SHERLOCK IS BACK!

Picture shows: Sherlock Holmes (BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH) and John Watson (MARTIN FREEMAN)

SHERLOCK IS BACK!

Picture shows: Sherlock Holmes (BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH) and John Watson (MARTIN FREEMAN)

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! After, I don’t know, seven or eight hundred years since the second season of Sherlock ended on a literal building(cliff)jumper(hanger), the series returned to American televisions on Sunday night with(out) the answer we’ve all been waiting for. The episode opened with an action hero-y explanation for Sherlock’s jump and subsequent survival, which was soon revealed to be merely a theory from the guilt-ridden Anderson — the first of many fan fiction style explanations scattered throughout the episode, culminating in Sherlock’s own likely-false confession. The fan fiction sequences were clever, and a nice way to acknowledge the Internet culture that surrounds the show, 4sure, it’s an honor just to be acknowledged. The side-stepping away from revealing an actual explanation was clever, as well, as any real explanation would have left some viewers let down. (We all think we want to know how David Blaine swallows goldfish, or whatever, until it turns out that he just eats them on the reg until he figures out how much water he has to drink in order to not puke them back up dead, or however he does it.) But the idea that we have to trust that Sherlock is Sherlock, and that’s how Sherlock gets these things done, seemed to me a bit taken for granted throughout the episode. Part of the fun of watching Sherlock in the first two seasons was the hurried, exasperated explanation of just how he was able to figure out certain things about people, and put together certain elements of his case. He wasn’t actually superhuman — the clues were sort of there for us to see, as well, it’s just that we didn’t and he did. That part seemed frequently skipped in this episode, in order to get to the actual meat of the drama. And the meat was, ugh, so good, so much better than the rest of the meat on our meat screens or even the silver meat screens. But I like the weird sides, too! Outside of that complaint, though, the episode was so good and I am so excited that Sherlock is back. OUR GANG! Plus Watson’s new lady, Mary! Who seems to be a little suspicious! Like why did she take so quickly to the weirdo who tricked and emotionally destroyed the man she loves, and why was she so quick to push him back into his arms, and how did she know that that email she got contained a skip code?! WHAT IS HER DEAL? AND WHAT DOES THE MYSTERY MAN WANT WITH WATSON? ARE THEY IN CAHOOTS? I CAN’T WAIT 2 FIND OUT, MISSED YOU BABY, SO GLAD UR BACK!

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