Elementary - "Pilot"
Let's start this off by giving you a little of my background with Sherlock Holmes. When I was in elementary school, my mother brought home some small, square, very abridged books for me to read. Some of them were Sherlock Holmes books. I know I read Hound of the Baskervilles and The Speckled Band, but I'm not sure if I read much else. I didn't really get into Holmes and I'm still not enamored enough to read the unabridged versions. Fast forward to years later and I saw Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. I loved it. Haven't gotten a chance to see the second one yet, but I will. Few years or months later, I watched Sherlock because I heard it was good and Steven Moffat was writing/producing the show. Loved that, too. Fast forward to tonight and Elementary... I very, very, very much disliked it. I'm not sure what exactly made me dislike Elementary, but a combination of things I'm about to discuss popped up when I thought about it.
Firstly, the music. OH GOD it was dreadful. There were times when it wasn't there and then suddenly LOUD STRING... blips... I'm not sure what to call those... but they were seriously jarring.
Secondly, Watson. I was as skeptical about a female Watson as I'm sure a lot of people were, but I had in mind to be open minded about it. Turns out, I didn't connect with her at all. She was essentially a stony face for Holmes to talk at. The only time she showed any personality was then he was pressuring her to agree with him about the strangling thing. Also, the fact that she apparently found something Holmes WOULD NOT HAVE OVERLOOKED BUT APPARENTLY DID FOR NO REASON at the end... seriously?
Thirdly, Holmes. Now, I've heard people compare Sherlock Holmes to The Doctor and I'm inclined to agree. Which means I'm really regretting that this thought even popped into my head but... I like my Sherlock Holmes to be sexless. Like, the entire thing with him having sex is just... no. And yes, the Downey Jr. version had a thing with Irene Adler, but... I dunno, they pulled it off right. Here, in Elementary, it came off... wrong. I was shocked at the hooker or whatever and accepted the explanation he gave for why. That was fine, I moved past it. And then... with the "Oh, your past in London had a woman involved" and "You can make connections with people you just choose not to" thing. No. Just, no. Stop it. Wrong. Sherlock Holmes is meant to be so into his work that he just doesn't notice or care about women around him and people besides that. This Holmes says he lies to Watson "in order to spare her feelings." Bull shit. My Holmes just rattles off his findings without thinking or caring about other people's comfort level. The only time he doesn't is when he's being manipulative, which he wasn't. I like my Holmes with a kind of obliviousness or not-caring about what other people think about him, thanks very much. I don't need this emotional Holmes at all.
Fourthly, the little things. At the end, with the baseball. Just... what? Why? No. The writing a book in his head about bees. Again, why? Yes, we get he's a super genius or whatever, but he doesn't need to show it off in flashes of... random. My uncle said he felt like he was watching "Monk with a British guy." I'm inclined to agree, except that Monk actually had more personality than this Holmes did.
So... that's what I thought of Elementary with some analysis. Hope I didn't come off as too rant-y there. I will not be watching Elementary again if I can help it.
Love ya, Jessie.
No comments:
Post a Comment