Elementary: First Impressions

Hey hey! It's Dan, here with some initial thoughts on new show Elementary after seeing the previews up on CBS.com. I thought I'd write some thoughts down and see if any of these change after I've watched the pilot.

Elementary is an American tv show based on the Sherlock Holmes detective stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It premiered in the US on September 27, 2012 on CBS. The pilot is up on their website.

http://www.cbs.com/shows/elementary/

Elementary stars Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock, a former Scotland Yard consultant who chooses to set up shop in New York. You may have seen him previously on that show Eli Stone (ran for 2 seasons). Plus he was in Dexter's 5th season. Also Angelina Jolie's ex husband apparently, I didn't know that. Ohhh! And he was in a Frankenstein play with BBC Sherlock himself, Benedict Cumberbatch! So there is a connection to the show that a lot of us know and love.

(Thanks Wikipedia!)

He's a bit of a weirdo just like Cumberbatch Sherlock but he seems a bit more likeable. Not necessarily more likeable as a fictional character but as a human being. Cumberbatch Sherlock was a total jerk face! Although they made him a bit more human in season 2 which I thought was nice. He seemed a lot more dangerous too (and admittedly, I found that to be interesting) whereas this Sherlock seems like someone who I could actually stand to be in the same room with.

Plus in one scene, he actually admits that not everything is deducible which is something that I don’t see Cumberbatch Sherlock ever saying. I’ll see how it actually is on the pilot but it seems like maybe Cumberbatch Sherlock is more of a genius whereas this Sherlock might be more of a human being.

This show also stars Lucy Liu as Watson. Wait, hold the freaking phone... A woman as Watson? Yep, that’s right, sex change baby! Say hello to Dr. Joan Watson, Sherlock’s sober companion. I guess Sherlock is addicted to something.

Wouldn’t it be crazy if there is an actual John Watson from England and he comes to visit Sherlock in New York? There’s your love triangle. Pay me CBS!

Tangent: Lucy Liu can be seen in RZA’s upcoming martial arts flick The Man with the Iron Fists. YEAHHH BOYEEEEE!!

I looooove Matrin Freeman as John Watson so at least making Watson a woman would mean that I won’t be thinking about him so much when I’m watching Elementary. This Watson doesn’t seem like she’s all that involved with solving the mystery (at least, it seems that way in the previews) so maybe she’s just around to look after Sherlock. I’ll keep an eye out for that in the pilot and if I decide to watch more eps, maybe I’ll see where that relationship goes.

What I thought was interesting was that because of some confidentiality agreement, she can’t tell people that she’s Sherlock’s sober companion. This means that Sherlock can introduce her to people however he wants. So maybe it’ll be a funny weekly thing where he introduces her as something different each time.

Elementary vs Sherlock

I’m curious to see how this works in 45 min chunks but what concerns me is that this’ll be a 24 or so episode season like most US shows. I very much liked what I’m now calling the ‘Sherlock format’ where each episode is 90 mins and they only do 3 of those a season. 90 mins means meatier episodes, they could go deeper into a story than most 45 min shows usually do. And having a short season means that they could really focus their story. BBC Sherlock never felt like they were just killing time and they made good use of the time that they had.  I wish more shows would do 6-12 episode seasons.

A longer season (or at least planned season, let’s see how the ratings are first) for Elementary means that we may get more fluff and it might eventually be super formulaic like a lot of police procedurals. Hopefully the producers put enough meat (I can’t stop thinking about meat) in each episode and they make it interesting enough to keep audiences coming back for more.

I think people like me and Bobgar who love the BBC Sherlock series would be quick to dismiss the show. I mean, how often have we seen US networks screw up awesome British shows? But I’m willing (and for some reason very curious) to check it out. Sherlock goes to New York… why not? Also, Lady Watson :) Let’s do this!

Poster for Elementary. Gotta love that pun!