Elementary, my dear Watson

[beatrice_otter]

When I first heard of the premise of Elementary, I was both hopeful and skeptical.  Hopeful, because although I really like the BBC's Sherlock, on the whole I don't care for the way it (in general) handles women and people of color.  Skeptical, because Sherlock is brilliant, and how could they hope to match it, and Hollywood always goes gimmicky.

I watched the first episode, and was not impressed.  Not disappointed; it was decent, I was just kind of meh about it.

But I gave it a chance and kept watching, and I am so glad I did.  It's definitely grown on me.  It's not smart in the same way as Sherlock; they weren't trying to do "an American Sherlock with a genderswapped Watson" (to their credit).  They took Conan Doyle's canon and modernized it in their own way.  It's not flashy, but it's solid, and I believe in its realness in a way Sherlock has never quite convinced me.  I love Sherlock, don't get me wrong, but there's quite a lot of suspension of disbelief on my part.  With Elementary, I don't have to do that because the characters feel real to me, like I might bump into them on the street.  They're still a bit larger than life, but not over-the-top/theatrical about it.

I particularly love Joan Watson.  She's smart, she's professional, she doesn't take crap from Holmes.  And she has a reason to stick around to get to know Sherlock beneath the weird exterior besides "it's needed for the plot!"  She has her own life and her own issues, and they don't revolve around Sherlock, though they do include him.

Is anyone else out there watching this show?

Comments

[talusloki]

I am watching Elementary and loving it. Like you I can imagine this characters as being almost real life and I love that Watson has her own stuff going on whole and separate from Holmes's problems. I think it gets better and better as the weeks go by.

[beatrice_otter]

Yes, definitely it does!

[melannen]

I keep hearing good things about this show lately and thinking maybe I should try it! But the bad things usually come down to "the casefiles aren't that good" and considering I dropped House (and attempted to drop Sherlock off a roof) because of repeatedly bad and increasingly stupid casefiles, I am hesitant. Are the casefiles improving?

[lilacsigil]

The casefiles are not great, but that's because they're easy rather than ridiculous like the House ones got. The show knows perfectly well it's not providing genius plotting and instead concentrates on its strengths, which is the casefiles providing character opportunities.

[beatrice_otter]

It depends on what you want from the casefiles. If you want exotic, over-the-top, world-ending, and unbelievably weird (as you get in most casefile shows these days), you will be disappointed. Elementary's casefiles are odd and tough to figure out, but in a believable way (except for one, which still wasn't as ... theatrical as the most ordinary BBC!Sherlock case). It's not that the police couldn't solve these cases, the cases aren't that unbelievably fiendish. It's that Sherlock will spot and work through things a lot quicker, and go off on a tangent to get other stuff while the police are doing a lot of the basic policework and so catch the killer much quicker. That's another thing I like about it--unlike BBC!Sherlock, the show recognizes that modern police have things like forensics and stuff, and are actually competent. And we get to see them being competent (though not brilliant) at their jobs. And we get to see Sherlock be wrong a few times an episode as he works through the evidence, figuring out theories and discarding them as he and Watson and the police work through the evidence and figure out whodunnit.

[lilacsigil]

I watch it on a Friday night here and it's the perfect thing to watch after the busiest day of the week. I especially like that Holmes (and other characters) give Joan crap...and she doesn't take it, and the narrative supports her.

[beatrice_otter]

I know! I love Watson, absolutely love her. She's a very complex, smart, adult woman who can take care of herself and doesn't take crap from anybody, and the show rewards her for it without turning her into either a milquetoast or a bitch.

[tielan]

I haven't watched it yet, but it's on my "to watch" list, and has pushed its way to the top above just about anything except "brainless procedural/psuedocop which I don't actually have to WATCH" (ie. Castle, NCIS)

I should make a list of things I can watch while quilting the monster I'm presently piecing...

[beatrice_otter]

You should. Elementary should be on that list.

[tielan]

Oh, it probably will be. They had be at Lucy Liu, but add Jonny Lee Miller to that and I'm ALL OVER THIS. Even if I didn't end up liking it, the pretty would have me from the get-go.

(And, uh, bromance-where-one-of-them-is-a-woman? YESSSSSS.)

[beatrice_otter]

I don't know if they've gotten to "friendship" yet--they're clearly headed that way, but they aren't rushing into things like Sherlock did. But there is no romantic chemistry between them at all. Friend chemistry, yeah. But the mind boggles at the thought of either of them romantically or sexually interested in the other. Assuming things keep going as they are, it will be a great bromance. I can't wait--they'll have earned it in a way the BBC pair haven't.

[tielan]

I'm all for the complete lack of romantic chemistry. I'm also all for Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee miller. (I did mention that, didn't I? :D)

I think the Beeb's Sherlock is more about two completely lost creatures finding somewhere to lick their wounds and that space just happens to be common to them and allow them to co-exist. If either of them grew beyond it (and, let's face it, if anyone grows beyond it, it'll probably be Watson) then it's going to get inordinately messy, because Cumberbatch's Sherlock is the freakiest of control freaks.

But, yes, the actual development of an actual friendship would be wonderful.