By now everyone who cares already knows that Holmes returned from the dead in episode one, season three of “Sherlock.” And no one who knows anything should be surprised. Arthur Conan Doyle pulled off the same trick: he tried to kill his famous fictional sleuth and move on to other subjects, but the fans wouldn’t let him die. Nowadays, the producers of anything as successful as the Benedict Cumberbatch iteration of the Holmes saga would never dream of killing their golden goose.
Out on Blu-ray and DVD, “Sherlock: Season Three” picks up with Holmes’ return—to the shock, hurt and anger of his faithful sidekick and blogger, Dr. Watson (played with acceptable blandness by Martin Freeman). The sheer ridiculousness of it all is played up and is central to the series’ entire scheme. “Sherlock” is as much about having fun with the conventions of contemporary action thrillers, with their digital clocks counting the seconds to catastrophe, as it is about lovingly spoofing the conventions of Conan Doyle’s stories. It’s about the confusion of now. Cumberbatch’s Holmes shuns celebrity and embraces it, hiding within enigmas while donning on his public mask.
Occasionally silly but often sharply clever, “Sherlock” has already established its own conventions, including the Scrabble game visualizations of Holmes’ rapid cerebral process and Mrs. Hudson’s assumption that Holmes and Watson are gay. Episode one even shows hints of character development. Holmes’ EQ will never equal his IQ, yet he might just be learning that people have feelings. Probably more integral to the series’ concept is Holmes’ declaration on the complexity of reality (and the postmodern plots of “Sherlock”): “Unlike the nicely embellished fictions on your blog, John, real life is rarely so neat.”
Interest in the series is such that a CD has been released of the soundtrack music by BAFTA-Emmy nominated composers David Arnold and Michael Price. Like much contemporary music for motion pictures, Sherlock: Original Television Soundtrack Music from Season Three blends swelling orchestrations with synthesizers, drums and electric and acoustic strings for a sound suggesting tension, suspense, speed and decisiveness.
