dragnilar-77517
I recently have been on a "Sherlock Holmes" binge after having watched all of the BBC's acclaimed "Sherlock". Seeing others rave about Elementary, I figured it may be worth giving it a go since it features another famous actor (Johnny Lee Miller) play Sherlock Holmes. And since it has more episodes than the BBC's show, I figured it would be a great way to tide me over until I found something else to watch. Unfortunately, the series hasn't worn well on me. Having watched all of seasons 1 and 2 and now onto 3, I can see why others have been disappointed by this show. My chief complaint unfortunately is with Johnny Lee Miller's Sherlock Holmes. He just doesn't feel "like" Sherlock Holmes. Yes, he has a British accent and he also features his "brilliant" moments like you'd expect, but there's a lot of things about his depiction that really hurt his credibility as Sherlock Holmes. For example, the show has made Sherlock Holmes' drug usage a centerpiece and it seems to more so addle Sherlock than it does aid him. There are numerous occasions where Sherlock wastes time reminiscing about drugs or gets patronized by Joan because he is merely looking at them. This seems to distract him a lot and it doesn't make for a very focused Sherlock Holmes. The drug theme unfortunately seems to be the tired, dead horse that this show loves to bring up every chance it can get. The writers obviously felt that they could capitalize on Holmes' occasion drug usage from the books and turn the show into a story about recovery, sobriety and fighting off the temptation to use again. Unfortunately, it becomes preachy and at times seems to mess not only with Sherlock's thinking but feels like absolute episode filler. I strongly feel that every almost every single episode has had at least one drawn out conversation about drug abuse. It becomes tiring, and I feel that like with a lot of other television shows these days, is a sign that writers have to resort to filler. Another problem that is glaringly obvious, is that Miller plays Sherlock in an almost uncomfortable to watch manner. Instead of walking around with a little bit of bravado and acting with confidence and the air of superiority that you'd expect, Miller acts very "quirky". You will often see Miller walk into scenes like he has a major case of constipation or is trying his best to do an impression of a cartoon character. His facial expressions are often wide eyed, exaggerated and flat out silly. His body language is often stiff and rigid and seemingly overdone. There is never any decent explanation given for his behavior other than "oh he's just Sherlock". I cannot tell if this is supposed to represent some type of idiot savant characteristic or if he's suffering from nerve damage from drug usage. Either way, it feels overdone and I cannot help but feel that Miller probably gets tired of acting like he has someone probing his rear end with a sharp stick every time we see him. Unfortunately, Miller's Sherlock also does not display the same level of intellectual charisma as the likes of Cumberbatch, Brett, Rathbone, Downey Jr, etc. He instead comes off as at times as unsophisticated, formulaic, drab and unconvincing. Many of his "eureka" moments have very little dramatic effect and they don't provoke the same level of amusement as the other actors mentioned. It probably does not help that many of the situations that Miller finds himself within are rather watered down compared to the other depictions of Sherlock Holmes. There's seldom ever a battle of wits going on or a compelling mystery. Instead, you'll see Miller, seemingly at times, just boringly following the proverbial trail of footsteps that a villain left behind, and then later have some mundane conversation with Watson that gives him a rather uninteresting eureka moment. I cannot say that all of the original stories or other depictions were all of the same quality, but they at least had better build up and again, more charm. In keeping with the lack of the aforementioned charisma, Miller's Holmes is a tad too "seedy" for my tastes. He has numerous tattoos (possibly to appeal to our tattoo happy society), acts seedy and beds numerous women (sometimes prostitutes from what I can tell) and often doesn't shave. He acts far less civilized in his ways than your typical Sherlock Holmes. Cumberbatch's by contrast, while acted more modernized and youthful, still managed to exhibit traits that were in keeping with the notions of Sherlock Holmes. As I said implied previously, you could very easily change the name of the characters in this shown and you may possibly think this isn't about Sherlock Holmes anymore. The last thing that comes off as disappointing and problematic about Miller's depiction of Holmes are his subservience to both Watson and his father. While the "original" Sherlock Holmes seemed more of a self-made man and didn't seem to have problems with his father, Miller's Holmes is often depicted as having a feud going on with his father. All the while, it is also shown that Holmes is financially dependent on his father and doesn't have much room to breath. Likewise, Miller's Holmes doesn't seem to have the same level of "friendship" with Watson that you'd expect. Instead of a genuine relationship built on friendship, you have an almost bipolar mother figure in Watson. As a result, Holmes is constantly fading in between being nagged or coddled for his behavior, which grows tiring after a while. There is rarely any in between. Holmes also seems at times robotic or insincere when he is talking to Watson. This leads into another major problem with the show - Holmes relationship with Watson. I will not say as much on this as much as Holmes himself, but I feel it needs to be pointed out. Whereas with the likes of the BBC show, Holmes and Watson had a very sincere (although at times rocky) friendship, Elementary's duo seem to be far more symbiotic and forced. The fact that their relationship is founded upon Watson trying to keep Holmes sober is symbiotic enough. The other thing that makes it feel less genuine is that Holmes is always having these strange moments where he "desperately needs Watson in his life" like she is some type of mother figure. This would be fine, but the delivery of the lines and the circumstances are always very trite, which again, leads to the lack of genuine appeal about their friendship. There are numerous times where they are having two conversations at once where they constantly change the subject between whatever the murder of the week is to some personal problems. This begins to feel unnatural after a while and the only explanation for it is that it's a part of the episode template that the writers use. Suffice to say, Watson and Holmes feel more forced than anything else. There are other problems with this show as well, but they probably do not deserve the same level of detail. The most obvious one is Lucy Liu's seemingly forced presence and lack of credibility as reliable Watson. She is for all intents and purposes, a completely different character. There is no true equivalent to John Watson in this shown in most cases. What is worse, is that you get the feeling you are not watching "Joan Watson" but you are actually just watching Lucy Liu. Her character seems to be more misused than anything else, which results in a lack of ability to disconnect from the real world and believe you are seeing "Joan Watson". She does have some good moments where she lends a hand on a case and it doesn't feel forced. Unfortunately, though, there are too many moments where it feels like the writers were stretching to have her play some role beyond being Sherlock's pest (or Natalie Teeger) in order to, miserably, try and convince us she is Watson. Another persistent problem with this show is that it uses the same tired format that a lot of other shows use for "murder mystery of the week". Many of the shows follow a formula where you will see a murder scene, be introduced to several characters and then later in the episode Holmes will figure out that one of the characters he met earlier is the murderer and will have a rather unrealistic and unsatisfying moment where the villain is arrested. Often times these "wrap up" scenes will involve Holmes, Watson and possibly 2 other characters standing around in public (or in the police station), recanting the entire plot of the murder to the villain. It almost always results in the murderer confessing or getting arrested. It becomes hokey and unrealistic and seems like the format is just used to give the other actors besides MIller and Liu more lines so they don't feel bad that they're not the lead actors. The scenes look very staged and unnatural and are almost stupid or robotic in their execution. There is an almost sloppy level of continuity between the shows and most of the time, villains that crop up are only around for one episode and then after that the case is solved and never heard from again. There are a lot of moments that do not get explained adequately and are seemingly forgotten for the sake of keeping things adhered to the formula. When the show does try to have an overarching story, its usually only done in the midst of or at the end of the season in order to give some level of flourish. And unfortunately, these stories do not seem to have very much impact on the overall development of Holmes as a character, save for possibly the story arch at the end of season 1. Everything else seems more or less easily forgotten within an episode or two afterwards.
