I thought The Empty Hearse was a godawful episode. Not only does the method that he survived not make sense* but the pacing and plot of it was all over the place, jumping from place to place, from past to future with no apparent reason or rhyme made it painfully difficult to keep track of what (if anything) was going on. The amount of filler and padding didn't help, with far too much time being spent with the Sherlock fanclub. With so much going on, none of the characters had time to show emotions developing naturally, they were just lurched from one extreme to the other.
Sherlock was also really out of character. I understand him being callous, he's a self-admitted sociopath, but the playing with John at the end for his own amusement was just cruel - the act of a psychopath rather than a sociopath.
Furthermore, the 'deductions' Sherlock is making now aren't even explained, they might as well give him psychc powers. How does he sudden; l know about *SPOILERS* an underground station under the houses of parliament that the Underground geek just neglected to remember until Sherlock reminded him, despite having the maps spread out in front of him?
*SPOILERS*
Moriarty had people watching to make sure Sherlock died, are you telling me that none of them noticed people moving a sodding bouncy castle below? Or the army of people making it look as though Sherlock had died? I hope that this isn't the 'real' explanation because if so then it only makes sense if his death was orchestrated purely for John's sake
*/SPOILERS*