10 Ways Sherlock Went From Great To Terrible
6. The Mind Palace Scenes
The introduction of Sherlock's mind palace in Hounds of the Baskerville was a novel idea and used sparingly at the start but gradually became a parody of itself, each time getting more ridiculously extravagant than the last.
The mind palace was an ingenious idea on behalf of the showrunners because the alternative is Sherlock just frowning at the camera as he tries to solve the mystery in his head for two minutes. Instead the viewer is shown the inner workings of Sherlock's brain through text, pictures and information which pop up on screen making it entertaining and a glimpse into the process of a genius.
However, directors seemed to see this as a challenge to outdo the previous episode's mind palace with one ridiculously extravagant set piece which saw Sherlock retreat to said palace after being shot by Mary. We start with Molly in the morgue who is then joined by Anderson and then we focus on Mycroft in his office before a gratuitous cameo from Moriarty in a padded cell. And they are all gathered just to help Sherlock decide which way to fall after he has been shot.
The prize for worst offender goes to the Christmas special, supposedly set in 1895, which was revealed to be a mind palace all along, but more on this later...