Subject: Elementary, what can I say about Elementary?
Author:
Posted on: 2013-01-27 07:10:00 UTC

It's another modern Sherlock Holmes adaptation. Ironically, it has received a lot of scepticism (read: hatred) from the BBC Sherlock fandom for "stealing their stuff!11!1eleventyone!11!", especially since the BBC show had been doubted prior to its first release by the fans of Granada and the ACD canon, etc.

(Some idiots still dislike the Sherlock fandom for being young and predominantly female; they think it's stuffed full of mindless fangirls who give Sherlockiana a bad name. Ignore them.)

Anyway, despite the initial scepticism, Elementary is actually quite a stellar show. It features Jonny Lee Miller (who, strangely enough, also played Frankenstein/the Creature opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in Danny Boyle's Frankenstein) as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson. Sherlock in this series is a recovering drug addict in New York City working with Captain Gregson on various cases. Joan Watson, an ex-surgeon (she lost her licence after one of her patients died), is hired by his father M. Holmes to be his sober companion. However, she goes from becoming a sober companion (which is really just a glorified babysitter) to his assistant on his various cases with the NYPD.

Most of the episodes so far have been procedural, monster-of-the-week sort of cases with plenty of plot twists galore which make each one worthwhile (as well as plenty of Joan and Sherlock bromance, of course). However, the most recent episode, "M", reveals the presence of Colonel Sebastian Moran and, of course, Moriarty, who apparently killed Holmes's lover Irene Adler. That promises to take up a couple future arcs.

Elementary is not BBC Sherlock. It doesn't follow ACD canon as closely (none of the cases are adaptations of the original stories), but there are plenty of shoutouts to the canon (Holmes is a beekeeper and quotes the canon quite often). Elementary's Holmes is also not as much of a cold deducting machine as Sherlock's Holmes - he's more human, even succumbs to emotion sometimes (and has daddy issues like woah). Joan Watson is also definitely not BBC's John Watson - despite the huge change to her backstory she still acts very Watsonlike, except she doesn't let Holmes walk over her quite as much as John does with Sherlock - some of the greatest scenes of Elementary involve a sass-off between Holmes and Joan.

Elementary also addresses, more subtly, the things that Sherlock lacks - there are more characters of colour in Elementary, more addressing of racism and sexism, more rounded out female characters (not to say Molly Hooper wasn't rounded - but parts of BBClock fandom seem to really hate on their Irene Adler and Sally Donovan and sometimes even poor Molly. One of the biggest complaints from BBClock about Elementary was Joan Watson being not just a woman, but an woman of colour).

I personally would just love to combine these two modern adaptations together, so I can get both my canon adherency and my racial/gender inclusion.

Anyway, ramble over. Thoughts?

Reply Return to messages