His Last Vow (S03E03)

The villain is great. Disgusting, slimy, cunning. He could have been a worthy opponent for Sherlock, if the creators wanted him to be. But they didn't. It’s like they gave up on having any tension and replaced it with humor that is far from always effective, exchanging Sherlock's believable deductions for absolutely unbelievable thought processes (if in the last episode of the second season you found his search for an abandoned chocolate factory to be ridiculous, this time you will be force to take a sedative), they mix various supporting characters into the story, which are either as ingenious as Sherlock or as stupid as Lestrade, the plot is overly complicated in order to hide its shortcomings... And in the middle of it all, Watson stumbles around helplessly, which you can easily empathize with. And the final solution? I was surprised, but not in the way I would have liked. (2021-04-28)

The third episode felt like the plot was trying a little too hard to be clever. It's definitely the highlight of the third season, but looking back, I might have been a tad generous with my rating. Some of the ideas felt a bit forced, like they were reaching for something that just wasn't there. 4*- (2019-04-15)