is reigned over my a massive hound. Dogs are a subspecies of the wolf, you know. At first, it is hard for the audience to shake the notion that this is a secret episode of Being Human, which is a shame for Tovey. Is it possible to be typecast as an actor who has strong ties to the wolf? Is that a bad thing?
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barely a trace of Moriarty and Mrs Hudson to be seen; both are characters that keep Sherlock in his place, but this week, it is fear that dominates. Mark Gatiss has done a great job in adapting the story, the best he could – and he knows horror – and there would surely have been a fan outcry if the story had not been told, but this is a weaker episode than we are used to. Not to focus on the negative though; the dialogue is still top rate, and Sherlock uses some quick little tricks to get answers, and the best of the people around him. There is also a great scene where Sherlock uses his ‘mind palace’ to connect the dots of the case, and an oppressive air of suspense hangs over the episode, which keeps the audience guessing. It is clear that the show is ramping up to another fantastic finale – Sherlock’s fear of Moriarty is finally revealed this week – so we can look forward to that, but in a bittersweet irony, the episode we are looking forward to most, will be the last for a while.
solve Moriarty’s ‘Final Problem’ while holding on to his reputation, sanity and his life. Can Sherlock outwit his nemesis before it’s too late? If series one of Sherlock was about building the mystery of the title character and his world, then series two has been about tearing it down. Episode one saw Sherlock’s cool façade crack when confronted with a woman he admired, episode two saw his sanity and his rationale come in to question and now Moriarty returns with the biggest challenge that Sherlock has faced, one that stands to destroy everything that Sherlock holds dear. After the slightly weaker second episode, Sherlock returns to our screens with what is possibly the best episode we have seen so far. Steve Thompson – who penned the episode of Doctor Who; The Curse of the Black Spot – has created a tangled web of mystery and intrigue. Almost every character we have encountered so far – from Mycroft to Lestrade and everyone in between – is drawn in somehow, and Moriarty sits at the centre, as Sherlock notes; like a spider. Moriarty pulls the strings and watches everyone dance. Steve Thompson has taken Conan Doyle’s story, The Final Problem and brought it into the modern day. While the elements of the story remain the same – Sherlock and Moriarty finally face off, and Watson is distracted by a hoax report of an ailing woman – most of the story is used as inspiration, rather than told verbatim. The story takes place in Lon-
If this wasn’t an episode of Sherlock – which has proven, time and again that it is a cut above the average TV show – this would be an excellent episode, but when the memory of last week’s episode A Scandal in Belgravia is so fresh, it is hard not to be disappointed. It is just not a very Sherlock-y episode. The lead character takes a back seat – as he does in the original story – and only has one incredible deductive scene. There are issues with including too much of Sherlock’s method, but this week we see too little of it. London has almost become a character of itself in the show, so when that is removed, along with the leading man, the episode suffers. Also, there is
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Episode 3 – The Reichenbach Fall
James Moriarty (Andrew Scott) pulls off the crime of the century; he breaks into The Tower of London, The Bank of England and Pentonville Prison at the same time. Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and John (Martin Freeman) knew that Moriarty would not stay hidden for long, but they did not expect him to return with such a bang. Now it is up to Sherlock to