'Sherlock' creator shuts down Season 4 critics with poetic open letter

LONDON -- Not everyone was happy with the dramatic opening of Sherlock's fourth season.

The episode, which was titled "The Six Thatchers" and featured plenty of twists that you can dive into right here, drummed up plenty of reaction on social media -- but it also caused a Guardian critic to write a piece arguing that "Sherlock is slowly and perversely morphing into Bond".

"Conan Doyle wanted his protagonist to rise above the cheap thrills of the penny dreadful," wrote Ralph Jones in his article. "Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss should be aware that their protagonist is at risk of suffering the fate Conan Doyle swerved."

Well, Mark Gatiss -- the show's co-creator and the actor who plays Sherlock's brother Mycroft -- wasn't having any of that.

On Wednesday afternoon, he published a poem in the Guardian directly responding to Jones' piece.

Here's a snapshot.

"In hurling Moriarty over the torrent did Sherlock find violence strange and abhorrent?

In shooting down pygmies and Hounds from hell Did Sherlock on Victorian niceties dwell? When Gruner’s men got him was Holmes quite compliant Or did he give good account for The Illustrious Client?

There’s no need to invoke in yarns that still thrill, Her Majesty’s Secret Servant with licence to kill From Rathbone through Brett to Cumberbatch dandy With his fists Mr Holmes has always been handy."

You can read Gatiss' poem -- titled "To an undiscerning critic... from Mark Gatiss" in full here.

Maybe the whole thing is less down to historical accuracy, though, and more about what you enjoy watching: some people will be happy to watch Benedict Cumberbatch getting his hands dirty every now and then, while others will prefer to see Doyle's anti-social detective using the sweet power of his mind.