REVIEW: Sherlock, Series 2 Episode Two 'The Hounds Of Baskerville'

 REVIEW: Sherlock, Series 2 Episode Two 'The Hounds Of Baskerville'

'The Hounds Of Baskerville' holds a special place in my heart. It's the first Sherlock episode I ever watched, as I happened to come across it by chance one night whilst I was flicking through the channels. It was a day when I had been feeling ill and generally under the weather - and then I found The Hounds Of Baskerville, and it instantly made me feel better.

It's an episode that's captivating from the start, as we're treated to one of the best cold opens in television. Child Henry Knight (Sam Jones) sees his Dad being mauled to death by what looks to be a giant dog - and then we cut to Adult Henry Knight (Russell Tovey) in the same forest, many years later. It's such a creepy and atmospheric way to open the episode, as we're instantly drawn into this X Files-style mystery.

It makes the contrast all the more startling when we go from this scene, to the next after the credits, with Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Watson (Martin Freeman) waiting for a case. One such case appears on the website - a glow in the dark rabbit - and what's clever about this is that at first it seems like a silly non-starter of a case that Sherlock would never take on. But then Henry Knight shows up with the Baskerville hound mystery, and Sherlock inexplicably accepts both mysteries. It turns out they are, in fact, linked, through a woman called Doctor Stapleton (Amelia Bullmore) - the mother of the girl who lost her rabbit - and her genetic experiments. It's an ingenious rug pull on the audience, like the screenwriter's equivalent of a magician revealing that his volunteer's card was up his sleeve all along. I really like that sort of trick of making something that seemed unimportant turning out to be important. It makes for an awe-inspiring watch.

The rabbit reveal is done in a sequence that feels interestingly reminiscent of 70s Doctor Who. Sherlock and Watson break into a top-secret military base in Baskerville using Mycroft's (Mark Gatiss) ID, and it doesn't feel a million miles away from something the Third Doctor and Jo Grant from Doctor Who would do. You can feel the influences of Mark Gatiss's love for the other show he was working on as a guest writer by this point (Doctor Who) finding their way into his Sherlock script, which is definitely a good thing as it adds to the quintessentially British feel of this modern take on Sherlock. Doctor Who is an easy influence to take for Sherlock, after all, because the Sherlock and Watson dynamic is strikingly similar to that of the Doctor and his/her companion.

The lighting and cinematography in this episode is totally on-point too, especially in the sequence where Sherlock and Watson take Henry out at night to search for his 'hound'. The flashlights and dark lighting create the perfect mood and atmosphere for this most chilling of Sherlock Holmes tales. It evokes this really spooky style akin to classic television shows such as The Twilight Zone or a really dark episode of Black Mirror, the latter's influence especially prevalent when the reveal comes of Henry's 'hound' actually being a scare gas called 'H.O.U.ND.' that was planned to disorientate its victims with drug-fuelled fear and paranoia.

One of the things I really love about this episode though is that Sherlock is scared - and when Sherlock, the biggest brain in the room, is scared you know something is wrong. It has the same effect as when the Doctor is terrified in Doctor Who, as it essentially puts the person who is usually the most clever on a level footing with the audience. It's the sense of whether this is the story where not even Sherlock solves the mystery, especially when his sugar theory ultimately turns out to be wrong, and seeing Sherlock's vulnerabilities here really helps to showcase the level of threat on display.

The Hounds Of Baskerville is also the episode that introduces the concept of Sherlock's mind palace, and it's such a brilliant idea. It's a fantastic visual way to show us what goes on inside Sherlock's mind; the words that all swoosh past, the ideas that cross his brain... This is what people mean when they say good television shows and doesn't tell. It conveys information in both a seamless and wildly inventive way, and Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss should be heavily applauded for this idea.

If there's one critique I'd have about this episode, it's the morse code subplot, where John spots a flashing light which he believes is somebody trying to communicate to him. This is a part of the story that has all the build-up but little of the resolution. It starts off promising, with an intriguing mystery of a seemingly random bunch of letters being picked up by John by the intermittent flashes of light, but then it gets resolved in the most unsatisfying way. You see, it turns out that this flashing of light was merely caused by a driver in a car trying to help his passenger put on her seatbelt, and knocking the car light indicators by mistake. Ultimately it feels like a total waste of time, like it was written primarily to give John Watson something to do whilst Sherlock was hallucinating giant dogs, making it ultimately a weak point in an otherwise strong narrative.

Overall, The Hounds Of Baskerville is a masterpiece in dramatic storytelling. It's a spooky and atmospheric tale that digs deep into the mind of Sherlock Holmes, and shows us what goes on inside that famous brain. It's an episode that is testament to Mark Gatiss's excellent writing ability, and one that leaves a truly lasting impression. The Hounds Of Baskerville may in fact be Sherlock's greatest ever case, and you'd be foolish to never give it a watch.

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What are your thoughts on the second episode of Sherlock's second series? Let me know in the comments.