Watched this last night. I would say it is good, not great, but it does have potential. The main thing that lifts the BBC show well above this, apart from its devotion to canon, is the chemistry between Holmes and Watson. Cumberbatch and Freeman are the objectively two perfect people to play those roles.
It appears that the makers of this show are going for a bit of a different take on Holmes than either the Guy Ritchie films or the BBC show. Which is fine; the nice thing about the Holmes stories is that they offer a lot of room for interpretation. But I would say this is a much looser adaptation of the canon than the Moffat/Gatiss show. The BBC version has what I would call a polyamorous relationship with the canon - it is largely based on the original Holmes stories with tons of call-backs to the underlying mythology, but they throw in bits from elsewhere to make it more modern as well.
Elementary is more of an open relationship or even friends with benefits. The main characters are clearly Holmes and Watson, but obviously transporting the show from London to New York has changed quite a few things, and it appears that they're going for original stories rather than interpretations of the Holmes canon. Which is fine, if they're well written.
The interpretations of Holmes are also quite different. He's arrogant and socially awkward in both, but Moffat's Holmes is, if not completely asexual (Moffat has stated that he isn't asexual, but we all know what a Lying/Trolling Creator he is, so that could mean anything), then celibate. This Holmes is... not. When we're introduced to him we see a woman getting dressed in his room and leaving before Watson shows up, and he later remarks that he does not function well without sex. (Certainly a rather big departure from the Conan Doyle stories, but I'm willing to see where they're going with it). This is also different from the Ritchie/Downey version, who romances Irene Adler but does not come across as particularly sex-dependent. (Also a bit of a departure from canon, by the way, more so I'd say than making him an action hero - as far as I can remember he never actually shows any interest in romance in any of the stories).
The opening story was pretty engaging. Not exactly unpredictable, but the writing did a reasonably credible job establishing Holmes as a genius and presenting Watson's potential as an investigator. It does have the same problem the original stories and most of the adaptations of the Holmes canon (including the BBC version) do, that Holmes is almost unnaturally smarter than the rest of the characters, including ones who are supposed to be fairly smart on their own. (For instance, in the BBC show, even
(SPOILER)Irene Adler, who is presented as being a worthy adversary to Holmes, makes a number of rather stupid mistakes, despite being presented as a perfectly intelligent character. Even Moriarty makes the rather crucial mistake of
(SPOILER)not expecting Holmes to turn to Molly Hooper when Watson, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade).
I do rather hope that they don't turn this into a show with clear romantic tension between the leads. I'm pretty sure they couldn't outdo
Castle. This is what the producers have said:
Originally Posted by
Carl Beverly
Rob [Doherty] often calls it a bromance, but one of the bros just happens to be a woman. He said that from the very beginning and I think it's really an apt description. There's this idea that a man and a woman can't be together on a show especially without needing to be together sexually or in love or whatever, and this is really about the evolution of a friendship and how that happens.
So make of that what you will.
Haven't seen Moriarty yet. The actor had better be good. I'm not familiar with Jonny Lee Miller's previous work, but he's rather charming as Sherlock. Lucy Liu, as expected, was good in the role.
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