Skip to main content

Ring in the New Year with ‘Sherlock’: Fourth season to kick off on January 1

sherlock
BBC
New Year’s may normally be a time to reflect and create resolutions, but once again, Sherlock fans have bigger things to focus on come January 1 — namely the return of the series. The season 4 premiere date has finally been announced, and it turns out the first new episode, The Six Thatchers, will air on New Year’s Day in both the U.S. and U.K.

Season 4 will pick up with detective Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his friend Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman) trying to crack yet another case. The premiere episode seems to be based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, which starts out with a number of busts around London being shattered but leads to a murder investigation. We’ll see a new spin in the first of the season’s three episodes.

Recommended Videos

The premiere announcement came with a new photo, but not surprisingly, it is cryptic. The teaser image simply shows a violin with a broken string alongside the show’s title and the premiere date.

https://twitter.com/Sherlock221B/status/791338622087757824

New Year’s Day has worked well for Sherlock viewership in the past.  Seasons 2 and 3 both premiered on January 1 (in 2012 and 2014, respectively) in the U.K., while 2016’s Victorian-themed special The Abominable Bride debuted both stateside and across the Atlantic on that date this year. There’s no reason to believe the upcoming premiere won’t have similar success.

Season 4 is sure to be an exciting one. We’ve seen that Moriarty may be returning, and we expect ghosts to play into the plot. On top of that, fans have been warned that the series could possibly be ending (though exactly when is anyone’s guess), so we know we have to savor it just in case.

Sherlock season 4 returns on January 1 on PBS Masterpiece.

Stephanie Topacio Long
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
You season 4, part 1’s ending explained
you season 4 part 1 ending explained new characters

When we left Joe Goldberg at the end of season 3 of the hit Netflix series You, he was in an explosive situation, literally. He had killed his wife, Love, set his house on fire, and cut off his own toes to suggest he had perished in the blaze. Joe was determined to turn his life around, especially after running into Marienne and seeing the terror on her face over who he was and what he had done. He then escaped to start anew in a different country.

In season 4, it’s revealed that Joe headed to Paris in search of the woman he believed he was meant to be with, Marienne. That led him to London, where he assumed the new identity of a man named Jonathan and began working as a professor teaching a literature class.

Read more
New Ozark season 4 trailer promises no one gets out clean
Jason Bateman in Laura Linney in Ozark.

Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney) got what they wanted in Ozark season 3: They survived. However, some juicy new footage from the new "official" trailer for Ozark season 4 suggests that the Byrde family's troubles are far from over.

Warning: Spoilers ahead! Marty and Wendy's icy rival, the ruthless lawyer Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer), wanted them dead. But Omar Navarro (Felix Solis) decided to kill Helen and stick with the Byrdes. The trailer does shed some light on Omar's choice. He believes that the Byrdes can help him negotiate a deal that will keep him out of prison and allow him to move to America. But that's much easier said than done.

Read more
Overwatch’s annual Lunar New Year event kicks off on January 16
Overwatch Lunar New Year 2020

If you’ve been patiently waiting for confirmation of Overwatch’s Lunar New Year event, you’ll be pleased to learn that the Year of the Rat celebration will begin on Thursday, January 16. 

This year’s annual event was unveiled via the Overwatch Twitter account. A brief announcement video shows Hanzo sending paper lanterns off into the night sky, before revealing the dates of the event, which will last from January 16 to February 5.

Read more