Points for Consistency

You might have seen the first series, and you would note (as I had), how great the finale was. I loved that it didn't try to conclude things (bad things follow those sort of decisions usually), and managed to generate lots of excitement for the second series that was still a good time away.

Well the second series ended not many weeks back and it was just terrible. I checked myself and wondered if my rosier than expected outlook on the first one was a wall put on by the really rather well done finale. Maybe. In all, this last series is more consistent and ddn't have that clunky second episode (similar three episode format here).
But hey, tell us what happened. The finale! Well, this did pick up on the finale, but not in a way you could describe as sufficient in any sort of way. They copped-out, basically. This will be a theme for the whole first episode that I felt, as I was watching it, a tad too long. I wanted it to end a bit. They weren't bringing a lot of new stuff, and they weren't exactly expounding on their earlier points. It mercifully came to an end in a somewhat confusing manner, but it was finished conclusively and I was sort of happy. With that out of they way, they could focus on the second episode and improve.

Well, wait a minute because what happens is a sort of epilogue that I felt was extremely unnecessary. It felt tacked on, it departed from the general atmosphere of the episode, and it was just in bad taste. It was as if they wanted to ape Inception and add some open ending but it was just done so poorly.

The next two episodes are similar. Excessive use of onscreen floating text and some trying to be smart plot. They open up the idea of a bromance between the two leads, force the issue and try to mention it at every instance, restate the generic personality of the title character and create sequences that highlight this without really adding anything, etcetera. I don't think I'm opposed to this plot point, but I do wish they handled it more professionally. It comes off as some sad person was writing this, gleefully jamming away at their keyboard in their little room. Focused on this single aspect of the story, so gratified over the basic existence of it and not to how it rewards the story instead.

The second and third episode didn't show promise at the start. I can't say I predicted everything (that would have been horrible), but I could sense where things were going and I correctly guessed some things in advance, which dulled things even by a little bit.

The main draw of this series is if you like smart people showing off (the show tries to be so meta that it even references this multiple times too). I don't really. They show-off without exactly showing off. It isn't in the case that you two see the exact same thing and then the smarter of you notices everything while you don't have a clue. A lot of things are added just when the showing-off starts and it doesn't give the same effect. This extends to some bit of actual hints in the proceedings and this caters to the Doctor Who nuts, I guess. I'm not saying you should serve us everything, but maybe I would give more effort or even consider a rewatch if the show, in the basic sense, was actually any good.

I've been making a push to be less declarative. Don't say it's horrible, but just say you didn't like it. I'm a hater, etcetera. Let's try to qualify things. I like stuff for a few reasons (they could all be in one production, but one is usually enough for me to like it).

MacGuffin. There's a soundbite, trailer candy, a novelty. Famous fictional Victorian detective in modern London is not going to cut it, sorry. Exceptional visuals. Not exceptional. Top Gear is much nearer to that. Engaging storyline. As I said, the first finale had promise but you reneged on that and I instantly regretted the download within ten-fifteen minutes. I finished the series the same way I try to look through all my subscribed feeds even if I only actually read though a marginal fraction of it. Engaging characters is not a strong suit. We have a person out of touch with societal norms and some bloke. There's the title character's brother who sits around (a nod to the source text) and that's pretty much it. Oh there's also the main villain who is manic and that's pretty much what you have. They were like that in the first series and continue to be so in the second. Points of consistency.

Now to the ending. It isn't as good as the first one. It makes you think a bit, but not enough that I wanted to hunt down all the theories online. Compounded with the bad taste the whole thing left with me, I'm not going to check out the third series. The most I would do is check the reviews per episode. Check back with me if I follow this up.

I'm sure I have other things, but I don't want to make an effort for something like this.

(Sherlock Series 2 - Steven Moffat & Mark Gatiss)