I bounced off hard from the BBC version of Sherlock, I noped out after just two episodes. I didn’t and still don’t like the show. (There are other Sherlock Holmes versions I like better.)
So when YouTubers started ragging on the show, I ate that up and believed every word.
There are two things though, that I now, two years or so later, found out they were misrepresenting.
Series 2 ended with a mystery, fans were speculating for years, and then when series 3 finally came out, the episode made fun of all the fan speculation, and Watson said “I don’t care how”.
The critics have correctly represented the show so far.
For me, this would’ve been a huge nope-out if I wasn’t already watching. The second point that I’m gonna bring up later (“The Mystery of the Missing S04E04”) seems tiny in comparison, like, I was thinking “It’s your own fault for still watching after S03E01.”
However, the critics omitted a pretty important thing:
Sherlock does explain the mystery. Later in the episode, and not to Watson, to some “fan” character, but he does explain it. The explanation is bull but the problems with the explanation (mainly that if he needed to have so many people and confidants, why not include Watson among them instead of breaking his heart and gay-ghosting him for years?) are the same as the problems in the Doyle story it was adapted from (“The Empty House”).
He does explain it! It’s a bad explanation, but there is an explanation.
Yes, there never was a fourth episode of the fourth series—all those “I hold up four fingers” promos were to promote the fourth series—and fans were wrong here.
Yeah, there was a lot of plotlines that never got resolved and mysteries left untangled.
However… there was a fifth series! Plotted and outlined by the writers. It hasn’t been filmed yet and maybe now it never will.
Am I saying that the fifth series would’ve been good, or will be good if it’s ever made? Again, I’m not a fan of the show. I tried watching S03E01 and after less than half the episode, I just couldn’t anymore; I had to go search up the explanation scene online (I searched for something like “Sherlock explains to Anderson”).
But S04E03 wasn’t the intended end; fans were correct in hoping there’d be more. (Although their actions and harassment campaigns probably made it less likely that there’ll be more.)