Given that this might be the last episode, I think they just had fun with it.  And funnily enough, at the end, brought it back to very traditional, Holmes and Watson, Baker Street, solving cases, etc.  

My slight disappointment was that they'd promoted it as if it was going to be like a Rathbone film, and I didn't really get that vibe as much as I'd expected to.   But obviously, if I hadn't read what was maybe a throwaway comment on their part, then I wouldn't have expected it.