Sherlock’s back: Why Georgian fans are both happy and sad at the same time?

Spoiler alert: This piece of writing might contain spoilers to the Sherlock episode 'The Six Thatchers'.

Sherlock has returned after a three-year gap between episodes, bringing excitement to its fans from all over the world, but it’s the TV series Georgian fans that are most thrilled. Why? Because the new episode features several scenes where the action takes place in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

The newest episode of Sherlock, The Six Thatchers, was aired on BBC on January 1, 2017. Sherlock’s Georgian fans immediately went to Facebook to express their excitement over the release of the long-awaited episode and also over the fact that the episode featured Tbilisi.

A screenshot from the Sherlock episode The Six Thatcher.

Shortly about the episode

Sherlock is asked to investigate the mysterious death of a young man, which he solves quickly but he is led into another mystery when a bust of Margaret Thatcher owned by the dead man's father is smashed. Further busts are smashed and Sherlock discovers that the mystery is linked to John Watson’s wife Mary and her past as a government agent. A figure from her past is bent on revenge in the belief that Mary betrayed him, but Sherlock discovers that someone else was really the traitor.

What do all of these have to do with Georgia? It’s revealed that all the Thatcher statues were made in Tbilisi. The episode contains scenes that describe the four British agents’ mission in Georgia’s capital six years ago.

A screenshot from the Sherlock episode The Six Thatchers.

Misleading details about Tbilisi?

After the first wave of excitement, Georgians started noticing that Tbilisi was shown in not-so-attractive context. The city was presented as the place of violence where terrorists use brutal torture techniques against the agents.

"It’s a pity that finally your country and city is mentioned somewhere but it’s put in the context of the dark 90s with terrorism and Kalashnikovs [a type of rifle made in Russia] all round. Seems like we are portrayed in the minds of Europeans as bearded, prehistoric men,” one user wrote.

Others argued and said that despite the action took place in Tbilisi, terrorists weren’t Georgian because they spoke in Russian and they looked like Russian. However, they agreed that the episode contained a number of misleading details, like: if the terrorists were Georgian why did they speak Russian? And if they were not Georgian why was there no hint of this for the global audience so that they don’t think negatively about Georgians?

A screenshot from the Sherlock episode The Six Thatcher.

Anyway, the good news is that in five days, on January 7 Sherlock’s another new episode is expected to be released and Georgian fans are among those who are looking forward to this.