Alfredo, Holmes' sobriety sponsor asks for Holmes' help. Alfredo's own sponsor is being blackmailed over a video of his daughter's rape. The rapist is in jail but the blackmailer informs the father that he has a "fail-safe" accomplice who will release the video to the Internet should anything happen to him or if the father goes to the police. Holmes agrees to find the blackmailer and his accomplice and destroy all evidence of the tape for, as he says "I have a particular disdain for blackmailers." Holmes discovers that the blackmailer is one Charles Augustus Milverton. Holmes breaks into Milverton's house and while there, Milverton returns but another man wearing a mask also enters and shoots Milverton dead. Now Holmes and Watson must find the accomplice and retrieve the horrid video. The investigative aspect in the episode is only mildly interesting and I could have done without the bath tub scene but nonetheless, the show is entertaining. The episode is loosely based on one of Conan Doyle's most famous short stories, 'The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton,' a notorious blackmailer. A nice touch, that. Also interesting was the side story of Holmes' great reluctance in accepting his one year sobriety chip. Alfredo has an interesting exchange with Holmes, telling him "I know it's hard, but one of these days you have to get over yourself." At the end, Watson gives Holmes a framed excerpt from the Robert Frost poem 'Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening' with its concluding lines - "miles to go before I sleep." Another nice touch. This is one of the best series, maybe the best, on American television today.
3 Reviews
An off the shelf murder plot that could be any TV show episode
mickr7an26 April 2013
The series so far has had its ups and downs in story quality. There have been some excellent plots but quite a few mediocre ones too. This episode however is a new low for otherwise quite an inventive show. It is no more than formulaic detritus left behind on the shelf to be plucked when any show is running out of ideas. This story is so generic it could easily have been slotted into an episode of Bones, Castle, CSI or any other cop show on TV with very little changes to the script.
The short guest appearance in the beginning of the show of a list of suspects one of whom turns out to be the villain is classic Bones or Castle, so predictable that I can now pick the murderer in those shows not from any clues but just by the demeanour of the actor and the timing of his appearance in the plot. The mysterious leads that just turn up for them to question to move the plot forward not because it makes sense of is intrinsic to the story but just because it's time to move the show forward before an ad break.
Although I'm enjoying this series so far one of the let downs of the show is that it is too generic a murder show at times. While I'm enjoying the departure from other versions of Sherlock Holmes they have not embraced the essence of Holmes enough. He rarely investigated murders at all and was intrigued by peculiar mysteries often where a crime didn't even seem to have been committed and many of his clients sought him out because the police were not interested.
The show needs to go back to the source material because if they are to succeed in being truly original and forward thinking they need to be Holmes at his essence and not just the surface trappings of his peculiarity and genius. Only then can they make a true departure and create something original.
The short guest appearance in the beginning of the show of a list of suspects one of whom turns out to be the villain is classic Bones or Castle, so predictable that I can now pick the murderer in those shows not from any clues but just by the demeanour of the actor and the timing of his appearance in the plot. The mysterious leads that just turn up for them to question to move the plot forward not because it makes sense of is intrinsic to the story but just because it's time to move the show forward before an ad break.
Although I'm enjoying this series so far one of the let downs of the show is that it is too generic a murder show at times. While I'm enjoying the departure from other versions of Sherlock Holmes they have not embraced the essence of Holmes enough. He rarely investigated murders at all and was intrigued by peculiar mysteries often where a crime didn't even seem to have been committed and many of his clients sought him out because the police were not interested.
The show needs to go back to the source material because if they are to succeed in being truly original and forward thinking they need to be Holmes at his essence and not just the surface trappings of his peculiarity and genius. Only then can they make a true departure and create something original.
This episode should have been titled Cringe
kibagami_genjurooo19 June 2019
Warning: Spoilers
It is pure garbage the likes of Special Victims Unit. Filled with dumb feminist propaganda and stupid lines and most of all it is the cringiest thing I saw in the last 3 months or so. This is the kind of episode where you'd drop a show and never look back. And so will I.
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