The wait is almost over! Sherlock Series 4!

[CaveMum]

So excited! I couldn't wait for tomorrow to start a thread

I hated all the text on screen. I loved the first series of Sherlock with some text and scrolling on screen but I found it irritating that they were flashing through cases with not enough time to read them. It felt messy and cluttered.. . a bit like the plot.

Just caught up. Found it a bit hard to take the death scene seriously with him making a noise like a mating hippo....

I felt the last series lost its way and the self-indulgent twaddle in this one hasn't in the least reassured me!

I thought the noise thing was well done.

a pp mentions hating Mary being an international spy - I liked that. It was giving her a conventional life that felt like a let down. Well, her and Watson. I don't watch Sherlock for domestics.

the last series - I agree with previous posters that there's always one episode that loses its way, be interesting to see if this is it, but somehow I doubt it.

agree that the on screen text went too fast - I was worried in case I was being slow but I guess not.

Tumblr is still fizzing with theories and I'm enjoying scrolling through them all, but the one that sticks in my mind in that parts (or all) of the episode are from Sherlock's POV/recollections, and that's why there's some issues with timelines and people behaving out of character.

One being that, if you zoom into John's blog page when it's shown onscreen, you'll see an entry talking about how busy he is with the baby and "when I'm not changing nappies I'm out buying nappies"... and yet Mary is still walking around pregnant.

Also the suggestion that John is behaving out of character. He always springs into doctor mode in a crisis - think Sherlock after the fall, the soldier who was stabbed at the barracks, Sherlock after being shot. In contrast, when he finds Mary shot he soothes her and waits for her to die. It was also a weirdly Hollywood fake kind of death scene. AND it totally contradicted the mind palace scene in HLV when Molly talks about gunshot wounds and saying "it's not a big spurt of blood and you flying backwards". Also, Sherlock had about three seconds of consciousness before hitting the floor after being shot. Mary's chest was covered in blood and had a full conversation.

So... is this version of events an attempt to cover up what REALLY went down, just like the way Magnussen's death was covered up? Could Mary have been shot by John?

arghhh!! bloody love Sherlock and first episode of series 4 did not disappoint, I predicted Mary dying but still have a sneaky suspicion that she may not be dead.... was anyone else disappointed with John having an 'emotional affair with the woman on the bus? there must be more to that.. it was a bit randomly plonked into the episode.. I cannot wait until episode 2 roll on sunday!! also I agree with the death scene, the noise Watson was making was rather comical, would've been more realistic if he screamed or shouted but hey, everyone deals with grief and shock differently.

I thought John's noise was probably quite realistic - a guttural, almost animalistic response.

I'm wondering if "E" on the bus could be the 4th assassin - G. We know the two "A"s were blokes and are dead, but no one has mentioned who G is/was.

You monsters! Mary was (is?) brilliant!

G was for Gabriel. Mary mentioned it.

I heard a similar noise when we were let into the room just after my Dad died 25 years ago, never forgotten it. It was my Mum. I think it's a primeval thing.

I thought it was terrible!

I often like Sherlock eps better after a second viewing, but I didn't make it halfway before giving up. It wasn't 'Sherlock'. It was 'Mary' (plus Sherlock and John). If Mark Gatiss is itching to write a show about a female super-spy/assassin/intelligence-agent, great, I'll watch it. But I don't like Sherlock getting sidelined - and worse, made to look stupid - in his own show. Why did he call John and Mary to the aquarium and expose them to danger if he'd already called the police? It looked like he just wanted to show off.

Amanda Abbington seems very excited about the whole season (She said in an interview something like "If we can pull this off it will make television history" and she couldn't have been referring to episode one) which suggests that she's not dead-dead. No-one in that show is ever dead-dead except Moriarty, who they can't bear to leave out of a single episode but yet they keep bashing us over the heads with "He's really dead, stop hoping he isn't!"

I'm shamelessly glad Mary is dead. She was so perfect at everything (including being faster than a speeding bullet!) that she just annoyed me.

The woman on the bus is definitely not Sherringford as he is meant to be considerably older than both Mycroft and Sherlock. Though it would be awesome if it was a middle aged woman.

Wasn't there a rumour that Tom Hiddleston was going to be Sherringford ? I doubt he will be but I love the idea so much that I'm clinging on to it until proven otherwise

The BBC have just confirmed "The Final Problem" (ep3) is going to be an hour and forty minutes long, so ten minutes longer than usual.

"In the final episode of this new series, written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, long buried secrets finally catch up with the Baker Street duo.
Someone has been playing a very long game indeed and Sherlock and John Watson face their greatest ever challenge. Is the game finally over?"

They've now corrected that on twitter and cut it back down to 1hr 30. Maybe Moriarty stole the extra ten minutes!

Just seen that IMDB have Andrew Scott credited in The Final Problem and there's that scene that looks like the back of Moriarty on the beach. Maybe IMDB hedging their bets?

Abbington is credited throughout the series but I hope it's only flashbacks, as pp have said it needs to be about Sherlock again.

I actually hope Moriarty is just dream sequence or whatever, as I feel like the "is he dead or not?" thing has been already overdone.

Same here Elspeth, I don't think he'll be back, at least I hope he won't be. As much as I love how Scott plays him he dies in the books so surely it's best if he stays dead?

I'd be seriously peeved if either Moriarty or Mary turn up alive. I'm sure they'll appear in the next two episodes, but in flashback/MP sequences.

Series 1 and 2 of Sherlock were some of the best Telly I have ever seen.

Series three and the Xmas special were some of the worst Telly I have ever seen.

This episode hinted at the good times when they were actually solving a flipping mystery at the start, but then it went a bit silly with the worlds worst secret super spy Mary jetting around the globe in wigs like Britney in her Toxic Video. Of course Sherlock was going to be there at the end of the montage! Tar Dar!

Strangely though I didn't hate it. I like the cast. Maybe I return simply to gaze upon their handsome visages whilst I ponder who I fancy the most?

I'm glad the cast are too busy to make more.

Meanwhile we need to kidnap Peter Capaldi so he too can be "too busy" to make more DW and then maybe he can be in better stuff like Fargo as well.

I know!.. I'll invite him to a church crypt via text in the middle of a stormy night and then chloroform him because he won't see that coming will he?!

The BBC have just confirmed "The Final Problem" (ep3) is going to be an hour and forty minutes long, so ten minutes longer than usual.

We have seats booked at our local cinema for the simulcast - which has been trailed as having "exclusive content".

If nothing else, "Sherlock" has managed to revive the atmosphere that surrounded some of the 1970s TV shows. With VCRs being as rare as hens teeth, some programmes became cultural events.

(I'm old enough to remember the "Who shot J.R." hype ....)

Just seen that IMDB have Andrew Scott credited in The Final Problem and there's that scene that looks like the back of Moriarty on the beach.

The whole "Richard Brook" business suggested that there was a double around playing "Moriaty".

I vaguely wondered if it was him on that roof, and he was somehow tricked into thinking the gun was unloaded .....

Anyone see this on BBC Website : www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38516886

Here is Mark Gatiss' poetic reply to a tv critic:

Here is a critic who says with low blow
Sherlock's no brain-box but become double-O.
Says the Baker St boy is no man of action -
whilst ignoring the stories that could have put him in traction.

The Solitary Cyclist sees boxing on show,
The Gloria Scott and The Sign of the Fo'
The Empty House too sees a mention, in time, of Mathews,
who knocked out poor Sherlock's canine.

As for arts martial, there's surely a clue
in the misspelled wrestle Doyle called baritsu.
In hurling Moriarty over the torrent
did Sherlock find violence strange and abhorrent?

In shooting down pygmies and Hounds from hell
Did Sherlock on Victorian niceties dwell?
When Gruner's men got him was Holmes quite compliant
Or did he give good account for The Illustrious Client?

There's no need to invoke in yarns that still thrill,
Her Majesty's Secret Servant with licence to kill
From Rathbone through Brett to Cumberbatch dandy
With his fists Mr Holmes has always been handy.

Mark Gatiss is a giant nerd - it's a callback to a poem written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "To An Undiscerning Critic".

I spent some time on the Reddit Sherlock board and now almost wish I'd avoided it. Their theories have convinced me of the thing but now I actually feel disappointed that I have probably spoiled it for myself. We'll see...

I'd say if you haven't gone searching, don't start now!