Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Sherlock: Season Four Blu-ray Movie Review

Family Values

Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 30, 2017

(Spoiler warning: This review assumes familiarity with the three prior seasons of Sherlock, as well as the Christmas special subtitled "The Abominable Bride". Newcomers take heed.)

After a three-year wait for Season Four of Sherlock—the longest gap to date between seasons of the BBC's international hit—fan anticipation had built so high that some degree of letdown was almost inevitable. It didn't help that the 2015 Christmas special entitled Sherlock: The Abominable Bride teased a solution to the cliffhanger that concluded Season Three, only to retreat back into secrecy at the end, relying on a narrative trick that left many viewers feeling cheated. Similar tricks are deployed throughout Season Four by writer/producers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, but deeper problems stem from story decisions made in Season Three, when Sherlock's creators chose to give John Watson's new wife, Mary, her own sinister back story. They thereby expanded Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's perfectly matched duo into a lopsided trio, upsetting Sherlock's narrative balance going forward. What role could the former assassin-for-hire play in the further adventures of Sherlock and Watson, especially after Sherlock committed a public murder to protect her?

Much of Season Four is devoted to restoring the balance of Sherlock's world, and to the writers' credit, they do not take the lazy route of simply whisking Mary offstage into domestic bliss with the new baby whose arrival was announced at the conclusion of "The Sign of Three" (Season Three, episode 2). Their approach is more daring and creative, and it provides actress Amanda Abbington with some of her best scenes to date, but the result too often buries the core of Sherlock's detective story under dense layers of overlapping subplots. By the time Season Four reached its third and final episode, ratings had dropped to the lowest in Sherlock's history. I suspect, however, that the season will rise in fans' estimation upon subsequent viewings, especially of the first two episodes, which are so packed with incident and nuance that they richly repay further attention. The season's final episode remains a disappointment, for reasons discussed below.

Each of the three episodes of Sherlock's Season Four has its own story, but more than in any prior season, they also serve as chapters in a continuing narrative, fueled (at least in part) by the mysterious reappearance of the late Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott) at the conclusion of Season Three. The phrase with which the deceased criminal mastermind announced his posthumous return—"Miss me?"—recurs through the season, with Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) always on the alert for signs of whatever evil scheme Moriarty managed to set in motion before his death.

Meanwhile, there are additional cases to solve. Episode 1, "The Six Thatchers", begins with a case brought to Holmes and Watson (Martin Freeman) by a baffled Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves). It involves a body discovered in a burned-out auto, but in the course of solving it, Holmes becomes intrigued by a missing plaster bust of the late Margaret Thatcher, which he quickly discovers to be part of a pattern of Thatcher busts that are being smashed all over London. The trail eventually leads to a mystery man named Ajay (Sacha Dhawan). With more of Mary's shadowy past coming to light, the timing couldn't be more inconvenient, as she has just given birth to a daughter, whom she and John have named Rosie. As usual, Mycroft Holmes (Gatiss) skulks superciliously about the edges of the story, as does Lady Smallwood (Lindsay Duncan), the senior intelligence official who was being blackmailed in "His Last Vow" (Season Three, episode 3).

Episode 2, "The Lying Detective", finds Sherlock once again descending into serious drug abuse. ("I've seen healthier people on the slab", says morgue attendant Molly Hooper (Louise Brealey)). It is in this state that the famous detective becomes convinced that a wealthy entrepreneur, philanthropist and celebrity by the name of Culverton Smith (Toby Jones) is an arch-criminal. Sherlock's conviction results from a consultation with Smith's daughter, Faith (Gina Bramhill), who believes her father confessed a terrible secret to her before erasing her memory with drugs—but she can't be sure. Indeed, her visit to Sherlock may not even be real, because he is so deep into his addiction that he may have hallucinated the entire meeting. The episode is filled with confusion and miscues, and it's a credit to Toby Jones's performance as Culverton Smith that he manages to break through the multi-stranded narrative with a memorably disturbing portrayal. Fans of Sherlock's landlady, Mrs. Hudson (Una Stubbs), can look forward to her scenes in "The Lying Detective", which reveal new facets of 221B Baker Street's cheerful owner.

The last scene of "The Lying Detective" serves as a bridge to the season finale, appropriately titled "The Final Problem", which cannot be discussed without at least minor spoilers; so stop reading now if you don't want to know even a little about the episode. "The Final Problem" centers on a third Holmes sibling, at whose existence Mycroft darkly hinted in "His Last Vow" and whom Sherlock does not remember. The youngest Holmes has been confined since childhood to a maximum-security "black site" named Sherrinford, but Sherlock comes to believe that the facility is no longer secure, necessitating a visit to the remote island location and a confrontation with Sherlock's buried past—which is precisely where "The Final Problem" encounters its own problem, one that Gatiss and Moffat have not been able to solve. Having already devoted an entire episode, "The Abominable Bride", to rooting around in the depths of its lead character's psyche, the series seems to be repeating itself by almost immediately resuming that quest. It doesn't help that Gatiss and Moffat reuse a key narrative strategy from "Bride", which is to get viewers invested in an elaborately realized scenario, only to abruptly reveal that everything you've been seeing is just a figment of a character's imagination.

"The Final Problem" is also burdened with an underwhelming villain who cannot help but be a letdown from prior adversaries. While the youngest Holmes may be brilliant, amoral and cruel, the elaborate machinations displayed in "The Final Problem" are not the work of a criminal mastermind bent on wealth, power and world domination. They're little more than sibling rivalry taken to a homicidal extreme, which is why the case concludes on an unsteady note that feels less like a resolution than an evasion. Multiple endings are required to tie up loose ends before Sherlock and Watson can be left to sally forth into an uncertain future.

Sherlock: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sherlock continues to be shot on the Arri Alexa. Three different cinematographers worked on Season Four, but their work neatly replicates the clean and detailed imagery of Season Three, abandoning the period darkness that characterized "The Abominable Bride". Cool blues and grays dominate key sections of each of the three episodes, whether it's the London Aquarium in "The Six Thatchers", a sterile hospital ward in "The Lying Detective", or the corridors of Sherrinford in "The Final Problem". Scenes in Baker Street provide a contrastingly warm palette; bright flashes of color accentuate key scenes, like the red of the Aston Martin that leads the authorities on a wild chase in episode 2; and flashbacks are marked by mild desaturation. The image features deep blacks (essential during such sequences as the "nightmare" that opens episode 3), excellent shadow detail and reliably accurate contrast. BBC Video has mastered Season Four of Sherlock with an average bitrate of just over 28 Mbps.

Sherlock: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sherlock's latest season continues the lossless audio that began with Season Three, supplying each episode with an artful 5.1 soundtrack encoded in DTS-HD MA. Broad dynamic range gives full expression to several explosions, more gunfire than one usually finds in Sherlock, and the frequent shattering of glass, plaster and other breakables. An immersive surround field rapidly shifts the aural perspective to match the series' unique visual design and editing rhythms, which overlay and alternate images from multiple scenes and perspectives; the effect is especially unsettling in episode 2, where the distorted sound reflects the distortions of Sherlock's drug-addled mind. Dialogue is always crisply intelligible and properly localized. Composers David Arnold and Michael Price continue to work new variations on the series' familiar themes.

Sherlock: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras can be found on disc 2. Warning: Almost every extra contains major spoilers.

• Behind 221B (1080p; 1.78:1): Each of these long featurettes discusses the plot of its respective episode and looks at the rehearsal and filming of specific scenes, with emphasis on stunts and major effects.
• The Six Thatchers (20:43)
• The Lying Detective (23:40)
• The Final Problem (22:53)



• The Writer's Chat (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:18): Moffat and Gatiss discuss a variety of topics, including the genesis of Season Four and their strategy for keeping secrets. At the end, they briefly address the possibility of a fifth season.



• Script to Screen (1080p; 1.78:1; 21:44): This extended "making of" begins with the read-through of episode 1 and concludes with Season Four's scoring sessions. A highlight is the interview with composers Arnold and Price.



• John & Mary's Flat (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:22): Production designer Arwel Jones leads a tour of the newly constructed set for the Watsons' apartment.



• Mark Gatiss Video Diary: On Set (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:01): This brief visit was shot near the end of production, when sets were being disassembled. In the process, Gatiss encounters composer David Arnold and actor Rupert Graves, both of whom are working on the conclusion of "The Final Vow".



• Mark Gatiss Video Diary: Final Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:54): The best moment is Gatiss' impression of Hannibal Lecter in his prison cell.



• Danny Hargreaves Video Diary (1080p; 1.78:1; 3:15): Hargreaves is Sherlock's special effects supervisor. He recorded this diary while overseeing a major effect for "The Lying Detective" (covered in greater depth in that episode's entry of "Behind 221B").



• Timelapse: Building 221B (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:29): As the title suggests, this extra shows the construction of the set for Sherlock's iconic residence.



• Introductory Trailers: Disc 1 opens with a trailer for Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterioso, while disc 2 opens with a trailer for Planet Earth II.

Sherlock: Season Four Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As of this writing, it is unclear whether Sherlock will continue, but I hope it does, because "The Final Problem" does not come close to supplying a satisfactory conclusion to a series that has become a pop culture phenomenon. However much time may be needed to find openings in the increasingly busy schedules of its two stars, Sherlock needs to get back to the kind of investigations and adversaries that first won the show its fan base. As for Season Four, the Blu-ray treatment is first-rate and recommended, even if the season itself isn't Sherlock's best.