Well, they did give indications that he’s been working for some period of months doing the criminal consultation, thus he could drop all those cases for Sherlock. But it seems weak to only have him for basically 3 episodes and kill him off so soon. Shouldn’t Sherlock’s nemesis be around for a while, to really be a criminal mastermind?
Sherlock himself isn’t going to be around for only three more episodes. I wouldn’t want the entire series to become the Sherlock versus Moriarty show.
Thank you for that. Interesting.
Ummm… they did that in the last episode of Season 1, IIRC
To me, if anything, Moriarty is too involved in the show:
Season one, Ep 1: A Study in Pink Serial killer says he was hired by Moriarty and that he’d heard of Sherlock. Moriarty was testing the waters to see how clever Sherlock is.
Season one Ep 2: The Blind Banker Underground Tong smuggling in art treasure. Head of tong was assasinated by Moriarty while she’s IMing him.
Season one Ep 3: The Great Game Sherlock and Moriarty come face to face the first time. Moriarty blows up random people just to watch Sherlock dance.
Season two Ep 1: A Scandal in Belgravia Irene Adler is on the phone with Moriarty in the beginning at the pool scene. At his direction, she gets backmails young female Royal and gets Sherlock involved. Tries to seduce Sherlock and gets him to break the code she has on her (camera)phone. Has obviously talked to Moriarty about the “Holmes Boys”.
Season two Ep 2: The Hounds of Baskerville No Moriarty in the mystery, but shown at the end of the end in the interrogation room, having written “Sherlock” all over the walls.
Season two Ep 3: The Reichenbach Fall Moriarty brings the Great Game to a head when he actually commits crimes in person, instead of remotely. He’s bored and wants to see how far he can push Sherlock.
Moriarty has been in every ep, just not always in person. It’s time for Sherlock to have other adversaries.
StG
We have been assured that Moriarty is really dead…
Thanks for the rundown. So Moriarty has been in the background a bit more than I recalled. Good. That helps his challenge to Sherlock be more convincing.
That is the flaw of ACD’s original stories. The first time we hear of Moriarty is the story that introduces him so he can kill Sherlock. Suddenly out of nowhere Sherlock has an arch nemesis who has been masterminding the great crimes of London, and yet Sherlock (via Watson) has made no prior mention of him.
That story as a whole is generally dissatisfying, and not just because of Sherlock’s demise at the end. The villain is supposed to be this devious mastermind with the resources and intelligence equal to Sherlock, yet we’ve never heard of him. The story plays out without much actual investigation or adventure. There’s a brief intro where Sherlock drops in on Watson, then an escape sequence with the train, but the jaunt around Europe hardly qualifies as an adventure. Very humdrum. Then we get the scenario where Watson is drawn away and finally the actual dramatic moments are all of-screen, we only know what happens because Watson deduces the results using Sherlock’s methods. While that provides the one instance of using the methods in the story, and it ends up being fortuitous for ACD later when he realizes he wants to bring Sherlock back, it neverless means the story itself is dull, boring, and dissatisfying.
Frankly, Moriarty is unconvincing in that story. We’re told but not shown his brilliance and nafariousness.
At least with the tv show we are shown several instances of his actual work, before we are introduced. And then some more before his demise. That helps make him the true challenge to Sherlock he is supposed to be.
Part of the issue for me, I guess, is the “only three episodes per year” thing. I mean, “Moriarty’s been around for two whole years, it’s time for something else. Right?” Versus “It’s only been six episodes, and he’s gone already. What kind of an opponent is that?”
Just how many rounds are they going to do? Five years is a long time in tv show commitment years, but is only 15 episodes by the pace they’re going.
We really have no idea how much more Sherlock we’ll get. Series 3 begins production this January. Cumberbatch has gone on record as saying he’d like to continue being Sherlock. The showrunners really seem to love it.
The maddening briefness of each series does mean that the busy folks involved can continue to make it. A longer commitment each year would probably be impossible…
Just finished S2 last night and enjoyed it, although Moriarty crossed the dreaded line from interesting psycho to irritating self-parody several times. I’m intrigued by all the theories of how Sherlock faked his suicide. On to S3!
I noticed the different image quality at the time, and just assumed it was from a documentary.
There are similar, and equally cool, sfx in the Bradley Cooper/Robert De Niro technothriller Limitless, which I highly recommend.
By whom?
By Mark Gatiss and Stephen Moffat at ComiCon last month.
Right you are - thanks. Here’s more: http://collider.com/comic-con-sherlock-panel-recap/
also one of the shots shows a piece of his brain in the blood puddle. (which made me think of fawlty towers.)
Haven’t seen it, but I just bought it. iTunes has Sherlock Box Set (Series 1&2 and pilot) for $7.99 right now. Will be watching it on the bus to and from work over the next couple of weeks.
Was surprised it was only three episodes per series.
Chimera - If you buy it in iTunes, can you watch it on any device? Or does it have to be an Apple product? I own the DVDs, but for $8, I’d gladly pey to have them accessible if I could get them on my computer or my Kindle.
StG
Out of the goodness of their heart, Apple lets you download iTunes on several platforms. (Just as Amazon is generous enough to let you download the Kindle reader free without buying a Kindle.) They want to sell you the content! Of course, both series of Sherlock are also streaming on Netflix…
The last episode of Sherlock’s 3rd seriesjust wrapped. Two episodes had been shot earlier, then there was a break to allow time for the actors’ other projects. No news on the broadcast date yet.
Started watching the first episode about halfway into my bus ride. 15 minutes later I was startled by arriving at our first stop. I had been that engrossed in it and was rather unhappy to have to put the iPad away. Hope it holds my interest like that over the entire series.
The only episode I didn’t care for was “The Blind Banker”. The rest just keep getting better. My husband disagrees on “Hound”, but I enjoyed it.
The second episode on each three episode strand hasn’t been as well regarded as the others, but plough through them.
Given that they are 2 hour episodes and no commercials, that works out to about the equivalent of 8 regular 1 hour show episodes. Still, that’s not a lot from an American TV perspective. And it feels like less when delivered in movie form.
The first episode is 1:28. The average hour of American TV is 44 minutes of actual program, which includes credits. So 2 hours of TV in one episode.
Still, not complaining. I pay more for a movie.