Elementary - CBS

The Gist

Elementary
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Sherlock Holmes is a recovering drug addict living in New York City. He's also a consulting detective from Scotland Yard in London who's working with the NYPD while he finishes his rehab. Assigned to him by his father is a sober companion named Joan Watson, who got more than she bargained for with an overly logical, unemotional, and closed off patient who drags her to bloody crime scenes and forces her to think in new ways to help the police solve the toughest crimes.

What We Think
Reviewed by Living Destiny
Number of Seasons: 1
This show at first glance appears to be an attempt at beating out the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes, titled Sherlock. I haven't actually seen Sherlock, so I can't compare them, but as soon as I watched Elementary I was pretty sure it would be able to stand alone. First of all, Watson is a girl. And when I first saw the ads, I hated that fact. I mean, I love Lucy Liu, but John Watson was written as a man, and the character is a man, so why change that? Also, people already think Sherlock and Watson should end up together in Sherlock, where both characters are men. Turning Watson into a woman would just add fuel to those thoughts, and I don't think Sherlock and Watson should be a couple. Upon watching the show, I realized that it works. The character Joan Watson, not John Watson, needs to be a girl. It's hard to picture a sympathetic but stern sober companion as a man. She has to be a woman to balance out this version of Sherlock. And as I said, I love Lucy Liu, and she does a great job. The star of the show, however, is Jonny Lee Miller. He plays Sherlock, and he's absolutely brilliant. He's aloof, obnoxiously intelligent and self assured, breaks all the rules, and is never wrong. It's perfect. Watching him play Sherlock is the highlight of the show. The plot almost doesn't matter, although the plot is also good. Miller and Liu have great onscreen chemistry, and they play off of each other incredibly well.
It's an interesting twist to an old story that Sherlock is a recovering drug addict. In Sir Conan Doyle's books, Sherlock occasionally did cocaine to stimulate his mind. It's hinted at in the modern movies with Robert Downey Jr. But it's never addressed as a serious issue. It's sort of acknowledged that he does drugs, but never fixed. In this version, it's a Sherlock without drugs, getting over his addictions and being a detective anyway. I like the healthy him, who doesn't need to do drugs. He has a brilliant mind, and though he doesn't seem to struggle with his rehab, the threat is there in some of the episodes, and he always contains himself well. Watson, who is usually a doctor, as a sober companion makes the character more necessary to the plot. The doctor Watson can come and go as he pleases, but the sober companion Watson has to stay with Sherlock at all times, not only to keep him out of trouble, but to keep him away from relapse. It's a good creative decision for the show to make Sherlock a recovering addict, because it changes the dynamic between the characters for the better.
The story lines themselves are pretty typical. It is a cop show, after all. There are only so many crimes that can be committed. Nothing extraordinary there. It's the dialogue and characters that make this show so stellar. Sometimes it gets a little predictable, but again, it is a cop show. But it's a higher end cop show. A classy cop show, shall we say. Jonny Lee Miller really steals the show, and it's a show that has me hooked.

Real Teen Rating ~ A: Definitely check it out!