10 Ways Sherlock Went From Great To Terrible

Inevitably a show as successful as Sherlock will have a rabid fanbase and the first two seasons stay on the right side of teasing them with the Sherlock bromance among other things. As the hoards of fans grew, however, Moffat and Gatiss' ultimately caved into their sultry demands either in an ironic fashion or just to appease them.

The Empty Hearse actually showing a Sherlock fan club who are the epitome of the online fans managed to simultaneously appear to be mocking them while also feeling like the writers are constantly winking at the audience throughout the rest of the series. The fan club in the episode attempt to solve the riddle of how Sherlock supposedly survived his own death but their imagination leads to extravagant sequences where Sherlock makes out with Molly and then later Moriarty.

Obviously the intention of this was to ridicule such fan fiction but by acting out these flights of fantasy they only added fuel to the fire. A show as intelligent as Sherlock should not have to stoop to such levels of GIF and Tumblr worthy content to appease its fans and yet it opened the floodgates from this moment on. Even Sherlock and John's conversations in later seasons felt dangerously close to a self parody of fan fiction as the joke of the two being an item was dangled like a carrot in front of these thirsty fans for the umpteenth time.