10 Ways Sherlock Went From Great To Terrible

Even the most passionate fans of the show can admit that The Abominable Bride was a horrible misstep. Setting the episode in its original Victorian era was an interesting idea but it quickly became clear that it was just an excuse for the writers to be self referential and pull the worst plot twist in Sherlock history.

The opening scene begins as Mrs Hudson berates John's published stories as she notes she is only ever showing people upstairs and serving breakfast, a jab at the Arthur Conan Doyle books which portrayed her so. "Well," retorts John "within the narrative, that is, broadly speaking, your function." This meta and continual self congratulatory tone as the writers point out how they have moved with the times is fairly painful to listen to for 90 minutes.

Aside from the writers patting themselves on the back with their triumphant feminist message as Mary leads the disenfranchised women of Victorian society to rebellion, the cringe worthy reveal that the period setting was a mind palace after all was the final straw. The convoluted reason that Sherlock induces this incredibly elaborate mind palace? Because he wanted to find a similar case of someone surviving a self inflicted gunshot head wound to see how Moriarty had supposedly done it. It is worth noting too he is unable to even reach a conclusion from this exercise in the end.