NEWS:
This winter, the network will be bridging the gap
between season 3 (which aired in January 2014)
and season 4 (scheduled to premiere sometime in
2016) with a standalone Christmas special -
which retains the principle cast but will actually
be set in Victorian (instead of Modern) London .
Moffat has made it clear that the special will be
entirely separate, in order to tell a very specific
story, meaning that fans of the series will have to
wait until season 4 to discover what's next for
present day Sherlock and Holmes - as well as
the source of/reason for Moriarty's posthumous
message.
While the showrunner has remained cryptic
regarding where the series will go in season 4, in
a recent interview Moffat offered new details
about what viewers can expect - teasing a dark
and frightening set of episodes that will have
Sherlock fans "desperate" for season 5.
We've pulled the most intriguing quotes from the
interview below - or head over to EW for the full
conversation:
The first series was all about the beginning of
their friendship. Second about the formative
stages, the love and fear and loss and all that.
The third was good days, me and my pal and my
pal's wife. Those are golden days. The missing
element in a lot of Sherlock Holmes adaptations
is allowing it to be funny. There's a lot of humor
in Sherlock Holmes, and it's ignored in a lot of
adaptations. [Season 4] is going to be... I
suppose you'd say... consequences. It's
consequences. Chickens come to roost. It's dark
in some ways"obviously it's great fun and a
Sherlock Holmes romp and all that"but there's a
sense of... things... coming back to bite you. It's
not a safe, sensible way to live. It's hilarious and
exhilarating some days, but some days it's going
to be bloody frightening.
[It's probably more serialized]. A lot of
serialization is latent, isn't it? It's hidden. Series
3 doesn't look very serialized, but you look back
at how much we're setting up Mary [Amanda
Abbington] to be who she turns out to be. It will
be three stand-alone films, 90 minutes each, and
an ongoing mystery, as there sort of always is.
[Fans will be] desperate for series 5. We're
certainly going to put them through the mill. It's
going to be more of an emotional upheaval.
Hopefully enjoyable and fun, all the things
Sherlock must always be. It will be tough at
times. Maybe that's the word? A tougher series.
As indicated by Moffat, while season 3 was less
serialized than the prior two episodic trilogies,
Mary Watson (and her mysterious backstory) was
the primary narrative through-line. It makes
complete sense that Moffat and his team would
continue to explore the human side of Sherlock
through the Watsons but, considering that the
pair is comprised of a former assassin and a war
hero, there's also plenty of room to explore larger
"consequences."
Of course, those consequences could also arise
from Holmes and Watson's "consulting detective"
work - which, over the course of nine stories (in
addition to countless cases the audience did not
see), has left the pair with plenty of enemies.
Plus, even if viewers think of recent Sherlock
Holmes stories (the Sherlock Holmes movie
series, Sherlock, and Elementary) as fun mystery
tales, the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels are
full of harrowing (and tragic) material.
Still, Moffat has made similar comments before
about his other high profile show, Doctor Who ,
and the tonal differences between seasons were
mostly subtle - not necessarily major shifts or
game-changing plot beats. Even a darker and
more frightening Sherlock season needs to
contain the same charm as prior chapters - so
its unlikely that Moffat will tip the balance too far
into darkness.
In the source books, the fate of Mary Watson is
mentioned only in passing, leaving room for
Moffat and the writers to explore an entirely
untold chapter in the life of Sherlock and Watson,
should a season of "consequences" result in fatal
ramifications. That said, the TV series has already
taken enormous liberties with the original material
(beyond modern cosmetic updates), especially
when it comes to Mary, so nothing (and no one)
is set in stone.
In the interview, Moffat also promised that
season 4 will bring answers - with at least one
answer addressing a question that no fans have
thought to ask:
There are answers coming to questions which
nobody has asked. There's one thing that no one
has really brought up [...] We've actually set up
something, I think"[co-creator Mark Gatiss] and
me, we're very exultant about a little thing we've
set up that no one is talking about. [...] It's not
that we're being clever. We never know.
Sometimes people go mad for one thing we think
is quiet trivial and completely ignore something
we think is standing right in front of you.
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
