Sherlock BBC1

[David-G]

Donovan was the bearded chap from the very start of the programme...

Yes, I was wondering who on earth he was. Possibly my only having seen one programme from the previous series has not helped my understanding. Was Lestrade in this episode? I didn't notice him being referred to.

[Richard Tarleton]

I felt they were being just a leetle too clever by half

My sentiments entirely, but I don't feel like investing the time in a repeat viewing. I had not realised there was homework to do first. I ended up feeling annoyed and baffled. It's had its chance and blown it for me.

Why was Sherlock in a foreign jail being beaten up by...Croatians? This scene was at least funny, with the torturer hurrying off to check on his wife. Mycroft had infiltrated the upper ranks of the E European army concerned in the space of 2 years in time to get him out? I think it lost me there and I never really caught up. Perhaps I was taking it all too literally. I did understand about the "theories", and recognised Derren Brown from that programme about the pensioner art theft which I watched the other day, one of the "pensioners" in that being a friend of a friend.

Who sent the "skip" messages to Mary Morstan (who I thought was lovely )? Who did that to Watson and why? (perhaps that is yet to be revealed). The beating up, and the commandeered motor bike, were by Jason Bourne out of James Bond. Do I care? Just all a bit too self-referential, self-congratulatory and as Ferney says too clever by half.

[Nick Armstrong]

I felt they were being just a leetle too clever by half: I'll watch again on i-Player.

Funnily enough, I thought that it wasn't as tricksy/camp/clever-clever as the last series... I tried to re-watch the final ('death' fall) episode again over Christmas and stopped as I found it unwatchable a second time - without novelty, it seemed all effect and nods and winks - sorry johncorrigan! Plus I found that fey Moriarty utterly unconvincing and annoying, even first time through (I know - I'm in a minority of one).

So the absence of Moriarty, and my somewhat lowered expectations, may have contributed to being VERY pleasantly surprised. Still, a rewatch without the novelty factor may yet leave me sceptical, as with the previous one.

But the villain announced at the end, cold eyes and glittery rimless specs, is already more promising than the irritating six-former Moriarty.

[Alain Maréchal]

I had not realised there was homework to do first.

I don't think there was, RT, and if there was I hadn't done any, but I think it was necessary to have watched the previous episodes, otherwise it would be rather like starting to read a novel halfway through, or, a more appropriate simile, sitting through a Saturday morning serial like "Flash Gordon" without knowing into what fatal situation our hero had got himself. (Saturday mornings have never felt the same since they ended.)

[Richard Tarleton]

I don't think there was, RT, and if there was I hadn't done any, but I think it was necessary to have watched the previous episodes, otherwise it would be rather like starting to read a novel halfway through.

I'd watched those, but not the repeats which might have refreshed my memory.....

[Nick Armstrong]

But the villain announced at the end, cold eyes and glittery rimless specs, is already more promising than the irritating six-former Moriarty.

.. incidentally, a treat for Danish TV fans: the villain is played by Lars Mikkelsen, most recently seen as the economic adviser to Brigitte in the last Borgen http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-...-steven-moffat

That's much more like it, villain-wise!

(PS The 'Empty Hearse' / 'Empty House' pun, based on the original 'comeback' story by Conan Doyle, got my vote even before last night's episode started... A dramatisation of the original can be heard on Radio 4extra today, oddly enough: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jlpz )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes, I was wondering who on earth he was.

Except, as Alain has pointed out , he was actually called Anderson. Donovan was Lestrade's Seargeant from the earlier series, who didn't appear in last night's episode, but who did feature in one of the i-Player's mini-episodes. It's television, Jim, but not as we kn[e]w it"!

Was Lestrade in this episode? I didn't notice him being referred to.

Yes; he was there right at the beginning, telling Anderson (bearded chap formerly referred to as "Donovan" by those of us at the back) that all his (Anderson's) theories about Sherlock still being alive were just ways of deferring his sense of guilt. He also featured in the "Jack-the-Ripper" fake skeleton scene - and was the chap in the car park lighting a cigarette ("Those things will kill you") and who gave Holmes the welcome-back hug he'd been expecting from Watson.

[Nick Armstrong]

the chap in the car park lighting a cigarette ("Those things will kill you") and who gave Holmes the welcome-back hug he'd been expecting from Watson.

Rupert Graves's timing on "You bastard!" was perfect!

[Barbirollians]

I disagree I thought Andrew scott was a brilliant Moriarty - a charming unpredictable psychopath and that was truly chilling.

I agree with the too clever by half comment . Also I could not really understand why it was necessary for Dr Watson to be in that one place or to be kept out of the secret .

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree with the too clever by half comment .

I felt about this right from the start of the first series. I guess Sherlock is the sort of escapism that suits some more than others, such as me.

[johncorrigan]

I disagree I thought Andrew scott was a brilliant Moriarty - a charming unpredictable psychopath and that was truly chilling.

The scene in 'The Reichenbach Falls' when Holmes and Watson break into the journalist's flat and find Moriarty claiming to be actor Richard Brook who has been employed by Holmes to play the part of the master criminal. The journalist has 'persuaded' him to expose Sherlock as a fraud; it was as chilling as it gets in my opinion and Scott's performance scary.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I disagree I thought Andrew scott was a brilliant Moriarty - a charming unpredictable psychopath and that was truly chilling.

I agree with the too clever by half comment .

As the one who first used this phrase, can I emphasize the "leetle bit" that prefaced it.

Also I could not really understand why it was necessary for Dr Watson to be in that one place

If the explanation he gave to the bearded chap who wasn't Donovan is the real one (I suspect it wasn't), then Watson needed to be kept at that particular perspective so that he wouldn't see the bouncy castle contraption that cushioned Holmes' fall. The actual explanation is yet to be revealed.

or to be kept out of the secret .

I think that this is (as in the original) because Watson is an honest soul who, if he'd known that Holmes was still alive, wouldn't have been able to pretend that he was grieving as authentically as he would if he were actually grieving. Holmes needed Moriarty's confederates (who would be watching Watson for any indication of chicanery) to believe that he was really dead. (Poirot frequently kept Hastings in the dark, too, for exactly the same reason - being unable to subterfuge, he would have given the game away to the murderer.)

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yes yes and oh yes brilliant; we are lucky indeed to have anything too clever by half [what an old Tory put down that is]

complex fast full of allusion/references hints etc ... ouch, as it slipped by me i treasured the thought of a replay from the recording and sat bewitched and entranced

[french frank]

I felt about this right from the start of the first series. I guess Sherlock is the sort of escapism that suits some more than others, such as me.

(Deleted)

[amateur51]

yes yes and oh yes brilliant; we are lucky indeed to have anything too clever by half [what an old Tory put down that is]

Lord Salisbury on Iain McLeod most recently, I think