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This was an episode that veered dangerously close to shark-jumping on several occasions, played rather too fast-and-loose with the 4th wall for my liking, and was rather too pleased with its own cleverness. It did work, however...
The premise (that much of the episode is Sherlock inside his own mind, having overdosed) isn't revealed until near the end, which gives you a lot of time to think that they've gratuitously done a Victorian Sherlock. That Victorian Sherlock destroys the fourth wall, and is full of in-jokes both about the BBC Sherlock and the general Sherlock Holmes phenomenon. It keeps being almost too fond of its own cleverness, but sufficiently tongue-in-cheek that I was laughing along. And the murder cases are suitably intriguing...
Of course, this turns out (rather Inception-style) to be an entirely modern-Holmes mental construct (which probably explains Mycroft's appearance) - he's trying to work out what Moriaty is doing, and has concluded that by solving the Victorian case, he will be able to work out what Moriaty is up to. Obviously, we'll only be able to answer that satisfactorily if this turns out to be relevant in the next series, not due until 2017.
There's a lot of talk about narrators and how people are framed in stories, and Holmes' relationship with Watson, a lot of which only makes sense once you know the framing conceit, but it is pretty cleverly done, and I did enjoy it. Enough that I may watch it again in the light of knowing the answer, as it were...
The premise (that much of the episode is Sherlock inside his own mind, having overdosed) isn't revealed until near the end, which gives you a lot of time to think that they've gratuitously done a Victorian Sherlock. That Victorian Sherlock destroys the fourth wall, and is full of in-jokes both about the BBC Sherlock and the general Sherlock Holmes phenomenon. It keeps being almost too fond of its own cleverness, but sufficiently tongue-in-cheek that I was laughing along. And the murder cases are suitably intriguing...
Of course, this turns out (rather Inception-style) to be an entirely modern-Holmes mental construct (which probably explains Mycroft's appearance) - he's trying to work out what Moriaty is doing, and has concluded that by solving the Victorian case, he will be able to work out what Moriaty is up to. Obviously, we'll only be able to answer that satisfactorily if this turns out to be relevant in the next series, not due until 2017.
There's a lot of talk about narrators and how people are framed in stories, and Holmes' relationship with Watson, a lot of which only makes sense once you know the framing conceit, but it is pretty cleverly done, and I did enjoy it. Enough that I may watch it again in the light of knowing the answer, as it were...