Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

A promising Victorian plaything that degenerates halfway through into a festival of self-referential self-propagation, the point and substance of which escapes me. This series went from a refreshingly dynamic detective story to annoying fan service full of heavy-handed attempts at meta meta meta meta jokes somewhere around season three. I did not enjoy it and it’s quite annoying. (01/03/2016)

We have been waiting for it for a long time and it seemed for a long time that it would be a great episode. Mostly because I thought it was related to the past and that it would be just a small bite, simply a special episode that is different from the others. But no, it connects to the classic series and the resolution is too confusing. I just didn't like it. However, I have to highlight the excellent dubbing, which I don't have the pleasure of hearing so often. (01/04/2016)

First of all, I would like to thank the Czech TV that it allowed me to see this episode of Sherlock in such a short interval since its premiere. Hats off. Watching it one day after the premiere on BBC is a luxury that is usually offered only by a bunch of servers on an oil platform somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. As for the episode itself? Even though it was mostly happening in the 19th century, I really liked it. It is apparent that Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock and Watson are good in any weather and any time, because even though the story was at times overly complicated, it was still nice to watch. Even better as I realized its complicatedness only towards the ending. At that moment, the absurdity was passable. Until then I didn’t realize I was watching something absurd, combining the past and the present. I rather perceived it as a proper historical detective story. I think this bonus for the audience fulfilled its mission. (01/03/2016)

I was expecting a period story with the same cast from the special. However, The Abominable Bride is, in the end, a strange hybrid that builds on the end of the third season and brings us closer to the fourth season, without, however, anything important happening in it. It's really just a drugged plaything that does not take itself seriously, which is quite nice, but at the same time the traveling a hundred years back, forward, back and forth again is unnecessarily confusing. Arthur Conan Doyle probably wouldn't be happy. (04/28/2021)

A proof that the modern Sherlock works so well not because it is incorporated into the form of the modern setting, but thanks to the cast, chemistry between them, style, atmosphere, clever work with the original and exaggeration. Unfortunately, it also proves that Moffat and Gatiss, despite all their (often superfluous, but also not always) recombination and repetitiveness (for both Sherlock and Doctor Who) are transparent much sooner (really; too early, this time it can be seen on both levels in minutes) than it would be appropriate and I bet it was not intentional. As a result, they often ripple water rather than move the plot or characters forward. As a result, it is a special movie whose weak point is that it needs to work on its own (it succeeds in the first half of the comedy in this respect, unfortunately only in the first part), and at the same time it should at least partially follow the previous three seasons (if you close your eyes it does the job) and at the same time it shall not to move the plot forward, in case someone did not watch it and after finishing the third season wanted directly to watch the fourth season. (01/02/2016)