Sherlock: Season 4 - The Final Problem Review

Well here we go ...

I had my hopes high when they did some justice to initial third of the second episode (The Lying Detective). I thought at least they are back to the "detective" mode. I had my doubts when this sister character came out of the blue during the last five minutes. But then I thought the siblings would join hands to solve a greater mystery (set into motion by an already 'dead' Moriarty) in the last one.

No. I was wrong. Eurus was 'the' villain. The super hyper psycho. The master manipulator. Someone supposedly worse than Mr.M.

Whatever. I was Ok with that. Now I was rubbing my hands in excitement. The game's afoot. Some extraordinary mind games are going to take place between the master detective and the megamind. At the very least, something reminiscent of the final chess game in the 'Game of Shadows'.

I was wrong again.The writers were thinking along emotional lines. Their plan was to unite the two with warm hugs.

And they went down the crazy road to achieve the same.

Why crazy? 

Think like this - the whole asylum was under her control, every single staff was being manipulated by her and the first one to spot this was who? Dr. Watson? Come on. Which show is this that I'm watching??

You've Sherlock who's capable of spotting a dog's hair in a fur coat from 30 feet away getting fooled by a no-glass trick?

Mycroft who's considered to be worse than Holmes when it comes to emotions; was doing a melodrama to pick up a gun and shoot someone & vomiting at the sight of a dead body?

How I wished they (the Holmes brothers) took on their evil sister and beat her fair and square. Yeah you could bring in the consoling part later if you want to, but it should have been shown as an intellectual victory for Sherlock whichever way you put it. Then we could have forgiven all the related nonsense that they put to add some tension to the episode.

There were a few positives. We had Holmes playing a violin, a proper disguise part, the Musgrave rituals & even the dancing men (in a passing frame) made me smile.

But I have to put the episode as a failure. You can at best think of it as a standalone fan fiction episode and watch it in the future. You might end up liking it that way.

But certainly not as part of this series or as a proper Sherlock Holmes story. The detective that I am familiar with would have behaved entirely differently in the same story. It was as simple as that.
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NB: Felt really sad for the on-screen Moriarty. He was supposed to be an equal. Not some average guy who can be brainwashed in under 5 minutes and was made to record "choo choo" in front of the camera. Felt bad for the (real) Napoleon of crime.