This was purported to be a flashback to the 1890s and a more "true" depiction of Conan Doyle's Holmes. It was a dark and hopeless episode centered on Holmes overdosing on cocaine and hallucinating the entire story. Holmes was at his worst: arrogant, aloof, and depressed. Death, infidelity, murder, and quasi-homosexual obsessions and innuendo between Holmes and Moriarty made for a totally unedifying movie. It starts out dark and ends even more darkly. Never a ray of virtue, hope, or wholesome values.

The writers and producers of this episode seem proud of their work. But unless you are a Goth drug addict who wants to wallow in darkness for 90 minutes, this is not for you, and definitely not for family viewing.

Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, did a good job of interpreting Doyle without dragging the viewer into total darkness. The screen writers, directors, and actors of their many movies provided some sunshine at least at the end of the story.

When "artists" have to resort to continual and amplified displays of gore, lust, sexual innuendo, and drug addiction, it is a sign of a lack of creativity. Modern "Hollywood" has spent years nurturing in its audience a taste for unsavory, crude, and bawdy junk-food entertainment and fills its menu with nothing else it seems.

As you can tell, I am disappointed with the new "normal" in movies.

This franchise has had a season and a bit to falter and fail to retrieve any of the promise of the first two seasons. To answer the question; where can we go with these characters? Gatiss, Moffet and co have come up with the answer; down the same old avenues but this time in clown shoes. Every character except the title character have become ridiculous caricatures of their former selves. How many times must ubber-earnest Dr. Watson profess his man-love through misty eyes and missed breaths? How often must Mycroft deny his man-love and brotherly concern? How did anyone think giving Mycroft Holmes the Kranks treatment or giving Molly Hooper a bad case of pantomime transvestitism was anything short of a death knell for a show which is very much rudderless in high seas? The best thing that ever happened in this series was the again pantomime baddie Moriarty shutting his own gaping face hole with a bullet. How short on ideas must you be to be forced to resurrect your most gratuitous over-actor to puff out a ver thin and inconsequential mystery. (Bobby Euing in the shower post-mortem.) It is absolutely certain that this initial gush of support for this installment comes from those who were told to expect clever and don't have the wit or courage to recognize that they didn't get it. This bandwagon support will soon be superseded by laments for the promise that was once apparent, but in the hands of this team was not realizable. "Look he just survived the Reichenbach Fall..deal with it." This is not cute or an inside joke, and has shown nothing but incompetence from the writers. Anyone can write a protagonist onto a ledge, miracling them down again is the price you pay. Cheats! Looking at Gatiss's credentials based on cooky spooky comedy, and seeing now that he has nowhere further to go with these characters except up in flames, he should do himself and everybody else a favor and stop. He makes fiction for teens and his ideas are restricted by his life's work. Just as he could not convincingly resurrect Sherlock in series three he has already, with a sad admission coped out of his promise at the end of the same season to resurrect his over-camp version of Moriarty. Very obviously to all that the writers had not the first clue how to do either and whats worse weren't going to try. Don't believe the ratings..blind fan support and watching in disbelief will be shown for what they are when the dust settles or in this case the ash. A good start achieves little that a bad ending won't blot out.

Personally , I am a bit of a critic of the new Sherlock series. More so because of what it has taken upon itself- an unbearable burden of needless complications. While there may be many dissenting opinions that in turn opine the new Sherlock to be a 21st century masterpiece, I would on any given day watch a Jeremy Brett episode sipping on steaming hot coffee , while the snow falls on the deodars , right outside the window.

The director of the series finally decided to yield to temptation and shoot an episode set in the 19th century world of Sir Doyle. At the beginning the whole effort did seem worth a watch, but no sooner than 20 minutes into the thing that one realised the futility of nursing expectations. It is extremely hard to decipher whom is this show trying to deceive?

The screenplay may have been exquisite at the beginning , but now I am afraid it is not even pedestrian. The plots have been fabricated to such an extent that they look incredulously stale and silly. Worse still, is the insistence of projecting and presenting these mediocre exhibitions as a superlatively intelligent play , which basks in its own pretentious glory.

I stopped watching this series after the end of the second season (or perhaps towards the end of it) because I could no longer tolerate seeing painfully simple stories being passed off as intellectually complex puzzles.

Lo behold! when I am searching something on google I see this " I spent $30 to watch The Abominable Bride" . I am not proud of the fact but I was once again swindled by the hype created this show. Those who love it, please do so. I for one, can't care less for it. This is a monstrosity , a hideous stigma and literally an abomination on the face of the Sherlock Holmes franchise. This show has done more disservice to the character than any relentless critic ever could have .