8 Fan-Service TV Episodes Everyone Hated

Sherlock had one of the most prolific fanbases out there, and with that obviously had to come a whole lot of pandering. Cue season three and the advent of what some called ‘Tumblr television.’

In a more general way, the show moved toward being more character-based from season three. They made dialogue more flirty and introduced types of humour that were previously absent but lent themselves to shareability (think ‘random’ humour in The Abominable Bride Christmas special).

The first episode that exemplified this to many was the season 3 opener, The Empty Hearse. Critics and fans alike began deriding it for being plotless fanservice and blogger-fodder. The fan-theories of how Sherlock survived his famous fall were no longer confined to the internet but transplanted onto the screen, even giving us a Sherlock/Moriarty kiss that sent the shippers wild.

On the whole the episode seemed devoid of meaningless plot or character development and existed only to give the rabid fanbase what they had been asking for. This would be all well and good had they had the time to mess about, but Sherlock has notoriously few episodes in a season and painfully long hiatuses.

This was the beginning of the end and marked Sherlock’s coming descent into Moffat madness in which, by the end of season 4, all hope for meaningful and concise storytelling was long lost.