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| Holmes is a recovering alcoholic and Joan Watson, played by Lucy Liu, is a former surgeon who has been hired by Holmes’s unseen father to keep him on the path to sobriety. |
Sherlock Holmes remains one of the most popular fictional characters of all time and is currently benefitting from somewhat of a renaissance in the cultural spotlight. Thanks to the Robert Downey Junior starring, Guy Ritchie directed movies and the excellent BBC television series featuring a career making turn from Benedict Cumberbatch, Holmes is big news. And now American network television has decided to join the party. After being denied permission from the BBC to produce a straight remake, CBS decided to develop their very own version of the iconic detective. However, the twist is to move Sherlock across the Atlantic from his traditional Baker Street residence in London to the bright lights of New York City and change his loyal companion from a John into a Joan. So how does this incarnation compare?
As the current run is already 3 episodes in, I have decided to make this review a re-cap of the the series so far and make a judgment on how the show is shaping up.
The first element, excuse the pun, is to look at Holmes himself, here played by Jonny Lee Miller, who also shared a role with Cumberbatch during Danny Boyle’s 2011 stage production of Frankenstein. Miller is a charismatic lead and helps to make the show very watchable. The new premise is that his Holmes is a recovering alcoholic and Joan Watson, played by Lucy Liu, is a former surgeon who has been hired by Holmes’s unseen father to keep him on the path to sobriety. Miller’s Holmes is a very modern eccentric with lots of personality quirks and traits. The gender switch of Watson offers the relationship a fresh dynamic, although the character of Watson has so far proven to be slightly cold and distant whilst bearing almost as many personal demons as Sherlock.
So far, the series has avoided any connection with Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories. Whereas the BBC series successfully adapted and transferred Doyle’s work into the modern day, Elementary has decided to come up with its own mysteries and drop Holmes into the middle. This is where the series starts to fall down. While the BBC’S Sherlock managed to retain the spirit of Conan Doyle’s character, Elementary feels like any generic cop show with a maverick, genius as the lead. Indeed, it struggles to justify the use of these iconic characters and seems to be merely a useful device to help levitate this above any other detective show on American television, simply by featuring Sherlock Holmes.
However, mainly thanks to Miller’s entertaining portrayal, I still remain intrigued to see what the writers have up their sleeves and which direction they intend to take the series over the course of future episodes.
Review by Jonathan Gray
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