I think I suggested, “Well, why don’t we just do something bigger and more explosive-a big standoff?”īut we didn't take it that seriously, in the sense that I just thought it was such a standoff that they would just back away from each other realizing that they were at a stalemate. And for ages, that episode ended with Moriarty departing and Sherlock saying, “At last, the game begins,” or something like that. We didn't even know if we’d get a second run.
And we didn't know the series was going to be a hit. See, we never really took our cliffhanger on Series 1 seriously. How long did it take you to come up with the resolution to the Season 1 cliffhanger in "A Scandal in Belgravia"? READERS: You can watch the first 7 minutes of the episode at the PBS Facebook page and see what I am talking about.
But he does sort of move beyond that a bit. He’s doing it just because it amuses him and he only takes the cases that entertain him. He’s always been someone who it was very clear that he’s not doing this in order to better the world at least initially he isn't. I suppose Superman has been quite a success and he’s pretty unflawed, isn't he? I think there's a version of it, but Sherlock Holmes has always been a sort of anti-hero. It would be sort of impossible to write a show about a good man who had no flaws it’d be kind of boring. But never forget that Sherlock Holmes is a hero and what we’re seeing is that hero being assembled year by year in our series. He’s become a good man, but a good man with considerable flaws, it must be said, and still a frightening and cold individual. And by the time you get to “The Final Problem” he’s moved so far from his original debut that he is prepared to lay down his life to stop Moriarty. He’s still a bit psycho, but he’s become a lot more heroic. If you go a few stories later, he’s much warmer and funnier. Yeah, it’s just we want that idea that Sherlock Holmes, even if you look at the original stories, Sherlock Holmes in “A Study in Scarlet” is humorless, autistic, cold, unpleasant. It’s funny you should bring up a Lestrade quote, because I was going to ask where that quote came from. He encounters those deadly things of love and fear and loss, I suppose, is what he encounters, and, of course, he would emerge yet even stronger. But it’s more like it’s almost like Sherlock growing up, I suppose. Yes, people have talked about it being sort of almost a humanizing of him. What’s in store for Sherlock this season?
Watch Sherlock, Season 2 - Preview on PBS. Moffat answered more questions about the new season, comparing Sherlock to Doctor Who and how Scott's marvelous take on Moriarty changed the writers' plans for the character. "So this year is a big step forward for him in becoming the great man-or a good man-that Lestrade thinks he can be." He's still wondering whether he's a psychopath. He's more vulnerable because of those things. The Benedict Cumberbatch Holmes is still in the foothills of that. "When we see the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes, he's completely accomplished and heroic and amazing and brilliant and the mighty sage of Baker Street. "This is sort of his journey," Moffat told me during a phone interview. Going into Season 2, Moffat and co-creator Mark Gatiss kept what Detective Inspector Lestrade (Rupert Graves) said about Holmes in the first season in mind: "Sherlock Holmes is a great man and one day, if we're very lucky, he might be a good one." I can guarantee that by the end of "The Reichenbach Fall" on May 20, viewers will want to jump in the time machine featured in Moffat's other wildly popular series, "Doctor Who," and be transported to whatever date "Sherlock" Season 3 begins.Īll three of the new stories, beginning Sunday with "A Scandal in Belgravia" and continuing May 13 with "The Hounds of Baskerville" before the May 20 finale, dazzle with imagination, wit and outstanding lead performances from Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman as Watson, Andrew Scott as Sherlock's arch enemy, James Moriarty, and Lara Pulver as his latest obsession, the dominatrix Irene Adler. May 6, 13 and 20, WTTW in Chicago 4 stars). I should have asked "Sherlock" co-creator Stephen Moffat if he follows the first rule of showbiz, "Always leave them wanting more," because that's what he's done with both seasons of the popular reinterpretation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" mystery stories.Īfter a highly successful first season that drew 4.6 million viewers per each of three episodes on PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery!" last summer, the sleuth is back for three more installments ( 8 p.m.