‘Sherlock: The Abominable Bride’: Amanda Abbington brings perspective to ‘feminism’ debate

For the most part, we considered the “Sherlock” New Year’s Day special “The Abominable Bride” to be rather fantastic entertainment … though not everyone had such glowing things to say about it. There have been some critics out there who have taken offense to the resolution of the Abominable Bride case in Sherlock’s “Victorian London,” stating that his explanation of feminism as the cause of the Bride’s murders was too preachy, especially since it was coming from a man.

We now have at least one response on the subject via Twitter courtesy of actress Amanda Abbington (Mary), who makes a very interesting point: Given that this entire Victorian sequence is coming from the point of view of a “man who doesn’t understand women,” it wouldn’t make much sense for the perspective to be anything different. We do think that often when we do discuss narratives, we do so without taking perspective into consideration. This means a lot, since we cannot expect individual characters to be omniscient in any capacity.

Ultimately, Abbington also said that the upcoming fourth season will be different than much of the special, which we would certainly imagine being the case. Now that “Sherlock” has ventured into such unusual (and in many ways, trippy) territory, it would be hard for them to pull some sort of similar stunt in the future. They have to be committed to continuing to mix things up and keep viewers ultimately on their toes.

Filming for season 4 stars later this year, and we’ll be around with some further news at that time.

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