By: Conner Williams 
Editor in Chief

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: BBC’s “Sherlock” is one of the greatest television shows in history.

Each episode seems to be more cleverly written than the last, and this one takes the cake by a waterfall.

The long-anticipated special episode entitled “The Abominable Bride,” which fans were told is a standalone and is separate from the series, took us back to the origin of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch, “Star Trek: Into Darkness”) and John Watson (Martin Freeman, “The Hobbit”): Victorian-era London.

Complete with wonderful costumes and time-period props, the episode takes us back to the time when it all began, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conceived the brilliant crime-solving duo that has inspired countless detective narratives for more than 100 years.

The game is afoot as Holmes and Watson take on yet another seemingly incomprehensible case of murder and mystery. A woman dressed in a bride’s gown is spotted on a balcony shooting at multiple people before she turns the gun on herself. Then, hours later, she is reported by a police inspector to have murdered her husband in cold blood. How could she, whom had just committed suicide hours before, have killed this man?

Reluctantly sporting his trademark cap at the insistence of Watson’s words, “You’re Sherlock Holmes, wear the damn hat!” Holmes unravels the mystery thread by thread only to reveal that it isn’t what he thought it was; it’s something much greater, a resemblance to a case that has haunted him for years. No, Holmes must solve this case in order to solve another, a case that has baffled him and left his mind twisted from the day it happened.

I absolutely love the way that “Sherlock” episodes twist and turn all over the place, keeping me guessing as to where they are going next. This particular episode took me down a winding path that kept showing me what appeared to be the end of the road, but was actually yet another twist.

“Elementary, my dear Watson,” as Sherlock would so often tell his faithful companion as he tried to keep his bearings during the case. I felt similarly to Watson as I tried to keep up with the constant barrage of unexpected surprises this episode had in store.

The fourth season of “Sherlock” is, regrettably, tentatively scheduled to premiere sometime in the beginning of 2017.

If you missed “The Abominable Bride,” you can catch it again on Sunday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. on PBS, or you can stream it online at pbs.org/masterpiece beginning Jan. 11.
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