Elementary 1x08-1x10

[oyceter]

Elementary 1x08 The Long Fuse

As with many Elementary episodes, I really like the character stuff and don't remember very much about the episode plot. I was hoping that Sherlock's new sponsor would be a regular, but possibly he isn't? I love that Sherlock picked Alfredo partly just to make Joan feel uncomfortable, and I really love that Joan does feel uncomfortable but then interviews him and changes her mind.

crossedwires has good things to say about anti-black prejudice in the episode and how the show deals with it; I too wish they had done it more with Sherlock the white guy than with Joan, but it was refreshing to see it even being dealt with.

Also, HEE to luring Sherlock in by inviting him to crack a lock.

I wasn't particularly fond of the murderous escort-turned-CEO plot, particularly her hitting on Sherlock, but I will say the depiction of the start-up web company was spot on.

Elementary 1x09 You Do It to Yourself

I love that Bell got to contribute a bit to the case, rather than Sherlock solving everything all the time.

Re: the Chinatown aspect. Hrm. It's... not as bad as it could have been? Which is damning with faint praise, but I have also learned to take what I can get from TV. And yet. The more episodes like this, the more the Asian woman + white man formula starts to feel formulaic and a bit gross. The show does do well with Joan, but this is partly why I wish Alfredo had been showing up more. She is still a bit in Sherlock's shadow, given the whole "Sherlock Holmes" bit of the franchise.

I also got nidgy when Sherlock began explaining all these Chinese symbolisms to Bell because well... it's a mix? Some people believe stuff and some people don't and some people kind of believe but figure they should do something lucky just in case and some people are white East Asian profs who seem to be doing this as a lifestyle choice. Which... meh. Also, I was very meh about the plot with his wife and the abuse and her immigration status and just... it would have been much better had she had more initiative or been something other than the victim. The scene with white male Sherlock interrogating her about sexual abuse was particularly difficult.

I loved the entire subplot regarding Joan and Liam, and that last scene with Sherlock joining her to wait for Liam was excellent.

Elementary 1x10 The Leviathan

We meet Joan's family! I think I am holding back on opinions until seeing more of them, though it was nice to see her brother. I'm not entirely sure I agree with crossedwires' critique in this case, but I think more context from the show would be helpful. Mary reads to me as a very Westernized 1.5 gen mom or something. My vague impression was that Joan's father (stepfather?) is white? Mostly I'm hoping that they keep Joan's family in as an ongoing thread, as even though Mary has expressed some approval over Joan's current job, I suspect it's not something that's resolved quite that easily.

On a case level, it was so nice having something that wasn't a murder! Or, well, that at first wasn't a murder! I like this version of Elementary MUCH better, partly because I love heists and capers, and partly because watching dead people every episode gets a bit grim. Or: reasons why I normally don't watch procedurals.

Comments

[quarter_to_five]

I'm really, really meh about Elementary and generally tend to be really unforgiving of the way it's centered on Sherlock (and the way that that just so happens to be rippling out onto women and poc's)...but to give credit where it's due, with the Chinatown episode - I actually thought it was a nice - and relatively subtle - touch with the evil prof's Asian fetish.

Like, theres all this Asian stuff, and it's oh-so-meaningful, yet also a bit tacky and deliberate: as you say, a lifestyle choice. But at that point, he's not the bad guy yet (er, I think? I watched this a few weeks ago now) and hey, being Interested In Other Cultures is a Good Thing, yes? And then we meet his wife and there's this uncomfortable undercurrent of, oh, wait, is she another Asian thing in the collection? And then it turns out that the relashionship really is appallingly abusive and exploitative, so going back it always seems like the Prof's collection of Asian stuff is meant to be a sort of...conspicous consumption.

Eh, maybe i'm overanalyzing.

[oyceter]

*nods* No, I definitely saw an undercurrent of that in the episode. I think I just would have liked it a lot better if Joan had been more involved, or if the wife had been more active, so it weren't just a portrait of Orientalism pointed out by a white guy about another white guy?

I mean, I will take what I can get from the TV! But that is my pie in the sky goal ;).

[quarter_to_five]

Well, yes, goodness, but then the show would have to not be first and foremost about the white guy? I mean, we can't have that, right?

(To be perfectly honest, I am not usually all that sensitive to issues of representation, but Elementary is trying so hard and yet falling so far, and the combination means that it's my main prism of looking at it now. I didn't like what they did with Alfredo, in that vein, actually - it was still all about a white guy's reaction to and making use of racism and the only function it had was to tell us things about Sherlock. Of course, if everyone else in the show was also a straight white dude, they would still only all be around to tell us things about Sherlock, and I wouldn't like that show either, but I wouldn't also be annoyed at what it was doing with its fig leaves.)

[oyceter]

I think I will fall over dead from excitement when I actually see something that wrenches the focus away from white guys!

And yeah, I can definitely see that about Elementary, siiiiiiggggghhhh. I really want more Joan and just... more Bell and Alfredo and even the police chief to take away the emphasis on Sherlock the Genius. Alas! I will continue to enjoy Lucy Liu and the character interactions and use it as my complicated lace knitting show.

[quarter_to_five]

Yes, Lucy Liu is really the redeeming thing about this show, but I just increasingly can't stand Sherlock. It's probably even a bit unfair, because he's not that intrinsically awful, it's just the the show demands that I care about him oh-so-much, so I almost deliberately don't. (I'm always like that about special-person shows though. I found myself bucking against, say, Luther as well. I'm trying to think of a show that put a woman in that position and coming up short though. (Buffy doesn't count. (...she insisted) She's the main character, but she's not the narrative focus the way Sherlock is in Elementary. Buffy is about Buffy saving the world. Elementary is about whether poor little Sherlock will ever get over his daddy issues.))

[crossedwires]

I think "The Closer" and "In Plain Sight" fit the bill of a procedural show centering on a (white) woman, who is brilliant at her job and not the easiest person to be around (and unfortunately the shows tend to be white-gaze-y/problematic in a lot of the same ways as shows that centre on a white man). A show starring a WOC like this, though? I'm drawing a blank.

[yasaman]

I saw that same implicit criticism of the evil professor too, that he was a collector and consumer of "Asian stuff" in a bad way. It still wasn't handled amazingly well, but I have super low standards for procedurals when it comes to this kind of thing, so I was just thrilled that Chinatown wasn't really exoticized or fetishized or anything.

[thistleingrey]

Heh, "Leviathan" is one of my two half-watched episodes, but I had no idea about Joan's family from the first half. Guess I should finish that one, on principle.

[oyceter]

Only if you are interested of course! Btw, was going to comment to you that the episodes are available on iTunes for I think a dollar or two. Other than that, I haven't been able to legally find non-recent episodes, bah.

[yasaman]

I too hope we learn more about Joan's family! And that her mom shows up again, and possibly her dad. Really, I just want this to be the Joan Watson show, as much as I love JLM's Sherlock.

[oyceter]

Ahahaha, I know, I so want the Joan show!

[torachan]

I am definitely curious about her dad. I don't think there's been anything actually said about her dad being white (either in the show or by the creators), just an assumption that with the name Watson he must be.

[crossedwires]

In the pilot, when Joan does not take the call from her mom, we see the caller photo of presumably her mom (I'm not sure if it was the same actress, but she was an asian woman) and dad, who is a white man in it. And then Sherlock says the stuff about her mom taking her dad back after the affair, etc. I remember this because it honestly hadn't occurred to me that Mr Watson might be white, because of his name, until I saw that.

[torachan]

Oh, interesting! I always watch TV while doing other stuff, so I tend to not notice little details like that.

[oyceter]

Ooo, crossedwires notes further down that the dad is shown as white when "Mom & Dad" and a picture come up on Joan's cell.

[esmenet]

Apparently You Do It To Yourself is a fix-it fic of a really really racist story from the original canon (explanation here).

[sanguinity]

Nice.

[oyceter]

Ohhhhh I did not know that! Good lord, that original story is awful! I am really glad they tried to fix it while also making comments on Orientalism, even if I do wish the women of color were more active.

[sanguinity]

1x08: Last time I saw that actress in something (The West Wing), she was also playing a prostitute. So my teeth were a bit set on edge from that plot reveal forward.

1x10: I'm so glad that they didn't go to the Tiger Mom place with Mary Watson, but I wasn't able to evaluate her portrayal much beyond that. Thanks for your discussion and the pointer to crossedwires. (The link is broken, btw.)

From another direction, I was very happy to see the Elementary writers neatly sidestep all the Mary Watson-bashing that you get in ACD and Beeblock fandoms.

[oyceter]

Thanks for the FYI, link fixed!

OHHHHH I hadn't even thought of that re: Mary Watson! (Okay, that and I forgot Watson's wife's name in the canon.)

Oh man, I love all the extra notes about canon commentary that I get from commenters!

[crossedwires]

Mostly I'm hoping that they keep Joan's family in as an ongoing thread, as even though Mary has expressed some approval over Joan's current job, I suspect it's not something that's resolved quite that easily.

I hope so! I think I was feeling a little (or a lot, actually) short-changed by the quick resolution of this issue between her and Joan, and how much of what should've been about Joan and her family was instead about Sherlock and how he sees Joan. Which was nice? But still cut into Joan's time, I thought.

In the pilot episode, when Mary calls Joan and Joan declines to answer, her phone says it's from "Mom & Dad" and the picture that comes up is of an Asian woman and a white man.

[oyceter]

Hi! You can probably tell I have been stalking your Elementary posts to an embarrassing extent!

I thought we had seen the photo on Joan's phone, but I wasn't sure! I am now even more interested to know more about the Watsons and things about whether or not Joan is mixed and how she feels about it and etc. Though now the show really really needs more Asian woman + someone who is not a white guy pairings to counter all the Asian woman + white man thing.