I love Sherlock Holmes; he's the greatest detective of fiction. Poirot is also good, of course, but Holmes is more universal; Poirot's firmly ensconced in the Whodunnit subgenre. Plus, you know, Holmes always gets actual evidence; Poirot guesses where the police can find the evidence. Death on the Nile, though, is my favorite mystery novel in general, since it was the one Agatha Christie book where I didn't figure out who the killer was.
I've read all the stories, of course; I once listened to a story about an old, married Sherlock Holmes by some other author. It was awful, but that's what happens when you rent audio books from Cracker Barrel. And I've seen a few TV shows. Both Sherlock and the Jeremy Brett series. And now I've watched the pilot episode of the modern Holmes story set in America, Elementary.
Comparisons to BBC's series Sherlock are inevitable, and unfortunate. Sherlock, when it was firing on all cylinders (Season 1, Ep 1 and Ep 3) was fantastic. Other times, it was kind of suck, especially Season 1, Ep 2. Season 2 was uneven in the episodes as well...I mean, Irene Adler as a sex worker? Sherlock threatening to beat up a guy, when his enemy is packing a gun and Sherlock isn't? Good luck with that, Sherlock.
To put it simply, Elementary does not compare with Sherlock when it's really good. Even when Sherlock wasn't good, Elementary doesn't compare that well since it's so...safe. Paint by the numbers. Almost stale, in the first episode. The mystery doesn't require that much unraveling; it's almost a police procedural. Ugh. That was (one of) the problems with Castle; too much procedure, not enough mystery. Why not watch a Law and Order, then? There's ALWAYS an episode of that on some network.
I've heard that there was some criticism of Lucy Liu as Watson. Nonsense. She's fine. Her backstory is a little different, a failed surgeon forced out of the profession to become an addict's babysitter. From what we've seen, no military background, which is kind of disappointing. And it makes her character more of a 'loser,' which has its ups and downs. You'd think that a doctor, especially a young one, would be way too busy doing doctor stuff to tag along with Holmes (the old ones certainly could, if they were willing to give up their golf games).
Watson in this show certainly calls Holmes on more of his crap...which might be the real problem with the show, I think. The versions of Watson and Holmes in Elementary don't have a lot of chemistry. They aren't buddies, they aren't friends. There's some respect there, but it's just not a fun or interesting dynamic between the two. I hate to do this, but when I compare it to Sherlock I immediately enjoyed the two's relationship. And Sherlock NEEDS Watson, to create a real connection with the other human beings in the world.
I also wonder if Elementary is going to try to create some kind of romantic attraction between the two, which would be terrible.
I don't know where the popular conception of Watson as the buffoon comes from, but it's certainly good that all modern versions of Sherlock Holmes avoid it. Not only is that not a very interesting character, it's not true to the books at all. Sure, Watson is an idiot compared to Holmes, but who the hell isn't? Maybe it comes from the old Rathbone version, I'm not sure.
But I'm going to keep watching the show, for now. At least until Community comes back on. The execution failed somewhat, sure, but I do love Sherlock Holmes. Maybe it will take a few episodes for the show to hit its stride. Or maybe they'll continue making boring mystery procedurals, a will-they-won't-they romantic tension between the two investigators, and run for five seasons like so many other average shows.
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