TV Chat

Ohio Joe

(21,727 posts) Sat Aug 24, 2013, 10:06 PM Aug 2013

Elementary - Season 1 - Review - Minor Spoilers

I absolutely have to start this off with a bit of disclosure... Any show today that can manage to fit this:

As the opening music in an episode is going to get my attention

A modern update to the Sherlock Holmes & Watson characters that also sees them moved to New York, is the basic premise of the show, with Jonny Lee Miller is Holmes and Lucy Liu is Watson.

Holmes - I had to look Miller up on wiki to see what he had been in before and the only thing I remembered him from was Eli Stone.... And I hated that show. He does manage to do a better then average Holmes, getting to do a really good range... Complete confidence, doubt, anger, fury, sadness, love, joy, confusion... It's a very meaty part and Miller goes after all of it with great zest, to great effect. Sherlock (The British show), may have better writers but Miller gives Cumberbatch (and I love Cumberbatch) a very serious run in the acting dept.

Watson - When I had first heard they had cast Lucy Liu in the part of Watson, I was afraid they were going to make the character a gimmick where she was the ass kicking partner and was going to get to beat up a new villain every week. Fortunately... I was completely wrong and she is also being allowed to show off the fact that she is a damn fine actor. Not just a far better Watson then I feared but if they get the writing on track and stop taking up 3/4 of her screen time with variations on 'I'm here if you feel like using' it can become a very memorable role.

Writing - This is the shows big weakness. Someone made the decision that Holmes was going to be presented as a recovering addict and that it has to be shoe-horned into every episode. Often... Far to often with the case hinging on if he relapses or not. Holmes, as a recovering addict, could have been done to great effect if it had been properly mapped out but poor planning and to many different writers giving their own take fuck it up pretty bad. The single best thing they could do to improve this show going forward would be to drop this angle and never look back. Recovery could have been a great on-going theme to the show but since it is presented in an un-even and un-realistic manner that sanitizes the reality of both addiction and recovery, it is more worthless then an after school special.

The season starts off with a lot of 'case of the week' while Watson transitions from 'Sober Companion' to 'Detective trainee' and flow along in a very pleasant, if also very PG type of way. Some episodes are very well done and you can even spot the clues Holmes will take note of to solve the case. Other episodes, they drop stuff that was never seen (or is some bit of exclusive knowledge never mentioned) at the end and you feel kind of ripped off since you never had a chance of figuring out who did it. In the end though, they often come down to 'which insignificant character from the start is the guilty one'... Any show about Holmes should be above that.

The season hits a wicked good stride towards then end of the season that really rises above any complaints I have about it. The season ending multi-episode arc that dives into Moriarty is simply outstanding.

Elementary vs Sherlock - I'm going to give the edge to Sherlock due 100% to the writing. There are a lot of similarities to the shows and for the most part they run very neck-and-neck but... American TV tends to run things towards what networks think is appropriate for adolescents... Which simply ends up being a dumbing down of topics (if they were simplified, that would be fine but instead they make them dumb) and British TV tends to treat it's audience as adults. A shame because I'd love to see the Elementary cast get it's teeth into where the show wants to go.

Bottom Line - The writing issue aside, this is some really good TV. Excellent acting, above average stories (all combined) and lots of great guest spots keep it all interesting and watchable. I'll be back for season 2.