January 6, 2014

Sherlock series 3 episode 2 review | Drunken Master

BBC1 If all you fans of The Killing imagined the second episode of Sherlock would be a Lars Mikkelsen fest then you are as dejected as Evander Holyfield was at the U.K.’s inability to check their white, atheist, pro-gay privilege. Make no mistake my friends¹ this one is all about Beenadick and Shartin and how... Read More

BBC1

If all you fans of The Killing imagined the second episode of Sherlock would be a Lars Mikkelsen fest then you are as dejected as Evander Holyfield was at the U.K.’s inability to check their white, atheist, pro-gay privilege. Make no mistake my friends¹ this one is all about Beenadick and Shartin and how very awesome they both are. It’s John’s wedding day so we hear a string of eulogies all about the power of love, a force from above, for his one true love – Sherlock.

It’s John’s wedding day so we hear a string of eulogies all about the power of love, a force from above, for his one true love – Sherlock.

The best man speech from Beenadick will kill you. Stuttering prick, uppity douchebag, gracious bff, spurned lover – he does them all, rinse and repeat and it’s a massive performance. He regales his rapt audience with tales of he and John’s working life together: all those incredible cases. The Bloody Guardsman – that was a puzzler. A Royal Guardsman stabbed in the guts in the shower to within one inch of his worthless servile life in a locked room with no murder weapon. Even Beenadick couldn’t solve that one.

Stuttering prick, uppity douchebag, gracious bff, spurned lover – he does them all, rinse and repeat and it’s a massive performance.

Then there’s the case of The Mayfly Man. John and Sherlock, pissed as cunts after a stag night ruining, stumble upon the case of a dating cad with a particular interest in John and Sherlock’s wedding. He’s the wedding’s last-minute replacement photographer and his target is John’s barbecued army commander The English Patient; his method: delayed action stabbing through a restrictive belt, exactly like The Bloody Guardsmen, who was merely a dress rehearsal for the big wedding kill. Both of his victims survived which makes Mayfly as pointless, ephemeral and annoying and the shit insect who named him.

Both of his victims survived which makes Mayfly as pointless, ephemeral and annoying as the shit insect who named him.

If you like the character, comedy and invention of Sherlock – as you surely must – this is a strong episode. The John-Sherlock jizz avalanche is authentic even if they lay on the schmaltz too much at times. It feels odd in a three episode series to have what is essentially a stand-alone set piece but the show itself is an oddity. It’s a mercurial flair player not a box-to-box man.