In Doyle, Irene Adler had an extremely strong if somewhat unconventional ethical code - though not unconventional in everything. Her word was good, and she was kind and compassionate. But since this is 21st century Sherlock, reasonable variation on the original is to be expected, though making Irene Adler into Catwoman(amoral/evil version) does not strike me as the best choice.

More complaints about Moffat writing female characters: [link]

Adler is not "a mistress to foreign nationals" as if that's her profession. She's a retired opera singer who had an affair. And she's a foreign national herself, for that matter.

I enjoyed this review. [link]

I don't like the equation of the fact she slept with whoever with a sexual profession. Even though she was using that material as leverage, it's just not the same thing.

In Doyle, Irene Adler had an extremely strong if somewhat unconventional ethical code - though not unconventional in everything. Her word was good, and she was kind and compassionate.

Adler's specifically called out as an adventuress in ASiB. In the sense of "woman using unscrupulous means to gain wealth or social position." Watson's lens of "poor sweet thing!" aside, I don't see her as having enough characterization to draw the conclusion that she's kind and compassionate.

Also, I found Mycroft and company's cunning plan (to... terrify their citizenry without actual deaths and strengthen their position in terms of the politics of war, is the best I can come up with) about as amoral as anything else in there.

Far more so, I thought.

Really, there's a lot of "not good" going on in the series if you look for it. There's Mycroft's shennanigans, Irene attempts to steal information that could be used by terrorists (plus blackmail, etc.), Sherlock lets a victim suffer longer in a vest of explosives in "The Great Game" because he wants to get a leg up on Moriarty, John brags about killing people (and we've seen him do so once), Lestrade organizes a (possibly) baseless drugs bust in Sherlock's apartment to try to make Sherlock do what Lestrade wants (and his underlings help), Sarah covers up for a doctor that falls asleep on the job—the only recurring character who doesn't bend their position or abilities in questionable directions is Mrs. Hudson.

I love the show, and I can't wait for the next episode to hit iPlayer, but I'm not sure I'd look to most of the characters for moral guidance.

Oh, definitely, Plei. I like that Sherlock used the pronoun "us" in the conversation with the cigarette. Lord, I'd love to meet Mummy.

I feel like I should go back and read Bohemia after I finish Baskervilles (It's where I was in the publishing order. I didn't jump ahead or anything)

Having watched it twice, I'm both hoping and worried that we'll see Irene again.

Has anybody else poked around the online stuff?

I don't see her as having enough characterization to draw the conclusion that she's kind and compassionate.

Her actions towards Sherlock when he was pretending to be a clergyman before she identified him.

What's wrong with bragging about killing people? That seems entirely harmless, unless they were murders.