Juan tells you what he thinks about Reichenbach Fall

MillerCross

Because stealing from your soul brother is good for you!

I loved it to death, I really did. Sherlock and Moriarty's dance of wits is really really interesting and a joy to watch. 

The episode obviously addresses one of my main complaints of the show till this point and it was that Moriarty was too much tell and not enough show. We know he's the consultant criminal to Sherlock's consultant detective, we know that he's supposedly the most amazing criminal mind we've ever seen and that he was involved in one shape or another in every single case Sherlock has resolved in front of us. However up until the Reichenbach Fall, he only had had about...what? half an hour of screen time tops? Yeah. And in the only moments in which he appeared as Moriarty and not as an actor, all he did was be an annoying dickwad who was just this close from kissing Sherlock in the lips a la Bugs Bunny. 

And that was the thing that bothered me about his characterization. Even here in this episode, where I hoped that Moriarty would be somehow less Tricksterish, he wasn't. He was still the Clown Prince of Consulting Crime or however you wanna call it. Admittedly, most of my hopes came from the fact that the actor's performance in his first appereance seemed to hid a sinister nature. At least going by his comment on what people do (Hint: Not living) 

With all of that said, Moriarty has grown on me during the last five episodes as a nemesis. And while I feel that it's somewhat cheapening to borrow from the Batman mythos when representing a character that is much older than Batman itself, the show does it with such style that you get on board with it. 

Anyway, I have to say, Martin Freeman as Watson continues to impress. And his grief over Sherlock Holmes' death is surprisingly moving considering the fact that we all know it's fake. Special mention to his speech in the graveyard which manages to hit the right note between clumsy and perfect diction, making it look exactly like the kind of speech that many of us practice in those situations. 

Cumberbatch in the role of Sherlock is, I think, still masterful. I remember you said that you thought that he was smarm and bit too much of an asshole, Iverum, but I really have to disagree. I mean, yes, he's arrogant, often sarcastic, never listens to people and too deep in thought, but that is the character of sherlock holmes. A man who is too busy with puzzles to try and be with people, let alone not see them as puzzles themselves. But I think that an aspect that is often overglossed and that was portrayed righteously here is that he cares about his friends. About Lestrade. About Mrs. Hudson and above all, about John Watson. His friend. The man who made him famous and the man who he helped the most. Their last scene talking where Sherlock desperately tries to make him believe in Moriarty's lies in order to appease the snipers was beautifully sad and beautifully shot.

All in all, I think that Sherlock might be amongst my favourite shows of all time, even if the first season wasn't as consistently good as the second season was to me.

ETA: This is copypasted from another forum, in case you couldn't tell.

I still wrote it, fwiw.

IanExMachina

I loved it to death

Haha.
Was indeed a great episode.

Icalasari

Why did this thread title make me think of Dragonball Z?