I get the feeling that Stephen Thompson, the writer of this episode, didn't get his script vetted by Moffat and Gatiss before it was put on film. It is extremely different in tone from "A Study in Pink" and all episodes following. It is the weakest of the 6 episodes so far.
I knew this episode would be sub-par early on, when I first saw Sherlock fighting that Arabian-looking swordsman in his flat. It raised several questions that were never answered. Who is this guy? Why is he attacking Sherlock? Why is he wearing that exotic, impractical costume that is bound to get him noticed? Did he walk down the street looking like that? What happened to him in the minutes between his fight with Sherlock and John's return home.
This episode's mystery focuses on a Chinese gang of smugglers who murder two Englishmen and a Chinese-English woman. All three were smugglers and one of them stole an ancient piece of Chinese jewelry as a gift to his girlfriend.
Rather than an elegant chain of evidence, the circumstances that lead to our heroes solving this mystery are contrived and difficult to believe. For example, Sherlock realizes that two murder victims are connected by distinctive Tong tattoos on their feet. How could the coroner miss this? It bugs me when writers make a "genius" character look smart by making everyone around him stupid. Also, Sherlock must decode a cypher used by the Tong. He is told that the code is based on a book, but his source is killed before he finds out which one. He then goes through every book the victims own until he realizes that, for whatever reason, the code would be based on a book that everyone owns and he figures out that it is a guide to London's Underground.
Yellow Peril clichés are all over this episode. The episode seeks to make Chinatown scary by putting ominous music over stock footage of people, mostly Chinese, walking down the street. "OMG, that Chinaman LOOKED OVER HIS SHOULDER! Look at those frightening slanty eyes!" The villainess, General Shang, employs kung-fu thugs in ridiculously exotic costumes and, in a scene that is Fu Manchu meets Goldfinger, ties Watson's girlfriend to a chair and threatens her with a giant crossbow shaped like a dragon. I repeat, a GIANT CROSSBOW SHAPED LIKE A DRAGON! There is also a very forced gag where General Shang mistakes John for Sherlock as he was carrying Sherlock's debit card and a check for him at the time. Never mind that John should also be carrying personal ID, a gun license, and the military ID we would later see in "Hounds of Baskerville." Don't let this weak episode scare you away from the rest of the series. The other episodes, including the Thompson-written "Reichenbach Fall" are all excellent.
I knew this episode would be sub-par early on, when I first saw Sherlock fighting that Arabian-looking swordsman in his flat. It raised several questions that were never answered. Who is this guy? Why is he attacking Sherlock? Why is he wearing that exotic, impractical costume that is bound to get him noticed? Did he walk down the street looking like that? What happened to him in the minutes between his fight with Sherlock and John's return home.
This episode's mystery focuses on a Chinese gang of smugglers who murder two Englishmen and a Chinese-English woman. All three were smugglers and one of them stole an ancient piece of Chinese jewelry as a gift to his girlfriend.
Rather than an elegant chain of evidence, the circumstances that lead to our heroes solving this mystery are contrived and difficult to believe. For example, Sherlock realizes that two murder victims are connected by distinctive Tong tattoos on their feet. How could the coroner miss this? It bugs me when writers make a "genius" character look smart by making everyone around him stupid. Also, Sherlock must decode a cypher used by the Tong. He is told that the code is based on a book, but his source is killed before he finds out which one. He then goes through every book the victims own until he realizes that, for whatever reason, the code would be based on a book that everyone owns and he figures out that it is a guide to London's Underground.
Yellow Peril clichés are all over this episode. The episode seeks to make Chinatown scary by putting ominous music over stock footage of people, mostly Chinese, walking down the street. "OMG, that Chinaman LOOKED OVER HIS SHOULDER! Look at those frightening slanty eyes!" The villainess, General Shang, employs kung-fu thugs in ridiculously exotic costumes and, in a scene that is Fu Manchu meets Goldfinger, ties Watson's girlfriend to a chair and threatens her with a giant crossbow shaped like a dragon. I repeat, a GIANT CROSSBOW SHAPED LIKE A DRAGON! There is also a very forced gag where General Shang mistakes John for Sherlock as he was carrying Sherlock's debit card and a check for him at the time. Never mind that John should also be carrying personal ID, a gun license, and the military ID we would later see in "Hounds of Baskerville." Don't let this weak episode scare you away from the rest of the series. The other episodes, including the Thompson-written "Reichenbach Fall" are all excellent.