Of course it is not surprising – series like ’Medium’, ’Tru Calling’ and ’Ringer’ can be attached to his name.īut having a detective alone does not mean quality. The creator of the series, Robert Doherty evidently emphasized these details. Not every episodes are perfect, but mostly we can see superb deductions and carefully planned crimes. The majority of the cases is smart and makes you think. We have to talk about another significant thing when discussing an adaptation of high standard – it is the elaboration of the crime storyline.
Though this is not the first occasion on which the good doctor is portrayed as a woman - in the 1976 movie 'The Return of the World's Greatest Detective appeared a female Watson besides the Holmes of Larry Hagman. So if you have no problem with accepting a female Watson, then you surely cannot say anything wrong about Charlie’s former angel. Elementary’s Watson is highly educated, and Lucy Liu’s acting is very enjoyable, so the relationship between the main characters works really well. In fact, in the novels the doctor is a smart man – the thing is that the brilliant mind of Holmes overshadows those whose brain capacity is above the average. In Elemenetary Watson is not foolish, not just a mere chronicler - and Doyle imagined him exactly how the CBS series portrays the character. We can feel the most in this adaptation what is unfortunately missing in almost every other versions. Possibly Watson had never been so matched with him. Her crucial remarks and clever advices are substantial in solving the cases, and thanks to these she really becomes a helpful partner for Holmes. Watson, whose character is also a direct hit. Holmes is still a pure Englishman, whose eyes radiate with intelligence – thanks to Miller. But favorably my fear proved to be illogical. I must confess that at first I feared that the creators will make a hot dog eating, baseball hat wearing yankee from him. The British actor’s performance is excellent, he is great as the cantankerous detective who often has bursts of anger and whose mind never rests. Chosing Jonny Lee Miller was a very good decision. Will he be able to interpret the esteemed figure of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels? And here we arrived at the first really significant virtue of the series. Just like with other adaptations, one of the most important questions regarding Elementary was how will the leading actor portray the legendary sleuth. So the unorthodox duo solves the most complicated cases in the Big Apple with the help of two local cops, Captain Gregson and Detective Bell. Though their relationship was meant to be temporary, it turns out soon that the unstable sleuth and the embittered doctor are a great team together. To avoid relapse he gets a kind of mentor, Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), who is a surgeon retired from practice. The eccentric, bilious, but brilliant English detective had only recently fought his addiction to pills and he tries to rouse himself far from home, in New York. Life is not easy for Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) these days. Namely the British ’Sherlock’ can be seen as some kind of CSI series, while Elementary rather belongs to the old-fashioned detective series like Monk. And I do not only mean the fact of changing Watson’s gender. It is pointless to compare these two series, because except some similarities their structure is very different. I can easily declare that the American version entitled Elementary copes with the British series.īefore I go into details I have to put down one thing. Witnessing the victory of the BBC it was not in the least abrupt that CBS made its own contemporary Holmes series. In addition the latter enchanted the audience with placing the detective genius into modern setting.
produces lots of money, on the small screen the performance of Benedict Cumberbatch scored full marks from critics and viewers. While in cinemas the Victorian sleuth of Robert Downey Jr. Perhaps it is not an overstatement that Sherlock Holmes had never been so successful in the entertainment industry as at the beginning of the 21st century. Author: Bálint Teller (Walentin) - Translator: Revati