‘THE LYING DETECTIVE’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Culverton Smith with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Martin Freeman’s Watson
There are times when the ‘Sherlock’ series can have its ups and downs. I think it’s fair to say that ‘The Lying Detective’ might be one of its ups. It’s not a great episode, but I can see some of its merit.
I think the second half is better than the first half. It’s also interesting how the episode is part of an arc concerning a secret relative of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, and it turns out to be their sister. 😐
In the episode, John Watson continues to grieve the loss of his wife, Amanda Abbington as Mary. He even has hallucinations of her, as he’s talking to her throughout the events of this certain episode. 🙂
Sherlock meanwhile seeks to expose Toby Jones as Culverton Smith, a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist who wants to kill people. Toby Jones has appeared in a lot of things that I’ve watched.
This includes him playing Captain Mainwaring in the 2016 ‘Dad’s Army’ film as well as being in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’. He also appeared in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘Amy’s Choice’.
There’s a reason given for why Culverton Smith wants to kill people when Sherlock gets a confession out of him. Apparently, it makes him happy. This is similar to a villain in ‘Torchwood’s ‘Countrycide’.
Now for a while, I’ve criticised the lack of motivation in the villains throughout ‘Sherlock’. This does apply to Culverton Smith, to Jim Moriarty, and also to Charles Augustus Magnussen in ‘His Last Vow’.
It can be argued that the villains are doing their evil deeds perhaps due to mental illness. It’s so likely to be the case and if that’s what’s causing people to be so evil, then I would accept that argument. 🙂
Mind you, I wish the villains’ backstory was explored more in ‘Sherlock’ as well as perhaps their mental state. If Sherlock’s mental state can explored in detail, why can’t the big villains be explored?
Incidentally, Steven Moffat is the writer of this episode whilst Nick Hurran is the director. Nick Hurran previously directed ‘His Last Vow’. He also directed episodes of the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. 🙂
He directed ‘The Girl Who Waited’, ‘The God Complex’, ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ and ‘The Day of the Doctor’. I wish ‘Sherlock’s writing was varied as well as the directing.
Steven Moffat also seems to enjoy exploring Sherlock’s state of mind again, especially when he has him high on drugs. This is probably due to depression when he loses Watson who lost his wife lately.
As Sherlock investigates Culverton and plans to expose him, Una Stubbs as Mrs. Hudson has Sherlock put into a car. This is so Watson can examine him and be brought along for the case regarding Culverton.
Yeah, apparently Sherlock prearranged things in the episode, like two or three weeks in advance, so that Watson can be tagged along in order to sort out Culverton and expose him as…’the serial killer’.
By the way, Culverton starts in TV ads for cereal. Because he kills cereal! Get it? Because he’s a ‘cereal killer’…I didn’t find that funny. That’s very cheap in terms of humour on Steven Moffat’s part.
It also isn’t funny when Culverton talks about murder in front of kids whilst Sherlock and Watson are in the room. Like everybody in the room, I’d be put off. I would also be very suspicious of Culverton.
There’s a scene where Watson has it out with Sherlock, beating him on the floor, as he blames Sherlock for the death of his wife. Surely Watson knows Mary self-sacrificed herself for our Sherlock.
Again, the mental frame of mind Watson’s in could be open to interpretation, but there are times when Watson can be quite hard on Sherlock. This is especially as they’re meant to be best friends. 😐
The episode also features Rupert Graves as D.I. Lestrade, Mark Gatiss as Mycroft Holmes and Louise Brealey as Molly Hooper. I do think that Molly is being harder on Sherlock as these episodes go on. 😐
There’s also Lindsay Duncan as Lady Smallwood, who…seems to be…hitting on Mycroft. Um, where did that come from? Is Lady Smallwood older than Mycroft? Mind you, he doesn’t receive the signs?
There’s Tom Brooke as Bill Wiggins, Katy Wix as Nurse Cornish, Chris Wilson as a high rank police officer and Gina Bramhill as Faith Smith. Apparently, Faith isn’t the woman Sherlock had met before.
Sian Brooke guest stars as the new therapist that comes to see Watson when he’s grieving about losing his wife. She also happens to be Elizabeth, the woman that Watson previously met on a bus. 😐
More importantly however, she’s revealed to be Eurus Holmes, Sherlock and Mycroft’s secret sister. She seems to be villainous, especially by the time this episode ends, she’s about to shoot Watson. 😮
‘The Lying Detective’ is perhaps a better episode compared to others I’ve seen in the ‘Sherlock’ series. Then again, I’m intrigued about Eurus’ angle and how it’s to culminate in the TV series’ finale.
On Disc 10 of the complete ‘Sherlock’ DVD/Blu-ray box set, there’s the ‘Behind 221B’ featurette on ‘The Lying Detective’.
‘The Lying Detective’ rating – 7/10
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