Ricoletti, the eponymous ‘Abominable Bride’. The mystery du-jour revolves around the apparent death and specious resurrection of scorned Mrs. For the most part, however, the sly nods and winks and hat-tipping work and should please fans of the material that inspired Sherlock’s modern day twist. Hudson’s constant complaining about her minimal involvement in the stories that Watson publishes each week in the Strand Magazine is initially amusing, but even in the hands of the delightful Una Stubbs it quickly outstays its welcome. Much of the opening half hour of the episode gets decidedly meta for comical effect, although it is questionable how many of the gags will register with anyone not familiar with the Conan-Doyle source material. Sherlock is the Beeb’s most expensive in-production show by some margin and they up the ante here. In this timeline familiar characters are given a Victorian twist with the BBC sparing no expense in the costume and design departments. After a brief recap of the previous three seasons an alternate timeline of events set in the era from which the source material originates, including an amusing pre-booting of the first season’s first scene, is postulated. The premise of the episode, initially, seems simple. The following review contains many, many spoilers. Much like the latest season of Doctor Who, The Abominable Bride will leave you firmly camped on one side of the ‘love it, hate it’ divide. Anyone expecting a return to the ‘good old days’ of the first two seasons in the form of the new year’s Victorian era special were sorely disappointed. He has been the master of divisiveness on Doctor Who for five seasons, and this idiosyncrasy crept into Sherlock in the exceedingly polarising season three. These days, no television writer seems to split critical opinion as much as Steven Moffat.
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