The final episode of Sherlock has the best mystery of all.
The Great Game is the third episode in the first season of Sherlock, an amazing miniseries from BBC. The first episode is A Study In Pink which is the funniest of all, the second episode is The Blind Banker which is the weakest of all and the third is The Great Game which has the best mystery of all.
In the third and final episode of Sherlock we had a chance to see how great Sherlock is as he races against the time to solve one mystery after another. However, I still voted A Study in Pink as my favorite episode because it brings a lot of smile into my face. Beside the hilarity of A Study in Pink, I also like the way Sherlock observes the victim. When he touches a certain part of the victim, words come out on the screen to tell us what’s on him mind (Look at the picture on the left). I really like that kind of effect because it gives a dramatic feeling. Unfortunately those ‘words’ only appears in the first episode. Fortunately, we still get to see ‘words’ when Sherlock is busy searching information through his mobile-phone.
The Great Game is about some sick game hosted by Sherlock’s arc enemy, Jim Moriarty. Moriarty has been the man behind the crime in the previous episodes, but Sherlock never has real contact with him, he only realizes his existence. In this episode, Moriarty takes a more proactive role to challenge Sherlock’s ability.
I will try to write the story without giving any spoiler which I find very difficult because the fun of this episode is on that spoiler (this include not mentioning the actor who plays Moriarty). It begins with Sherlock’s funny conversation with an inmate in Minsk, Belarus. I found it funny because Sherlock keeps correcting the inmate’s grammar and he looks terribly bored. It is a fun opening that has no relation or whatsoever on the real case.
The real story starts with the bored Sherlock. He has no case to work with and it makes him bored beyond believe. He even shots his wall to fill in the boredom which really annoys John. This part is really funny, they are talking about the blog that is written by John. Sherlock quotes John’s post about the case he calls as A Study in Pink
Sherlock sees right through everyone and everything in seconds. What’s incredible, though, is how spectacularly ignorant he is about some things.
Sherlock is annoyed with what John has written in his blog.
Warning: Do Not Visit John Watson’s blog unless you’ve seen the previous 2 episodes…or you can still visit it but don’t read his post titled A Study in Pink and The Blind Banker because it contains tons of spoilers as john is trying describe the cases he went through with Sherlock. DO VISIT his hilarious blog after you have watched all the episodes 🙂
It is a really interesting twist, don’t you think? The old John Watson wrote Sherlock’s adventure in books while the modern John Watson wrote the cases in his blog.
However, even in boredom he still has pride, he refuses to do a job from his brother, Mycroft, by saying he is very busy with a lot of cases. I really like seeing this odd relationship between those siblings. Cumberbatch learnt how to play violin for this scene with his brother. Not long after his brother leaves their house, Sherlock receives a call from DI Lestrade (Rupert Graves), there is a mail for him. The content of the mail is a phone exactly the same as the phone in A study in Pink.
There is one message for Sherlock, it is a picture of an old hearth. He recognizes it straight away, it is the hearth in Baker street 221C. They – Sherlock, John and Lestrade – found a pair of shoes in front of the hearth. The moment they found the shoes, the phone – the pink phone- rings and a woman’s voice is on the other line. The woman is only reading text from a pager. She told Sherlock that he needs to solve the puzzle within 12 hours or the woman will be killed. The puzzle starts from that pair of shoes.
I couldn’t say more about the case because it will spoil everything…but I can say that the puzzle is not just one puzzle. Sherlock has to solve several puzzles and we can easily guess where the puzzles come from…they come from Moriarty. Sherlock informs his answer for the puzzles in his blog The Science of Deduction.
My favorite quote from this episode is when John feels disappointed at Sherlock because he shows no feeling toward the victim.
Sherlock: I’ve disappointed you
John: that’s good, good deduction yea
Sherlock: Don’t make people into heroes, John. Heroes don’t exist and if they do I won’t be one of them
And as always, it’s not Sherlock if he doesn’t show his arrogance
Lestrade: I better get my people to find this Golem character.
Sherlock: Pointless, you’ll never find him. But I know a man who can.
Lestrade: Who?
Sherlock: Me.
I also like the way he tries to say thank you to John for trying to save his life. It clearly portrays how rare that occasion happens to him.
That … a … thing you did … ehm … you offered to do, that was a … good.
Hahaha he couldn’t even say thank you!
What’s interesting is, after some searching job, Cumberbatch and the actor that played Moriarty are in the same age but Cumberbatch looks much older than the other actors.
I am a bit disappointed with Moriarty character because he doesn’t look like the one I had imagined in many years of reading Sherlock Holmes. They try to change Moriarty into this bad-ass character. I like the original one much better.
Details on this miniseries.
Director: Paul McGuigan for A Study in Pink and The Great Game. Euros Lyn for The Blind Banker.
Scriptwriter: Steven Moffat for A Study in Pink, Stephen Thomson for The Blind Banker, Mark Gatiss for The Great Game
A fanvid trailer (contains spoiler)
How I would love to watch this! Sherlock is such a snob… So funny. I didn’t realize Watson wrote a blog instead of a book… Good idea, really. It is always so hard writing good reviews and avoid spoilers at the same time, isn’t it? Like the little novel I reviewed…it ha such an incredibly cruel ending but I couldn’t tell… just hints…
A hint from this series is: the ending makes sure that there’ll be new episodes. The new episodes will show up this year…I am so anxious to see it.
I have to say that Cumberbatch can potray Sherlock’s arrogance really well. You’ll find a lot of sentences that shows how arrogant he is…and those sentences always make me smile.
You make me REALLY want to see this show, Nov, but it’s hard enough to find the time to watch shows on US TV! I’ve only seen Benedict in Atonement and he’s really good in that one. And Martin Freeman has been cast in The Hobbit, right, so he must be good 😀
Maybe you can find it in DVD Rental, the DVD of this series is already been released. I wish I can buy its DVD (Indonesian edition, of course! Import will be too expensive). Sherlock only has 3 episode + 1 unaired episode…so, it won’t take much of your time.
After watching Sherlock, I want too see more Cumberbatch. I will try finding Atonement soon.
Looking forward to see Martin as Bilbo.
Cumberbatch didn’t have a big role in Atonement, but he’s quite memorable in it. The film is certainly worth seeing, Nov, I mean, I like it so much that I picked Joe Wright to direct my 2nd movie 😉
hehe…yeah, I smile when I read your pitch. You’re just talking about Atonement and your pitch related to it.
I know he only played small role, but I really am curious with his other movies…wanted to see his acting ability beside Sherlock.
Yeyy! you did it! 😀 after long waiting and the “black out” tragedy. hehe..
Episode 3 is indeed the best story of all. Honestly, I haven’t read any Sherlock novels, so… I don’t have any idea how Moriarty supposed to look like. I like this bad-ass Moriarty, though. I think he fits for the kind of “modern” Sherlock.
Now, we can only be more patient for the second season. Hopefully they won’t delay it due to any reason or whatsoever. Lately there’s no TV series worth-watching. So please BBC, bring it on soon.
Did you know that there is another episode? they didn’t air it. I will download it next month.The title is Pilot.
So true!!! There’s no TV series worth-watching anymore (we should blame our local TV station for this)…but even though a lot of people have been mentioning some TV series,there are only few of them I’m interested in seeing it.
Fortunately you didn’t say anything about Sherlock and lend it to me assuming I will like it…and lucky you, I love it 🙂
Hehe…yeah I kinda know you would like this.
Yes I know that from my friend who lend me this Sherlock. But She said it’s not so good. So I kinda want to watch it later on…some time..
Speaking about Watson/Martin Freeman, I saw him in a glimpse in Hot Fuzz (I am watching it now), did you reckon that?
Oh I am getting interested on Edgar Wright’s movies since I watched Scott Pilgrim vs the World. That movie is cool and really funny.
I’ll share it with you if I already DL it 🙂
Eh? really? I didn’t know that…will check it later after work.
We need to meet ASAP so that I can borrow Scott Pilgrim. Btw, I would like you to read my movie pitch later this Wednesday, the director is Edgar Wright 😉
hehe thanx. yeah, we need to meet soon. let’s exchange.
Sure. Look forward to read your post 😉
The trick is to realize what is useless and what is useful.This Sherlock like the Victorian one likes to shoot holes in the wall of his 221B Flat when he is bored. It is heartwarming to know that Sarah actually allowed for a second date and that the third date might involve a bit of shagging considering how the first almost turned out.But the game is on as the modern Sherlock would say.
You just quoted my most favorite line from the episode!!!!
“Don’t make people into heroes, John. Heroes don’t exist and if they do I won’t be one of them.”
Benedict said it in such a perfect way, I got goosebumps!!!
I love that quote so much!! It was so perfect for Sherlock…and Benedict made it even more perfect
Hope you enjoy Watson’s blog 😉