William, Sherlock, Scott, Holmes

The wait was intolerable so I did what I had resisted all along. Got the episode from the net and watched it in one sitting from 1130pm yesterday night... and I must admit, I had mixed feelings at the end.

Yet another season is over and Gatiss/Moffat are notoriously lazy so the wait for S4 is bound to be another torturous one. Coming to The Last Vow itself, the first hour was brilliant but the conclusion left me a tad disappointed....and the post credits shock/surprise did not really get me all revved up too. Mary's character arc moved exactly in the direction I guessed it would, Mycroft was brilliant as usual & Molly became a little more interesting. Benedict Cumberbatch continued to scale dizzying heights & I am now seriously tempted to check out some of his movies (his choice of roles are ALL in genres I absolutely loathe - 12 Years a slave / August: Osage County - boring Oscar drama, The Hobbit - Fantasy, Star Trek - Sci-fi, The Fifth estate - biopic) but the most magical thing about the episode was this pearly gem (slight spoiler alert) "“The problems of your past are your business. The problems of your future are my privilege”

So, how was Season 3 overall, you ask !!! There has been a lot of negative reaction to the first 2 episodes but this is how I look at it.

The Last Vow was like the last 2-3 overs of a T20 chase with all its thrills and chills, The Sign of Three was like the 1st innings and early + mid part of the 2nd innings of the match with all the patient build-up and setting up of the launchpad while the The Empty Hearse was like the precursor to the match with all the cheer girls and dancing and general fun.

When you buy a ticket for the match, you've got to go through all 3 stages to experience the whole entertainment package.

PS: The title of this blog post is another LOL moment in the episode. Sparkling dialogues, I say.

172 mts I am never going to get back in my life...sigh....

Christopher Nolan is a phenomenon. He is what I would call a once-in-a-lifetime director, someone who comes along and absolutely shakes the way you look at the movies ever after.

Memento established him as a director to watch out for, the Batman trilogy expanded his fan base multi-fold and Inception probably ranks very high in a lot of critics' All time top 10 lists  but if I were to be forced to pick my personal favourite amongst his works, it would have to The Prestige.

Yeah, for a first time effort Following is mind-blowing (if you've not seen it yet, go online and order it ASAP from the US/UK) ) but the Prestige still edges it for me. You could say he had great source  material from Christopher Priest's award-winning 1995  novel but it still takes a master to translate that magic to the screen. The complexity of the rivalry, the insecurity of the 2 principal characters, their dreams & obsessions were all brought out so brilliantly. The casting was purrrfect, the art direction was memorable and the movie was a masterpiece.... which brings us to Dhoom 3.

• 250 crores and still counting. WHAT THE F*&^ !!!!!
• If the moolah raked in is any indication of the average Indian cinegoer's "changing" tastes, I am OFF movies for another 10 years.
• Everyone and anyone at Yash Raj should hang their heads in shame for making this monstrosity.
• When the whole world rubbished Tashan, I was one of the few people who actually had some kind words to say of Vijay Krishna Acharya. Now I wish he had vanished from the face of earth after the debacle of his debut.
• Aamir Khan was always a scheming, manipulative superstar ever willing to come out and launch a charm offensive when he wanted something of us - our money of course - without ever coming back to apologise when some of his duds left us feeling nauseated (read: Ishq, Mann, Mela, Mangal Pandey, Dhobi Ghat). Lightning has struck again. Horrible is an understatement to describe his performance here but again he gets away with it.
• Just 10-15 mts of screen time for Katrina Kaif? Blasphemy. 
• Pritam's music was godawful.
• ...and the most charitable thing I can say about Abhishek Bachchan was that he was almost as good as Uday Chopra. 

Thank god I read this vitriolic piece - saved me time on the most obvious bashing targets.