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Elementary 1x01-1x07
Thu, Nov. 29th, 2012 04:45 pmHey, I finally watched some TV! FWIW, the only Sherlock Holmes I have ever consumed is the first RDJ movie and The Great Mouse Detective. I.e. every thing I know about Sherlock Holmes I learned through fannish osmosis, and I'm not particularly invested in any reading or version of Holmes and Watson.
The show is a nice balance between the killer-of-the-week procedural mysteries and the ongoing mysteries of Holmes' and Watson's pasts. I am generally not one for mysteries, so the main draw of the show for me is the developing relationship between Holmes and Watson and how it is changing both of them. I rather like how much the show expects you to want to slap Holmes as much as admire him for his deductions, and I'm particularly fond of Lucy Liu's many facial expressions of "I am not impressed."
I'm not sure why Holmes and Watson works better for me than Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Probably something about Watson not being under Holmes' pay, and the fact that she is clearly the costar of the show, even if she is a bit sidelined a la Scully with Mulder. And hey, Scully primed me very early to like emotionally contained women who raise their eyebrows at their male partners who are frequently behaving in odd ways. As previously mentioned, I want to smack Holmes most of the time, particularly in the episode in which he goes on about how Watson should simply sit there, a receptacle to his insight and wisdom. But so far, most of the times Holmes is a jerk, he is obviously being a jerk and sometimes even gets taken down a peg or two.
The mysteries themselves are good enough on a case-by-case basis, though I can clearly tell when twists (and usually a general direction of the twist) in the case are going to pop up by timing and by how well things are going. There have thankfully been not too many scenes of women being killed and tortured, which is my very low standard for anything involving crime and TV.
The show has also managed to pass the Bechdel test several times, and even between two women of color (!!), but I do wish it were a far more regular thing. I am also wondering how Detective Bell is going to do over the course of the show.
And on a completely random note, I love the opening sequence. (Mouse! Hello! You are almost like a rat!)
In conclusion: I heart Watson.
The show is a nice balance between the killer-of-the-week procedural mysteries and the ongoing mysteries of Holmes' and Watson's pasts. I am generally not one for mysteries, so the main draw of the show for me is the developing relationship between Holmes and Watson and how it is changing both of them. I rather like how much the show expects you to want to slap Holmes as much as admire him for his deductions, and I'm particularly fond of Lucy Liu's many facial expressions of "I am not impressed."
I'm not sure why Holmes and Watson works better for me than Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Probably something about Watson not being under Holmes' pay, and the fact that she is clearly the costar of the show, even if she is a bit sidelined a la Scully with Mulder. And hey, Scully primed me very early to like emotionally contained women who raise their eyebrows at their male partners who are frequently behaving in odd ways. As previously mentioned, I want to smack Holmes most of the time, particularly in the episode in which he goes on about how Watson should simply sit there, a receptacle to his insight and wisdom. But so far, most of the times Holmes is a jerk, he is obviously being a jerk and sometimes even gets taken down a peg or two.
The mysteries themselves are good enough on a case-by-case basis, though I can clearly tell when twists (and usually a general direction of the twist) in the case are going to pop up by timing and by how well things are going. There have thankfully been not too many scenes of women being killed and tortured, which is my very low standard for anything involving crime and TV.
The show has also managed to pass the Bechdel test several times, and even between two women of color (!!), but I do wish it were a far more regular thing. I am also wondering how Detective Bell is going to do over the course of the show.
And on a completely random note, I love the opening sequence. (Mouse! Hello! You are almost like a rat!)
In conclusion: I heart Watson.
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