Sherlock Holmes has been a storytelling legend ever since the stories were first published in the late 1800’s by writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even now in the 21st century, his works are still being celebrated and admired, one of the most popular ways today in the form of BBC’s hit show of Sherlock, a modern twist on the classic tales of the Holmes novels.
The show is led by popular British actors with Benedict Cumberbatch cast as the famous Sherlock Holmes, and his accomplice Martin Freeman as the famous Dr. John Watson. Not just that, but with Steven Moffat as the producer and screenwriter to boot, the people involved in the show are constantly in demand. The entire schedule of the show revolves them and their newest projects. The question is: How long can they keep it up? But before we get into that, let’s review what’s happened so far:
In some of the most recent episodes, Sherlock went head to head in a dangerous set of encounters with Charles Augustus Magnusson; a blackmailer that would make anyone’s stomach turn. It was an exciting case that ended with Sherlock getting sent away by the British government. However, his trip was cut short when his longtime nemesis Moriarty was spotted, which very quickly brought him right back to resolve the issue.
After a hiatus, BBC released a special taking place in the Victorian ages, the original setting of the Novels. Many fans thought it was just going to be an alternate universe setting, but in reality the entire plot was created by Holmes’ drug riddled mind in an attempt to solve the unsolved case of Emelia Ricoletti. In a striking similarity to Moriarty, she had shot herself and seemed to have miraculously survived to haunt her dead husband and reign terror over the men of Britain. After the adventures of the Victorian ages, he returned back to the present. In an end that has fans clamoring for more, Sherlock claims to have anticipated Moriarty’s next moves. And, as always, the game is afoot once again.
So now that the next season is set, where can they go from here? One of the main questions for the fourth season is whether or not if Moriarty is truly back. Is he simply a false version of himself, set up to mess with Holmes, or has he returned into the flesh to reign terror over the entirety of Great Britain? There is much speculation on Jim’s potential return, but some things are for certain: We saw him put the gun in his mouth and fire. We saw the blood. It’s way more than possible that he’s dead, and Moffat is really going to need to crack out some serious explanations if he wants to bring him back to the series. A next big question for the fourth series is what on earth is going to happen to Mary? In the books, tragically but true, Mary doesn’t survive for long. If she survives and actually ends up having the baby, then what will that do to the relationship between John and Sherlock? John will then have that responsibility as a father, and may not be able to risk himself as he has before for his cases. But if she dies, John will be miserably distraught. Would the baby die with her, or would be John be left as a single father? In all situations, there’s going to be a rollercoaster of emotions in store. Of course, I’m sure the novel enthusiasts out there are just dying to see if any of his famous tales are going to be adapted into the series, or if Moffat is going to do his own thing from here. We can’t truly know until it’s all said and done.
Now once the special is over, the members of the Sherlock fandom are now waiting in excitement for the next set of mysteries in store for Holmes. There’s no telling when they may be out. Benedict Cumberbatch has been quite the busy bee. In 2013-2015 he had already appeared in several movies, like Star Trek Into Darkness, as well as other fan favorites such as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smug, and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies; The Imitation Game and many others. He’s also already in many movies this year along with the Abominable Bride like The Jungle Book which has been already released and has Doctor Strange planned for release in November. Not just that, there’s already more movies he’s cast in planned for 2017!
Cumberbatch is not an exception in this trend, Steven Moffat only just recently stepped down from being head writer for Doctor Who (writing a grand total of 51 episodes) and executive producer. He was quite the busy writer ever since Sherlock started and before that, writing for both Doctor Who and co-writing for Sherlock, and the occasional movie. Martin Freeman has also been up for grabs, starring in the Hobbit Movies as Mr. Bilbo Baggins himself and briefly this year in Captain America: Civil War, and is planned for movies all the way up to 2018.
With this type of business, it makes one wonder how long Sherlock will run. It’s the type of thought that any fan would be horrified to hear. With Benedict’s acting skills in high demand, he may leave the show for a better opportunity. We can only hope that the show gets the ending that it deserves, when the time comes.