As we all know, Sherlock‘s on indefinite hiatus right now due to the immense success of its two stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, with the show last returning to our screens for its fourth season in early 2017. Season 4 had a lot going for it, but if you weight it up against previous runs, it’s generally agreed to be the least popular of the lot.
While speaking with The Times, Sherlock‘s Amanda Abbington – who played John Watson’s wife Mary across seasons 3 and 4 – admitted that she was aware of the fans’ lukewarm reception to the run and also accepted that things got “very complicated” in the season’s three feature-length episodes.
“I don’t think they were very happy with the last series, I think it got very complicated.
Abbington then added that she thinks the fatal flaw may have been that the writers – co-creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss – began to pander to the fans instead of focusing on the storytelling.
“I love [co-creator] Steven Moffat, but I think they started to pander to the fans, involving a lot of the fandom stuff. I thought, ‘You should just stick to the stories, because they’re much more interesting’.”
Before you go thinking that Abbington totally hated the season or had a poor experience working on it though, the actress followed up the publication of her interview with a tweet on social media that clarified how she thinks Moffat is a “fabulous” writer and that she “loved” being part of the show.
https://twitter.com/CHIMPSINSOCKS/status/1095028889234141185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1095028889234141185&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.digitalspy.com%2Ftv%2Fa26301116%2Fsherlock-amanda-abbington-series-4-pandering-fans%2F
Though it’s clear that the actress didn’t intend to totally criticize Sherlock‘s final season, she probably wasn’t fully pleased with it either, and it’d certainly be fair to say that it was pretty complicated, as things did get quite convoluted and complex. Remember the reveal that Sherlock and Mycroft had a psychotic secret sister? It was also much darker than previous years, as well, which fans didn’t take to. For instance, Abbington’s character Mary died in the opening episode.
The actress likely wouldn’t appear if a fifth season of Sherlock were to happen, then, but Moffat and Gatiss seem certain that they can still get everyone else back together – eventually.