Although I enjoyed Series Three of Sherlock, there were a couple of points where it felt like the show was in danger of becoming a light-hearted family sitcom. After the ending of The Six Thatchers, and the murder of Mary Watson by Norbury, it would seem that Series Four will be pushing the show in a darker direction.
Fortunately thinks start to perk up ever so slightly as Sherlock and John attempt to solve the first of the three main mysteries in this episode. This revolves around the the death of Charlie, a politician's son who was found dead in his car despite the fact that he was supposed to be in Tibet. It's a fairly macabre sequence with the charred body in the car, a sign of the nastier things to come. Although this was a fairly standard mystery, it mainly served as a springboard into the second mystery of the smashed Thatcher stores.
The Six Thatchers plot appeared straightforward with statues being smashed one by one. This led into the welcome appearance of Toby, the sniffer dog from Conan Doyle's A Sign of Four. Again, the plot remained fairly lighthearted, with very little threat to Sherlock himself. It was surprising that Gatiss avoided making much political commentary on this Fortunately, once Ajay, played by Sacha Dhawan was sighted, things became darker and better.Sherlock is involved in a fight for his life and it is revealed that the content of the Thatcher statue was the A.G.R.A flashdrive that Mary had in His Last Vow.
The final scenario focuses on the mystery of who the traitor to A.G.R.A was. This became more like a spy drama with Sherlock, John and Mary engaged in a fire fight with Ajay in a foreign country.
The showdown with Norbury in the Aquarium was good, linking back to the opening.If there was any real problem in that episode then it was fairly obvious when the audience was being mislead. It was fairly easy to work out the details of Charlie's death. Later on, when Mary left Britain and said Sherlock could never find her, it felt obvious that he would turn up at her eventual destination. Likewise the fact that Vivian Norbury was present when Lady Smallwood was arrested made it felt fairly obvious that she would turn out to be the real traitor and not. Perhaps Mark Gatiss is just not as good at seeduing surprises as Steven Moffat.
Benedict Cumberbatch has effortlessly resumed the role of Sherlock. For most of the story, Sherlock is going through the motions and being arrogant. Once Sherlock has been brought down by Mary's death, Benedict gets to do his best acting as the uncomfortable best friend. Him being the one to visit John's psychologist was a nice touch.
Martin Freeman is good as John Watson, even if the character is on the sidelines for most this episode. He does at least get his own subplot where he appears to be starting an affair with a lady he met on the bus, although the precise nature of the relationship is unclear. Given that the said Lady is seen next to a poster of Culverton Smith, the villain fromt he next episode, this relationship is far from good. It was a good idea to make John fallible in this way, much as his beating up a junkie did in His Last Vow. His grief at Mary's death was well played.
As Mary Watson, Amanda Abbington, alternates well between super spy and ordinary mother. Some fans have disliked the way that she has entered the show as they prefer it to be just Sherlock and John. Personally I think she's been a decent character and given John a new role to play as a husband and now a widower. It appears that she may live on as security footage.
Mark Gatiss is as good as ever as Mycroft. It is somewhat surprising that he would find Thatcher arrogant. He always stuck me as being a fairly right wing character.
Vivian Norbury made for a very slimy and polite villain. Sacha Dhawan also deserves acclaim for his portrayal of the A.G.R.A agent, Ajay. It's a tougher, very different kind of role to the nerdy archivist he played in the 2013 adaption of The Tractate Middoth or to his portrayal of Waris Hussein in An Adventure in Time and Space. He's proving to be a very versatile actor and worth watching in the future.
The other regulars were understandably sidelined. 'Greg' Lestrade feels more like a family friend than a police officer. It would be nice to see more of the police team in the future. Mrs Hudson and Molly Hooper make brief appearances and they both express a decent amount of grief at the death of Mary.
Rachael Talalay is as good a director of Sherlock as she was on her episodes of Doctor Who. She succeeds in making the aquarium at the climax a cold and mysterious place. She is a director who deserves to go onto greater things.
This new episode gets the fourth series off to a decent start. The episode may have been a little dull at the beginning but really improves as it goes on. Sherlock and John are now at odds and Moriaty's plan has yet to be put into effect. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
8/10
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