Elementary: New CBS Sherlock Series [Season 1 thread]

Cafe Society
1

I have been seeing ads for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes spin off, “Elementary”, that CBS will be airing in the Fall.

In this show, it looks like Sherlock is coming to NYC for rehab, along with his trusted friend/assistant - Dr. Joan Watson, to be played by Lucy Liu.

I like Lucy Liu and think she is quite talented, but call me a purist - I don’t like the idea of a female Dr. Watson. This sounds more like Castle on drugs than Sherlock Holmes.

Oh well, I guess I will have to wait to see what happens - I might be wrong, but I don’t think this is going to be quite the hit as the new, excellent BBC series, Sherlock.

2

Gosh, what a coincidence!

Not really. CBS approached the team who made Sherlock for assistance with a US remake. They were rebuffed. The UK team is rather busy on several projects–& remember the US version of Coupling, Steven Moffat’s excellent show now streaming in Netflix. Moffat is not happy; his legal team will ensure that none of their innovations show up on CBS.

However, CBS is quite free to emulate the excellent writing, amazing acting & first rate production values that made Sherlock so delightful. We shall see. (Well, I’ll have to read a few rave reviews before watching.)

(In another remarkable coincidence, Jonny Lee Miller, Elementary’s star, shared the stage last year with Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. The play was Frankenstein & they alternated playing The Doctor & The Monster.)

3

It looks horrid.

4

So Wikipedia has articles about crappy TV shows that have not even actually aired now, does it? :rolleyes:

5

Why shouldn’t Wikipedia have an article about an upcoming series? All of the references are from February and March of this year; the past in other words.

In fact, here are 161 articles about upcoming series.

6

Tumblr is already all a-twitter over the series, mostly a battle between people who think the trailer looks interesting and Sherlock fans who don’t understand the meaning of the word “adaptation”. The publicity can only help, though the fervor will likely be faded by the time of the fall premier.

I think the show looks fairly interesting, and since I love AUs in general and all things Sherlock Holmes in specific, I’ll be watching. The relocation to NY has me raising a metaphorical eyebrow, and I kinda wish Lucy Liu was playing Sherlock, and I’ve always found CBS shows to be on the boring side, but I think this may actually not suck.

7

The pacing, the wit, the writing of the BBC versions is going to be tough to capture on CBS. The biggest hindrance is going to be the commercials, and along with it, the mini cliffhangers that invariably lead to said commercials. Plus, 90 minutes of Sherlock versus 44 minutes of Elementary will lose a lot of depth. Granted cases can continue between episodes, but again, you end up losing the pacing this way.

I cannot help but think the CBS version will end up a pale comparison.

8

I like Jonny Lee Miller so I’ll probably give it a shot. But the Cumberbatch version is my favorite of all time and will be hard to come close to.

9

I understand the word “adaption” and, as mentioned, I really like Lucy Liu.

My problem is that, where the UK version takes it a bit further and hints that Sherlock might be a tad Gay, the US version has to flip it and make sure any potential sparks between Sherlock and Watson would be construed as a hetero love interest. Who knows, maybe this will be “cute” and give the series an entirely new spin?

But some classics really don’t need to be heterosexualized to gain a wider audience.

Would we need a female Sundance Kid in any remake of Butch Cassidy?
Should Tonto be a princess to have the Lone Ranger not be so lonely?
Should Huck Finn be a girl - the tomboy for Tom Sawyer?

Sure, I will tune in, and yes, I love a good mystery/crime solving duo regardless of their gender and sparks or lack of. But this looks like the third CBS attempt to make Watson a female love interest of sorts, and the other two series didn’t exactly score big in the annuls of TV history. We’ll see what happens this time around.

10

Lucy Liu was great in a season-long arc on Southland. I hope this turns out well.

11

I might sound like an idiot because I have not been able to see season 2 of Sherlock (its on the DVR). But it seemed clear in season 1 that he was asexual and mostly oblivious to such things. The Robert Downey version is clearly hetero. I have no problem with them going anyway with it. But regardless of Watson’s sex, I hope they don’t try for a Moonlighting thing. And regardless of the oreintation of Holmes, I hope they leave the Holmes/Watson relationship asexual.

12

Needs some Larry Hagman.

13

It’s a sad commentary on the contents of my brain, but my main knowledge of Jonny Lee Miller is that he was married to Angelina Jolie for a while.

That said, I’ll probably check it out, though my expectations are low.

14

Dude, you’ve a treat coming. I wish I was watching it for the first time.

I’m un-enthused about the upcoming American version. I suppose they could surprise me and do a terrific job, but I’m not hopeful.

15

I don’t have high hopes, but I’ll give it a try at least.

16

Between House, Sherlock and the Downey movies, we’re getting kind of close to saturation with Sherlock adaptations. But we’ll see, maybe they’ll find something different to do with the character (beyond gender flipping Watson).

17

Is there a trailer connected with any of the links upthread? If not, here it is.

18

I liked the trailer. I also really like the BBC series, but think the RDJ version is awful…so we’ll see how this pans out.

19

Well, I’m a Sherlock fan and Lucy Lui is smokin’ hot. I’ll give it a try.

20

I’m quite looking forward to stealing this from across the Atlantic. It’s a decent cast, and it’s not like the Holmes and Watson thingy hasn’t already been twisted about for many years.