He is accused of killing his boss while in a disguise that he had also created for several other people.
Apparently for participating in a mob flash.
What I was reminded of in this opening segment was of the few occasions when Holmes is in involved with a case or experiment when Watson walks into the digs. On these few occasions the opening dialog has nothing to do with the up coming story and I used more as another introduction to Holmes methods. BLUE started out the way, in a way, as did HOUN. As did several others.
After this opening segment Watson is once again distract into another case, this time at Gregson's request, while Holmes investigates the murder of a USDA agent who is investigating the death of bee's in bee colonies.
The crime is eventually linked to two professors who study bee's and for some reason had some very odd fetishes.
But once again the plot, although once again timely, became to convoluted with the same type of out-of-greed perp who are introduced early and seem unable to commit horrible crimes yet turn out to have done just that.
The plot, although interesting in it's connections to bee's, lacked any sort of finesse.
The atmosphere of the crime, this time bee's, keeps changing but the flow and type of criminal and motive does not. This episode, along with several others, is playing on Holme's knowledge base and not any real detective work.
To many times they have now relied on his sense of smell and other talents of that nature. We never get the impression of any sort of 'foot work'.
The episode was not without some redeeming value.
It was once again good to see Holmes's weirder (to who?) habits down played. And although Watson is not without detective work, her involvement with Holmes case was once again mostly that of sounding board and side kick.
His observation of the photo with the cap and gown was a good touch.
Although Elementary has now, for the time being, found some much needed balance, it is still lacking in any real firm Canonical reference.
It is not always easy to describe how but whether or not you like 'Sherlock', it has found a way to make that connection.
Millers Holmes seems unable to do that. With this episode, once again, 'Playing the Game' has become a matter of trying to convince ourselves that this is a Sherlock Holmes story.
The show does do that on occasion, but not often enough.
For it's lacking a good Sherlockian connection I can only fairly give this episode,
While I can't argue against your points, I liked this one better than you. I think the convoluted plot was well-done, better than in some past episodes.
ReplyDeleteBTW "Gregson"
Greyson! I don't know where that came from. Thanks.
DeleteIf the plot had not been so similar to so many others, I think it would have held up better for me.
Perhaps you were thinking of Bruce Wayne's youthful ward Dick Greyson. Or maybe too much sun on the deck of the Sea Unicorn. I liked how when confronting the female professor at the end Sherlock says that his theory of the crime sounds ridiculous when spoken out loud, a nice in-joke acknowledgement of how the plots have become so convoluted lately. I saw online one comment on how the flash mob murder at the beginning was a tribute to "The Red-Headed League". I don't know about that, possible I guess, but it is interesting how fans of the show are picking up on Canonical elements. Either "Elementary" is inspiring them to pick up Doyle or there are more Canon-reading fans of the show than critics give it credit for.
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