Sherlock season 4 finale: An unfortunate low for the series

“The Final Problem” is perhaps aptly named as I am seemingly in the minority of people who were disappointed with this episode which could potentially spell the end of the amazing series.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

Episode 2 left is with two great cliffhangers:

1. What is the story of The secret Holmes sister Eurus?

2. What will be the outcome of John getting shot?

How these questions are answered is the real measuring stick of this episode’s success…

The show opens with a sequence where Mycroft is scared while watching an old home movie. The entire scene turns out to be a trick played by Sherlock after which he reveals that he knows that their secret sister was incarcerated and Watson reveals that he was shot with a tranquilizer. It felt completely unnecessary and worse, like we were deceived in the last episode and robbed of seeing Sherlock’s discovery of the sister.

Sherlock, Watson and Mycroft decide to go visit the prison where their sister is supposed to be captive. For some reason, even though Mycroft seems to have sway with the institution – they decide to commandeer a ship and disguise themselves to get themselves into the penitentiary.

Their plan backfires as they learn – in a pretty cool way – that Eurus is actually in charge of the prison. She apparently has the power to “reprogram” people. This is a really interesting concept with a ton of potential… although it also raises several questions that the show avoided such as: if she has this ability – and already escaped, why would she attempt to murder them via a grenade attached to a drone, and subsequently go back to the prison just to wait for them to show up?

We also learn that Eurus also had interactions with Moriarty, but I think they messed this opportunity up as well. This would have been a great explanation for Moriarty’s obsession with Sherlock. But instead they decided that he already had the obsession and just got additional assistance/information from Eurus. Feels like a missed opportunity.

Having enslaved Sherlock, Watson and Mycroft, Euros decides to set up a series of riddles for them to solve. In order to motivate them into action she dangles an impending plane crash over them, which they can help avert by solving the crimes.

However the riddles don’t really add up to anything related to the plane conundrum, nor do they really relate to much at all in the plot. It is as if more than half of the episode was one giant red herring.

By the end of the series of events Sherlock throws a wrench into Eurus’ scheme and she is forced to knock them unconscious (for a second time).

This time when Sherlock wakes up he is in a strange room while Watson is chained to the bottom of a well and Mycroft is nowhere to be found. This time the threat is that Sherlock must solve the mystery of his dog Redbeard in order to save both John and the doomed airplane.

The “answer” to this mystery kind of comes out of nowhere. It’s not one of those mysteries where clues were offered along the way, rather it was a case of Sherlock having the wrong facts due to having been reprogrammed by his sister years ago.

The final answer to the mystery is a cipher hidden among grave stones – which is a ridiculously long message that ultimately tells Sherlock to go to Eurus’ bedroom, where he SHOCKER…  finds Eurus – who somehow was sane enough to leave this bizarre clue for Sherlock and yet is so insane that the entire plane situation existed only in her mind (yet somehow this figment of her imagination communicated with Sherlock in yet another unexplained plot hole).

This was all very disappointing, perhaps the most disappointing show of the entire series. But the ending made it even worse. Trying to wrap everything up they found yet another video from Mary where she touts Sherlock and Watson as great adventurers and then it has the audacity to finish with them running towards the camera in a shot that reminded me of the ending of Batman Forever.

I literally lost sleep after this. My mind was arguing between thinking “I hope this isn’t how they end the show” and “where else is there for this show to go from here?”

That is the great mystery.

Here’s a video review that share’s my sentiments:

I’m so freakin’ Pissed about the Walking Dead Season 6 Finale

Season 6 of TWD will forever be known as the season in which AMC and the writers decided to test the limits of how much they could piss off their fan base.

They are begging us to trust that they have a plan and there will be an adequate pay-off and yet fail to accept that we’ve been fooled before!

The Season actually started out pretty wild, bursting through the gates with attacks from the Wolves and Glenn’s apparent demise. But then it suddenly went off the rails!

The Wolves essentially vanished, with no further explanation as to who they are and what they’re about, Glenn’s death turned out to be a cheap hoax, and we had to sit through an incredibly dull extra-long episode telling the boring tale of why Morgan doesn’t kill.

The show seemed to get back on track again when Jesus popped up, but eventually he wound up disappearing from the show as well.

Episode after episode seemed to drag on as long as they felt they could get away with, typically having only one or two actual events take place per episode, culminating in the second to last episode, where Daryl, who all but disappeared himself got shot in the very last shot, as yet another “cliffhanger” – which once again was not properly paid off.

This brings us to the finale, which plodded along at zombie pace, with the heroes trying to get Maggie to a doctor but being cut off and taunted at every possible pass by the saviors, while Morgan is pursuing Carol, whose character has devolved from the once alpha-female into a blubbering wuss.

That being said, Morgan’s story conclusion was the one saving grace for this episode. By killing to save Carol he simultaneously proved her point of view right, as well as letting us know that he cares very deeply for her.

When the main crew gets ambushed they are introduced to Negan, who lines them up and bashes in the skull of one of them, while we the audience are left to guess who got the wrong end of Lucille.

So this brings me back to my initial point, that AMC have painted themselves into a corner that they may not be able to get out of. Let’s look at each of the death candidates and what their death would imply…

Rick – if Rick is the one that gets it the show is done. period.
Carl – Since Judith is nowhere to be seen these days, Carl is really the only thing Rick has to hold onto. His death at this stage in the show would be absolutely meaningless, as their story-arc has not yet maturated.

Eugene – They said their goodbyes to Eugene thinking he was going on a suicide run, so if it is him it will come off as too obvious and an easy out for the writers.
Daryl – Even though he hasn’t done much lately it would be pretty weak to kill him off in such a lame way. He and the fans deserve more.
Abraham – I have been wanting to see Abraham take up the mantle of Rick’s guardian ever since he showed up, but his character is still a lot of fun – probably the most accessible among the group. However all the baby talk prior to being captured could make him an option, yet once again this would seem like an obvious and weak choice.
Sasha – Much like Abraham and the baby talk I could see her going. Of course Sasha is a pretty thin character so offing her would be a very weak/easy out choice for them.
Rosita – Rosita has only had about two memorable scenes this season, so killing her off would be yet another easy out for the writers.
Maggie – This one is interesting. If Maggie and her unborn child are whacked Glenn would be destroyed and the show would lose it’s hottest actress. The only thing that would make me think it’s not her is the fact that after getting clubbed we didn’t hear Glennjamin scream.
Glenn – It is well-known by this point that Glenn is the one Negan kills in the comic. But having already pretended to kill Glenn once this season, it would be pretty weak to kill him “for real” like this.
Michonne – She is a fan favorite, but her role has been diminished of late. As Rick’s current squeeze she may easily be the one to go in order to propel Rick into another rampage.
Aaron – Another minor character/easy out.

My vote: Either Maggie or Michonne, but I’m leaning towards Michonne.

SOA finale review

Season 1 of the webseries SOA (Satan’s Offspring & Associates) has come to a mind-bending, cliffhanger of an ending with episode 10 of the show that was intended to be a combination of Trailer Park Boys meets Sons of Anarchy animated like South Park, landing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-BwJrQzZQM

The episode maintained the irreverent (borderline offensive) style, while also giving us both glimpses into the past and hints of what’s to come. The visuals have always been designed to be simplistic, but some of the “camera angles” in this episode definitely lean towards cinematic inclination.

The comedy is multi-faceted in that there is visual, slap-stick humour, Preston Sturgess-esc back-ground humour, auditory gags, lowbrow jokes as well as political and societal satire.

That being said, this episode is also probably the most risqué in terms of “shock value”, so those easily offended will certainly be annoyed with some of the jokes such as some of the language, throwing feces at one another and the partial nudity. While there is not the traditional religious mockery seen in some shows these days there are a couple of light-hearted remarks about Buddha as well as the concept of the forty virgins.

However if I had to pick my favourite moment of this episode – and in fact the show, it would be the very last shot (not including the “bonus scene”). It visually and musically ties the entire season together quite brilliantly.

Check out the episode for yourself here and let me know your thoughts.