It’s fair to say that the Season 4 premiere of Sherlock was met with a good deal of criticism. The first modern-day adventure of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes and Martin Freeman’s Watson in three years was hailed by some critics as disappointing and even cringe-worthy, with shocking plot twists that felt deeply out of character even to fans. Creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss—seasoned TV writers that they are—likely took most of the negative feedback in stride—but one critique did not sit well. Gatiss—who also plays the brilliant and insufferably snooty Mycroft Holmes—could not resist responding to a piece in The Guardian that accused Sherlock of morphing into a James Bond story. And he did it in typical Holmes fashion: by putting the full power of his brain on display.

In a poem (yes, a poem) complete with lilting meter and a rhyme scheme and everything, Gatiss addressed the critique that Cumberbatch’s Holmes has gotten a bit too action-heavy and weighed down with international spycraft. *The Guardian’*s Ralph Jones wrote the critique:

When Moffat, Gatiss or both decided that Mary Watson just had to be a ninja assassin with a murky past, they took ill-advised liberties with Conan Doyle’s stories in what one can only assume was an attempt to make the programme even sexier. It failed. None of the scenes involving Mary ring true. How can the viewer be expected to believe that both John Watson’s best friend and his wife could be waist-deep in such extraordinarily cool activities? The show began to feel implausible, a fate from which it has never recovered.

Gatiss’s lyrical response (also printed in The Guardian), however, argues that the Sherlock’s action beats are there in the Arthur Conan Doyle text—if this “undiscerning critic” knew where to look. He writes: