After a two-year long hiatus, BBC’s Sherlock returned on Jan. 1 with three 90 minute long episodes. The long break between episodes gave fans of the show an extraordinary amount of time to hypothesis about the cliffhanger ending of season two—something the primary writers of the show, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, were very much aware of.
During the show’s break, the two kept fans interested with teasing tweets about scripts and a seven minute long Christmas mini episode released on the BBC’s Sherlock page. The writer’s obvious efforts to keep fans curious succeeded, but after the end of season two, they hardly seemed necessary.
The question that gripped most fans was how the main character, Sherlock Holmes, managed to successfully fake his own suicide at the end of “The Reichenbach Fall”. The answer to that, when it finally came, was met with mixed feelings. The way it was approached was interesting, with a display of how other characters on the show reckoned he had done it—but the subject was eventually dropped, with no definite answer given. This ambiguous solution was appealing to some, because it left room for fan dissuasion, and allowed more theories. For others—fans who spent the long wait dreaming up complex, plausible answers—it was not as satisfying.
One of the minor character theories included Holmes and the antagonist from season two, James Moriarty, in a canon relationship. This was a clear nod to the fans, and lent absolutely nothing to the plot. The fan service continued into the other two episodes, and disrupted the plot to the point of overshadowing the mysteries and detective work.
This is not the first time in the show’s history that Moffat and Gatiss have included details for the benefit and amusement of the fans. The two male leads, Holmes and his companion, John Watson, are perceived as romantically interested in each other by many fans—and not without good reason. From the first episode onward, the two are mistaken for a gay couple multiple times, a running “joke” that continues even into the most recent season, despite Watson’s marriage to new character Mary Morstan in the second episode. The homoerotic subtext in the show is continually brought up and then is subsequently denied in a process that has become known as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is the practice of hinting at a homosexual subplot, gaining interest in the show because of that, and then shrugging it off as a comedic part of the show. Presenting two characters as potentially homosexual men, giving members of the LGBTQA community hope for representation, and then playing it off as a joke is clearly wrong.
The writers have been unapologetic in response to criticism of this from fans, and this season showed—despite the mildly enjoyable last episode and the introduction of a new villain—they will not be miraculously changing their attitude in the future.