Sherlock - An Introduction and Season 3 *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

 January 1st saw the VERY highly anticipated return of BBC original drama series Sherlock.

Now before we start, for those of you who don't watch/haven't watched/are considering watching Sherlock, let me tell you a few things about it.

1. Each of the three seasons contains only three episodes, but the episodes are all 90 minutes. Each one is loosely based on an original Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes story, but set in the present decade, i.e. use of mobile phones, t'internet etc.
2. The series is co-created by Steven Moffat (of Doctor Who writing fame) and Mark Gatiss (who has also written a few Doctor Who episodes, but is also a very great actor and co-creator of The League of Gentlemen) who also stars as Sherlock's older brother, Mycroft.
   They are both terrible because they make us wait a loooooooong time between seasons, so if you start watching now, you're lucky because you can watch all three seasons back to back - no waiting!
3. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) was virtually unknown before this and the series catapulted him into amazingness immediately, and while some may not find him conventionally handsome, it is hard NOT to be attracted to him when he is playing this super-smart but somewhat autistic character.
4. Martin Freeman co-stars wonderfully as Dr. John Watson. You might remember him as lovelorn Tim from The Office and adult movie stand-in John in Love Actually. He's been in something else quite important recently too... what was it now? Something to do with an unexpected journey or something?
5. Sherlock is an observer of human behaviour. It's very similar to what the Behavioural Analysis Unit does on Criminal Minds, only faster, in a lot more detail and MUCH more impressive.
   Within literally a minute of meeting Dr Watson he knows an incredible amount about him, and the scene in the back of the London taxi where he explains to John how he knew - well not knew, observed - is quite frankly one of the most jaw-dropping moments in the last five years of television, and it doesn't get any less amazing every time he does it.
6. You WILL be judged by a certain group within the Sherlock fandom if you hadn't read every single thing that Doyle has written prior to watching the series, even though they don't seem to understand that people will start reading his works now because of the series. (And Sherlock wasn't even Doyles favourite work.)

**WARNING: SPOILERS** **WARNING: SPOILERS** **WARNING: SPOILERS** **WARNING: SPOILERS**

Okay, so this third season comes just shy of TWO YEARS - yep that's right - after the end of the last one, and for those of us who remember the last episode, there has only been one thing on our minds.

HOW THE BLEEDIN' BUGGERY DID HE DO IT?

After 716 days of waiting, regular fans who cared and a fandom who probably cared too much (I stick myself in that last category) tuned in to The Empty Hearse to be shown a couple of quite frankly ridiculous explanations (straight from tumblr) and one sort of plausible one, which probably wasn't wholly true either.

At the end of the episode, Sherlock tells John Watson, "You know my methods."

Is he perhaps referring to Doyle's original story, The Final Problem, in which he admits that he never actually falls at all? Another theory...

The Empty Hearse introduces two new important characters. First, we have Mary Morstan, John's newest love interest. There is no mention in the episode of where he has met her, but fans of Doyle's work will be familiar with her. The fandom as a whole has been fairly split over the introduction of Mary, some believing that she might bring a new dimension to the team, and some holding a complete belief that she will tear the pair asunder.

Played beautifully by Amanda Abbington (wonderful English actress and Martin Freeman's real-life lovely lady), Mary slots fairly seamlessly into the boys' lives, all the while leaving us wondering what her secret is, particularly when Sherlock does his little 'deduction cloud' trick on her and the word "Liar" sticks out like a sore thumb. Amanda also knows how to play the fans just right as this tweet from October 2013 clearly shows!

The second new character is the moustache, turning up on John's face in a brief but memorable appearance(!) and is particularly important during the Sherlock/John inevitable reunion.

This entire episode smacked of the writers trolling through tumblr to develop their ideas and please an entire fandom, from the implausible Sherlock/Moriarty theory, to putting John under a bonfire on Guy Fawkes' Night. EVERYONE knows you check under a bonfire for hedgehogs!

It was fun, it was clever, it made us panic for a moment just exactly what we've been putting on our tumblrs that everyone might have seen... And even after everything we STILL don't really have a definitive answer...

One thing is for sure though, we were not prepared for the next episode. Not by a long chalk.

Quote of the episode: So many good ones, but I loved this little gem:

Mycroft: It's been two years. He's got on with his life.
Sherlock: What life? I've been away.