Finale of Sherlock's (BBC) Season 4 was released 7 years ago. It is still some of the most shockingly awful TV writing ever

Episode "The Final Problem" of BBC's Sherlock aired on January 15th, 2017. It was so horrifically bad, it killed the series, which was once one of the most prominent TV series of the day. I invite you to revisit and remember that writing failure.

Ranting about Sherlock in general

Sherlock was the rage in early 2010's. It was slick, ironic and Cumberbatchy, adapting life of a famous detective in modern London. It was the series hipsters talked about in Starbucks™ and others followed suit. Of course, back then irony was yet to become cringe, Cumberbatch did not overdo his schtick, London was still a first world city, coffee was not made of gold, hipsters were not desitute and people still watched "the thing". Still, it was hard to argue with results: Sherlock was a hit.

Was it actually good, though? Depends. There is a good review by Hbomberguy, who claims that Sherlock has always been garbage, pseudo-detective but people fooled themselves into believing otherwise until Season 4 was so idiotic they could not ignore the obvious anymore. I agree that it has always been garbage detective series. Frankly, most of the audience could probably agree with that. Because that's where Hbomberguy is IMO wrong: people did not watch it as a detective series. They watched it as funny stylish adventure series.

As stupid as Sherlock was, people were willing to excuse it as long as it was entertaining and not too offensive. That's where "The Final Problem" comes in. If you care about spoilers, you can still turn back.

Ranting about "The Final Problem"

Plot of the episode: Sherlock learns that he has a secret sister Eurus who hates and wants to kill him. Turns out she is the smartest person ever and can hypnotize people with ease. Also, she was in league with Moriarty the entire time. Also, she seduced John Watson. Also, she took over prison and Sherlock, Mycroft and John go there. They end up in a Saw-like maze and complete challenges to survive. Then Sherlock learns that Eurus killed his friend when they were children and he blocked the memory. Still, he tells her kind words and she stops killing people. He plays violin for her as the Sherlock's family visits her. The episode ends with a montage of everyone happy.

The best way to describe the audience's reaction to that episode is shock. Because the episode is not just the usual plain, boring, slowly deteriorating seasonal rot bad (like the first episode of Season 4). "The Final Problem" was a concentrated dose of commonly reviled tropes mixed together:

  • Baiting the audience, resulting in fakeouts (on several occasions);
  • Secret evil sibling who seeks revenge (?) ;
  • Oscillating tonal shifts throughout the episode;
  • "Everyone has to be an idiot for the plot to work";
  • Purposeless, teenage-level edgy torture porn;
  • "It was only a dream" (on two different occasions);
  • Powerscaling takes a nap;
  • "Intelligence is magic" (outlandish even by the usual series' standards);
  • Plot hole barrage;
  • Pop psychology saves the day;
  • Irredeemable psychopath villain (who is a rapist btw) is easily forgiven;
  • No consequences for everyone;
  • Undeserved author self-congratulation.

It is hard to imagine how you can write something worse, even on purpose. What happened? How did that episode happen? That's a far better mystery than the one in the episode itself. What is not a mystery is the future of the series: "The Final Problem" killed it.

* Also, it is actually 8 years since release, forgot to adjust for 2025, lol.