They screwed it up.
HATED HATED HATED HATED HATED
the Irene Adler episode
It had some good parts in it - devastating scenes - but her character is awful and Sherlock's reaction to her is just ridiculous.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER Last season ended on a cliffhanger and promised intensity, violence and emotion and instead, it fizzled out immediately. COMPLETELY anti-climatic. I sat there and thought - I waited 18 months for THIS?
That should have tipped me off.
Sherlock's character's emotions were all over the chart in this episode. He ran hot and cold throughout. Emotional things that he completely dismissed in last seasons's episodes he stumbled over in this one. For a second, with a good scene with his brother, I thought he screwed his head back on straight, but no. He cared, he didn't care, he cared, he didn't care, sometimes all within a few seconds.
And really? Just because Adler took off her clothes was enough to derail him? He has figured out things from earrings and lipstick and perfume on women before but he draws a blank on her simply because she's naked?
I HATED that. How idiotic and stereotypical.
The writing treated Sherlock like a horny teenaged boy who falls apart completely in the presence of a naked woman who's coming on to him.
The oldest trick in the book and we're expected to believe Sherlock was completely blindsided by this? Really? I mean, really?
So ghastly unhappy with this episode's portrayal of Sherlock. The great Sherlock, able to see through anyone and anything, except if you're a woman all you have to do is take your clothes off and flirt with him and his great brain screeches to a halt like a pubescent boy and he can't think straight.
Treat him with contempt, be a selfish, greedy, unrepentant user bitch who is involved with career criminals and terrorists who threaten the lives of innocent people, flirt and talk nasty and he becomes a devoted idiot.
The ending was just stupid.
Mycroft said he was very thorough 'this time'. Apparently not if you can believe he did DNA testing on a headless corpse and couldn't figure it out. And Mycroft is supposed to be much smarter than his brother. And really? Sherlock could penetrate some anonymous terrorist cell with his looks? Does he speak Arabic? No one noticed him? He could be away for the months and years it takes to infiltrate a group and John never noticed? Really?
AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL episode. Horrible writing.
The only interesting things we find out is that we find out Sherlock is a virgin and John is done with Sarah and has gone through 3 other girlfriends since and Mycroft's assistant has been compromised and oh, yeah, Irene Adler claims to be gay but is in love with Sherlock. Whatever.
I feel so let down by this episode.
My hopes for this season and excitement about the next episodes have fallen flat.