Popcorn Reviews is a feature here @ Books Keep Me Sane which gives me a chance to share with the readers of this blog my reviews of movies/TV series that are related to books.
Title: Sherlock Season 3 Episode 1: The Empty Hearse
Director: Jeremy Lovering
Writers: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Release Date: January 1, 2014 (UK), January 19, 2014 (US)
Two years after the devastating effects of The Reichenbach Fall, Dr John Watson has got on with his life. New horizons, romance and a comforting domestic future beckon. But, with London under threat of a huge terrorist attack, Sherlock Holmes is about to rise from the grave with all the theatricality that comes so naturally to him. It’s what his best friend wanted more than anything, but for John Watson it might well be a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’. If Sherlock thinks everything will be just as he left it though, he’s in for a very big surprise.
The much-anticipated third season of Sherlock is finally here. We’ve waited two years for this and now that it’s here, I can hardly contain my excitement.
The story line for The Empty Hearse takes place two years after Sherlock’s “death”. Most of the characters in the series have moved on with their lives, including John.
Here are my top 5 favorite things about this episode:
1. The reunion – I didn’t expect I’d get so emotional when Sherlock finally revealed himself to John. If you think about it, two years is a lot of time, and a lot could happen. Just when John was finally ready to move on, Sherlock came out of the blue and voila he wasn’t dead after all! John’s reaction when he finally saw Sherlock after two years was precious! Absolutely precious. I wouldn’t go into details because I don’t want to spoil you. But it was just epic!
2. Sherlock’s Trick -The pressure is definitely on for the production team of Sherlock. At the end of the second season we found out that Sherlock is alive and since then we’ve been weaving clever and outrageous theories about how Sherlock survived the fall. To be honest I am quite disappointed that they didn’t exactly reveal how Sherlock did his trick. Although it was really fun to watch all sorts of theories from the fans, so far this is the most heavily fan-serviced episode I’ve seen. It’s like they incorporated every fanfictions on the internet into the story. For me, it was great that they did it. It lends a lot of comedic vibe to the episode but for other Sherlockians it wasn’t such a hit. I do understand some Sherlockians are not used to Sherlock being a comedic TV series but hey, it doesn’t hurt to laugh once in a while, right?
I think the reason why it wasn’t revealed in the episode how Sherlock faked his death is that they didn’t want to disappoint their fans. Because if they did reveal the trick and it didn’t come close to what the fans expected, the whole story could fall apart right from the start. I hate to say this but I think they were playing it safe, although I do understand why they made that decision.
3. Old and new characters– The old characters we dearly love are back and some new characters have been thrown into the picture too.
Mary Morstan
Guess who this new character is!
Meet the new villain
4. The mind palace – I’ve been fascinated with Sherlock’s mind palace ever since the first time I watched Sherlock. The graphics they make to illustrate Sherlock’s mind palace are visually stunning but in this season it was even more amazing. The prod team always finds a way to make the mind palace more stunning with each season.
5. Funny Sherlock – Sherlock’s character has developed pretty well this season. He used to be insensitive, rude, obnoxious, drab, and calculating in the past seasons. Now, well, he is still insensitive, rude, obnoxious, drab and calculating but he turned it down a notch. And he adopted a sense of humor too. Something happened to him in the two years he’s been away. Some sort of epiphany. It’s nice to see his character develop over time.
Overall, I think The Empty Hearse is great. Two long years of wait is well worth it. This episode has so much fan service I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one fan girling over this. There is just one little hiccup for me—I am bummed they didn’t really reveal how Sherlock faked his death. Oh well, I still love Sherlock though no matter what.
I could go on and on about how amazing it is but I think you already get the picture. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it now!
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