Elementary - the TV Series
Oct. 8th, 2012 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charliesmumI watched 1 1/2 episodes of the new ABC (Think it's ABC) drama 'Elementary', which is Modern Day Sherlock Holmes that's TOATS different than the BBC one because it's in New York! And Watson's a girl!
To be fair, it's hard not to make comparisons to the Moffat/Gatis version, since the basic premise is similar, and that makes it a bit more difficult to judge the show on its own merit.
The actors are stellar, I have to say. It's an excellent cast, and I'd be happy to see the show succeed just so those actors can have a regular paycheck. The writing isn't bad, it's just...well as I said, it isn't anything terribly new.
My biggest complaint is the background they've given both characters. Firstly 'Joan' Watson was a surgeon who accidently killed a patient and either lost her license or quit out of guilt; it hasn't been made clear which yet, and now she works as a 'addict companion', hired by Sherlock's father to stay with him, Sherlock, for six weeks as he just got out of rehab.
They could have made her an army soldier who got shot in Afganistan, but I guess that's not feminine enough, so she's a woman with guilt on her mind. Fine, whatevs.
Sherlock now has an overbearing, very wealthy father who inexpicably owns 5 properties in New York City, and who has threatened to cut Sherlock off and make him live in the streets of New York (why not London, I have no idea) if he doesn't stay sober.
When we meet Sherlock he apparently just had sex - BONDAGE sex, with a hooker. I suppose we may find out later that really he was doing an experiment, but at the moment he said, while he finds sex grody, he needs it to keep his mind sharp. So here he's more like House than Sherlock.
And this is sort of the crux of why I'm not sure I'm going to like this show. They made Watson a woman, I think, so they can have the UST without it being between two men. It's established early, as when Sherlock meets Joan he quotes some television show at her about love at first sight, making her a bit wibbly until she realises he's quoting at her.
So we have a Sherlock with an angsty background and a girl Wastson with a sad background who probably finds him sexy. (Not that I blame her - Johnny Lee Miller is yummy). It's just boring, really. Not good, not bad, just boring.
And in the 2nd episode Joan infers that the reason Sherlock left London was because he was Brung Low by a Woman. I'm hoping that is is an incorrect assumption, but when she said it, I thought, 'Oh, dear gods, it's going to be Irene Bloody Adler, isn't it.'
I do not understand why Irene Bloody Adler is so fascinating to everyone who writes Sherlock Holmes things. I mean, yes, he admired her, and yes she was bright enough to make Sherlock when he was conning her, and bright enough to get away before he could stop her; and Sherlock did admire her, but it wasn't anything other than that.
Watson didn't even ship Sherlock and Irene, really. It was the woman in the Copper Beeches that Watson was hoping Sherlock would go out with. She was very bright and resourcful, and quite intelligent. But no one can remember her name. (Even me and that's one of my favourite stories)
Oh, sorry...went on a rant there.
Taken in and of itself, it isn't a bad show. but the show is decent, it's just not terribly original. We've seen it a billion times in recent years, with House, Psych, and Monk, and The Mentalist, and BBC's Sherlock, and even White Collar and Leverage, to a lesser degree.
Did any of you see it?
To be fair, it's hard not to make comparisons to the Moffat/Gatis version, since the basic premise is similar, and that makes it a bit more difficult to judge the show on its own merit.
The actors are stellar, I have to say. It's an excellent cast, and I'd be happy to see the show succeed just so those actors can have a regular paycheck. The writing isn't bad, it's just...well as I said, it isn't anything terribly new.
My biggest complaint is the background they've given both characters. Firstly 'Joan' Watson was a surgeon who accidently killed a patient and either lost her license or quit out of guilt; it hasn't been made clear which yet, and now she works as a 'addict companion', hired by Sherlock's father to stay with him, Sherlock, for six weeks as he just got out of rehab.
They could have made her an army soldier who got shot in Afganistan, but I guess that's not feminine enough, so she's a woman with guilt on her mind. Fine, whatevs.
Sherlock now has an overbearing, very wealthy father who inexpicably owns 5 properties in New York City, and who has threatened to cut Sherlock off and make him live in the streets of New York (why not London, I have no idea) if he doesn't stay sober.
When we meet Sherlock he apparently just had sex - BONDAGE sex, with a hooker. I suppose we may find out later that really he was doing an experiment, but at the moment he said, while he finds sex grody, he needs it to keep his mind sharp. So here he's more like House than Sherlock.
And this is sort of the crux of why I'm not sure I'm going to like this show. They made Watson a woman, I think, so they can have the UST without it being between two men. It's established early, as when Sherlock meets Joan he quotes some television show at her about love at first sight, making her a bit wibbly until she realises he's quoting at her.
So we have a Sherlock with an angsty background and a girl Wastson with a sad background who probably finds him sexy. (Not that I blame her - Johnny Lee Miller is yummy). It's just boring, really. Not good, not bad, just boring.
And in the 2nd episode Joan infers that the reason Sherlock left London was because he was Brung Low by a Woman. I'm hoping that is is an incorrect assumption, but when she said it, I thought, 'Oh, dear gods, it's going to be Irene Bloody Adler, isn't it.'
I do not understand why Irene Bloody Adler is so fascinating to everyone who writes Sherlock Holmes things. I mean, yes, he admired her, and yes she was bright enough to make Sherlock when he was conning her, and bright enough to get away before he could stop her; and Sherlock did admire her, but it wasn't anything other than that.
Watson didn't even ship Sherlock and Irene, really. It was the woman in the Copper Beeches that Watson was hoping Sherlock would go out with. She was very bright and resourcful, and quite intelligent. But no one can remember her name. (Even me and that's one of my favourite stories)
Oh, sorry...went on a rant there.
Taken in and of itself, it isn't a bad show. but the show is decent, it's just not terribly original. We've seen it a billion times in recent years, with House, Psych, and Monk, and The Mentalist, and BBC's Sherlock, and even White Collar and Leverage, to a lesser degree.
Did any of you see it?
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no subject
on 2012-10-08 01:15 pm (UTC)So, one common reaction to Elementary recently coming out was people going "pff why couldn't they have genderswapped Holmes too." This came up on tumblr, and somebody's response was "yeah that already happened in Russia in the eighties."
It's on YouTube, and it's called My Dearly Beloved Detective (1986). It's not in translation yet (not even subtitles, alas!) but
Two employees of a private detective agency, Miss Holmes and Miss Watson, are applying the deductive method, successfully investigating hopelessly complicated cases. Scotland Yard has decided to get rid of the competition. For the young ladies, love intervenes...
Tumblr, as usual, has a few billion pictures.
Galina Schepetnova (left) as Jane Watson and Ekaterina Vasilyeva as Shirley Holmes:
Also, there is tuxedo drag.
no subject
on 2012-10-08 02:07 pm (UTC)Haven't seen it but agree totally here on the premise. Don't forget there's also that new one with Eric McCormack (of Will & Grace fame) where he's the schizoid combo of House and the Mentalist. Possibly once a good premise, but now DONE 2 DEATH. X{
no subject
on 2012-10-08 02:17 pm (UTC)One thing they did in the first that I don't recall BBC's Sherlock doing is the beekeeping. I kinda cheered at that. I also like how they're using Gregson and not Lestrade.
Oh and it's Violet Hunter from Copper Beeches!
no subject
on 2012-10-08 03:48 pm (UTC)If they're going to set Sherlock Holmes in New York, why does he need to be British? They made Watson American. They're setting it in New York. I think one of the interesting things about Sherlock is his I guess connection to the city, to London and the country around it. It's as much of a part of his character as he is because he knows it. Having him dumped into New York takes a bit of that character away from him.
Just because he's Sherlock Holmes doesn't mean he has to be British.
no subject
on 2012-10-08 11:36 pm (UTC)Also we already had an American Holmes, but he was a doctor. :)
That said, I agree with the whole city thing - it's part of the problem with the show, I think.
no subject
on 2012-10-08 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2012-10-08 06:32 pm (UTC)And I agree that the casting of Watson as female was probably just to remove the homoerotic undertones, which is deeply irritating.
May I recommend, as an antidote, the new Holmes novel by Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk which is approved by the Conan Doyle estate and deservedly so in my opinion - it's probably the best non-Doyle written Holmes book I've ever read.
no subject
on 2012-10-08 09:06 pm (UTC)By the way, I fully admit to liking Irene. Not the Guy Ritchie version, just the version who flitted in and out of Holmes' life and will always be the woman who outsmarted him. And I definitely like Violet- I think The Copper Beeches is one of my favorites if not my favorite.
no subject
on 2012-10-09 06:47 pm (UTC)I'm actually hoping that there is no UST and that Watson remains a highly eligible bachelorette, a la the original Watson, until she marries Mar(k) Morstan, keeping her maiden name.
As to the addiction, given Holmes' drug use (primarily cocaine but also morphine) in the original stories, and Watson's attempts to wean him off them, this is actually a pretty reasonable evolution of that idea, and a nice reference to the original source material.
Furthermore, the original Holmes family was clearly quite wealthy as, while Sherlock was a relatively productive member of society, Mycroft was notoriously indolent despite an official government position. So the idea of an overbearing, though supportive, father makes a certain amount of sense. Though it would be entertaining to find out that the administrator of the U.S. properties/perhaps family attorney(?) is a Ms. Hudson, wouldn't it?