It’s kind of refreshing to see Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) with an inferiority complex. I can’t tell you what exactly that does for the rest of us – for all I want Sherlock to be on top of the case, to know things we can’t or to guide our insight, seeing him a step behind his brother Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) is a solid reminder that humility is universal. James Bond got old. Michael Jordan sucks at baseball. Superman ain’t funny.
I don’t speak directly to this episode, but “Sherlock” is how you do Sherlock Holmes. With all due respect to Robert Downey Jr., Basil Rathbone, Sir Ian McKellan, Michael Caine, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan or anybody else who has donned the deerstalker cap Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote about, Benedict Cumberbatch is Sherlock Holmes. End of story.
I’m not sure Martin Freeman is the best Watson, but he’s close, and the modern take of Watson’s deference and friendship mixed with actionable frustration is the correct one.
And now, The Abominable Bride. For this episode, we are back in 1887. This is just an excuse to make a period piece, which is fun, but ultimately detracts from plot and conclusion – “why?” one might ask (that one being me), “are we in 1887 when this ‘Sherlock’ series is 21st Century?” We find out later – Sherlock is on drugs. Oh. Ok. Does that mean he’s solving a case in his head? Is it a modern case with Victorian roots or is it a Victorian case with parallels to a current case? And is any of this real? Tell you what – if you know the answer, please drop me a line because I don’t.
Here’s what I do know: Emilia Ricoletti (Natasha O’Keeffe) has made her suicide very public – if you’re gonna go, give ‘em a show. While wearing a bridal gown and Joker make-up, she stands on a balcony with two pistols firing wildly into the London streets. Next moment, she aims into her mouth. The corpse is taken to the morgue. 
Later that evening, Emilia Ricoletti – the one and same, not a double (“because there’s never a twin, John!”) gets out of a carriage and blows her husband away in public. When inspectors get to the morgue, Emilia is indeed still dead with a sizable hole in the back of her head. Ooooooooo, good stuff, right? As if that isn’t enough, the murders don’t stop there. Months later, corpse brides all over London seem to be murdering jerky husbands. Hey, dudes. Stop pissing off ghosts.
So how is Sherlock going to foil Emilia Ricoletti when she’s dead and he’s not from there – well, he’s from there there; he’s just not from then there, dig? The big problem with ghosts is nobody on film ever wants to run into them. Making sure something is corporeal is a great way of dispelling the fear involved.
That said, there are some truly scary and clever moments in The Abominable Bride. Cold, foggy and past midnight in an electricity-challenged country estate? I want to say a corpse bride showing up under such circumstances would give me the willies, but the truth is anybody showing up under those conditions might give me a chill. Sherlock, of course, can’t not play mind games with Scotland Yard, Watson, his client, the corpse, Moriarty (who is also dead, I think), but what is up with 350-pound Mycroft stuffing himself to death? I swear, this could have been a great episode were it not too clever for its own good.
Sherlock’s here to make all safe and sound
This bride is killing citizens by the pound
Supposed to be dead
She blew off her head
Some folks can really get around
Rated TV-14, 115 Minutes
D: Douglas Mackinnon
W: Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat
Genre: Why PBS exists
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Cumbercookies
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The impatient
