TV Talk: It’s Elementary, Sherlock!

It seems like almost every procedural police show these days has at least one character who’s inspired in some way by Sherlock Holmes. Usually the character who’s smart beyond words–at least when it comes to solving crimes–but totally clueless about the outside world. Sherlock has always been popular in that way, it seems like.


Now we have two hugely popular adaptations directly inspired by Holmes, though, running at the same time–if not in the same country. And they’re both set in modern times! Elementary in the US and Sherlock in the UK.


I wanted to write a bit about this in my last blog post, because Sherlock had just come back with season 3 in the US and I’d been thinking a lot about it, but I kept thinking and thinking and realized I had way too many thoughts.


So here we go.


Starting at the beginning: I loved Sherlock from the very first episode. It captured something about the character that I hadn’t seen in any other adaption and it just felt… true. Plus, the style and direction is just amazing. Elementary, on the other hand, I really really didn’t like almost from the very first minute. I was sure almost everything about it was a gimmick done up to cash in on Sherlock’s popularity.


I probably never would’ve watched the second episode, even, if the show hadn’t intrigued my girlfriend. Now, I’m really glad it did, because the show is even better than Sherlock.


Here’s the thing about Sherlock: Benedict Cumberbatch is great. He’s a fantastic Holmes. Martin Freeman? He’s top notch, too. The direction and cinematography? Amazing. We’ve been over that.


But there’s something that feels… shallow about it. There’s a feeling (that’s progressed more and more every season) that everything in the show just exists to either show how clever Sherlock is or to rejoice in how clever he just was. It’s pure spectacle and in season one it’s absolutely entertaining. In season two it’s decently enjoyable. By season three, I start to feel like the creators have bought into their own hype.


None of Sherlock’s negative personality traits or bad decisions have any negative repercussions. Somehow, all of the people he constantly treats like garbage love him because that’s just who he is and does it really matter when he’s so clever? Even disregarding that, where’s the fallout for his actions? Where’s the process of him becoming a better human being–or being punished for being a terrible human being, if it’s going to be a tragedy.


Make no mistake, by season 3 he’s changed, but it comes with the feeling that he’s just… different. There was no growth, and at the core he’s still the same old Sherlock, he just wants different things.


And still, no one is calling him on his crap.


With Elementary, I thought there was no way it would work. To me, Jonny Lee Miller was no Cumberbatch–no Holmes, and there was no way they could sustain the kind of cases that demanded Holmes’ attention for 20+ episodes a season. It had to be hard enough doing 3 episodes a year with that kind of detail, right?


But what happened was that all of that extra breathing room gave us time to really explore the Elementary interpretation of Holmes. What happens is we get a character that’s deeper than pure spectacle. He has real wants and needs beyond solving the case. The side-characters are their own people have have their own realistic feelings of everything going on. Nothing is sacrificed in the interest of making Sherlock clever, but Sherlock sacrifices a lot to be clever, and those sacrifices are made clear.


And the best part is that he’s growing. And it’s apparent in every single episode that it’s a step forward (or backwards), that feels natural and real.


Oh, and Jonny Lee Miller? I can’t imagine a better Holmes, now. I feel terrible for ever thinking otherwise, now.


And to top it all off, Elementary has given us a cast of extremely diverse characters in a time when TV can still tend to be pretty white washed, and it doesn’t do it in a way that feels like a gimmick. It’s inclusive because it’s attempting to portray the real world, and it’s fantastic.


All of that said, I think it’d be really easy to think that I hate Sherlock. I don’t. It’s just that now that Elementary has been running and just gotten deeper and deeper, I can’t help but leave Sherlock feeling disappointed every episode. There’s so much talent there, so much artistic flair, but it feels like they fail to reach for anything more than this surface level entertainment. It’s all right, but I always leave the show feelings wanting, and I wonder if the only reason it’s even as entertaining as it is is because there are three episodes once every year or two.


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Published on February 04, 2014 15:00
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