*Major spoilers are ahead, if you have not seen the episode, either click here to watch the episode in its entirety or just read the spoilers if you do not care for whatever reason.*
Now that the spoiler warnings are out of the way, let the review commence!
After the first episode of the season being a fun fan-service filled romp that dealt with the aftermath of Sherlock's fake death, "The game is....something." "The Sign of Three" presents Sherlock with his greatest challenge yet, giving a a Best Man speech at Watson's wedding! What at first seems to be an odd and disjointed series of flashbacks about of the duo's escapades that Sherlock recounts turns into a fun episode that has a complex and intriguing mystery. For starters, the humor in "The Sign of Three" was, again, absolutely perfect! Seeing Sherlock and John completely plastered and "cluing for looks" was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. The opening with Lestrade almost catching the robbers and then being called by Sherlock because Sherlock needed "Help" and it turning out all he needed was help preparing the Best Man speech was comedic gold, granted most of the episode was comedic gold, like "You bring me tea in the morning? I just thought it sort of happened." And of course the gif below.
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| One of the many hilarious parts of the episode |
The Good: Skillfully woven mysteries, Sherlock and John getting hammered!, The utter hilarity of everything, Sherlock's Mind Palace, Irene Adler cameo, Smart and witty dialogue, Solvable mystery, Sherlock's Best Man speech, Pitch perfect characterization, Sherlock and John's friendship is further explored, Many quotable lines, Janine is a fun new character,
Mystery: 9.3/10- After the oddly disjointed series of stories that Sherlock tells the crowd at the wedding, they all tie together brilliantly into a mystery that is actually solvable by the audience. The introduction of Major Sholto made the fact that he would be part of the mystery of the episode rather obvious since why else introduce a new character to the story, but how it all went down was smart. Tessa knowing John's middle name and mentioning the wedding was something that I figured was important when she said it. My only problem with the mystery, and the episode in general, was the belt preventing a person from know that he was stabbed. Is that actually possible? If a doctor were to confirm it is actually possible, I would believe it, but it was still a rather far fetched way to kill someone.
Characterization: 10/10- Again, "The Sign of Three" delivers in spades in the characterization department, particularly the middle part of Sherlock's Best Man speech where Sherlock talks about how he never expected to anyone's best friend, which excellently demonstrated one of the best portrayed friendships in all of fiction. While some moments seemed a little too much like a sitcom with the wedding, there was superb character development throughout the episode. Mary setting Sherlock and John on a case without the other knowing that she is pulling all the strings was great, and Mary's character in general was better developed.
Acting: 10/10- Benedict Cumberbatch is obviously amazing as Sherlock and Martin Freeman is equally excellent. Alistair Petrie's performance as Major Sholto was good for his role, although the fact that he was an important part of the mystery was made a little obvious. Mark Gatiss has several excellent scenes, mostly during the Mind Place parts, but his version of Mycroft is quite possibly the best.
Soundtrack: 10/10- Michael Price's score is continuing the brilliance of his previous work on the show. The distorted version of the Sherlock theme while they were getting drunk was perfectly fitting for the situation.
Direction: 10/10- As with the first episode of the season, "The Sign of Three" featured some skillful direction and stylistic choices. When Sherlock and John were drunk the visual effect effectively conveyed Sherlock's disorientation with the hilariously drunken text presentation while investigating the room. The introduction of the more visual Mind Palace as Sherlock attempts to solve the mystery of the ghost that dates the women was an interesting way to show everything that happens inside his head.
The unexpected cameo by "The Woman" Irene Adler with Sherlock saying, "Get out of my head" was the best way to give a nice nod to the character.
Humor: 10/10- As stated previously, "The Sign pf Three" was packed with smartly written humor from Sherlock drinking a cup of tea with an eyeball that he accidentally drop in it, to Sherlock using his deductive skills to help Janine find a new boyfriend to Sherlock admitting that he learned something on YouTube, all of it was positively hilarious! Sherlock's opinion of John and Mary's marriage, which he states in the lines,"Two people who currently live together are about to attend church, have a party, go on a short holiday and then carry on living together. What’s big about that?" was a rather humorous comment on the declining state of marriage in today's society, which is unfortunately true. Overall, it was quite possibly the funniest episode of Sherlock to date!
Relative Rating: 9.8/10- Among middle episodes of Sherlock's run, "The Sign of Three" is, by far, the best the series has yet to produce. It is probably better than the first episode of this season.
Overall: 10/10- "The Sign of Three" is continuing the strong character development of our dynamic duo while simultaneously piling on some of the best humor the series has to offer and a well developed, albeit slightly unbelievable, mystery.
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