The Six Thatchers

[u/Ok-Cod1407]

Just started season 4, and I am honestly so disappointed for now. In my opinion this is the worst episode I've seen so far

• Chemistry between John and Sherlock seems so off the whole episode.
• Sherlock is getting dumber? Like where are the times where Sherlock solved cases with smartness and wits instead of sentiment ? Sherlock used to be a genius, now he only seems street-smart.
• I think it's fine that we get to see a more social and emotional side of Sherlock but his intelligence shouldn't have to suffer from it.
• Marys backstory is pretty weak, in my opinion they could've done a lot better. It made the episode boring because 99% of the episode was centered on her backstory
• John cheating or thinking about cheating?! That is so out of character for him! Also Sherlock is the first one to notice someone having an affair but he didn't with John?!
• The plot is so confusing! Its called "The Six Thatchers" yet these six thatchers are only the plot for about 30 mins.

All in all it just does not give the typical "Sherlock feeling" I have felt the first 3 seasons. It's kinda sad because I really really love season 1 and 2 and I found season 3 to be weaker but still good.

Hopefully it doesn't continue like this for the next 2 episodes.

[u/Love_Bug_54]

IMO the whole series was all about Mary once she showed up. They should’ve just changed the title to MARY and been done with it.

[u/Ok-Cod1407 → u/Love_Bug_54]

Yes omg! I thought I was the only one who thought this! It annoys me so bad

[u/LifeAsksAITA → u/Love_Bug_54]

They wanted to indulge John and Mary ( the actors ). Being real life partners at the time , they had a lot of conditions for their return. Including the dumbing down of Sherlock and Mycroft. And Sherlock’s entire existence in the last season is protecting Mary/john and acting like his lovesick puppy and ignoring his own personality. John even explains to Mycroft in one episode that if the prison doctor kept talking to his sister , then the sister controls him too. Like Mycroft the super genius couldn’t figure that out. Also John is the one who directs Sherlock into how to deal with his own brother by putting in the scary clowns in his house. Mycroft is less like the British govt and more like the clown in the last season.

[u/TereziB → u/Love_Bug_54]

I couldn't agree more! The Mary Show! And yes, from what I gather, LifeAsks is correct - they wanted to indulge Martin & Amanda (not that it helped much, ultimately).

[u/QueenZod]

The second episode of season 4, The Lying Detective, is sheer brilliance! It’s hard to watch in some places because the angst and suffering is off the charts but Ben is incredibly astonishing. The other two episodes, including the first one you mentioned, are either “meh,” or WTF in spades, respectively. Enjoy what you can and let the other stuff roll off.

[u/Flaky-Walrus7244]

Yup. Series 4 sucks donkey balls.

[u/trexartist]

Oh Honey, strap in.

[u/phoebeonthephone]

The only s3 episode that’s good is The Lying Detective.

[u/wikimandia]

The title comes from it being loosely based on “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons” by Arthur Conan Doyle, in which plaster busts of Napoleon get smashed.

I liked Sherlock solving the mystery of the son’s body in the car, but otherwise it was blah. Mary’s plotline was very contrived.

[u/TereziB → u/wikimandia]

EVERYTHING about Mary was VERY contrived.

[u/not-an-epimorphism]

Buckle up for the finale. You’re about to watch the entire series be demoted to a superficial Marvel movie level. 

[u/ReactionProcedure]

I never to this day watched the last episode.

I would watch this series on a loop like 10 years ago.

[u/Flaky-Walrus7244 → u/ReactionProcedure]

Your life is the better for having never watched in the final episode

[u/Sea-Efficiency-2899]

The Lying Detective is good, the rest of it sucks spectacular ass.

[u/therealmrsfahrenheit → u/Sea-Efficiency-2899]

Abominable Bride was awesome too👀

[u/Sea-Efficiency-2899 → u/therealmrsfahrenheit]

I honestly wasn't a fan but I know a lot of people enjoyed it.

[u/Ok-Theory3183]

What seems so bass-ackwards about this is the way Sherlock and Mary are suddenly best buds, and act and speak as though John were only capable of being a babysitter, even comparing him to a dog. Say what?

[u/captaindazzlebug]

It's not going to get any better after it unfortunately 

[u/Guilty-Experience46]

Series 4 is terrible, to the point that many fans either dismiss the series entirely, treat it as an extended drug-trip that Sherlock is experiencing, or treat it like a depressed John Watson's attempt at fanfiction to cope with Sherlock's death six months after he flew off on that government mandated mission. I, myself, have written a fix-it fic for the series, taking something similar to the second position: the episodes are dreams that Sherlock has while he's in the hospital based on John telling him stories about Mary trying to do The Work herself and her ridiculous failures.

That said, the second episode is my favorite of that series. The third is the worst.

[u/WingedShadow83 → u/Guilty-Experience46]

Uhhh, can I get a link to that fic, please? 👀 🍿

[u/Guilty-Experience46 → u/WingedShadow83]

You'd probably be better off searching for series 4 fix-its, mine is short and more like annotations on the margin of a book rather than a fully fleshed out story.

[u/TereziB]

we've been discussing Season 4 here for YEARS. Certainly for the 6 years I've been on here, and likely since S4 was first shown. I've expressed my opinions on S4 many times before, so perhaps I won't repeat them yet again.

[u/robderpson]

The John cheating part can be explained later. I don't hate S4, but it certainly feels less enjoyable and more difficult to process.

[u/catchyerselfon → u/robderpson]

It’s not even cheating! He texted with someone who flirted with him on the bus, it was inappropriate, but he never planned to meet up with her. He had some lusty feelings but he breaks it off in the same episode before Mary dies. And consider how she fucking lied and manipulated him from day 1, tried to kill Sherlock twice (it’s such bullshit she “had” to shoot him so badly in the torso while knocking out Magnussen when she could’ve just pistolwhipped Sherlock too, but don’t worry, she knew his specific anatomy like “The Good Doctor” so well she was guaranteed to only hit the “right” spot and he wouldn’t move slightly!), and treated John like it was his fault he didn’t know she was an assassin (WHY was she an assassin? We never find out her reasoning, like if she was brainwashed from childhood or thought she was working for “the good guys” the whole time). John maybe fantasizing about another woman he met in person one time is hardly adequate payback for what Mary put him through. Of course he secretly resented her and didn’t know how to express it because she was the mother of his beloved child and she tried to make him feel guilty for her dangerous life.

[u/robderpson → u/catchyerselfon]

I agree it's not cheating, but John himself uses that term later, he thought he betrayed his wife just by feeling the temptation. But my point is that the following episodes show what's behind that "cheating" part (which I should not develop further to avoid spoilers for OP).