Sherlock. Series 2, Episode 3: "The Reichenbach Fall"

How to Make a Series Finale


Dear everyone on television:


Here is how to make a proper series finale:

1. Get a BAFTA award-winning actor to do some really powerful acting for the opening sequence.

"I want another BAFTA."

Here you will see the intensity and the depth of the acting of Mr. Martin Freeman. We'd like to think that the BAFTA award-giving committee carefully deliberates before awarding an actor, and whenever someone tells us that another actor should've won the award, we just show them the opening scene. Also, we're pretty sure Benedict Cumberbatch will win a BAFTA for this one.


2. Please fans of the original canon.

Next item on my Christmas list: that hat.

And you can do that with... the deerstalker. Yes, the famous deerstalker hat, begun by Holmes illustrator Sidney Paget, and immortalized by countless Sherlock actors throughout history. That was a great way we introduced the hat in episode 1, don't you think?


3. Get a good director. 

Manila London Kingpin.

In our case, we got Toby Haynes. This is actually the first time we've used him for Sherlock, but he's already churned out spectacular work on Doctor Who. Check out the crown jewels sequence, and you'll see what we mean. The classical music isn't just some random soundtrack─that's Jim Moriarty's iPod playing. So that entire sequence was viewed from Moriarty's point-of-view. That was what was going on in Moriarty's head!


4. Get a good writer.

"Now where did that screaming girl come from?"

We can't be expected to write each and every episode now, can we? We've got other things to do, you know. So we got a writer who at least understands the vision of where we want this to go. Someone who knows how to stay true to the essence of the canon. Good job, Steve Thompson. Anyway, Thompson just did the technicalities. The story and the plot all have that traditional Moffat flavor.


5. Give them one hell of a villain.

"I'm going to conquer Hollywood with my nice American accent!"

Admit it, isn't our Jim Moriarty a great villain? Andrew Scott's one brilliant actor. Complete psycho: check. Heath Ledger's Joker: check. Complete psycho: check. Multiple personalities: check. Did we mention complete psycho? Of course we did.


6. Give it a WTF ending.

Seriously. WTF.

Yes, no one does WTF endings better than Steven Moffat. We don't want to spoil anything, so in case you haven't watched our series 2 ender, we're not going to mention our WTF ending here. But we'll give you a clue. "Sherlock Holmes is Jesus Christ." And we don't mean that in a Matrix kind of way.


Okay, everybody. Now that you know how to do a proper series finale, we don't ever want to see a terrible series ender. Or we will burn you. We will burn the heart of you.


Sincerely,
The makers of



Sherlock (Series 2, Episode 3). UK. 2012.



*DISCLAIMER: "Not really us." ─S. Moffat and M. Gatiss



Rating: Nine and a half out of ten.




*some info from IMDb
pics from VLC




You may also want to check out the review of Sherlock Series 1.