Review: Sherlock 2.3: The Reichenbach Fall

Sherlock squares up to Moriaty, who brings him down.

Based on, "The Final Problem", this series' end-story was certainly epic in scale, taking on the battle between Holmes and Moriaty much unlike many had before it. Ultimately I felt rather unsatisfied by this tryptic, but Falls was more tense and character driven than its two predecessors and did leave me wanting more from the series. It's such a shame that the 90 minute format reduces the story number to a mere three, as there's so much that Sherlock could have done in the space of 6 unique, 45 minute affairs.
     Jim Moriaty is seemingly able to steal the Crown Jewels, break into the Bank of England and organise a prison break-out at the same time from one place, getting the attention of the criminal world. Upon his arrest, a blackmailed jury allowed Moriaty to walk off scott-free, but not before planting some seeds. Soon assassins are poised around Sherlock, and doubt from a Moriaty-set-up kidnapping leads the Police to suspect Sherlock of being a fraud. Despite how he denies it, Sherlock and John are forced to run from the police. They find that Moriaty has created an alias, Richard Brooke, claiming to be an actor whom Sherlock hired to play Moriaty, and that the story has gone to the national press. Sherlock, realising that Moriaty is playing him, heads for a rooftop confrontation. Jim tells Sherlock to jump to his death; if he doesn't, then his men will kill all of the people he cares about. Sherlock admits that he could easily read the safeword from Moriaty as long as he stays alive, and so Jim shoots himself. With no other option, Sherlock jumps from the building - or appears to. After his public shaming and funeral, Sherlock is revealed to still be alive, his future uncertain.
      Sherlock stories usually sag in the middle, but this story surprisingly sagged in the beginning despite the intrigue of the Moriaty storyline. Things only really got going once Sherlock's validity was being questioned after a victim seemed to recognise his face, and the slow transformation from this series' rise to fame, to the public shaming and disregard was almost, dare I say it, Batman-esque. His fake death also felt typically Moffattian, as it was this exact tactic that resolved the arc in 2011's series of Doctor Who. I admit that it felt a little irritating, but the scene was well done and there was serious doubt in my mind as to whether the series would continue. (Irene Adler spinoff, anyone? Although not written by Moffat, preferably).

Moriaty blackmails a jury.

      Something that struck me was how much of an actual finalé this felt like. I had the strangest niggle that the past two series had been written as one six-episode story, and thus why the last episode here felt so out of the norm. Sherlock usually has a bit of beef to it - a continuing mystery, something to chew on. Falls was very, very different from that and it's perhaps why I found the story quite jarring in places.
       The Reichenbach Fall was a tragic tale of a man's collapse from fame to infamy through his own mistakes, but that doesn't fit with what we want from Sherlock. We want a decent mystery and characterisations to make that less easy to work out; we only received the latter here, leaving it feeling devoid of any of its regular substance. Sherlock may have been terribly well-acted and performed, but there was something in the writing this year that threw it off course. Great thing it's coming back next year, then, eh?

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Nothing, unless Being Human starts sooner than I anticipated. Until then, look out for weekly reviews of Doctor Who Classic and Lost.