Yes, it may be a slight bit premature, but I'll already call it based on my own arbitrary rules: A Scandal in Belgravia, despite being released on TV and now on DVD, is one of the best films I've seen this year. It is film length, we can agree on that, at 90 minutes it feels and is plotted out to be a feature film (albeit still in line with the continuity of the show due to it taking off the cliffhanger from the end of season 1, and a damn good one at that with Moriarty in the swimming pool). Within its own dimensions it works as a film, and writer Steven Moffat fleshes out the emotional stakes of the hero (or as much as can be with Sherlock Holmes) as he is up against a new and surprisingly dangerous adversary: "The Woman" Irene Adler.
How he comes upon Miss Adler is a mystery unto itself, except when we discover (though only later does the hero) what her connection is within the world of Sherlock. But not too much on that, that would spoil the fun. In this story, Sherlock, after getting out by chance/luck/huh from Moriarty's grasp, he takes on - or tries to take on - new cases, and all mostly for naught. While on a potential new case he is plucked out by secret service (and in just a sheet no less!) and is given the new case with shady intonations by his brother Mycroft at the palace: Miss Adler, a dominatrix (which Holmes needs a moment to process what that is), is behind some kind of secret with photographs, and Sherlock is only told so much. When he goes to see her, and following a very funny 'disguise' by having Watson hit him so he looks like he was just beaten up to be taken in for a moment, she appears "ready for battle" as she puts it to her assistant. How is this, you might ask?
Naked. Stark naked. When Holmes looks at her - another big laugh via Moffat's script - it's all question marks, which is unusual for Sherlock's super-incredible keen sense of seeing everything on a person like a computer. But the s*** gets deeper when a burglar comes about to get something from her safe, fight ensues, and then... well, all I'll say from here is that a certain ring-tone is put in Sherlock's phone of a female's 'pleasure' sound, and a game ensues over months between Sherlock and Irene. To put it bluntly about how good this episode is - if Sherlock is Batman (ala Moriarty's Joker or possible Riddler), then Irene Adler is Catwoman. She is an adversary, yet while she is a villain she can use her sexuality as a powerful tool against a man who may have intellectual prowess, but emotionally is not really all there.
Indeed this Batman/Catwoman dynamic is far different in this sort of case since Sherlock, or how Benedict Cumberbatch plays him and how Moffat writes him and Paul McGuigan (brilliantly) directs him, is with a big touch of asperger's. Or, rather, his genius comes with a sort of personal-emotional price with it. There are some twists along the way that Moffat lays out with the characters - some, frankly, will leave you slack-jawed in the best possible way - but it's really about this unlikely bond, this chess game that is played out in (not) dinner-time, and who wins will really be based on who loses control. We don't see much of Adler doing her 'dominatrix' thing (frankly, one scene where she is whipping a character is enough to get the point across, and it's very funny to see it), and really it's all on Lara Pulver's eyes, connecting (or trying to) with Cumberbatch, that gives the episode its edge and spark. Already the show is fantastic with its lead and Martin Freeman. With Pulver, it's another big notch on to the quality of the acting and electricity in the air, so to speak.
It's just sharp storytelling, some great twists and turns (some may or may not be surprises to those who've read A Scandal in Bohemia, which this is based upon), and that the story not so much takes a backseat but plays so well concurrently with it as a character piece that makes it such a smashing success (not just Holmes and Adler but little things between Holmes and Mycroft or Watson and his, uh, what's her name, the latest girlfriend, y'know). On top of this, because it's a sort of romantic piece, Moffat gets to have a lot of fun with little beats in the dialog, it's more than amusing about an emotionally-stunted man finding a romantic bond, and we have fun seeing where it could go. It's a lot of fun, but the filmmakers also never lose sight of making these characters matter deeply. The end is especially moving (albeit, yes, with one more twist, but hey why not).
How he comes upon Miss Adler is a mystery unto itself, except when we discover (though only later does the hero) what her connection is within the world of Sherlock. But not too much on that, that would spoil the fun. In this story, Sherlock, after getting out by chance/luck/huh from Moriarty's grasp, he takes on - or tries to take on - new cases, and all mostly for naught. While on a potential new case he is plucked out by secret service (and in just a sheet no less!) and is given the new case with shady intonations by his brother Mycroft at the palace: Miss Adler, a dominatrix (which Holmes needs a moment to process what that is), is behind some kind of secret with photographs, and Sherlock is only told so much. When he goes to see her, and following a very funny 'disguise' by having Watson hit him so he looks like he was just beaten up to be taken in for a moment, she appears "ready for battle" as she puts it to her assistant. How is this, you might ask?
Naked. Stark naked. When Holmes looks at her - another big laugh via Moffat's script - it's all question marks, which is unusual for Sherlock's super-incredible keen sense of seeing everything on a person like a computer. But the s*** gets deeper when a burglar comes about to get something from her safe, fight ensues, and then... well, all I'll say from here is that a certain ring-tone is put in Sherlock's phone of a female's 'pleasure' sound, and a game ensues over months between Sherlock and Irene. To put it bluntly about how good this episode is - if Sherlock is Batman (ala Moriarty's Joker or possible Riddler), then Irene Adler is Catwoman. She is an adversary, yet while she is a villain she can use her sexuality as a powerful tool against a man who may have intellectual prowess, but emotionally is not really all there.
Indeed this Batman/Catwoman dynamic is far different in this sort of case since Sherlock, or how Benedict Cumberbatch plays him and how Moffat writes him and Paul McGuigan (brilliantly) directs him, is with a big touch of asperger's. Or, rather, his genius comes with a sort of personal-emotional price with it. There are some twists along the way that Moffat lays out with the characters - some, frankly, will leave you slack-jawed in the best possible way - but it's really about this unlikely bond, this chess game that is played out in (not) dinner-time, and who wins will really be based on who loses control. We don't see much of Adler doing her 'dominatrix' thing (frankly, one scene where she is whipping a character is enough to get the point across, and it's very funny to see it), and really it's all on Lara Pulver's eyes, connecting (or trying to) with Cumberbatch, that gives the episode its edge and spark. Already the show is fantastic with its lead and Martin Freeman. With Pulver, it's another big notch on to the quality of the acting and electricity in the air, so to speak.
It's just sharp storytelling, some great twists and turns (some may or may not be surprises to those who've read A Scandal in Bohemia, which this is based upon), and that the story not so much takes a backseat but plays so well concurrently with it as a character piece that makes it such a smashing success (not just Holmes and Adler but little things between Holmes and Mycroft or Watson and his, uh, what's her name, the latest girlfriend, y'know). On top of this, because it's a sort of romantic piece, Moffat gets to have a lot of fun with little beats in the dialog, it's more than amusing about an emotionally-stunted man finding a romantic bond, and we have fun seeing where it could go. It's a lot of fun, but the filmmakers also never lose sight of making these characters matter deeply. The end is especially moving (albeit, yes, with one more twist, but hey why not).