Sherlock S2 (2012) Review

 

Sherlock S2 (2012)

Sherlock season 2 once again follows the crime solving exploits of Holmes and Watson as their popularity grows in the search to uncover the secret behind Moriarty.

Season 2 builds on everything that made season 1 so captivating, and this time showing the duo at some of their hilariously and witty best. Watson has fully bought into the magic of his partner, really blossoming into what he becomes in the books. Sherlock however, is equally brilliant, but outmatched as this season goes full force in showing that he is a human man with emotion and that he has the ability to be beaten at his own game.

We once again get regular cases, with Moriarty lurking in the shadows until the final episode, but when he does show, it’s amazing. He outwits the master detective and discredits him in the process, a move that leads to Sherlocks shocking ‘suicide’ to the end the season on a massive cliffhanger. The aforementioned standalone cases though were great, with Scandal in Belgravia being a sexed up love affair for Mr Holmes, and with the classic Hound of the Baskerville being a great modern take to explain away the giant demonic hound from the books.

I felt like the cast in this season only improved, including Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman again, as well as Lara Pulver, Rupert Graves, and Andrew Scott. Graves really added a great layer to the already pretty funny dynamic of Cumberbatch and Freeman, with their chemistry A+ as usual. Scott as Moriarty though, steps his performance up even more, providing a perfect foil and villain to give Cumberbatch a tense and excellent match of wits in the finale.

Season 2 solidified Sherlock as one of the better shows on TV, showing that not only can these stories work well in a modern setting, but they can be improved while also adding their own stories that can be a great combination of funny, nerve-racking, and downright intelligent, with show runners Steven Moffit and Mark Gatiss showing that they are capable of outstanding storytelling. While the middle episode lacked a bit, the twists and turns of the finale that saw the deaths of Holmes and Moriarty more than made up for it.

9.8/10