Christmas might have been a week ago, but some of us are still well and truly in the festive spirit, especially those guys over at BBC, who waited until New Years day to air the Christmas Special of their hit TV show Sherlock.
The show, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular detective and Martin Freeman as his trusty sidekick John Watson, previously operated on a three episode per series, one series every two years schedule that was so little so often that it always left us wanting more. To make matters worse, the increase in demand toward its two stars have saw further delays to the production of the shows fourth series, which is not expected to air until next year (2017), a whole three years after the last series!
Unsatisfied with keeping us waiting that long, the shows writers and creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss penned a special festive edition of Sherlock. The same show, with the same stars, but this time with a bit of a twist….or rather, without a twist.
You see, for this one off show the writers reverted back to the basics and took their modern adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyles classic novel back to its original Victorian setting.
The Special, titled the Abominable Bride, draws on no particular Holmes story, but references many, and sees the consulting detective don his iconic deerstalker and smoking pipe without irony for once! It also allows us to see John Watson in his bowler had and with his signature moustache, and Sherlocks Brother Mycroft looking much more similar to how he was described in the books…for starters, a lot fatter.
The Sherlock Special was funnier than the regular series, and went a long way to embody and showcase the cultural ideologies of the time.
One of the drawbacks of an adaptation that changes something as big and important as the setting and time period is it will always leaving the most devoted fans of the original work wondering what it would look like if it was closer to the original, so it’s a much welcomed Christmas gift from those at the BBC for them to finally show us what Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Freeman’s Watson would look like in the original setting!
Though we were previously lead to believe that the episode would have little bearings n the plot of the surrounding episodes, it’s undeniably a must-see to help bridge the gap between the last series and the next, but since the episode takes place almost entirely inside Sherlocks mind palace, it shouldn’t have too much of an effect on the upcoming series four.
Sherlock series four starts filming in the next few weeks, immediately after Cumberbatch’s filming on Marvels Doctor Strange comes to an end, with aims to see it on screen this time next year. Hopefully there’ll be no further delays, cause we can’t wait to see it!
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