Elementary & Sherlock
5 Dec 2013 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kangeikoSo, Elementary. I have been putting off watching this show for so long, and I can't even remember why, now. It's blowing me away. But is it ACD?
Jamie Moriarty! I just, I hated the actress when I thought that Irene was American - her accent was atrocious - and all of that just melted away when she turned up as Moriarty. I made the mistake of spoiling myself for it literally minutes before that scene (curse you, Wiki weakness!) but it was no less startling. She is a truly remarkable character, and I am only sorry that she is in custody and therefore not still out there, plotting rings around Sherlock.
More than that. Ms Hudson - why did we only get a glimpse of her? She's glorious. And, ok, I admit that Lucy Liu is very pretty yet immensely wooden as Watson, but I get a feeling that this is a requirement for Watsons. But more than that, having Watson become an investigator troubles me - Watson should be different to Sherlock, not a Sherlock-in-training. Anyway, Sherlock - and Mycroft - are more than emotional enough to make up for it. BUT. I guess the ones I love the most are the cops, and Sherlock's relationship with them. Gregson and Bell are SO competent, and SO smart, and they respect Sherlock & he respects them. And when Watson begins consulting, they respect her as well as a fellow investigator. So actually, although Watson-as-detective annoys me, the reaction of the other characters to her pleases me.
I admit that I am mostly sitting on my hands until the new season of Sherlock is out. The more I watch Elementary, the more I notice the flaws with Sherlock, particularly with the portrayal of NSY staff. I love Sally Donovan to bits, but she was portrayed as both smart, and yet supremely incompetent. NSY seem unable to do any investigation by themselves, they behave in a frequently unprofessional manner - which is fine, because so does Sherlock - and allow themselves to be manipulated by Moriarty in a fairly ridiculous manner. How, exactly, would Sherlock have faked A Scandal in Belgravia, or the Hounds of Baskerville? And wouldn't Donovan be aware of those? The plot holes of the Reichenbach Fall frustrate me, especially when you have smart people portrayed as gullible.
And yet, Holmes in Elementary is hoodwinked by Moriarty with absolutely no suspicions, and yet that doesn't bother me. But Holmes is hoodwinked by his girlfriend being a master criminal - when he has no reason to suspect that such a master criminal exists, and he has pursued her into a relationship - whereas Donovan is hoodwinked into believing that Sherlock is responsible for - well, you know. One is plausible, the other isn't, and I find it SO frustrating that they did this to one of my characters.
I am also - perhaps more so - frustrated at the state of the internets in not doing anything to fix it in fic. The number of "Donovan & Anderson get their comeuppance" fics out there make me despair. Urgh.
I wasn't going to talk about Sherlock, I was going to talk about Elementary. I think if we had a slightly better / different Watson, I would be completely happy. Or maybe a relocation back to London, which is why I loved the first episode of S2 so much, except for Mycroft, of course, because WHAT. Mycroft as someone who is NOT massively entangled in government just confuses me.
But I just - I can't get over the US setting. I am trying SO HARD, but I am struggling. It makes for an excellent show, but not a Sherlock Holmes. So I am enjoying it quite passionately, but just as I enjoy NCIS or any other crime/cop drama. But it's not ACD. It's like relocating Poirot to Canada: it doesn't work in my brain. So I'm having odd moments when I'm watching this ACD-inspired show that I'm viewing as a 'new show', and all of a sudden there's a new character who has the same name as an ACD character, and my brain hiccups.
So. I guess I'm still waiting, sitting on my hands, for Sherlock. Because although it is so flawed, my brain accepts it as a modern Sherlock within a modern Sherlock setting. But in the meantime, I can enjoy this new ACD-inspired show with its excellent cast of characters.
Jamie Moriarty! I just, I hated the actress when I thought that Irene was American - her accent was atrocious - and all of that just melted away when she turned up as Moriarty. I made the mistake of spoiling myself for it literally minutes before that scene (curse you, Wiki weakness!) but it was no less startling. She is a truly remarkable character, and I am only sorry that she is in custody and therefore not still out there, plotting rings around Sherlock.
More than that. Ms Hudson - why did we only get a glimpse of her? She's glorious. And, ok, I admit that Lucy Liu is very pretty yet immensely wooden as Watson, but I get a feeling that this is a requirement for Watsons. But more than that, having Watson become an investigator troubles me - Watson should be different to Sherlock, not a Sherlock-in-training. Anyway, Sherlock - and Mycroft - are more than emotional enough to make up for it. BUT. I guess the ones I love the most are the cops, and Sherlock's relationship with them. Gregson and Bell are SO competent, and SO smart, and they respect Sherlock & he respects them. And when Watson begins consulting, they respect her as well as a fellow investigator. So actually, although Watson-as-detective annoys me, the reaction of the other characters to her pleases me.
I admit that I am mostly sitting on my hands until the new season of Sherlock is out. The more I watch Elementary, the more I notice the flaws with Sherlock, particularly with the portrayal of NSY staff. I love Sally Donovan to bits, but she was portrayed as both smart, and yet supremely incompetent. NSY seem unable to do any investigation by themselves, they behave in a frequently unprofessional manner - which is fine, because so does Sherlock - and allow themselves to be manipulated by Moriarty in a fairly ridiculous manner. How, exactly, would Sherlock have faked A Scandal in Belgravia, or the Hounds of Baskerville? And wouldn't Donovan be aware of those? The plot holes of the Reichenbach Fall frustrate me, especially when you have smart people portrayed as gullible.
And yet, Holmes in Elementary is hoodwinked by Moriarty with absolutely no suspicions, and yet that doesn't bother me. But Holmes is hoodwinked by his girlfriend being a master criminal - when he has no reason to suspect that such a master criminal exists, and he has pursued her into a relationship - whereas Donovan is hoodwinked into believing that Sherlock is responsible for - well, you know. One is plausible, the other isn't, and I find it SO frustrating that they did this to one of my characters.
I am also - perhaps more so - frustrated at the state of the internets in not doing anything to fix it in fic. The number of "Donovan & Anderson get their comeuppance" fics out there make me despair. Urgh.
I wasn't going to talk about Sherlock, I was going to talk about Elementary. I think if we had a slightly better / different Watson, I would be completely happy. Or maybe a relocation back to London, which is why I loved the first episode of S2 so much, except for Mycroft, of course, because WHAT. Mycroft as someone who is NOT massively entangled in government just confuses me.
But I just - I can't get over the US setting. I am trying SO HARD, but I am struggling. It makes for an excellent show, but not a Sherlock Holmes. So I am enjoying it quite passionately, but just as I enjoy NCIS or any other crime/cop drama. But it's not ACD. It's like relocating Poirot to Canada: it doesn't work in my brain. So I'm having odd moments when I'm watching this ACD-inspired show that I'm viewing as a 'new show', and all of a sudden there's a new character who has the same name as an ACD character, and my brain hiccups.
So. I guess I'm still waiting, sitting on my hands, for Sherlock. Because although it is so flawed, my brain accepts it as a modern Sherlock within a modern Sherlock setting. But in the meantime, I can enjoy this new ACD-inspired show with its excellent cast of characters.