I haven't read Brad's review yet, nor any other, but I can see right now I may have to agree with whatever rant he comes up with.
Come on CBS, is that the best you can do with a returning Sherlock Holmes. Oh, wait! I don't even think Sherlock Holmes was in this episode.
Two years with Sherlock and already she has big time drug lord cases. Who would have thought.
Really the biggest thing she has learned from Holmes is how to be first overly confident then insecure about her own abilities.
As the episode goes along Watson starts receiving clues first from an unknown informant, and then from a returned Holmes. Help from the unknown doesn't seem to bother her until she finds out it is Holmes. (Wait, Watson kept a key to the faux 221b?)
Yes, Holmes has returned from his mini-hiatus, tail between his legs, having failed in England (his home turf) with MI-something-or-other. He returns to New York, new protege in tow, who is already just about as insecure as Holmes and Watson.
Holmes is just as annoying as ever, not really having learned any lessons in interacting with other people. Which would be fine if he actually acted like Sherlock Holmes.
Well, back to the case. Watson is sent to convince a changed of heart witness that her testimony is important in the drug lord case Watson is working on. While in an elevator on her why to the trial the witness is murdered along with a cop. No one got on or off the elevator, and it did not stop, so how was the witness and the cop shoot? And by whom?
A couple of months later Watson has a new boyfriend, a shadow and still no idea how the witness was killed and still in a bad mood.
Watson eventually confronts the shadow and attacks her. (Yea, it's okay for Watson to tail people, but put the shoe on the other foot!!!!!)
Re-enter Sherlock Holmes. All apologetic, and human behavior wise still clueless.
Even Lestrade is in a foul mood and finally tells Holmes what he really thinks of him. (It's suppose to go the other way. Lestrade first dislikes Holmes, then comes to respect him as the show goes along.)
Well, really the case is very unimportant in a Sherlock Holmes story at this point. The method of murder was interesting, and to my knowledge a first.
But what we were really hoping for was, well, a little more Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes didn't come back from his hiatus with his tail between his legs having failed at his mission.
We almost got two Sherlockian references, but at least one was cut short by Watson's inpatients with Holmes (Come on! What does she expect by this time?)
Holmes as new side kick that is no Joan Watson and a waste of a good actress. Kitty, name from the Canon, may yet prove to be not so good for Holmes. She has already eluded to the need to move on from something in her past (a Sherlockian reference.) And ohYea! that single stick fight in the street, wasn't that great!
So far all Sherlock has gotten out of the last eight months is that he is meant to be a teacher of private eyes, and I suppose in two years when his new 'Watson' has learned her stuff, he will take on another.
A great opportunity was missed in this episode for reconnecting the two main characters and continuing in a more Sherlockian way. No growth was made by anyone, with, I believe Watson slipping even a little further.
Only because I don't want to spend the time cutting it in half, I give this episode one pipe.
I was looking forward to your review and it is a pleasant surprise that you liked it much lesser than I did.
ReplyDeleteI went in with without any expectations and perhaps that explains my lack of disappointment with the episode.
B2B.
I went into hoping, not expecting and ended up being very disappointed. I don't expect much from the show anymore, but was expecting a little more than it gave.
DeleteThe friendship between Holmes and Lestrade happened over twenty years in the Canon; the "we're proud of you at the Yard" scene occurred in SIXN in 1901. Now, on Miller's return from his mini-hiatus, Liu could have assaulted him three time and Gregson could have given him a big hug, but instead we have Liu and Aiden Quinn acting like adults to Miller's abrupt return after the selfish abandonment eight months earlier. I know, it's boring to have Holmes and Watson acting like adults (regardless of the situation) instead of the flash and spectacle of "Sherlock" or the Downey movies, which also engages in oh-so-Canonical Watson-on-Holmes violence. Maybe, if "Elementary" had Liu in a damsel-in-distress moment and Miller came riding to the rescue on his Moped, the audience would know they still loved each other--it worked for Cumberbatch and Freeman's audience--but we have realistically hurt feelings on both sides and the luxury of 24 episodes to work them out.
ReplyDeleteGood point about Watson handling big-time drug lord cases. Perhaps that's the point the show will make over the course of the next few shows; Joan still needs Sherlock (and Sherlock Joan) and the two will come to that realization during the season.
I know you were disappointed in the second season of "Elementary", John. It indeed made several missteps, but because "Elementary" doesn't take a Canonical approach to storytelling but instead concentrates on the Holmes/Watson dynamic, I've been impressed with the subtleties of the characterizations of Holmes and Watson. It's far from perfect, but then I feel every adaptation of the Canon has been that.
Agreed. I loved the way the episode felt like it drew a lot of structuring notes from The Empty House, without the over the top emotional and terrorist plots that Sherlock felt necessary.
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