Chapter 6

To Dragon Slayer - Sherlock

Mycroft: He’s not a dragon for you to slay.

Sherlock: A dragonslayer? Is that what you

think of me? [122]

Sherlock, “His Last Vow”

Fans who know that Cumberbatch plays Smaug, the fearsome dragon in The Hobbit, likely consider this dialogue an inside reference to the Sherlock actor’s much-publicised role in The Desolation of Smaug, a film that, at the time “His Last Vow” was broadcast, had been released only weeks earlier. The dragon reference is also appropriate because in the middle film in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, Sherlock’s Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman face off as Smaug and the titular Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.

Yet, as will be discussed later in this chapter, Mycroft is right about his little brother: Sherlock Holmes is becoming much more of a dragonslayer - or a saviour figure - in series three, and the change may signal a new direction in the way the iconic consulting detective is portrayed throughout the rest of the BBC’s adaptation. This shift, as well as others brought about by the introduction of new characters and the evolution of familiar ones, gave Cumberbatch new material to play, and play with, in series three. The actor’s celebrity and fan image also shifted as a result of the public’s immense interest in both Sherlock and the man who plays Sherlock Holmes.

The Popularity of Sherlock

Among Cumberbatch’s many big projects released during 2014 is Sherlock, the television series that helped further his already-impressive acting career and is the one that took off just as his accelerating film career propelled him into cinemas around the world. Among the many television (mini)series/movies in which Cumberbatch has starred (including the critically acclaimed Hawking, To the Ends of the Earth, Small Island, and The Last Enemy), Sherlock surely will be remembered at the top of the list decades from now.

In many ways Sherlock set a new standard for BBC television through its limited run of high-quality episodes broadcast approximately every two years. As yet another adaptation of the iconic Sherlock Holmes stories, Sherlock stretched the boundaries of what a modernisation could and should be in order to become accepted, much less beloved, by the public.

Cumberbatch now is permanently associated with the award-winning Sherlock, the BBC, and Sherlock Holmes - and the association apparently will continue until he no longer wishes to play the part. If any role spans Cumberbatch’s transition from respected working actor heading toward international fame to media-fuelled celebrity and critically acclaimed film and television star, it is Sherlock.

On January 1, 2014, the BBC (and, within a few weeks in the U.S., PBS) broadcast the third series of Sherlock. The three-episode story arc was widely promoted, and Sherlock, along with other international favourites such as Doctor Who (broadcast in the U.S. on BBC America) and Downton Abbey (shown on U.S. PBS stations), again was one of the standouts among BBC Worldwide exports. Its high production values and a stellar cast only increased its global visibility over time, and as titular character Sherlock Holmes, Cumberbatch receives the greatest amount of attention during the promotion of a new block of episodes.

In early 2014 publicity included not only plenty of press at home but interviews in Pasadena, California, at the Television Critics Association Press Tour (TCA), where he participated in a Sherlock/Masterpiece panel. If it had not long been a personal quirk of arriving late for appointments, Cumberbatch’s last-minute arrival at the TCA Winter TV Press Tour might have seemed like something a star-diva would pull. Instead, the near-tardiness became just another example of Cumberbatch running late and, as in Toronto at TIFF, not having time to talk with fans before he needed to talk with reporters.

This year’s Sherlock panel felt like a family affair because of the camaraderie among partners Steven Moffat (the showrunner) and Sue Vertue (the producer) and actors Cumberbatch and Amanda Abbington, who all fielded questions and bantered with each other. The chemistry evident on screen among Sherlock characters also could be felt among the panellists. When asked to define chemistry, Cumberbatch described it as “where you feel you’re learning from those around you”.[123] When Moffat teased Cumberbatch about Sherlock’s almost-kiss with Jim Moriarty (Andrew Scott), the Sherlock star protested the description, leaving Abbington laughing and warning him that he was only digging himself into a deeper conversational hole the longer he tried to correct Moffat’s impression.[124]

One reporter admitted it was difficult to tweet during the session because of Cumberbatch’s speedy conversation and thoughtful responses amid the typical promotional comments. As he has been wont to do in past interviews before he achieved this level of fame, Cumberbatch used the F-word a few times during the panel but, wrote one journalist, “was self-aware enough to joke about his potty mouth”.[125] At least this way Cumberbatch retains his “gentleman” persona while still not being afraid to be himself; he understands how he should act during a press panel and, when he says something that might not be appropriate for a family-friendly image, he knows how to deflect criticism by finding fault with himself.

Because Cumberbatch was the undisputed star of the TCA press tour, the question naturally arose as to when he would be too big a star to continue the television role. Many actors abandon television in favour of films as long as their movie box-office lasts or until they want to be cast in a cannot-be-missed television project. At least in 2014, Cumberbatch said “I’m going to keep going with [Sherlock]. I love it. I find it very invigorating,” and Moffat “insisted that Sherlock would ‘continue until Benedict gets too famous and he’ll refuse’”.[126] Having variety among the roles he gets to play each year is one reason why Cumberbatch sees no reason not to continue as Sherlock. “I play enough other mad people to vary the palate of what I’m scrabbling around in my head as a storyteller”.[127]

During and after the panel, Cumberbatch sought to acknowledge all his fans - not only those to whom he felt a responsibility to say hello because they waited for him to finish the press interviews. When asked about the group outside hoping to see him, Cumberbatch worried that he rushed past because he was behind schedule, but he planned to return (and did) to greet fans later. He called fandom both “extraordinary” and “a little unnerving” but thinks that “it has to be acknowledged”. Even if briefly talking with those who wait for him “feeds the whole thing,” Cumberbatch feels the need to recognise that his fans are “so devoted and committed, and by and large intelligent and, for the most part, normal”.[128]

The fans who queue for hours to get an autograph or selfie are not the only ones Cumberbatch mentioned to the press. “It also means a lot to me that there aren’t people camped outside who will sit down,... wherever they are in the world” to watch Sherlock. “That Sunday-night feeling, that sort of around-the-television feeling - that’s the audience that I get a kick from”. During the first series, Cumberbatch was thrilled to see sales of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels dramatically increase.[129] The fact that many viewers, enjoying what they saw on Sherlock, turned to Conan Doyle’s works seems to please him far more than the fact that people now recognise him everywhere he goes or hang on his every word.

During the week of the TCA panels, a head shot of Cumberbatch as Sherlock graced the cover of Entertainment Weekly, one of many covers featuring the actor in the past year. However, this one (as well as a Time international edition and a Hollywood Reporter cover) indicates the change in the actor’s global status, not only because of Sherlock, but certainly helped by the BBC series’ appeal. That Cumberbatch-as-Sherlock was on the cover of a leading entertainment magazine during the week when television critics met with actors and showrunners to discuss new episodes or programs indicates Cumberbatch’s and Sherlock’s marketing and advertising power, along with their perceived entertainment value and audiences’ and critics’ high (perhaps excessively so) expectations.

Because of the long hiatuses between series (only nine episodes between 2010 and 2014), Sherlock is a television event, and Cumberbatch and the series are widely promoted but also especially scrutinised. In fact, fans have been known to share isolated screencaps of his or another character’s facial expression in order to discuss exactly what is going on in a scene. Whereas critics may review the whole performance, fans dissect each scene, line, expression, or movement to debate the plot and characterisation.

Whether within fandom or the television industry, the quality of a series is a double-edged blade. It allows a programme with an exclusive reputation to cut through the competition simply on name recognition alone. Sherlock, for example, is always assumed to be high-quality programming; its past successes increase the expectation that it will continue to be award-winning television. However, a series also can be stabbed in the back if it fails to meet audience or critical expectations.

From the first, PBS realised that Sherlock could help the public television network rebrand its image for a younger audience and still retain viewership of the faithful. Rebecca Eaton, the executive producer of Masterpiece, the PBS umbrella series that includes Sherlock among its many British imports for broadcast in the U.S., wrote in her autobiography that she was immediately drawn to the quality of scripts when deciding whether to broadcast Sherlock. These scripts were “the cleverest and most modern work I’d seen in ages. Eventually, the actual production of them, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the irascible, brilliant Sherlock and Martin Freeman as his flatmate Dr. John Watson, newly returned from the Afghan war, took them up even higher”.[130] Eaton attributes PBS’ ability to attract a younger audience to Sherlock, with its fresh take on characters and, especially, Sherlock’s use of technology. She also claims that Cumberbatch himself is a big draw, because his fans “follow [his] every personal move”.[131]

Perhaps naively, Eaton assumed that Cumberbatch or Sherlock fans would patiently wait for PBS to broadcast series two episodes, no matter that they arrived in the U.S. months after their U.K. broadcast. She wrote of her shock at the Sherlock event held in New York to promote “A Scandal in Belgravia”[132] in 2012. She quickly discovered that the fans already had seen the latest series. Her awareness of “pirates” gave her a new appreciation of U.S. fans’ determination to see Sherlock as soon as episodes become available in the U.K.[133] Although PBS (and many other networks worldwide) were not able to broadcast Sherlock simultaneously with the BBC’s broadcasts, the lag time in the U.S. was greatly reduced for series three.

Yet Eaton’s concerns about fandom also are evident and understandable. Like many who schedule television series, she realises that today’s fans, while just as passionate as earlier generations’, think of television very differently than their parents do. Eaton noted that she was “thrilled” with the fan response to the New York PBS screening of “A Scandal in Belgravia”; fans “were screaming with excitement by the time the episode started. When Benedict, Steven [Moffat], and Sue [Vertue] came out on stage afterward, they went as nuts as their mothers had for the Beatles, or their grannies for Frank Sinatra”.[134] She described the Sherlock fandom at this event as mostly young women from all over the U.S. who lighted up “the blogosphere and Twitterland” with their messages on the day of the screening. What most troubled Eaton is that these fans “had only a vague awareness of Masterpiece, and it’s possible that there wasn’t a television set owner among them”.[135]

Although the image of “public television” differs in the U.S. from the U.K., finding innovative ways to promote Sherlock and increase anticipation for new episodes is a universal marketing concern. The BBC’s teasers leading to the U.K.’s January 2014 premiere of series three cannily showed less of Sherlock than fans wanted or expected. A seven-minute video released on Christmas Eve became a frequently watched holiday gift, for all that it failed to explain what had happened to Sherlock following his fall from St. Bart’s roof. It does show him promising John that “I’ll be seeing you again very soon”.[136]

The teaser gave fans an update on Anderson, Mrs. Hudson, Detective Inspector Lestrade (who shares a Sherlock-made video with John), and John, who needs a drink before he can watch it. Sherlock, as ever, remains mysterious, leaving fans even more eager to see the reunion of Sherlock and John.

Ratings for that first post-fall episode, “The Empty Hearse,” surpassed the previous two series’ first episodes, with 9.2 million viewers in the U.K. (making it the most-watched Sherlock episode to date) and nearly 4 million in the U.S.,[137] despite being aired on a Sunday after Downton Abbey (which should be a ratings plus) but not ending until close to midnight (which should be a minus, given that many viewers have to be up early for jobs or classes on Monday morning).

Yet for all the anticipation leading into series three, new episodes following the post-“Reichenbach Fall” return of Sherlock Holmes did not meet everyone’s expectations. Although the cast’s acting usually was not faulted, the directions their characters took often were. Co-creator Mark Gatiss noted that ending up at Reichenbach (the canon death of Holmes before Conan Doyle was compelled to bring him back years later) at the end of series two could have been problematic; however, “[i]t doesn’t mean that there’s nowhere to go after he’s back, you just have to think of new directions. And the whole of this third season [has] a different feel to it, because it has to”.[138]

The new directions include Sherlock meeting John’s future wife, Mary Morstan (Amanda Abbington); becoming best man at their wedding; revealing a great deal more about his childhood and family; and making an important vow that suggests further evolution of the Sherlock-John-Mary relationship in forthcoming series. Part of the problem is that, with a large international fanbase, Sherlock cannot possibly please everyone. One critic suggested that the series “spend less time on Sherlock’s bromance with Dr. Watson next season and again shift its focus to developing intricate and fascinating cases as it had in the first two seasons,”[139] whereas fans who want more bromance worried that the classic Holmes-Watson friendship would suffer with the introduction of Morstan. Although ratings remained high, British media ran articles with titles like “Sherlock is Terrible, Decide Sherlock Fans”[140] and published tweets from dissatisfied viewers. Nevertheless, the demand for series four and beyond continued unabated, if only to see how the series could “fix” past mistakes or expand the characters in new ways.

Months after series three was first broadcast in the U.K. and U.S., the award nominations started coming in. In the U.S., the Critics’ Choice Television Awards nominated Sherlock as a PBS movie/miniseries in four categories: Best Actor, Cumberbatch; Best Supporting Actor, Freeman; Best Supporting Actress, Abbington; and Best Movie, “His Last Vow”. Only “His Last Vow,” the finale of series three, was considered in the nominations. An interesting point is that Freeman was included in the same Best Actor category as Cumberbatch - but for Fargo, a series that earned five nominations.[141] Unfortunately for the Sherlock team, the awards went to other series, but the nominations were just beginning for “His Last Vow”.

In July 2014 the British TV Choice Awards, voted by the public, nominated Cumberbatch as Best Actor and Sherlock as Best Drama Series. A few days later, the U.S. Emmy nominations were announced; Sherlock earned twelve, including writing, directing, casting, cinematography, costuming, music composition, single-camera picture editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and television movie - all attesting to Sherlock’s continuing status as a high-quality program and, as U.S. newspapers mentioned, the acceptance and, indeed, celebration of British television imports. Cumberbatch and Freeman faced off in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie category, Cumberbatch for Sherlock but Freeman for Fargo. Freeman received a second nomination, Outstanding Supporting Actor for Sherlock.

2014 proved to be Sherlock’s big year at the Emmy awards. Among the statuettes honouring Sherlock was Cumberbatch’s first Emmy, but Freeman must have been consoled from losing to his Sherlock colleague by winning his Emmy as Outstanding Supporting Actor. Unfortunately for the fans who hoped to see them at the awards ceremony, both busy actors were working and could not accept the awards in person.

The Critics’ Choice list was especially praised for truly including worthy performances across networks and suggesting that the nominations were based on the quality of work, not previous popularity of a television series or the network on which a series was broadcast. President of the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA), the organisation that bestows the Critics’ Choice Awards, noted the high quality of the year’s television offerings: “As television journalists, BTJA members live and breathe TV, and we’re excited to share our top picks from an immensely rich and diverse year of programming”.[142] For Sherlock to receive so many Critics’ Choice or Emmy nominations - and Emmy awards - in the U.S., where it is an import, is an effective indicator that the critics considered “His Last Vow” as an exemplary “movie” and the performances among the best in the 2013-14 television season. Especially in the aftermath of viewer controversy about the directions the stories took, Sherlock benefitted from accolades from those who, as their job title explains, are meant to evaluate work objectively. Most notably for PBS, Sherlock earned four of the network’s five Critics’ Choice nominations (the other going to The Hollow Crown in the Best Miniseries category) and twelve of twenty-four Emmy nominations (the rest going to Downton Abbey). Sherlock’s Emmy awards for best actor, best supporting actor, and outstanding writing in particular validated the quality of series three but also set an even higher bar of excellence to meet or surpass in series four.

Despite the critics’ acclaim, the first responses posted by readers of the Hollywood Reporter’s announcement of Critics’ Choice nominations complained that series three was the worst.[143] On Twitter, however, fans congratulated the cast or Cumberbatch specifically, after nominations and especially following the Emmy wins.

Hours after the U.S. media published the nominations, with headlines only focused on U.S. series, the U.K.’s Radio Times emphasised only the British actors nominated for awards. The Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries category was especially star studded with Brits, but the headline indicates just how much Cumberbatch and Freeman are esteemed at home: “Sherlock Stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman Vie for Best Actor Award”. The photo beneath this headline showed a close-up from “A Scandal in Belgravia” when John chokes Sherlock during a fight the detective instigates for a case. The article’s first four paragraphs are devoted to news about the Sherlock cast’s nominations.[144] Although Sherlock, Cumberbatch, and Freeman may get the majority of media focus at home, they are not yet as widely revered by the U.S. media - but television critics and fans certainly have taken notice and appreciate their work, as the many award nominations and Emmy wins for Cumberbatch and Freeman illustrate.

At home in the U.K., the Sherlock star already had received awards for his most recent work as Holmes. Cumberbatch won the new category of TV Detective at the National Television Awards in January 2014. The public votes for these awards, and Cumberbatch’s popularity in the role gained him the award over David Tennant and Olivia Colman (Broadchurch), Idris Elba (Luther), Bradley Walsh (Law & Order UK), and Suranne Jones (Scott & Bailey).

Cumberbatch’s acceptance speech from LA again combined the best of his two professional personas: glamorous, classy actor and fun-loving “average guy”. At first shown live on camera in a tuxedo while standing in front of a backdrop of the Hollywood sign, Cumberbatch seriously thanked the public, saying “You are the people who have made [Sherlock] the success of what it is, and it’s a real, real, real thrill. I wish I was there to pick up the award in person”. He stuttered through the minute-long speech and admitted he was nervous, but, once again, the sincerity behind his feeling “over the moon” at receiving the award made his vocal stumbles understandable and adorable to his fans.

The jitters also should have telegraphed a prank in the making. “I’ve been working out in Hollywood here,” the actor explained, as the camera was lowered to show him wearing red board shorts. Fans in the London auditorium watching the video screamed their approval at the sight. Feigning annoyance with the camera, Cumberbatch got his tuxedo-jacketed torso back in frame. Like an average guy faced with the opportunity to go swimming in Southern California in January, he rationalised, “The pool is too lovely. I’ve been swimming in it every day”. As if to remind his followers that he has not gone Hollywood, his parting words to the Londoners at the awards ceremony were that he would see them soon.[145]

Cumberbatch’s projects in any medium generate immediate interest. As soon as series three had been broadcast in the U.K., speculation about the next series of Sherlock included hype (and hope) that shooting for series four might begin as early as spring 2014, especially after the start date of Cumberbatch’s film, Blood Mountain, fell through, and his schedule briefly seemed to open up more options for Sherlock filming. Co-star Abbington mentioned in a Radio Times article[146] that partner Freeman truly was a free man post-Fargo filming. However, the window of opportunity slammed shut when both leads quickly found non-television projects: Richard III, on stage at Trafalgar Studios, for Freeman and a range of celebrity appearances for Cumberbatch.

Whereas Sherlock co-creators and showrunners Gatiss and Moffat proclaimed that series four and five already had been plotted,[147] Freeman announced weeks later that Sherlock might return as a one-off special.[148] By the end of May, however, consensus seemed to be that series four might be broadcast in 2016 - after the series’ typical two-year hiatus - but, as Moffat also mentioned several times, Sherlock employs two of the busiest actors on the planet, which always creates scheduling dilemmas. On the BAFTA red carpet in spring 2014, Gatiss assured fans that they had made “significant progress” toward determining shooting dates. He then joked that the efforts involved in coming to an agreement made the process of scheduling Sherlock and announcing the dates seem more like political negotiations than television entertainment.[149]

By summer 2014, the Sherlock schedule included a one-off special, to be filmed in early 2015 for a late-year broadcast, and three more episodes. Series four, planned for broadcast in 2016, would be filmed later, but the special would be a bonus for fans and would help dispel disgruntlement with another long hiatus.

The continuing interest in and even controversy surrounding Sherlock do everything to help Cumberbatch’s career. Public demand ensures that he is encouraged to return to the role between other projects and to be associated with an award-winning television series for several years during its original run and for decades more via recordings and rebroadcasts. Furthermore, Sherlock has the cachet of being not just a run-of-the-mill television series but a high-class production more like a series of movies than a typical television drama; its sales figures for BBC Worldwide illustrate its preeminence among British television exports and its global demand.

Although Sherlock is not the reason for Cumberbatch’s career success - he already was well known in the U.K. entertainment industry and busy fielding calls for film roles by the time Sherlock debuted - nonetheless Sherlock has become a stable focal point around which the actor’s other projects revolve. It offers him a beloved character to portray and the continuing adulation of television fans, a prominent position among the BBC’s “go-to” actors for special projects, and the assurance of a high-profile starring role guaranteed to provide both acting challenges and publicity during a sizeable chunk of the actor’s professional career. Even fan unease with characterisation or dissatisfaction with plot lines in series three did not diminish international interest in the continuation of Sherlock.

If series four of Sherlock would not return Cumberbatch to television in the U.K. - and exported to more than 200 territories[150] - until possibly 2016, then other television dramas would fill in to keep Cumberbatch a constant presence on U.K. television. Like Freeman, Cumberbatch took on the lead in Richard III, but the latter signed on for a movie within the second series of television’s The Hollow Crown. In addition to the Shakespearean drama, which undoubtedly would draw comparisons between the actors’ interpretations and productions, Cumberbatch’s many celebrity roles on television - as interviewee, presenter, or himself in a guest role - kept him on the small screen while fans waited yet again for Sherlock’s return.

Interpreting Sherlock During Series Three

Changes in the direction of Sherlock Holmes’ development startled some fans during series three. These character developments, although well acted by Cumberbatch, also shift audience and critics’ perceptions of Sherlock and the type of character - less canon Holmes and more BBC, ever-evolving modern Sherlock - with which the actor is most often associated. Three “roles” or aspects of Sherlock’s personality, whether delineated in a script or enhanced through fandom, are analysed in the remainder of this chapter:

Sherlock as Dragonslayer, god, or Saviour

Although the last episode of series three features the “dragonslayer” dialogue, Sherlock has taken on that job at least since the series two finale, “The Reichenbach Fall”.[151] However, this knight errant (or erring, as it seems near the conclusion of “His Last Vow”) is most obviously pitted against a “dragon” in series three.

Even viewers who have no idea that Cumberbatch is the mo-cap originator of movie Smaug’s moves or more obviously as the dragon’s voice come to understand that Sherlock has become far more of a saviour or dragonslayer figure as the series progresses. Before falling from St. Bart’s roof, he proclaims to Moriarty that he is on the side of the angels but is not one of them.[152] That prophetic statement is illustrated nowhere better than by series three episodes. He is a saviour figure believing himself to work for the greater good, but he is not angelic.

Despite all the theories about how Sherlock survives the fall or the hints about what he does during his time “dead” (e.g., being captured, escaping, and returning to be tortured in Serbia), the acts Sherlock commits - and the actions perpetrated upon him - are largely left to the viewer’s imagination. With the exception of the opening scenes in “The Empty Hearse,” which briefly show Sherlock’s recapture and horrific treatment - chained, beaten, sleep deprived - in Serbia, his life prior to his return to London seems shadowy and mysterious. He apparently helps clear up “bad guys” in Europe by infiltrating and manipulating organisations. Mycroft, who uncharacteristically does some “legwork” to retrieve Sherlock from Serbia, seems to be working with his brother. Because the audience typically sees little that John Watson does not see, many of Sherlock’s actions develop a mythic quality as they are mentioned in passing or alluded to, but they are not directly observed by John or the audience.

What is clear, however, is that Sherlock has become a saviour figure - what I term a “dark hero”. He is even more morally ambiguous, for all that he strives to do “good” by John Watson. Sherlock’s actions are based on upholding the vow he makes to John’s family during the Watson wedding. To protect John’s life and future happiness, Sherlock believes he must slay a “dragon,” series three’s “big bad” - Charles Augustus Magnussen.

By the conclusion of his encounter with this villain, Sherlock commits a murder, not what everyone would consider an “angelic” act. Although he may have the good intention to save his closest friends from being blackmailed, humiliated, and injured (and, in the process, saving unknown others from a similar fate), he shoots a man in cold blood. Thus, he fulfils Sally Donovan’s prophesy in the very first episode that “one day we’ll all be standing around a body, and Sherlock Holmes will be the one who put it there”.[153] Even Mycroft, who has been privy to at least some of his brother’s post-fall activities, mournfully asks, “Oh, Sherlock, what have you done?” Sherlock sacrifices himself to ensure John’s and new wife Mary’s safety. By the end of the episode, he flies off (or, godlike, ascends to the heavens) in exile from all he has known and loved and accepts his impending death. However, Sherlock is hardly a martyr because of the act that sets in motion his exile.

The show’s moral premise - as with most television series aside from a show like Breaking Bad - is that the protagonist is assumed to be a hero or to be headed toward the idealised “goodness” of a hero. Sherlock berates John’s attempt early on to put him in that category, saying “Heroes don’t exist, John, and if they did, I wouldn’t be one of them”.[154] Nonetheless, Sherlock’s ability to spar with Moriarty and to sacrifice his life to save three people close to him (John, Mrs. Hudson, Detective Inspector Lestrade), just as he does in “His Last Vow” (this time to save John, Mary, and their unborn daughter), makes him seem heroic despite his protest and to fulfil Lestrade’s hope for him one day to become a “good man,” not simply a great one (i.e., genius).[155] Because Sherlock’s brilliant deductions have thwarted international plots and put away criminals, viewers have come to expect that he will act heroically. His self-sacrifice reinforces this interpretation.

Sherlock also “plays god” with others’ lives by choosing when to save or kill. During series two’s “A Scandal in Belgravia,” Irene Adler is saved from execution.[156] In series three, Janine, who is introduced as Mary’s friend and later shown to be Magnussen’s assistant, and Mary are saved from the dragon Magnussen, who toys with them and knows he can destroy them at any time. John is saved from Magnussen’s blackmail and tortuous ability to keep him in line in order to preserve his family, but he pays the price with the apparent loss of his dearest friend.

In previous episodes, Sherlock has been shown to manipulate events so that “bad people” like Mrs. Hudson’s husband,[157] a Russian killer,[158] and Moriarty[159] die. What is different about the murder Sherlock commits is that it is graphically, emphatically done in front of John, Mycroft, and a host of military witnesses - plus the audience. Previous allusions to characters that Sherlock did not save, such as the reference to his ensuring the execution of Mrs. Hudson’s husband, have been played for laughs. The tone changes in series three to match the initially described deadly serious consequences of Sherlock’s act, which changes the audience’s perception of the series’ “hero”.

Sherlock never shies away from killing or death. In the first episode, John shoots a cabbie in response to an immediate lethal threat.[160] In this episode, John saves Sherlock in the nick of time from taking a likely poison pill or being shot. (John does not know that the cabbie’s gun is not real.) When the Russian killer and Mrs. Hudson’s husband are executed, they die as a result of being convicted of their crimes, even if Sherlock ensures the evidence leads to conviction and death. In “His Last Vow,” Sherlock decides that the dragon must be slain and his “lair” (i.e., mind palace) destroyed.

Sherlock’s action follows a current trend in the adaptations of other iconic characters, as Entertainment Weekly noted, like Superman in Man of Steel. “The Sherlock Holmes played by Benedict Cumberbatch is the most brilliant problem solver on television,” but in “His Last Vow,” Sherlock faces the moral dilemma of “how to neutralise Magnussen’s threat and honour his [vow] without murdering him”. Sherlock, however, ultimately decides the only logical response is to wipe out that threat. Like Superman in Man of Steel, who kills his nemesis because there seems no other way to stop his annihilation of humanity, Sherlock seems to find no other way to neutralise the threat of Magnussen. He cannot solve the problem with his brain; he resorts to using a gun.

Sherlock does not even bring his own weapon; he takes moral compass John’s and thus establishes a new, deadlier “superhero” interpretation of the character. By taking John’s weapon, and, in the process, John’s former responsibility of being the moral centre of the story, Sherlock is no longer merely a consulting detective based in London. He becomes the arbiter of justice who takes vengeance on evildoers.

Entertainment Weekly compared Sherlock to Superman and Batman (with Moriarty as the Joker) but used James Bond terminology to ask whether Sherlock should have a “licence to kill”. Many viewers (including the Entertainment Weekly writer and myself) were left wondering why genius Sherlock could not “have risen to the challenge of the moment... He had the smarts to brainstorm more inspired solutions to the problem of Magnussen, and the seasoning to resist a degrading one”.[161] This denouement for series three potentially leads Sherlock into a much darker direction in future episodes and shifts the characterisation to more of a James Bond-type spy working for the British government and a national saviour who is the only one capable of fighting criminals who increasingly take on the guise of pure evil.

William Sherlock Scott Holmes

Near the end of “The Empty Hearse,”[162] John tells Sherlock, “You’d have to be an idiot not to see that you love it”. Sherlock prepares to face a crowd of reporters awaiting him outside 221B now that the news is out that Holmes is back from the “dead”. “Love what?” he asks. “Being Sherlock Holmes,” John answers. Sherlock frowns before he replies, “I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean”.

This dialogue explains a lot about series three episodes and some fans’ concern that the Sherlock returned to London seems very different from the one who ends series two. Sherlock has always been brilliant in the Science of Deduction but far less knowledgeable about social interactions and the reasons behind societal rules. From the first episode, Sherlock prefers to think of himself as a “high-functioning sociopath,” and during series three he falls back on using that self-diagnosis to explain his socially aberrant behaviour.

Perhaps Sherlock is correct that, during series three episodes, he does not even know what “being Sherlock Holmes” is supposed to mean. During his hiatus from London, he lacks John’s balancing influence. At least shortly before his return, Sherlock has been imprisoned and tortured. Whether Sherlock intends for audiences to ask if Sherlock, like John returning from war, suffers from PTSD, the man who returns from the “dead” displays a much wider range of emotions and often seems much younger emotionally, less socially experienced, and even less brilliant in making deductions than the Sherlock Holmes who left London. It makes sense that the character with the full name of William Sherlock Scott Holmes (revealed in series three) might provide insights into whom “Sherlock Holmes” was during his childhood and how he became a modern “dragonslayer”.

The actor has said that he asked showrunner Moffat why Sherlock is the way he is. Moffat’s response was that Sherlock Holmes is simply brilliant, but Cumberbatch wanted to know more than that, to understand what in his upbringing helped lead to the adult consulting detective. Cumberbatch understands that “someone isn’t just brilliant, there is something that has happened... So [Sherlock’s backstory] is examined a lot more in this series. After two years away, he is rusty about human relationships, especially with his best friend and with London”.[163] Understandably, Sherlock needs some time in order to return to some semblance of his former life.

William Sherlock Scott Holmes has many non-Work thoughts and is completely devoted to those he loves. He at least tolerates his family: inviting Mycroft to revisit their childhood by playing games with him, putting up with his parents (played by Cumberbatch’s parents) during their visit to London, and even spending Christmas at the family home.

As William Sherlock Scott Holmes, Cumberbatch convincingly plays “younger,” such as being annoyed by his mother’s chatter and literally pushing his parents out the door when John comes to visit[164] (a scene that the actor suggested is very close to his actual interactions with his parents at times) or admitting to Archie, a boy in John’s wedding party, that he has no idea why grownups insist on formal wear, but they both have to dress appropriately for the ceremony.[165] This “younger” Sherlock is eager to please John and even worse (if possible) in reading social cues; he assumes that his best friend will always know how to “read” him, too, and will easily forgive any inappropriate behaviour (even faking his death). This innocence is something that Cumberbatch imbues into the third-series Sherlock in scenes reflecting the man’s upbringing and unease in interacting correctly with others, especially at John’s wedding.

More important than these glimpses into the boy who becomes the consulting detective are several visits to Sherlock’s mind palace, which are the series’ most intriguingly filmed scenes. Inside the elaborately constructed mind palace, Sherlock relies on Mycroft’s advice and admonishments in order to think logically.[166] Molly Hooper provides medical guidance; a beloved pet, emotional security; Moriarty, motivation to survive and protect John.[167] The scenes inside Sherlock’s head not only give Cumberbatch a greater emotional range to play but also some of the most elaborate stunts or effects.

Humour also plays a bigger role in the first two episodes’ scripts. When Sherlock is reunited with the unsuspecting John, who has moved on with his life, he inappropriately jokes about John’s reaction to his return. Cumberbatch broadly plays comedy as Sherlock pretends to be a French waiter who interrupts John just when he is about to propose to Mary. Cumberbatch affects a bad French accent, and every Clouseau-reminiscent action is completed with aplomb. To create a fake moustache (nearly as unattractive and unbelievable as John’s), he takes a pen from the maître d’ and quickly marks his face with a graceful flourish.[168] Cumberbatch plays the scene lightly, each movement quick and assured, physically showing Sherlock’s excitement and confidence that John will be happy to see him alive.

The comedy is tempered by Sherlock’s growing understanding that surprising his friend, especially through humour, may not be a good idea. At the end of the reunion, after being choked and head-butted by John, a dejected Sherlock, daubing blood from his nose, watches his friend leave him behind.

Throughout the third series, Cumberbatch transitions smoothly from comedy (at times almost farce) to drama suffused with sorrow, pain, and loss. He subtly adjusts Sherlock’s body language to fit the mood and dialogue. Cumberbatch makes Sherlock’s admission that he likes to dance, followed by a graceful twirl,[169] seem unself-conscious and in character with a Sherlock who, in the first two series, seems much more emotionally reserved. Emphasising the right beats in a scene to make it believable, especially in light of Sherlock’s wider emotional range, illustrates Cumberbatch’s precise acting skills.

What may concern fans most about William Sherlock Scott Holmes is that he does not seem as inherently brilliant as viewers expect Sherlock to be. He seems to make many mistakes, not only in dealing with Magnussen but in deducing Mary, who tells him that he has been “very slow” in learning about her past.[170] Mycroft seems far more involved with Sherlock’s life and, as examples from their childhood reveal throughout series three, is indeed smarter than his little brother and often takes responsibility for deciding what happens to him.

Although played for laughs, a telling scene about Sherlock’s difficulty in returning to his “job” as a consulting detective in London is set during John’s stag night. Drunk and interrupted playing a game, Sherlock nevertheless allows Mrs. Hudson to bring in a client. When Sherlock and John visit the potential crime scene, the detective makes a mockery of his usual precise observations. His deductions are obvious, his clumsiness appropriate to someone highly inebriated. He vomits when “clueing for looks”.[171] While funny because it is highly unlike Sherlock - and Cumberbatch knows when to exaggerate a movement or widen his eyes without going over the top - the scene is also appalling because Sherlock’s behaviour is so “common”; anyone could act this way. Sherlock Holmes should make brilliant, instantaneous deductions, and John’s best man during the stag night seems far more like William Sherlock Scott Holmes, who desperately wants to keep John’s friendship, than like Britain’s saviour.

As an acting challenge, series three Sherlock opens all kinds of new doors for Cumberbatch. His performance excels in making Sherlock and Sherlock at once familiar and new. Following the broad comedy within “The Sign of Three,” [172] Cumberbatch plays highly dramatic scenes in “His Last Vow” that deal with pain and betrayal. Critics seem to prefer the actor’s dramatic instead of comedic scenes, and Cumberbatch’s nominations for acting awards have resulted from his performance in the series three finale.

A complaint by many fans is that the scripts seem to lack continuity in characterisation. Sherlock, for example, says he is “high” for a case, requiring the actor to seem loose limbed and loopy one moment and completely in physical control after what seems to be too short a time for him to sober up.[173] Similarly, John acts very much like a doctor when he encounters a wounded man in “The Sign of Three” but ineffectually checks Sherlock for wounds in “His Last Vow”. Cumberbatch and Freeman, however, react appropriately “in the moment,” even when scenes in one episode may seem to contradict characters’ actions in previous episodes.

Series three requires Cumberbatch to play Sherlock differently than in previous years: playful to violent, beaten to murderous, less obsessed with the Work and more involved with friends and family. This series’ Sherlock is more touchy feely, less overtly brilliant, and more determined to live up to “his last vow” - and he may not be every viewer’s cup of tea. He is, however, an intriguingly new take on the BBC’s Sherlock and a further testament to Cumberbatch’s immense acting talent.

Sexualising Sherlock

In early 2014, Empire magazine named Cumberbatch the “world’s sexiest man,” an honour that the actor’s fans would accept as his due. Not everyone feels the same way, as illustrated by a comment made during a Graham Norton Show episode (one without Cumberbatch as a guest). Three cast members promoting X-Men: Days of Future Past were asked to guess their ranking in Empire’s list. Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender, and James McAvoy humbly estimated their rankings within the top twenty, and host Graham Norton eventually told them their placements. The hierarchy might be somewhat skewed, Norton teased, revealing a photo of Cumberbatch as the magazine’s top choice.[174]

The public or critics may be divided about Cumberbatch’s personal sex appeal, but they seem to agree that the BBC’s Sherlock is a sexy incarnation of the character. In fact, Mark Gatiss claims that Sherlock Holmes has always been attractive because he is uninterested in sex: “He can’t be tamed... Those are the people we’re attracted to, the ones that aren’t interested”. Furthermore, the BBC’s current Sherlock is sexy because of Cumberbatch and the character’s styling on the series: “the combination of the Byronic looks that Benedict has - and the coat! - that’s made him into, possibly, the first sexy Sherlock Holmes”.[175]

Ironically, BBC executives did not share this vision when Cumberbatch was first cast. Similar to when Steven Moffat cast David Tennant in Casanova and was told that the actor was not sexy enough for the role, the showrunner has said “With Benedict Cumberbatch, we were told the same thing. ‘You promised us a sexy Sherlock, not him’“.[176] Yet in the years since Sherlock premiered, the character and actor have been inextricably linked to a sexy image, and the character and images of the actor have been increasingly sexualised by the media and fans.

One aspect of working on Sherlock that Cumberbatch cannot control is the sexualisation of Sherlock. Ever since Irene Adler proclaimed that “brainy is the new sexy,”[177] that line has been used to describe the actor as often as the character. However, the role of sex symbol is one that Cumberbatch did not willingly undertake.

In many ways, Cumberbatch is an atypical actor and celebrity. In an Independent article in 2011, for example, Cumberbatch was described as “the thinking woman’s crumpet,” and “’weirdly fanciable’ is the phrase most often associated with his physique - he doesn’t possess the obvious, symmetrical looks of a star”.[178] He is best known for his acting talent and his ability to play a wide range of roles. Cumberbatch the serious actor often shows up impeccably dressed on red carpets or at photo shoots. At formal public events, he accepts the female gaze as a well-dressed, classy actor, someone who can play the modern sexy Sherlock Holmes. When Cumberbatch playfully relaxes that image while in the public eye, he chooses to be seen as a sometimes silly “average guy” overwhelmed in his own fan moment - such as when he does a Wookiee impression in front of Harrison Ford or photobombs U2 at the Oscars. This is not the typical Hollywood sex symbol, and the image Cumberbatch crafts for himself is not deliberately sexualised.

Cumberbatch’s public persona is the opposite of what many Cumberbatch or Sherlock fans have recently done to focus the female gaze on the actor’s body by taking an image out of context, offering it on Tumblr in particular as evidence of Cumberbatch’s sex appeal, and deliberately and repeatedly inviting the female gaze.

Many of these images suggest or show nudity. The slippery sheet revealing a cheeky Sherlock (“A Scandal in Belgravia”) has joined the collection of animated .gifs and stills from Cumberbatch’s pre-Sherlock roles in which a character he plays is nude. Long-time fans have had several opportunities to see the actor completely or partially unclothed on screen, and images from To the Ends of the Earth and The Last Enemy, years before Sherlock brought the actor to such a high level of international fame, can still be found online. Once Cumberbatch became a television celebrity, however, the more recent scenes that show far less of either Sherlock’s or the actor’s body have become the best known and most often distributed clips.

If nudity is not the way the actor would have chosen to promote himself, its use in conjunction with his cultivated classy image keeps him in the public eye as a noteworthy actor while simultaneously within fans’ gaze as a sexy celebrity. In this chapter “female gaze” is defined as a single or multiple camera shots designed to provide a sexual emphasis on a male body, as well as still shots edited from a video to focus on a portion of the male anatomy. Of course, men also can appreciate and want to gaze upon a male body, but the simplified definition in this chapter limits the gaze to heterosexual females who follow the camera lens to focus on objects of sexual interest or desire. The camera thus encourages female viewers to objectify the male body.

This definition follows along the lines of many texts that describe the male gaze in similar ways. Author Isabelle Fol, for example, wrote that “In film practice, this objectification results in close-ups of different, fragmented female body parts... In their visual perfection, women become beautiful and mystic cinematic spectacles”.[179] Fol cited Laura Mulvey’s earlier definition of this image masquerading “’as the perfect to-be-looked-at image’“.[180] For the purposes of a brief discussion in this chapter, I exchange “female” for “male” in the definition, although a discussion of “female gaze” should be more complex.

As Graeme Burton noted in Media and Society, “readings of fan magazines and discussion with female fans makes it clear that there is a female gaze of desire”.[181] Although Burton was discussing the film The Full Monty, some fan websites, forums, and social-media communities make it clear that the images procured for and shared among these sites also indicate a “female gaze of desire”.

Just as important as the ways Cumberbatch’s image has been used online as a reflection of his celebrity, his nudity has been used to “balance” nude or nearly nude scenes in which female co-stars (i.e., Lara Pulver in Sherlock, Alice Eve in Star Trek) are placed in a much more sexually explicit context that generated audience complaints about the way their characters are portrayed. (See Chapter 2 for a discussion of Khan’s shower scene.) Perhaps, in part, Cumberbatch’s nudity is considered acceptable and worthy of fan promotion not only because he is male but because his (and his characters’) sex appeal is primarily linked to intelligence instead of conventional handsomeness or specifically beefcake.

Sherlock’s brief hint of nudity is greatly overshadowed later in “A Scandal in Belgravia” by the more controversial nudity of Pulver, playing dominatrix Irene Adler,[182] but, as Pulver mentioned in an interview, “You saw more of Benedict [Cumberbatch] when his sheet fell down than you did of me”.[183]

In “A Scandal in Belgravia,” the nudity is an inherent part of the characterisation and integral to the scene. It is not gratuitous, much less prurient, but the BBC received about a hundred complaints about inappropriate watershed content.[184] Sherlock’s brief almost-nudity - a swath of pale chest and hint of cheekiness - is appropriate in the context of this episode as yet another way to illustrate that Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler are equals. They see each other as they truly are, and they eventually become “bared” to each other - but not in a sexual way. “We like our nudity plot-driven, and Lara Pulver’s starkers entrance as dominatrix Irene Adler has no more to do with exploitation than Cumberbatch’s nudity at the palace,” Digital Spy[185] reported, and several critics agreed. Although the actors may not have been clothed during filming, the television audience watching this episode most often thinks of the characters, not the actors, as being in the nude.

In Sherlock, the limited nudity of the male lead character does not equal the carefully filmed total nudity of a female guest character; however, at least the lead male actor is briefly glimpsed in a way that thrilled female fans - a tease of a female gaze - although the more extensive nudity of a female character was really not designed to invite the male gaze and, despite viewer complaints to the BBC about inappropriate watershed content,[186] was not unduly sexualised. Seeing the normally suit-clad Sherlock in a sheet that slipped enough to tease a derriere shot provided fodder for some Sherlock fans to fantasise about what they glimpsed all too briefly and seemed outside the “normal” depiction of Sherlock provided during previous episodes.

In the context provided by the episode, the nudity is not Cumberbatch’s but Sherlock’s. The role requires professional, “actorly” nudity, which invites audiences to view the actor’s body. Those who created an animated .gif of Sherlock, however, have taken the image out of context and sexualised it far more than the episode does. As a result of Sherlock’s popularity and Cumberbatch’s celebrity, such an effect might be expected from fans eager to share an image within a context specifically to encourage the female gaze. When taken out of context and displayed on Cumberbatch fan sites, the image seems far less about Sherlock Holmes and far more about the actor who portrays him. The nudity becomes, in this perception, Cumberbatch’s as much as, if not more than, Sherlock’s. Interestingly enough, Cumberbatch’s nudity, not Pulver’s, has been the focus of more fan blogging and photo manipulation.

One YouTube video,[187] for example, reduces the much longer “Scandal in Belgravia” scene into a 16-second clip that has received more than 692,000 hits since the episode’s U.K. broadcast in January 2012, generated more than 31,000 subscriptions, and tabulated 5,223 thumbs-up (Likes) and 19 thumbs-down (Dislikes). Among the 1,384 comments, many which reference the actor instead of the character, are statements like these: “I am now addicted to Cumbercrack”.

As Kevin Goddard noted in The Journal of Men’s Studies, “the gazer is... as much influenced by the act of the gaze as is the subject of the gaze”.[188] That certainly seems to be the case with these fan-displayed images isolated from a television scene, cropped to highlight body parts for primarily female fan viewing, and posted and reposted online for maximum visibility in the Cumberbatch fan community. In this case, the subject of the gaze may end up being professionally affected by the gazers, who may keep promoting the actor as a sex symbol, but he publicly ignores fan works unless specifically asked about them.

Although the Sherlock episode touts the phrase, “brainy is the new sexy,” “brainy” may not be what attracts fans looking at Tumblr sites like the Benedict Cumberbatch Wank Bank.[189] Among other semi-clad images of a Cumberbatch character in various stages of undress are three animated .gifs from “A Scandal in Belgravia”. The first, and largest, image shows the camera slowly closing in on Sherlock’s bare chest, the second shows Sherlock’s bare back while John delivers a line of dialogue, and the third provides the clip of Mycroft stepping on Sherlock’s sheet, which then slides down and away from his body.

Among the eighty-four notes about these images are comments like “God, that body!... I’m dead! Oh, Benedict, what you do to me!” A very short clip has been turned into a prolonged female-gaze shot by slowing it down and emphasising bared flesh through looped animation so that the image is constantly displayed on screen, the camera focusing on Sherlock’s chest, back, or downward slipping sheet. The clip can be found on YouTube, individual fan websites, Live Journal sites, and WeHeartIt.com’s “No Sheet Sherlock” page,[190] which includes close-up stills of Sherlock’s chest, with his face and the background cropped so that his torso takes up most of the frame.

Of course, not all fans participate in the creation, viewing, or sharing of these images. As a whole, however, the actor’s fandom has become well known for their vociferous promotion of Cumberbatch. They regularly vote for him in popularity polls like Time’s 100 Most Influential People and publicise his every move. However, as Vulture magazine explained, “Cumberbatch only has a 10 percent awareness rating in America, according to the market research firm E-Score, which provided data for Vulture’s Most Valuable Stars equation. Put bluntly: He is an enormous star on the Internet - outside of that, not so much”.[191] Online, discussions and depictions of Cumberbatch’s sexiness are disproportionate to analysis of his acting or career. Whether sexy images of Sherlock (or Khan) eventually lead to higher Sherlock ratings or more tickets sold to Cumberbatch’s films or plays is unknown or, within this context, irrelevant. The female gaze directed by fans as part of a shared fan experience is done for love or lust, not money, and the use of Sherlock’s or other characters’ sexualised images is one of the best online markers to track Cumberbatch’s celebrity.

Sherlock has helped shape Cumberbatch’s recent career as much as the actor’s performance has shaped audience perceptions of the way a modern Sherlock Holmes should be. Although fandom and the series may sometimes have an uneasy relationship, especially regarding the directions characters have taken or will take, audiences around the world support Sherlock and the actor who portrays him.

What has not changed is Cumberbatch’s flair in the role and his drive to get the character right. Like co-star Freeman, Cumberbatch tends to bring something fresh to each take and to keep finding interesting ways to interpret the character.

Rupert Graves (Lestrade) admires Cumberbatch, who has to “learn three pages of speeches which are like verbal car chases... He has to work hugely long hours, but even when he’s doing night scenes after working all day, he’ll still be spinning around the room. It’s incredible. It’s like watching fireworks go off,”[192] an apt description of a man whose career has skyrocketed in popular culture.

Ruminating in 2014 about his decision to take the role more than four years earlier, Cumberbatch remembered at first worrying that yet another Sherlock Holmes remake would be “a bit cheap and cheesy” - but that was before he read the pilot script and saw the high quality of the writing. The role, he expected, could be “really exposing, in a good way, because there would be a lot of focus on it”.[193] That statement, it turns out, may be the understatement of Cumberbatch’s career.

122 Sherlock. “His Last Vow.” BBC. Dir. Nick Hurran. 12 Jan. 2014.

123 Bill Brioux. “Benedict Cumberbatch, TCA Superstar.” Brious.TV. 20 Jan. 2014.

124 Lianne Bonin Star. “Press Tour: Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Fans, ‘Sherlock,’ Kissing Moriarty.” Hitfix. 21 Jan. 2014.

125 Ibid.

126 Clark Collis. “’Sherlock’: Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Fans, His Future on the Show, and ‘Elementary’ at TCA Panel.” Entertainment Weekly. 21 Jan. 2014.

127 Denise Martin. “Benedict Cumberbatch Says Sherlock’s Moriarty Kiss was Like Fistbumping.” Vulture. 1 Jan. 2014.

128 Gelt, “TCA: The Curious Case of Benedict Cumberbatch and His Rabid Fans.”

129 Dave Walker. “’Sherlock,’ Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Returns to Growing Audience.” Times-Picayune. 21 Jan. 2014.

130 Rebecca Eaton. Making Masterpiece: 25 Years Behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS. New York: Viking, 2013, p. 228.

131 Ibid., p. 229.

132 Sherlock. “A Scandal in Belgravia.” BBC. Dir. Paul McGuigan. 1 Jan. 2012.

133 Eaton, pp. 273-4.

134 Ibid., p. 274.

135 Ibid.

136 Kayla Epstein. “BBC Releases Sherlock Preview for Fans Celebrating Hearth and Holmes.” Guardian. 24 Dec. 2013.

137 Lisa De Moraes. “UPDATE: Benedict Cumberbatch Sentimental about ‘Sherlock’ But Mum About More Seasons After Series 3 Premiere Scores in Ratings.” Deadline Hollywood. 20 Jan. 2014.

138 “Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss Talk Sherlock Series 3.” Empire. Dec. 2013.

139 Dylan Cannon. “4 Iconic Movie Roles Played by Different Actors.” OK. 20 May 2014.

140 “Sherlock is Terrible, Decide Sherlock Fans.” Metro. 6 Jan. 2014.

141 Philiana Ng. “Critics’ Choice TV Nominations: ‘Big Bang Theory,’ ‘Good Wife’ Lead with Five Nods Each.” Hollywood Reporter. 25 May 2014.

142 Sara Bibel. “Nominations Announced for Fourth Annual Critics’ Choice Television Awards.” TV By the Numbers. 28 May 2014.

143 Posts in response to Ng, “Critics’ Choice TV Nominations,” Hollywood Reporter.

144 Ben Dowell. “Sherlock Stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman Vie for Best Actor Award.” Radio Times. 29 May 2014.

145 National Television Awards. “NTA 2014 - Benedict Cumberbatch Acceptance Speech.” YouTube. 24 Jan. 2014.

146 Paul Jones. “Sherlock Season 4 Could Come Sooner than Expected: ‘We’re Working on Dates’ says Producer.” Radio Times. 9 Jan. 2014.

147 Alex Fletcher. “Sherlock Series 4 and 5 Already ‘Plotted Out,’ Says Steven Moffat.” Digital Spy. 9 Jan. 2014.

148 Tom Eames. “Martin Freeman: ‘Sherlock’ Might Return as a One-off Special.” Digital Spy. 24 Apr. 2014.

149 Susanna Lazarus. “Mark Gatiss on Sherlock Series 4 Filming Dates - Exclusive Video.” Radio Times. 19 May 2014.

150 Ian Youngs. “Steven Moffat on the World of Doctor Who and Sherlock.” BBC News. 26 Feb. 2014.

151 Sherlock. “The Reichenbach Fall.” Dir. Toby Haynes. 15 Jan. 2012.

152 Ibid.

153 Sherlock. “A Study in Pink.” BBC. Dir. Paul McGuigan. BBC. 25 July 2010.

154 Sherlock. “The Blind Banker.” Dir. Euros Lyn. BBC. 1 Aug. 2010.

155 Sherlock, “A Study in Pink.”

156 Sherlock. “A Scandal in Belgravia.”

157 Sherlock. “A Study in Pink.”

158 Sherlock. “The Great Game.” BBC. Dir. Paul McGuigan. 8 Aug. 2010.

159 Sherlock, “The Reichenbach Fall.”

160 Sherlock, “A Study in Pink.”

161 Jeff Jensen. “’Sherlock’ Goes ‘Man of Steel’ Should Heroes Have a License to Kill?” Entertainment Weekly. 3 Feb. 2014.

162 Sherlock. “The Empty Hearse.” BBC. Dir. Jeremy Lovering. 1 Jan. 2014.

163 Adrian Lobb. “Benedict Cumberbatch Interview: ‘I Went to Public School, But I’m Not a Public School Boy.’” Big Issue. 9 Jan. 2014.

164 Sherlock. “The Empty Hearse.”

165 Sherlock. “His Last Vow.”

166 Sherlock. “The Sign of Three.” BBC. Dir. Colm McCarthy. 5 Jan. 2014.

167 Sherlock. “His Last Vow.”

168 Sherlock. “The Empty Hearse.”

169 Sherlock. “The Sign of Three.”

170 Sherlock. “His Last Vow.”

171 Sherlock. “The Sign of Three.”.

172 Ibid.

173 Sherlock. “His Last Vow.”

174 The Graham Norton Show. Series 15, Episode 5. BBC. 6 May 2014.

175 Jess Denham. “Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch ‘First Sexy Holmes,’ Says Mark Gatiss.” Independent. 7 Mar. 2014.

176 Ben Beaumont-Thomas. “Steven Moffat: BBC Thought Tennant and Cumberbatch Weren’t Sexy Enough.” Guardian. 27 May 2014.

177 Sherlock. “A Scandal in Belgravia.”

178 Alice-Azania Jarvis. “Benedict Cumberbatch: Success? It’s Elementary.” Independent. 29 Jan. 2011.

179 Isabelle Fol. The Dominance of the Male Gaze in Hollywood Films: Patriarchal Hollywood Images at the Turn of the Millennium. Diplomarbeiten Agentur, 2006, p. 27. eBook.

180 Laura Mulvey. Visual and Other Pleasures. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. Cited in Fol, 2006, p. 27.

181 Graeme Burton. Media and Society: Critical Perspectives. McGraw-Hill International, 2004, p. 194. eBook.

182 Sherlock. “A Scandal in Belgravia.”

183 Alice Jones. “The Naked Truth About Lara Pulver.” Independent. 30 Apr. 2013.

184 Tara Conlan. “Sherlock is Cheeky Entertainment, Insists BBC After Nudity Complaints.” Guardian, 11 Jan. 2012.

185 Emma Dibdin. “Sherlock: 15 Best Moments from Benedict Cumberbatch’s BBC Holmes.” Digital Spy. 18 Dec. 2013.

186 Conlan, “Sherlock is Cheeky Entertainment, Insists BBC After Nudity Complaints.”

187 Among others: MsSherLocked. “Sherlock BBC - Get Off My Sheet!” 6. Jan. 2012. YouTube.

188 Kevin Goddard. “’Looks Maketh the Man’: The Female Gaze and the Construction of Masculinity.” Journal of Men’s Studies, 9(1), Fall 2000, p. 24.

189 Benedict Cumberbatch Wank Bank. Tumblr. 2012.

190 WeHeartIt.com. “No Sheet Sherlock” tag’s page.

191 Amanda Dobbins. “The Most Valuable Stars’ Disconnect Between Twitter and Mass Fame.” Vulture. 23 Oct. 2013.

192 Rupert Graves. “’I Wish They’d Let Me Play Holmes!’ By the Man Who Plays Bungling Inspector Lestrade.” Daily Mail. 17 Jan. 2014.

193 Jess Denham. “Sherlock Star Benedict Cumberbatch Almost Turned Down ‘Cheap and Cheesy’ Role.” Independent. 14 Feb. 2014.