Oh my god.... Sherlock is back and my god he's back with a vengeance. Ok maybe not a vegeance, but he's back with more sex appeal than should be allowed before the watershed and a bod that had everyone wishing that sheet would just fall down completely!
Aside from Sherlock's nudity, there was a very good story going on which, well, involved someone else's nudity, so all in all a lot of naked, but more of that later.
We opened on our heroes still poised by the swimming pool about to be blown up by Moriarty. How the hell they we're going to get out of this one was anyone's guess, and thankfully Moffat delivered in both a funny and highly believable way. A more excited game called away the bad guys attention and off he went, leaving Sherlock and Watson to go about their man loving once more!
What's that, theyre not gay?! Oh ok that explains the introduction of Ms Irene Adler then. A high class dominatrix who has her eye on bigger things other than mere blackmail over some risqué photographs. No, she was much more interested in testing Sherlock both mentally and physically if her naked entrance was anything to go by.
You could tell Holmes was sorely intrigued and dare I say it a little bit in lust with the gay dominatrix?! Alas when she revealed her plan was to string him along to get Mycroft to agree to her demands, you really felt gutted for him. But this being Sherlock and him being oh so clever, he found a way to play her right back and exposed that not only was she a teensy bit fond of the curly headed one after all (her phone lock was his name) but just being touched by the 'virgin' made her pulse go all of a quiver- something Sherlock did not miss.
Utterly brilliant from start to finish- Adler's execution in particular had me on the edge, as did her stabbing Sherlock in the arm and proceeding to hit him with a paddle (at that point I did wonder what show I was watching, but it was entertaining none the less!)
Her customised ring tone was also expertly handled- embarrassingly rude to anyone who heard it, even Sherlock I think, each time it rung you knew the game was stepping up and so did the excitement.
Sherlock throwing a thug out of the window for beating up Mrs Hudson was another nice piece of character development, as it turns out he does care about those close to him. Hence the continued gay love-in between him and Watson!
I really enjoyed seeing more of Mycroft as well- Gatiss is perfect as Holmes snr; just on the right side of slimy and very interesting to watch on screen- when its him and Cumberbatch lighting up the screen, my attention is held fully.
My only beef with this episode is the way Sherlock continues to batter poor Molly with his cruel words. I was genuinely so upset by how he treated her at Christmas and the apology was all too brief to be meaningful. I know on no account would these two work out, but I would love to see them just get it on for the sheer hell of it!
So, there are my thoughts, anyone got anything to add?
