Your complete guide to Sherlock Season 4, and the few details we have on the next episode...
Sherlock season four is officially afoot! If you want to know what we thought of the first episode, check out our review of "The Six Thatchers."
For information about what's going to happen in the rest of Sherlock season four, read on...
Sherlock Season 4 Episode 2 Trailer
We've got the promo for the next episode of Sherlock season four: "The Lying Detective."
And here's the "chilling" synopsis for the episode that will introduce Culverton Smith...
Sherlock faces perhaps the most chilling enemy of his long career: the powerful and seemingly unassailable Culverton Smith — a man with a very dark secret indeed.
For more information on the character of Culverton Smith and "The Dying Detective" Conan Doyle story it references, check out our on-screen history of the story and character.
Sherlock Season 4 Finale To Be Released in Theaters
Following the success of the theatrical release of "The Abominable Bride," Sherlock will be releasing the final episode of its fourth season in roughly 350 U.S. cinemas. "The Final Problem" will be broadcast in theaters on Monday, January 16th and Wednesday, January 18th at 7 p.m., just days following its airing on BBC in the U.K. and PBS in the U.S. on Sunday, January 15th.
The event is being put on through a partnership between BBC Worldwide North America and Fathom Events, the latter of which has really been cornering the fan-friendly entertainment market. In addition to the 90-minute episode, the screenings will include 15 minutes of extras.
Tickets will go on sale via the Fathom Events website.
Sherlock Season 4 Episode Guide
Sherlock Season 4, Episode 1 "The Six Thatchers"
Sherlock is asked to investigate the mysterious death of a young man, which he solves quickly but he is led into another mystery when a bust of Margaret Thatcher owned by the dead man's father is smashed. Further busts are smashed and Sherlock discovers that the mystery is linked to Mary and her past as a government agent. A figure from her past is bent on revenge in the belief that Mary betrayed him, but Sherlock discovers that someone else was really the traitor.
Original airdate: January 1, 2017
Directed by: Rachel Talalay
Written by: Mark Gatiss
Sherlock Season 4, Episode 2 "The Lying Detective"
Sherlock faces perhaps the most chilling enemy of his long career: the powerful and seemingly unassailable Culverton Smith - a man with a very dark secret indeed.
Original airdate: January 8, 2017
Directed by: Nick Hurran
Written by: Steven Moffat
Sherlock Season 4, Episode 2 "The Final Problem"
Original airdate: January 15, 2017
Directed by: Benjamin Caron
Written by: Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss
In a post-"Abominable Bride" interview, Gatiss spoke about the relative light-heartedness of season 3, implying that the first episode of season 4 might be less-so for Sherlock, John, and especially Mary, saying:
We did make [episodes] one and two [of season 3] actually more light-hearted because we knew he was going to shoot Magnusson, and we deliberately set out to make it like the best times for the three of them as a new team, that they would really have a great time. And the special really does bridge that in so many ways. Even though Mary is very proactive and a huge part, it's a sort of breathing space between 'Vow' and the next one.
Moffat also teased that the first two episodes would be 60 minutes of plot and 30 minutes of drama, while the final episode would be a whole lot more plot.
The first two episode titles line up with the three, one-word episode teases Moffat and Gatiss gave us at San Diego Comic Con: Thatcher, Smith, and Sherrinford.
We're still waiting to hear about Sherrinford, which, for us, was the most exciting name to hear, as Sherrinford Holmes is the sometimes-imagined older brother of Mycroft and Sherlock. Given that the Holmes' brothers mentioned another sibling in season 3's His Last Vow, this is most likely the person they were referring to.
Could Sherrinford be the key to understanding the mysterious "Redbeard" references? Though Redbeard has been previously explained as Sherlock's childhood dog, we think there might be more to the reference than meets the eye. As we know from previous interviews, Moftiss have refused to tell Vertue who Redbeard is in the past, with Moffat emphasizing that the Redbeard-as-dog we saw before was "in a dream." Will we be meeting another Holmes' brother in the third episode of season 4?
Sherlock Season 4 Release Date
It's official, the Sherlockseason 4 release date is New Year's Day, January 1st, 2017 on PBS. That first episode is called "The Six Thatchers."
PBS revealed the news with a fun image...
The hour-and-a-half season premiere will air on PBS on Sunday, January 1st at 9 p.m. ET, with the next two episodes following on the subsequent Sundays. According to RadioTimes, this will match the schedule laid out for the U.K. airings (though the U.K. will, technically, see Sherlock before us, given that it is five hours ahead).
Sherlock Season 4 Trailer
There's still a lot in this Sherlock trailer that wasn't in the first episode of Season 4 — notably, Sherlock dropping the "l" word and, a Holmesian house burning, and villain Culverton Smith asking "What's the very worst thing you can do to your very best friends? Tell them your darkest secret."
Here's the full promo...
This teaser video is only 15 seconds long and, let's face it, is more like a DVD menu than a trailer, but it still piques our excitement about the upcoming episodes.
The promo shows Sherlock and John sitting, frozen, in Sherlock's apartment. Normal enough, right? Except the apartment is flooded with water, with Sherlock's possessions (like his prized violin) floating about. It's this just one giant metaphor for Sherlock and John being in over their heads? (Wait, is that water hot? How literal is the BBC going here.) Is this something that takes place within Sherlock's mind palace?
Whatever the answer, the promo's title certainly implies this isn't just another one of Sherlock's harmless experiments gone wrong: "It's Not A Game Anymore." Check out the teaser for yourself and share your theories on what it might mean in the comments at the bottom of the page...
And here's the full-length trailer for Sherlock season 4. It's action-packed and very mysterious. Check out the full teaser below, then speculate what it might all mean with our trailer analysis...
Sherlock Season 4 Story
As expected, series three will indeed be "three stand-alone films, 90 minutes each, and an ongoing mystery, as there sort of always is" confirmed Moffat. BBC released this official (somewhat vague) synopsis for the goings-on of Sherlock season 4:
[Season 4] begins with the nation’s favourite detective, the mercurial Sherlock Holmes, back once more on British soil, as Doctor Watson and his wife Mary prepare for their biggest ever challenge – becoming parents for the first time.
Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat had this to say about the season in an official press release:
Sherlock series four - here we go again! Whatever else we do, wherever we all go, all roads lead back to Baker Street - and it always feels like coming home. Ghosts of the past are rising in the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson bringing adventure, romance and terror in their wake. This is the story we’ve been telling from the beginning. A story about to reach its climax...
At SDCC, Cumberbatch teased season 4 of Sherlock, saying: "It's a genuine emotional roller coaster this series." ("With jokes," Vertue added. There are always jokes.) Gatiss echoed the sentiment, saying of the series as a whole: "We've just tried very hard over the last six years to keep it evolving ... You've got to put the characters through the emotional wringer. You can't just have story-of-the-week."
Abbington added: "[Season 4 is] really dark. It's the darkest that Steven and Mark have written ... When we read them, all of us, we were kind of overwhelmed by them, because they were shocking and amazing, as they always are. But, if we can pull this off, it's amazing."
In that same post-"Abominable Bride" interview, Gatiss and Moffat spoke about how much of the joy in writing Sherlock comes from fleshing out those quieter, sometimes domestic moments that wouldn't have made it into Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. Gatiss teased:
Being in the middle of writing series 4 at the moment, if anything is like a good writing exercise for the show, is to look at the stories and think, 'What did Doyle not do in terms of what must have gone on.' If you have two men living together, at some point, even if you back-project, he would have asked him, 'Have you ever um…' ... You look at a story you’re very familiar with and think, I wonder what else happened in this domestic situation that we were never privy to.
Could this mean we'll be getting more John and Sherlock domestic moments in season 4? Perhaps, Gatiss elaborated on his comments, referencing John asking Sherlock to be his best man as an example of something Conan Doyle didn't write about, but that makes sense within the context of the BBC adaptation.
When talking generally about the themes and story for the season, Moffat mysteriously teased: He mysteriously added: "I think there's still an ongoing element that people haven't really picked up on." Time for a Sherlock season one through three rewatch? Always.