Sherlock Review: The Game’s Afoot

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SHERLOCK: Sunday 8th August, BBC1, 9pm ALERT ME

The final episode of Sherlock sees a host of seemingly innocuous murders unravelled as Sherlock Holmes faces off against a mysterious and anonymous adversary (I’ll give you three guesses who it is…). The Great Game could not be a more apt title as Sherlock must race against time to solve the crimes and, of greater importance for Sherlock, win this epic battle of inflated egos and dazzling intellect.

There’s a certain resemblance to The Dark Knight in the interplay between Sherlock and the mysterious puppet-master who toys with him. Just as Heath Ledger’s Joker and Christian Bale’s Batman battle one another in a personal duel (between an “immovable object” and an “unstoppable force”) that wreaks havoc on a much wider scale, Sherlock and his secretive opponent faceoff in a battle of intellects with far greater consequences. Sherlock relishes, perhaps enjoys, this game and there is more than a touch of the “you complete me”s about a battle that quickly transforms itself into a challenge of good versus evil.

The comparison between Sherlock and Batman is a fitting one. While he doesn’t wear his underpants outside his trousers or have greater financial backing than a small country, Sherlock is blessed with a unique skill-set that makes him a modern hero without any of the typical superhero powers. His deductions, one of many highlights of the show, are brilliant but always plausible. Sherlock never feels as though it’s operating outside the boundaries of possibility.

Benedict Cumberbatch, a name I will never tire of writing, plays Sherlock almost like an autistic Kevin The Teenager (from Harry Enfield & Chums). Cumberbatch has to portray a heartless, unlikeable human-being completely devoid of social skills, yet someone who is just charismatic enough to be a sympathetic hero. He’s petulant, obsessive, introverted and unashamedly patronising, but we love him for it.

The success of Sherlock hinges as much on Cumberbatch as it does on the relationship between Sherlock and Martin Freeman’s Doctor John Watson. Watson is a dry, emotive side-kick (who is given the opportunity to prove his worth this week) and Freeman and Cumberbatch dovetail and play-off one another wonderfully. The distinctions between colleague and friend are never easily identified, and there is a great respect between the two that is often overlooked in some adaptations.

Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat have created a show that has the potential to become a stalwart of British television. While the show has been given a facelift, the essence of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories remains intact, and that essence is Sherlock Holmes. True to Moffat’s claim that the show peaks in its final scene, the ending of The Great Game is quite brilliant and will leave you gasping for more.