Nobody knows how “heterosexualized” this version of Sherlock is (but dude, really? Heterosexualized?), but Watson becoming a woman had more to do with Moffat threatening a lawsuit (even though such a thing would be totally baseless as Sherlock is in the public domain*) than any relationship storyline.
And I realize that Moffat’s version isn’t in the public domain, but “modern day Sherlock” can’t be copyrighted.
Finally (Sherlock: Season 2 spoilers ho!)…
Sherlock is revealed to be straight (or at least completely infatuated with Irene Adler) in this version too, so your whole argument is moot.
I’m so into the BBC’s Sherlock that I can’t see myself getting equally involved with this new show. Frankly I haven’t felt this strongly about a TV show in a long, long time. I want to stop people I work with and say “Have you seen this show???”. It’s killing me that it’ll probably be another year before we get another measly three episodes.
I will probably schedule* Elementary* on my DVR and wait to see Dope opinion.
I’m waiting for the British versions of Billy the Kid (“Billy”, set in Dorset), Calamity Jane (“Calamity” set in Newcastle), Davy Crockett (“Davy”, set in a small village in Cornwall).
I’d love to hear pitches for “John Henry”, “Webby the Webster”, “Wyatt”, and others.
Yea, I love the BBC’s version, but their muttering about lawsuits regarding the CBS version is pretty eye-rolling. Part of the fun of the show is how closely it follows the original material, albeit in a modern setting.
If Doyle had lived today, Edgar Allen Poe probably would’ve sued him for copying his A. Dupin character and there’d be no Sherlock.
With the right actors and writers I think the Sherlock Holmes concept could work in practically any setting. You could probably do a great Sherlock Holmes in King’s Landing. You could do a Sherlock Holmes in the Stars Wars Universe. It’s all about the execution so I would wait before making up my mind about this one. I rather like the idea of a female Watson. One of my all-time favorite films: His Girl Friday was a remake where a male character became female to great effect.
The American company didn’t want to make their own version, they wanted to adapt the BBC version and were refused. They then immediately announced their version.
Moffat and Virtue simply said - rightly - that if their scripts etc were used as was originally requested (and refused), the BBC would likely come down like a ton of hammers. As they should.
Turns out they’re doing something different. But what they’re doing now us definitely not what they originally said they wanted to do.
It’s a bit more complicated than that. Two or three Sherlock Holmes stories are still under copyright in the USA. And copyright in the characters consists of the entire body of work, so the characters Holmes and Watson are not quite in the public domain yet. I believe you can sort of sidestep that by basing your adaptation only on the contents of the public domain books.
The BBC can certainly copyright their modern day innovations - their scripts and character innovations are just as coyprightable as any modern story. What they can’t do is stop anyone else from adapting the original public domain material.
It was alright. I’d probably like it more if it weren’t for the BBC’s Sherlock, as it isn’t as good and its hard not to compare the two.
As it is, it was kind of dark (they play up Sherlock’s drug addiction, Watson has a tortured past, there isn’t much in the way of humor), there wasn’t much chemistry between the two leads and (like most of the recent Holmes adaptations) they dial the detectives abrasive side up to 11.
I’ve never watched “The Mentalist”, but I have the feeling that people who do will think that “Elementary” is riding on the former show’s coat tails. Although I expect that “The Mentalist” owes quite a bit to Arthur Conan Doyle.