Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

:

Season 1
  • Network: PBS , BBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Jan 1, 2016
User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 86 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 86
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 86
  3. Negative: 12 out of 86
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User Reviews

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  1. meldrew
    Jan 9, 2016
    5
    An intriguing set-up that ends up trying too hard to be smart at the expense of providing a satisfying 90 minutes for the viewer.

    I enjoy a narrative that's not straight-forward and for about 45 minutes this was engaging stuff. But the longer it self-indulgently crawled to its conclusion the more annoying it became. OK Mr. Moffat and Mr. Gatiss, we get that you must be clever    An intriguing set-up that ends up trying too hard to be smart at the expense of providing a satisfying 90 minutes for the viewer.

    I enjoy a narrative that's not straight-forward and for about 45 minutes this was engaging stuff. But the longer it self-indulgently crawled to its conclusion the more annoying it became.

    OK Mr. Moffat and Mr. Gatiss, we get that you must be clever blokes. But now you've shown us, can we please have something a little less 'Look At Us!' next time?    … Expand
  2. Knighthawk81
    Jan 4, 2016
    5
    I think this new incarnation of Sherlock Holmes has been great. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are perfect in these roles. This special, however, misses the mark from a story standpoint. It feels like filler as we await a real fourth season. It is that, but they could have done a better job of hiding it.
  3. oDjento
    Jan 2, 2016
    5
    Sherlock: The Abominable Bride was an interesting and arty take on the Sherlock story that intertwines itself a bit with the start of episode 4, but loses any real impact it might have had due to it being lots of artiness but not enough substance.
    Whilst this episode was quite unique in what it tried to do, you can’t help but realise the episode is just a bit (and I use this in lack of a    Sherlock: The Abominable Bride was an interesting and arty take on the Sherlock story that intertwines itself a bit with the start of episode 4, but loses any real impact it might have had due to it being lots of artiness but not enough substance.
    Whilst this episode was quite unique in what it tried to do, you can’t help but realise the episode is just a bit (and I use this in lack of a more to the point word) pointless. Instead of focusing on a certain investigation or story arc the plot ping pongs at first between beginning its journey and prematurely ending it and then between the old and new. There is this lack of any real point of what is going on, and the reward of watching this episode is completely unsatisfying.
    Despite this, chemistry between Cumberbatch and Freeman is as great as ever and we do get some catchy bits of dialogue. The acting is great overall but at some points I believe they overdo the time periods speech and line deliveries come out oddly.
    However, one thing this episode does incredibly is setting up an extremely creepy atmosphere to the episode, with a very dark tone taking place amongst the whole episode and hopefully indicating how dark this show is about to go. There were plenty of times where I genuinely felt unsettled. Maybe this episode was Mark Gattis dibbling in a bit of Sherlock horror.
    The episode also provides a few good laughs which has become expected within the series but not all jokes land on two feet.
    Overall I let this episode off with the fact that it isn’t actually what season 4 is, merely a spin-off of sorts. Nevertheless, the episode felt meaningless and unsatisfying, and therefore deserves itself an average score.
    5.5/10    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Allison Shoemaker
    Jan 2, 2016
    58
    "The Abominable Bride" poises itself to become one of the best episodes the series has offered thus far. And then it doesn’t stop. And it still doesn’t stop. And it keeps on not stopping.
    Read full review
  2. IndieWire
    Reviewed by: Kaite Welsh
    Jan 2, 2016
    100
    If it takes talent to make a good cliché work, making a bad one brilliant is Holmes-level genius.
    Read full review
  3. Vox.com
    Reviewed by: Emily VanDerWerff
    Jan 2, 2016
    30
    The special ... didn't just irritate me; it made me actively angry at how it wasted a great idea in the name of pointless complications and fan service.
    Read full review