Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

t is a very strange case that Inspector Lestrade ( Rupert Graves ) comes up with: a woman kills herself and reappears a short time later to kill her husband. How is this supposed to work? But strange cases are what master detective Sherlock Holmes ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) prefers, as they are a welcome opportunity to challenge one’s own mind. Or in this case to overwhelm, because Holmes and Dr. Watson ( Martin Freeman ) can’t find the right answer. Just as things are about to turn into one of Sherlock’s rare defeats, his brother Mycroft ( Mark Gatiss) of a secret war tied to this very case that promises to change the fortunes of all of England.

How times change! When it became known a few years ago that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous fictional character Sherlock Holmes would be transported to the present, where he also solves his cases with the help of computers and mobile phones, there was great skepticism, if not outright outrage. “Who needs that?” A lot, Sherlock has become one of the most celebrated series in the world. What’s more, when the makers announced that they wanted to shoot a special episode set in Victorian England like the literary original, the reactions to the return to the original period were almost as negative. “Who needs something like that?” The answer to this, however, is much more mixed, is Sherlock: The Abominable Bride finally at the same time as expected and yet completely different.

The Sherlock special scores with the same strengths of the acclaimed crime series: first-class actors, lots of humor, high-speed dialogue, and technical gadgets. The penchant for (self-ironic) allusions is so strong in “Sherlock: The Abominable Bride” that the film hardly works without the template, the crime part later becomes a frustratingly little-noticed accessory.

• Sherlock: The Abominable Bride