Watson’s Canceled Season 3: Creator Reveals the Sherlock Return Fans Never Got

'Watson' ended way too abruptly last season, and if you felt like you were left hanging, well, you weren’t alone. Turns out, there was a whole roadmap for what could have been a much juicier—and weirder—third season, and series creator Craig Sweeny just spilled the beans on where things were headed.

The Plot Twist: Sherlock Was Supposed to Stick Around

Fans spent a good chunk of the series wondering if Robert Carlyle’s Sherlock Holmes was just a figment of Watson’s imagination (thanks, brain tumor plot), or something more. Originally, the plan was to keep Sherlock as this kind of surreal presence—part hallucination, part mystery. But then Carlyle started playing him, and the show’s team realized that his dynamic with Watson was too good not to make real.

So, the new plan for Season 3? Sherlock would have become a full-fledged character in the real world, not just a shadow in Watson’s mind. In Sweeny’s words:

'Watson’s Holmes and Watson were fun to write and watch, and so we devised a way for Sherlock to be present in the real world.'

The twist is, Watson would have been treating Sherlock medically—remember that illness Sherlock was grappling with late in Season 2? That whole thread was meant to blow up in a bigger way, with Watson becoming Sherlock’s actual doctor while they solve impossible cases. Not many shows could try that combo and almost pull it off.

Loose Ends: What Else Would’ve Happened in Season 3?

The series left more than a few storylines dangling, mostly around the younger doctors at the hospital. If you were hoping to see how Beck’s murder investigation played out, or where Sasha’s life was going after her personal crisis, Sweeny says all of that was going to get closure.

• Beck’s murder mystery would finally wrap up.
• Sasha’s character arc—and that big family drama—were getting finished.
• With medical fellowships set to end (those last three years, apparently), the show was about to explore where everyone landed after their residency wrapped.

Sweeny pointed out that the cases were always at the center of 'Watson,' so this final season wasn’t about ditching the format for endless backstory. The plan was more wild medical mysteries, just with some bigger character payoffs.

Reception and the Weird Place 'Watson' Landed

Let’s be honest—'Watson' was a bit of an odd duck. It mashed up everything from procedural medicine to classic British detective fiction, and that either hit for you or it didn’t. The ratings? Not spectacular, but it did build a pretty loyal following. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show sat comfortably in the 'mixed' zone at 53%. Not a flop, not a breakout hit—but enough to keep people arguing on the internet about whether CBS killed it too soon.

Bottom line: 'Watson' was never boring, and Season 3 could’ve doubled down on the strange partnership between Holmes and Watson—not just solving cases, but literally trying to keep each other alive. Shame we won’t get to see just how off-the-wall it might’ve gotten.