I first watched Sherlock in the autumn of 2013 and I loved it. I kept watching and I'll even admit to somewhat liking the infamous fourth series when it came out. However, with every subsequent re-viewing, it just gets worse and worse.

To understand the problems with this programme, you have to understand the problems with Steven Moffat's writing generally. He's very good at setting up interesting plot points, but more often than not he then utterly fails to follow through on them properly. In his adaptations, he also invariably misses the point of the source material by having everything in the show's universe revolve around its main character, who is usually reinterpreted as some sort of all-powerful ultimate hero. Such is the fate of Holmes here.

In true Moffat style, the plotting jumps from twists to the teasing of more twists, rarely resolving anything tangible within the space of a single episode. Half of the time these twists don't even amount to anything and are awkwardly cancelled out, which makes it increasingly difficult to stay invested as the series progresses. The presence of Mark Gatiss only seems to have encouraged Moffat's worst tendencies as a writer. The crucial deduction sequences during cases are also manhandled. In the books you're given most of the clues to ponder yourself and then Holmes pieces them together, filling in the blanks. In Sherlock however, this seems to play in reverse; the audience is usually given very little in the way of clues, followed by Sherlock figuring it out himself either offscreen or by jumping to absurd conclusions that are invariably correct. You have to wonder if Moffat and Gatiss have fundamentally misunderstood how mystery writing works, or if they deliberately wrote Sherlock as an omniscient superman to get out of having to actually write any smart deduction. As time goes by, the importance of the mysteries seems to dwindle anyway in the face of trite character work.

There is an unpleasant air of smugness that runs through this programme, from its flagrant disregard for the novels to the creators' callous attitude to its fans. This is particular egregious in the third series, where after two years of encouraging certain attitudes and behaviour among the fans, Moffat and Gatiss essentially make fun of them for this very behaviour. This is really quite nasty and says a lot about them as people. This combined with the sexist tendencies and shameless queer-baiting that crops up so often in Moffat's work leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

The one saving grace of Sherlock is its cast. Cumberbatch fares particularly well, as his natural charm often slips through his character's bland egomania. The rest of the cast are all good too, although the programme's hyper-focus on Sherlock often leaves them with very little to work with.

The first series is worth a watch, as the rot hadn't fully set in and it's fairly entertaining as long as you don't think about it too much. If you want contemporary Holmes though, I'd give the rest of it a miss and watch Elementary instead.