The Great Game

"Sherlock" is an excellent series. As the series progresses, it gets better, until the amazing climax at the end of this episode. the director has done a great job, he hasn't used too much effects, and instead he has used some amazing editing things like camera movement, unusual camera angles and very nice focus games. All these effects did the series, and this episode especially, so good. I want to point out that the music was amazing, too. the cast did their job on the best side. Cumberbatch gave us an excellent role, which I liked it more than Downey Junior's Sherlock Holmes. I hope that Cumberbatch will do the transition from TV to the big screen. The third episode's plot was very good, the director keep us suspense until the last minutes, with the amazing finish. What can I say? please give us more episodes, and not just 3 more. Elementary, my dear Watson.

Sherlock Holmes is bored - there are no intriguing murder cases to solve. Then a nearby flat is blown up and Holmes starts to think something may be afoot. His brother Mycroft visits and tries to get him to solve a suspected murder case involving an MI6 officer and find the top secret missile plans he had. Holmes is not that interested. The bomb case gets more intriguing, and deadly, when Holmes is contacted by a would-be victim of the bomber. Unless Holmes solves a certain case within 12 hours, the bomb attached to the person will be detonated. Time is of the essence.

Great, intriguing story. Tension-filled, with the tension and pacing tightly controlled to great effect. Great sense of mystery, but with a time limit, making it even more interesting.

Some good humorous moments too.

Best of all, we get to meet Holmes' arch-nemesis for the first time...

The height of brilliance is how I'd describe The Great Game, it's a deeply complex and multi layered story, that on the surface is quite hard to follow, partly because the show is so energetic and pacey, that it moves from one conundrum to another. It all seems to make sense in the end during the first proper encounter between Holmes and Moriarty.

It's eighty minutes of tantalising, gripping non stop energy, and ten minutes of the best TV viewing of all time, Cumberbatch and Freeman are excellent, both so impressive in their roles, but the magic comes from the full introduction of Andrew Scott, his characterisation of the normally sober Moriarty must rank as one of the best performances of all time. Scott is breathtakingly good in the role, drowning in charisma and personality, he played the definitive Moriarty, talk about elevating the show. That showdown scene was simply perfect.

I loved it. 10/10

With the season finale "The Great Game", Sherlock returns to the successful formula of its pilot and makes use of Paul McGuigan as a director, one of the two series creators as a writer, Rupert Graves and Mark Gatiss as supporting actors, and a villain worthy of receiving Sherlock Holmes' attention – and guess what? It works perfectly.

Reintroducing the world's only consulting detective as he interrogates a British murderer in a Belarusian prison and gets more irritated by the man's incorrect grammar and manner of speaking than his actual crime, "The Great Game" starts superbly already and offers one of the best pieces of writing to be found in it: "I'll get hung for this." – "No, not at all. Hanged, yes." What follows doesn't disappoint either and both the development of Sherlock and John's relationship and the crimes they try to solve are a delight to watch. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman show exceptional acting talent in their characters' snide repartee and their actually taking quite a liking to each other. However, there is someone dwarfing them: Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty. Although, when Sherlock's arch enemy makes his first appearance in one of the series's all-time best moments, he's just office romance Jim. The Irishman later returns for an even greater scene in the history of Sherlock and gives an unequalled performance that I'd be perfectly fine with if it were the only one I'd ever see again for the rest of my life.

And even if, as Scott stated himself, this swimming pool scene I was alluding to in the previous paragraph was rushedly written by Mark Gatiss, the result is brimming with witty writing and one of the best ideas the Sherlock creator have had for relocating the classic story into modern times. As has been established, he and Steven Moffat practice such re-writing of the Arthur Conan Doyle story on other occasions as well, and for "The Great Game", the two have come up with some jewels – "I'd be lost without my blogger" instead of "I'd be lost without my Boswell" or Holmes' network of homeless persons instead of the Baker Street Irregulars, to name a few.

The main plot underlying such little references is just as good, merging multiple entertaining cases into a bigger picture that culminates into what I'd venture to judge as a perfect final showdown. Yet all of the 90 minutes of running time are outstanding filmmaking, amusing and suspenseful, well-written and well-directed. One minor drawback of "The Great Game" are its scores of supporting characters, often but rudimentally evolved ones that echo the likes of less original television crime programmes.

This spectacular final episode of Sherlock's first season makes amends for its offering no more than three feature-length episodes and manifests the series as true high-quality entertainment. And though it truly is a finely crafted one, it's not that much the cliffhanger at the end that has your excitement for the second season go sky high, but what the series has accomplished overall.

My detective scribblings: • Una Stubbs is such a lovely little cast member – her facial expressions when being ignored by Sherlock, John, and Lestrade are just wonderful acting and make you want to cuddle her, don't they? • The thought of a woman just sitting in a car in the car park wearing a bombing vest is actually quite a spine-chilling thought if you contemplate it. • Character information: John's lying and Sherlock's astronomy knowledge are about on the same, abysmally low level. • "She was going places. " – "Not anymore." I was somehow expecting Sherlock to put on a pair of sunglasses and transform into Horatio Caine after that statement. • You could argue that the planetarium fight scene John and Sherlock vs the Golem is plainly ridiculous, but I'm a big fan of it anyway: the cinematography, editing, and astronomy trivia heard in the background make it an ingeniously crafted scene and a lot of fun to watch, in my opinion. • "Meretricious." – "And a happy new year." Lestrade has just earned himself an award. • Making his hostage John say "gottle o' gear" makes Moriarty all the greater and really had me bursting into laughter. • Exceptional editing by Charlie Phillips in this episode, I personally loved the transition between Sherlock and John at the train tracks and the two walking to Joe Harrison's flat. • Best line of dialogue: "Stop inflicting your opinions on the world." – What a classy way to insult someone.

Much has been made of this updating of Holmes to a modern age and I think that a lot of praise for this has been a little bit based around the fact that the show has generally done well and didn't fall on its face. I'll not join it in this gush of praise over the modernisation though because frankly the show is not hugely different from a lot of other crime shows at the moment. What we have in Sherlock is a brilliant detective who has a "difficult" character but is put up with because he can solve weekly crimes like nobody else. If that sound familiar it is not a million miles away from the main characters in Psych, Monk, The Mentalist, Lie to Me, House and many other shows in the "quirky but brilliant investigator" genre at the moment. I don't say this to belittle the show but rather just to observe that Sherlock is another show in a very crowded genre.

It is this crowded genre that means it deserves praise though, because it does standout and it is enjoyable whereas several shows in the genre do seem to be going through the motions without any reason to watch them over their cousins. Sherlock is of course given a boost by who the character is but it could also have been a millstone around its neck. To its credit the very first episode makes the update easy. Instant messaging and access to information on the internet is brought into it but never to such a point where it is forced into the viewer's face. More importantly, the level below this superficial update focuses on the deductive powers of the detective, the crimes and the relationship with Watson. All of these things are well done and are the reason why the three episodes are enjoyable. It is also telling that the second episode (The Blind Banker) didn't have as good dialogue between Sherlock and Watson and wasn't as enjoyable as a result.

The Doctor Who effect on the tone is present but not to the point where it makes it silly or just loud for the sake of being loud (which that show often can be). Instead it seems to make it energetic and accessible but without making it into a 5pm tea-time family romp. It does have a bit of darkness to it and in particular the first episode does very well to build tension (although the "pill" confrontation isn't as good as I had hoped) but it needs to do it more often. The reveal of Moriarty is OK but not great; his character is probably the most obvious bit of Dr Who in here since he is in the mould of the new flamboyant Master. He didn't quite convince opposite Sherlock but it will be down to the writers in the second series to use this character well to produce some great mental battles. Certainly Cumberbatch is up to the task and I found him very good in the title role, just the right amount of superiority without being annoying or remote while also conveying the intellect side well. He works well with Freeman, who is also very good despite essentially doing the same sort of character he did in The Office and since. With these two working well as they do the show is already done but the supporting cast are generally strong as well.

Generally Sherlock produced perfect Sunday night viewing. It is an engaging show without taking itself too seriously; it is fast paced with humour without being silly or overly loud and it has elements of the New Who in terms of accessibility without taking too many of the negative aspects of that show with it. I found it very easy to enjoy and am one of many looking forward to the second season when it inevitably comes.