It was that exciting I can't remember a single thing about it I actually started watching the British 1980's version with Brett Jeremy. It's the best version I've come across. I binged watched the whole series. Just loved it.

Keeping it short and simple, no spoilers, I would say, that I didn't like series 1 (2010) at first. It was so different from all the other Sherlock Holmes versions I'd ever seen. Perhaps it was the writing style of Moffat, it felt a bit like Doctor Who could pop up at any moment. I liked series 2 better, series 3 and 4 were too much about one person.

Moffat likes to play mind games with the viewers, mixing up real and alternative scenes of the same event, showing scenes from the perspective of different characters, using different speeds (slow, normal, fast), throwing in flashbacks and so on. It can become very confusing. Your brain tries to fit together the pieces of the puzzle and then out of nowhere some more pieces are added and you have to start all over again.

I can appreciate this version, especially with the excellent performance of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and trying to find all the little clues is fun, though often very tedious.
But if I just want to watch a Sherlock Holmes' adventure without straining my brains too much, and not feeling a sense of growing annoyance sometimes, I'll turn to one of the other shows, where the procedure is straightforward with a bit of quirky intelligent logic and reasoning.

And, of course it's all right if you didn't like it.
Just watch something else, that's what I would do.

I admire you.

I wasted way too much time on this garbage dump of a series.

@wonder2wonder said:

Keeping it short and simple, no spoilers, I would say, that I didn't like series 1 (2010) at first. It was so different from all the other Sherlock Holmes versions I'd ever seen. Perhaps it was the writing style of Moffat, it felt a bit like Doctor Who could pop up at any moment. I liked series 2 better, series 3 and 4 were too much about one person.

Moffat likes to play mind games with the viewers, mixing up real and alternative scenes of the same event, showing scenes from the perspective of different characters, using different speeds (slow, normal, fast), throwing in flashbacks and so on. It can become very confusing. Your brain tries to fit together the pieces of the puzzle and then out of nowhere some more pieces are added and you have to start all over again.

I can appreciate this version, especially with the excellent performance of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and trying to find all the little clues is fun, though often very tedious.
But if I just want to watch a Sherlock Holmes' adventure without straining my brains too much, and not feeling a sense of growing annoyance sometimes, I'll turn to one of the other shows, where the procedure is straightforward with a bit of quirky intelligent logic and reasoning.

And, of course it's all right if you didn't like it.
Just watch something else, that's what I would do.

I actually enjoyed the first episode. The 2nd one was very very poorly done. I might have given season 2 a try based on your assessment but it sounds like you think it just needs a more acute eye on the viewer to appreciate. If anything, I think I needed less scrutiny to get through episode 2 without being blistered by it.

Knowing that Moffat runs this show sheds light on my feelings. I regard his Dr Who run thus: Out of 5 episodes we get one A+, three C+/-, and one D- episode (overall average). Only my loyalty to the Doctor kept me watching as long as I did. I just couldn't take anymore with this new Doctor.

@ausfem said:

It was that exciting I can't remember a single thing about it I actually started watching the British 1980's version with Brett Jeremy. It's the best version I've come across. I binged watched the whole series. Just loved it.

I found this to be true as well. The Granada series is the closest to the original literature that you can get and Brett does the best portrayal of Holmes by far out of anyone.

For the new Sherlock series, I went into the first episode thinking "This is gonna suck, isn't it?" but I was greatly surprised at how well done and Holmsian in spirit it was. Episode 2 didn't really do anything for me, but they bounced back a bit in the last episode of season one. The other seasons were up and down, but much more enjoyable than Elementary, which to me is basically a girl/guy cop procedural that happened to use the Holmes / Watson name but has none of the dynamic between the two characters that Doyle put forth.

I, back when this series debuted, watched the first half or so of the first episode, and didn't care for anything, whatsoever, about it. I then bailed, but a couple subsequent times, probably 2-3 years apart, again gave whichever latest episode a brief look, and again readily found I don't even slightly care for this.

I'm with Aus, that the Jeremy Brett series is easily the best.

I like Benedict Cumberhead, I just wish they had set the series in the 19th century.

@Halberstram said:

I like Benedict Cumberhead, I just wish they had set the series in the 19th century.

You can get a peek at the 19th century Sherlock in the episode "The Abominable Bride (2016)".

I know. I was excited about that episode, but then they made it into some kind of extended dream sequence.

@Horus Mazinga said:

So I finally started watching this highly acclaimed show. I liked the first episode well enough and thought the portrayal of the two mains was well done. I thought "cool, here we go." And then the 2nd episode was so thoroughly rotten that it turned me off completely.

So the question is do you die-hard Sherlock fans like that 2nd episode? I know better than to ask if I should give it another try because fans of this show seem the zealous type and of course they'll say "YEEES." I need to know if that 2nd episode is emblematic of the rest of what's to come.

You never really got a direct answer to this question, which is surprising. I'd say S1E2 is a very bad time to give up on Sherlock. The Blind Banker is almost universally seen as the weakest episode of the first series and probably the weakest of the first two series. S1E3, The Great Game, is marginally people's favourite of S1 – see eg the IMDB episodes rating list – although I slightly prefer the first one.

One thing: The writers took turns being the main writer for an episode. In the first series: A Study in Pink was written by Moffat, The Blind Banker by Steve Thompson and The Great Game by Gatiss. This makes predicting the quality of an episode from the one before it less reliable.

FWIW I quite enjoyed The Blind Banker, but from memory there's at least one gaping plot-hole (it just seems to be a coincidence that Soo-Lin Yao lives within sight of the smugglers' café and so Sherlock learns about her by breaking into the house of a random person who might just be on holiday) and various other niggles.

So I suggest you keep watching Sherlock (or return to it), though you should expect to be annoyed by at least some of the episodes in the 3rd and 4th series.

Just gave up half way through episode 2. I thought it was terrible. It is everything I hate in TV, bad hammy acting, terrible over the top music and presentation, shaky cam whenever someone is running to try to make it more exciting, thinking out loud to explain things, etc.. etc... Horrible. I wish reviews were more dependable.

@Horus Mazinga said:

So I finally started watching this highly acclaimed show. I liked the first episode well enough and thought the portrayal of the two mains was well done. I thought "cool, here we go." And then the 2nd episode was so thoroughly rotten that it turned me off completely.

I thought the same thing. The show is very up and down. One episode will be very entertaining and well written then the next will be humdrum and exhaustingly run of the mill. And if you had have given the next episode a go then it's unlikely you're enthusiasm would have been rejuvenated as episode 3 is pretty much just as uninspiring as episode 2.

Strangely episode 1 of season 2 was very fun again. But s2 e2 was back to phoning it in. S2 E3 was probably the best one I've seen when he (vague spoiler) faces off against Moriarty.

I stopped watching about halfway through season 3 as I just couldn't be bothered to slog through the bad episodes anymore.

So each episode is a risk of your time. Though how a show with such a see-sawing level of quality gets voted up to 9.2 on IMDB is beyond me.