Sherlock – too long or just a little shhhhh

New Years Day and the now annual outing of a new episode of the rightly so brilliant Sherlock starring Ben Chunderbatch and the Hobbit was upon us. 9PM for an hour and a half, titled The Six Thatchers.

Now, to me, I first thought this was going to be about traditional roofers who all mysteriously disappeared in Suffolk after falling prey to a slate roofing magnate but no that would be too silly.

Instead we got a load of plaster casts of the infamous Prime Minister, Maggie T, being busted open for no apparent reason apart from they were coincidentally at the scene of another mystery Sherlock solved (the dude who died in his car disguised as a car seat). Then subsequent events lead the Sherlock to sourcing the buyers of the ‘Maggies’ and attempting to catch the perpetrators.

Whilst scrapping with the fiend in a pool trying to save the last ‘Maggie’ our Sherlock discovers that hidden inside the bust is a memory stick. The same memory stick Mary (The Hobbit’s wife) threw away into an open fire – ‘the past is the past’ she decried.

This then leads to our discovery that the Hobbit’s wife (Mary) was in fact part of a crack unit used by the ‘highest bidder’ as assassins or indeed rescuers. Oh do fuck off.

Are Gatiss and the rest so bereft of ideas that they had to stoop to this nonsense or is the only way to write out the Hobbit’s wife? Seeing as the Hobbit’s wife in real life is now indeed no longer his wife, so had to be got rid of. What better way than making her out to be so right on and powerful which not surprisingly is like the Hobbit’s wife in real life.

There is nothing wrong with powerful capable women – Princess Leia, WonderWoman, Theresa May. So who was this episode for? Not Sherlock fans, not Hobbit fans, so who for?

Story was weak, boring, unbelievable, nothing like Sherlock and so lazy it was farcical.

Thank all things that are Baker Street she is now off (or is she – oh do fuck off) perhaps Gatiss and the other one can get back to slick, witty twisting takes on the classic legendary tales, rather be oh so freeking PC and ‘clever’.

Apologies if you haven’t seen it yet but to be honest I’ve saved you 90mins of piss.

Looks like the next episode will go back to something true to form and what made it so successful in the first place. Sherlock and Dr Watson, Le Strade and Mrs H.

I for one, hope Gatiss and the other one have got their ‘A’ game afoot before they truly leave what is still (just) one of the best interpretations of a classic we have seen.

 

What are your onions?

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