Elementary Recap: Literally

Recaps

By PennyDreadful | Tuesday, October 2, 2012 | 10:00 am | 7 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in: Elementary, Recaps

Hiya, baby.  I’m super smart AND buff.  Well, as buff as a pasty Englishman can get.  

Howdy, Gasmii!  I really appreciated all your comments on the Minicap.  I agree with you, Brett and Cumberbatch are wonderful Holmes.  Brett (and Rathbone of course) set the bar very high.  Sherlock is a great (only?) example of modernizing the Conan Doyle canon while still maintaining all the flavor of the original.  And then there’s House, a brilliant Holmes-inspired show.

Funny how this new Sherlock looks so reminiscent of House . . .without the wit, charm, sex appeal or most of the smarts

Now there’s Elementary.  I didn’t have high hopes for it, because let’s face it – this is CBS.  Sadly, my low expectations were fully met.

I deduced that.

Let’s get right to it.  We open with a woman being killed, and then go to Lucy Liu (Watson) waking up and working out.  She has multiple alarm clocks.  So do I, only so if one doesn’t go off, the other will so I won’t be late for work.  So whatever.  Now Watson is on her way to pick up Sherlock, who’s apparently left escaped from rehab early.  She’s been hired by his father, who we learn owns the apartment Sherlock is living in.  Who is he, Trump?

You’re sober!

In that apartment, Sherlock’s standing shirtless and tattooed, watching multiple TVs at once.  Watson explains she’s his sober companion.  Apparently there are “conditions” to  Holmes’ sobriety.  We then go through some tiresome exposition while I’m bored to death by Holmes’ voice.  This isn’t Holmes the detective, it’s Holmes the hypnotist.  He says he’s bored.  Right there with ya, pal.

The real Holmes would never be caught dead being boring.

Also, the real Holmes is an individual, an iconoclast, someone who’s fiercely independent.  What is this with conditions, leading him around on a leash, having him beg Watson (later) for a favor, and just generally being completely whipped?  That’s not Holmes. 

I’m effete and moody, does that count?

While Holmes finishes dressing, he guesses Watson is, or was, a surgeon.  What incredible brilliance there.  I’m stunned by his incredible deductive powers.  We then hear that Holmes was a consulting detective pre-rehab.  Now we’re back at the crime scene, where Holmes introduces his “valet” Watson to Capt. Gregson (Aidan Quinn).  Every “wretched hive of depravity” is Sherlock’s business, we learn.  Again, so like me – or at least when I was drinking. 

Hey, it’s the guy from The Good Wife!  I love that guy!  He’s the husband of the victim from the opening scene, a doctor at Sanbridge Hospital.  He has to be guilty.  He’s no bit player!  Plus, he was a killer in at least 2 Law & Orders.  Also, statistically a murder victim knows the killer upwards of 80% of the time.  Plus, husband = killer is a time-honored trope in pretty much every detective story ever.  So, chances of the husband doing it?  Doesn’t take a “consulting detective” to figure that one out.

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Named for lurid serialized stories (so like today's reality TV) that sold for a penny a copy in Victorian Britain, former National Spelling Bee finalist and multiple Science Fair award winner PennyDreadful has been writing for TVGasm since 2011, and cites MST3K as inspiration.

Follow PennyDreadful on Twitter at @kcvinweho.

 

7 Comments

  1. 1
    KartofflMuter
    Posted October 2, 2012 at 11:01 am

    So-I predict-this turkey is dead by Thanksgiving. Ja? Glad you mentioned it. I’m always telling my husband I wish the diggity damned people in charge would run to the drug store to buy a light bulb. He says it’s because they want you to see the original in the movie theatre. Then I remind him we’re watching a TV show??? Grr. Do we have to buy huge screens,draw the drapes (I have no drapes but thanks) and wait till dark?).I find that in convenient. There really should be a control button that says “Lighten up”

  2. 2
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted October 2, 2012 at 11:21 am

    …says the “Pot”.

  3. 3
    Wills
    Posted October 2, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    Holmes franticness (is that a word) throughout the show made me stabby. Thinking this show won’t get a season pass on my DVR.

  4. 4
    zerocool
    Posted October 2, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    As the biggest Jonny Lee Miller fan (see name “zerocool”), of course I loved it. But I can see why some people wouldn’t, especially after the excellence of BBC/PBS’s Sherlock. I think it’s a good bridge of interesting story & crime-scene drama that the seniors love on CBS.

    I was curious so I looked up the ratings. It came in 10th place – second highest rating for a new show this week. Pretty damn good so unless they mess up royally it will be around for awhile. BTW, the producers had tried to get the U.S. rights of Sherlock but were turned down. It seems like a decent copy – anyone catch the theme song – it sounds just like the U.K. version.

    I’ll keep watching unless Lucy Liu irritates me too much.

  5. 5
    ash310
    Posted October 3, 2012 at 6:43 am

    The theme song is the same as they used on PBS History Detectives which was very different!

  6. 6
    merry
    Posted October 3, 2012 at 6:45 am

    Thanks for the confirmation that I was right not to bother. The minute they cast Lucy Liu as a “sober companion” I cringed.

    There’s a lot riding on the Holmes character, of course, but I really think if you screw up on Watson you’re dead in the water. The idea of a female Watson could be great, but not done this way: it’s an essential part of the character, from the beginning, that Watson is a somewhat traumatized adreneline junkie who needs Holmes just like Holmes needs him. He (or she) doesn’t get paid to be Holmes’s partner because Holmes would never have tolerated an assistant chosen and compensated by someone else.

    Of course, this version is more accessible to the usual CBS audience than BBC’s Sherlock, and (sadly!) it’ll get a hell of a lot more episodes. I’m sure it will get a following and will probably be around for a long time, but then again you could say the same for Hee Haw or The Love Boat.

  7. 7
    Lizbot
    Posted October 3, 2012 at 7:54 am

    I feel like Johnny Lee Miller is a very good actor with horrible taste in parts (at least on the small screen). Or maybe someone at CBS has blackmail material on him?

    I was hoping for a great come-back vehicle for Lucy Liu, but her part sounds like a dud too.

    One of the problem with shows like these (and it’s a pet peeve for me with mystery novels too) is that in order to do a good job of writing a mystery being solved by someone of above average intelligence, you kind of have to be of above average intelligence yourself. I’m not saying that the writers are stupid — I’m sure they’re at least average, but I doubt they’re eligible to apply for mensa. And since they’re the voice of the supposed genius, how are they supposed to portray genius if they’re not genius themselves?

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