Sherlock S401 - The Six Thatchers

[Brian G Turner]

BBC One - Sherlock, Series 4, The Six Thatchers

Really surprised there's been no comment on this yet.

Thought it was a strong episode, without being too convoluted, and - of course - the surprise of that dramatic ending!

We also seem to have foreshadowing of Sherlock's death...

 

[The Big Peat]

I thought it was pretty bad to be honest. Felt almost like a Hollywood parody of itself - too much action, not enough suspense, too many big "Surprise" moments and tired banter. Huge shame.

 

[Ursa major]

Well, I enjoyed it.

As for too much action.... Immediately afterwards, I watched Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which is what an action film looks like these days, and The Six Thatchers was nothing like it.

EDIT: I do have one criticism -- one I'll be using iPlayer to rectify -- which is that the various synopses of Holmes cases that were presented as text on the screen were on the screen too briefly for me to read. (I assume that this was the point, but I still found it irritating.) In the "old days" one could visit Watson's blog to read more, but this is no longer being maintained.

 

[svalbard]

I enjoyed it. However I do thing it is starting to run it's course a bit.

 

[reiver33]

I'm a fan but the whole thing about all four members of the squad having details on the others to ensure loyalty was crap - especially carrying such information on operations. I'd head the 'tragic loss' rumours and thought it was going to be either Mary or the baby. As soon as Sherlock took Mary with him over Watson because she was better at this then I knew she was dead...

 

[ctg]

I can see why some people would say this episode had no suspense, but I thought it worked quite brilliantly. Not perfectly, because I have to admit there were some flaws in the story-telling. Nevertheless, Six Mrs T's were a good Sherlock episode.

The shot at the end would have killed Mary almost instantly for it being so freaking close to her heart. Which made to think that maybe the shot was really low powered and Mary wasn't meant to die. Hence the second long message at the end.

It was all meant to be that way and the drama was to fool Sherlock into a shock. But then again this could just be speculation and Moffat/Gatiss chose deliberately to put in that bit of drama, because of BBC and all the artistic licensing.

I never really know what the case is really when I watch Sherlock. It's a very well done thriller, which keeps audience guessing long after the show has aired.

 

[Ursa major]

I'm a fan but the whole thing about all four members of the squad having details on the others to ensure loyalty was crap - especially carrying such information on operations.

You're correct: it's nonsense. If one of the team really was trustworthy, they'd only have to kill the others and destroy the sticks they found on the bodies to be home free. There'd have to be, at the very least, a back-up (though, obviously, there wasn't. And, as the episode showed, Mary knew how to get a message delivered if she went missing (presumed dead)... which makes one wonder why it wasn't sent when she'd gone into hiding**....


** - Did she have to "report in" on a regular basis? Did she have more trust in the person holding the disk than the three people who, on missions, were covering her back?

 

[The Big Peat]

Well, I enjoyed it.

As for too much action.... Immediately afterwards, I watched Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which is what an action film looks like these days, and The Six Thatchers was nothing like it.

Apples and oranges. Just because oranges are softer than apples that doesn't make soft apples okay, because oranges are meant to be soft and apples are meant to be crunchy. Although obviously people will have their own opinions of the right amount of crunch in an apple and the right amount of action in a suspense drama.

 

[Ursa major]

Sherlock is entertainment and Mission Impossible films are entertainment. While it's true that their principal means of providing entertainment are different, this does not mean either has to abandon other means of doing this where they are thought to be useful to the telling of the story and/or the entertaining of the audience.

After all, the original Holmes was not above deploying physical violence and was said to be adept at doing so.

 

[The Big Peat]

Sherlock is entertainment and Mission Impossible films are entertainment. While it's true that their principal means of providing entertainment are different, this does not mean either has to abandon other means of doing this where they are thought to be useful to the telling of the story and/or the entertaining of the audience.

After all, the original Holmes was not above deploying physical violence and was said to be adept at doing so.

And apples and oranges are both types of fruit, but we're famously told not to compare them

 

[ctg]

And apples and oranges are both types of fruit, but we're famously told not to compare them

There are No rules against comparing products. Sorry.

 

[ctg]

What it lacked was the sense of building menace that made The Reichenbach Fall or His Last Vow such strong episodes. Instead of one cohesive feature-length story, it was a succession of three somewhat disjointed half hours: a comedy intro, a Bourne-style globe-trotting action thriller, and an emotional relationship drama. Laugh, get your pulse racing, cry, we were instructed. At no point did it feel were we invited to solve a central mystery alongside our heroes. The episode relied on our love for these characters being greater than our love of a real villain and a tightly wound problem to unravel. As entertaining as it all was, the lack of both was felt.

Sherlock series 4 episode 1 review: The Six Thatchers

I agree.

 

[Ursa major]

Mark Gatiss has responded, in a letter, to criticisms of the amount of action in the latest episode, doing so in verse (as Arthur Conan Doyle did**):

With reference to your recent article (Sherlock is slowly and perversely morphing into Bond. This cannot stand, theguardian.com, 3 January), and with apologies to AC Doyle:

The Solitary Cyclist sees boxing on show,
The Gloria Scott and The Sign of the Fo’
The Empty House too sees a mention, in time, of Mathews,
who knocked out poor Sherlock’s canine.

As for arts martial, there’s surely a clue
in the misspelled wrestle Doyle called baritsu.
In hurling Moriarty over the torrent
did Sherlock find violence strange and abhorrent?

In shooting down pygmies and Hounds from hell
Did Sherlock on Victorian niceties dwell?
When Gruner’s men got him was Holmes quite compliant
Or did he give good account for The Illustrious Client?

There’s no need to invoke in yarns that still thrill,
Her Majesty’s Secret Servant with licence to kill
From Rathbone through Brett to Cumberbatch dandy
With his fists Mr Holmes has always been handy.​

​

** - According to the Grauniad, Conan Doyle’s “To an undiscerning critic” missive was ruder than the one from Gatiss, opening with the lines:

Sure there are times when one cries with acidity,
‘Where are the limits of human stupidity?’​