*** MANY SPOILERS BELOW ***
I'll say it outright: this was not a good episode, and it comes across even worse because the first episode, "A Study in Pink" was so incredibly brilliant.
The episode begins promisingly, with a good amount of mystery. What was the museum curator gazing at, horrified, off-screen? What is the meaning of the ominous symbols spray painted on the bank's walls? How was the banker murdered in his own room, when it was locked from the inside? What is the connection between the dead banker and the murdered journalist? You are quickly drawn into the episode, but the mystery, however, quickly devolves into farce, fortune-cookie Asian stereotyping, and plot holes that are so huge that they forcibly drag you out of the story. Some parts of the story that made me cringe:
In addition to those plot holes, whereas "A Study in Pink" involved the audience breathlessly trying to follow Holmes' rapid fire thought process and marveling at his attention for detail, here it seems more like a case of the Keystone Cops:
And so on and so on. My wife and I couldn't believe that this was from the same series as "A Study in Pink". Go ahead and watch this episode if you want to make sure you have all the back story, but don't expect it to be gripping drama, especially if you've just come off the heels of the first episode, as we were.
I'll say it outright: this was not a good episode, and it comes across even worse because the first episode, "A Study in Pink" was so incredibly brilliant.
The episode begins promisingly, with a good amount of mystery. What was the museum curator gazing at, horrified, off-screen? What is the meaning of the ominous symbols spray painted on the bank's walls? How was the banker murdered in his own room, when it was locked from the inside? What is the connection between the dead banker and the murdered journalist? You are quickly drawn into the episode, but the mystery, however, quickly devolves into farce, fortune-cookie Asian stereotyping, and plot holes that are so huge that they forcibly drag you out of the story. Some parts of the story that made me cringe:
- Smugglers are known for secrecy. Despite this, they chose to commit a highly visible act of vandalism and draw attention to themselves by spray painting on a bank's walls, just to threaten a banker. Couldn't they have just left him a discreet threatening note on his desk? Why broadcast to all of London their secret code?
- The museum curator, who is desperately trying to escape from her former gang and is well-versed in their means of communication, winds up living right around the corner from the smuggler's drop point, the Lucky Cat. You'd think she'd be a mite more careful around a ruthless gang of smugglers who brook no deserters.
- The head of the smugglers, who is named, horribly, "General Shan", is hyped as a menacing figure but winds up being an overly dramatic middle-aged Asian woman who can't find a decent minion to tail Sherlock and Watson, leaving her to follow and take pictures of them herself. What's the use of being the head of a huge, shadowy organization if you have to do the grunt work yourself?
- Despite personally following the two all around London and being part of a large intelligence network, "General Shan" inexplicably still somehow thinks that Watson is Holmes, and so threatens Watson's love interest with a giant Chinese ballista that she has dragged into the underground tunnel specifically for that purpose. Sherlock Holmes in this series has a website, for crying out loud. She could have just Googled his name to find out who he was!
- The banker was targeted because he stole an ancient hairpin from the smugglers and gave it to his mistress. However, he was apparently ignorant of its true value, so why wouldn't he just tell the smugglers where it was when he was threatened? Or did the smugglers just kill him without asking where the priceless treasure was, choosing instead to waste time following around Holmes, hoping that he could find it?
In addition to those plot holes, whereas "A Study in Pink" involved the audience breathlessly trying to follow Holmes' rapid fire thought process and marveling at his attention for detail, here it seems more like a case of the Keystone Cops:
- Holmes needs the help of a graffiti artist to identify the type of paint used by the smugglers which, of course, has to be some kind of special brand. No regular hardware store spray paint for these secretive thugs, oh no!
- To find more instances of this coded graffiti, Holmes and Watson blunder about all of London, using a brute force approach rather than Holmes' superior deductive skills. Despite London being a huge city, Watson manages to find a wall of coded text, which of course is painted over immediately after he finds it and goes to tell Holmes.
- When investigating the museum curator's apartment, Holmes leaves Watson locked outside. Even when realizing the assassin is still in the apartment, Holmes chooses to dramatically pull back the screen to get himself strangled rather than let in the war veteran to help apprehend the villain.
- Despite noticing every fine detail in a person's appearance in an instant, Holmes somehow misses the fact that the museum curator has written a partial translation of the coded message on his photo, the key to cracking the case.
And so on and so on. My wife and I couldn't believe that this was from the same series as "A Study in Pink". Go ahead and watch this episode if you want to make sure you have all the back story, but don't expect it to be gripping drama, especially if you've just come off the heels of the first episode, as we were.