Moriarty Fell Apart

Remember the first cour of Moriarty: The Patriot? That grounded show about a genius that actually felt like a genius by the name of William Moriarty destroying individual members of the upper class in sneaky ways? Ways that couldn’t be traced back to them by investigation at that time besides Sherlock Holmes? That one guy we meet halfway in the show itself? Yeah, that was the first portion of Moriarty. It was restrained, well thought out, and a little dry tonally, but I think that was supposed to show us how an equal like Sherlock could add some extra spice to William’s unchallenged life. It felt really good.

The second part of Moriarty is nothing like the first. If anything, you can hardly tell that these two parts even belonged with each other. If these weren’t the same characters, then it would be impossible to tell if they were the same show. For all the restraint the first part had, the second portion had none of that and decided to add more things. I should say, it started out pretty decent. It has the adventures of Irene Adler who fit the tone of what Moriarty was going for in the first portion. She was sexy, a damsel who was escaping and smartly using Sherlock to keep herself alive, and other things. What changed was she had the document the British used to cause the French Revolution on her person? What?

That’s where the show really went down hill. It was when Irene Adler became James Bonde. Not because it’s a trans narrative or being trans is bad, but James Bonde was a character that didn’t fit in that universe. Especially when he started driving around in a car in the late 1800’s with advance weaponry? What does that have to do with anything? The show didn’t feel like Moriarty when James was going around and doing crazy things that didn’t belong or fit with anything. It was within that arc where crazy stunts happened that the show lost all the sense it had forever. Especially when William Moriarty and his brother Louis started fighting with swords themselves in a conflict that didn’t make sense at all.

I can’t help but feel this second half was written by someone who has seen code geass and wanted to do that ending, but didn’t know how to get it there. Not that Code Geass had a restrained or well thought out second season, but Code Geass was never restrained in the first place. It was always all over the place, but set things up well enough to have the conclusion it had. Moriarty’s second part decided that you have seen all the things its trying to do elsewhere and went for broke with checks it couldn’t cash.

The ending would have worked if Moriarty and Sherlock actually played shadow games with each other for longer. Instead, the show decided that they did for you behind the scenes and went full in on the drama between them for now reason. It’s just so, blah. That drama with Milverton was also blah because it started and ended too quickly. The direction and tension the show was trying to force on the audience didn’t work considering that there was nothing to support any of it. No thoughts, only annoyance.

Now, this is a real nitpick but the people behind this show must have the most faith in humanity ever because Moriarty’s plan is stupid. In the end, he just wanted to set fire to the homes of those not in the elite in order to get the elite to finally be responsible for a change? Now that did happen, but it feels so short term. Did he really see that as lasting change? A year or two afterwards, everything going on in that story is just going to return to what happened when Moriarty wasn’t active. With the system still in place, it’s very easy for it to just go back to normal making everything he ever did futile. As long as the rich are rich and the poor are poor, nothing will ever truly change.

The only thing I can say here is it you watch Moriarty: The Patriot, only watched the first 11 episodes. Ignore that the other 13 even exist because they are awful and unfulfilling. It’s the one of the worst sorts of endings that a show could ever be. Oh, that wonderful grounded setting and feeling meant nothing in the end. Just watch 1-11 and nothing else, ok? Ok. There, done.