The Abominable Bride

What can I say about the "Sherlock" Christmas special, "The Abominable Bride?" Extremely little, for fear of spoilers.

I will say that I loved it — I'd rate it a perfect 10, as I would just about any episode of this amazing TV show. Also, as good as the trailer was … I can say that it offers much more in its story than you'd expect.

I'd also say that it strongly, strongly parallels a movie that I happen to love — right down to its surprise plot device, key character interactions, and a symbolic act by the main protagonist in the climactic scene. The similarities are just too much for this to be a coincidence — it's just got to be a well done (and a damn fun) homage. It's unexpected, too, as the film I'm thinking off probably appeals to a different fan base. "The Abominable Bride" also cheerfully skewers another excellent recent film and the twist employed there.

There's some terrific acting, especially between Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and our main villain. And the dialogue is as sly and superbly delivered as always. I don't think I've ever watched a new episode of "Sherlock" and not laughed out loud at least once. The stronger, more assertive John Watson (Martin Freeman) that we see is damn terrific. (There's a compelling and sensible reason why this iteration of Watson seems a little different than our usual mild anti-hero, but I just can't say why.)

My quibbles were wholly forgivable. I thought that the Victorian versions of Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey) and Mycroft Holmes (Mark Gatiss) were just so cartoonish that they seemed right out of a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. It "took me out of the movie," and hampered my willing suspension of disbelief. It felt more like farce and silly sight-gags, instead of the dry, dialogue- and character-driven humor that the show is known for.

I also though that the climactic scene occurring among three primary characters, felt a little … off. Was it just not staged right? Was the pacing off? Maybe I got the sense that I was looking at a soundstage? I'm not sure.

Finally, I am an inveterate horror movie fan, and I might have liked to have seen the director and screenwriters play up the horror story elements just a little bit more here. The mystery for this episode was a jewel of an opportunity — a garish, fearsome "ghost bride" that assassinates men. It could have been just a little scarier, given that story. I know that "Sherlock" is not a horror show, but its creators did just fine in making their adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" both a bit frightening and a proper mystery.

But, again, those are just forgivable quibbles. This show remains the best thing on television!

The long-awaited Sherlock special, "The Abominable Bride," is supposed to satiate our hunger for Sherlock, since we see him so rarely.

It did and it didn't.

I want to disclose up front that I flew to London to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet.

This episode was as divisive as Cumberbatch's looks. Some people thought this was the worst thing they've ever seen, and others thought it was wonderful.

I'm somewhere in between. Without giving anything away, I'll say, given the idea behind this episode, the story as it unfolded made sense. It was chaotic, confusing, and filled with strange things -- it was supposed to be.

Instead of taking the idea so literally, I would have preferred something more straightforward with Sherlock returning to Victorian times. There were too many interwoven ideas and people popping up.

One thing I was very impressed by was how much, in Victorian times, Cumberbatch resembled the standard idea of Sherlock Holmes' appearance. He looked amazing.

The production values and acting were both excellent; besides the leads, Andrew Scott was incredible. A good deal of the dialogue was fun. "He said the crime solution was so easy that even I could have solved it," Lestrade tells Mrs. Hudson. "Oh, I'm sure he was exaggerating," she assures him.

I wish they would release more episodes before 2017. For a man the producers objected to when he was cast, Cumberbatch is now too busy to be available for episodes. The price of fame.

There might have slipped through some spoilers.

This episode takes place in Victorian London, which was in the first place something weird, because we are used that this series takes place in present day. In Victorian Londen we see how Watson and Sherlock would have met if the whole series took place in Victorian London. Then we get a speed forward and we get to know the case of this episode. There was this bride that suddenly started to kill people and thereafter kills herself, but the weird part has yet to come. The bride kills her own husband after she died... Now Sherlock and Watson are put on to this case, to explain the mystery.

The directing and cinematography of this episode was nice, as always with this series. I loved every shot, . The editing was cool to, you had some nice transitions between scenes. Like when Watson and Sherlock are waiting for the 'gohst' to appear, there is this spinning the camera movement, and while the camera is spinning the time goes by. And by this you can see the camera spinning as a clock, which was a fun thing, in my opinion. The make-up was good too, the blown out brains etcetera. The set design was amazing, I just can't understand how they could have changed the city like that, the BBC has done this earlier with 'Peaky Blinders' a less good show, again in my opinion. I loved that they took the apartment where they filmed the original show in, and made it look like it was from the 19the century. The costumes as well were cool. They gave Sherlock his stereotypical hat back, where they made fun of in the rest of the show. The music was nice as always. They took the original theme song, but did a thing different, which I can't really explain.

The acting of this special was very good as always. Sherlock was played by Bennedict Cumberbatch. I think that he is the best person that they could have chosen to play Sherlock. He was a bit stiff in the beginning of the episode (a bit more about this later on), but overall he was good. Martin Freeman played Doctor John Watson. He was good as well, he had some great chemistry with Sherlock, this can also be seen in the rest of the series. Mark Gatis, the writer of the show, and also the actor of Mycroft Holmes, came back as well. I didn't really like what they did with his character. They made him fat. Really, really fat. It was meant as a joke, but for me it wasn't really funny. In the present day he was back as his normal self, and there he acted well. The 'fat-suit' they put him in looked also fake. The actress who played the bride was scary, and acted good.

The script was very nicely written. As I have said earlier, I taught that everything was a bit stubborn, and stiff in the beginning, maybe this was like this, because I haven't seen a Sherlock episode in a while, huh, BBC?, but after a couple of minutes it loosened up and everything went back to normal. What I very much liked is the way why everything is now in Victorian London. It fitted the theme well. The only thing that botterd me is that they left us with a cliffhanger... AGAIN. The jokes they put in there were almost always funny, but the fat Mark Gatis, just didn't feel right for me. The references put in there were fun to spot, and I am not going to spoil them, so you can go find them yourself :).

Anyway, this was a fun and scary episode. Finally we got back a Sherlock episode, and I am glad that that happened.

Very different from the episodes that precede it but still very enjoyable and well worth watching. I was looking forward to this episode for a full year and I was not disappointed. Now only another year plus until the 4th season...if I overdose now I should be able to sleep until then. Don't go into this expecting to be blown away. The cinematic intensity of the 9 episodes its elder is not present. The depth and complexity of the plot are less structured. However, even though it's not quite up to par with Sherlock episodes of days past, it is still superior to the majority of television programs and I would say enjoyable enough to watch more than once.

Almost the perfect episode until the last 20 minutes. They didn't have to make it so complicated. The story was great , the setting was perfect and the acting as always was impeccable. Not going to go on about the story but just lightly summarize the drawbacks and the SHERLOCK moments. The episode as it stands I feel didn't need to be connected to where we left in season 3. The story and the setting was good enough for it to be stand alone episode. Though I did enjoy the subtle scene references from the main Sherlock. More importantly the episode for god sake just needed have a good solid ending. I am sure most of the viewers would complain about how the makers tried too hard to pull off a "SHERLOCK" ending. It just needed to be enough to quench the beaming desire of the fans for another year as they wait to see their favorite detective on his adventures.

What I did enjoy about the episode is as is the case with every sherlock episode is the dialogs. They take a moment to seep in and when they do: wow. The references to the main series are also enjoyable. For the first 1hr the episode hits the high standards it has set since its inception, but where it does falter is in the last 30 minutes where just needs to wrap it up in good solid way.

No matter for that, Sherlock fans will definitely enjoy it. To sum up, the episode as Moriarty would say if he was to represent the whole series: MISS ME