Elementary Season 1, Episode 2: While You were Sleeping

While Holmes and Watson work to get used to each other, they’re called in on another case: a man, shot dead in his home and his furniture stolen. When Sherlock determines that the murderer was a woman and that there were two crimes, a homicide and then a burglary, he begins to butt heads with a new detective. Though he hands them the burglar, he cannot figure out who the killer is from the little facts he has. When a second murder, lands in their laps, they find their victims were unknowingly related and potentially the heirs to a large fortune, but when the woman the first victim’s thieving neighbor describes turns up to be in a coma during both murders, the thread they’re following turns to a tangled clump.

My Thoughts:

It is nice to see that Watson has a life outside Sherlock in this series. And while I’d prefer it if she were more intrigued by the mystery of it all, It is nice to see a Watson who’s life does not so wholly orbit Sherlock. I imagine it must be difficult, to have your life put on hold every six weeks you have a client. It couldn’t be an easy thing to do when you’ve got a relationship, and it certainly doesn’t lend itself to an extremely trustworthy environment.

The murders themselves were interestingly commonplace, the way the sister tried to cover it up, was the only thing that really bespoke of a Sherlockian mystery. I feel like this episode was more about establishing characters and the burgeoning dynamic of the partnership between Watson and Holmes.

I’m still not 100% sure about this series

Elementary Season 1, Episode 1

Joan Watson, a disgraced surgeon now employed as a sober companion,  heads to her new charge, Sherlock Holmes who’s just broken out of his rehab facility on the day he was to be released. The British consultant doesn’t care to have her around, but disobeying his father’s mandate for the companion would mean being kicked out of the “Least renovated” of the five properties his father owns in New York. Reluctantly, he drags her along with him on his case.

They arrive at the scene of the crime – thought to be a kidnapping thus far, and Sherlock quickly deduces the woman in question was murdered, and she never left the home. Finding a safe room her husband supposedly didn’t know about, they discover her lifeless and broken body. And just when it seems like Sherlock has figured out who it was, their prime suspect is found dead in his home, apparently having committed suicide. With doubts, Sherlock and Watson begin to unravel the tangled web that lead to the woman’s death – and the reason an already beautiful woman would so drastically change her appearance.

My thoughts:

I do appreciate that they’ve kept Sherlock British in this series (for one thing, it’s unlikely that anyone in the US would name their child Sherlock in this day and age.) It will be interesting, as the series progresses to get more insight into this Sherlock’s back-story. So far, we know that he’s a recovering drug addict – something that seems trumped up to bring him and Watson together, so we’ll see how that plays out – and that something made him leave London where he was a consultant to Scotland Yard. It’s obviously not the job, since he dives right back in….

The first case was twisty enough to not be boring. Though there were a few things that bothered me. 1) The guy is in a roid rage, but has the wherewithal to go back and kick in the door to make it look like it was a break in. 2) Watson seems bored with her predicament, she stumbles on the case solving “Rice” conundrum by accident, not because her curiosity has pushed her to look for the answer – and that feels a) lazy and b) not true to the original characterization (Watson stays with Sherlock because he’s intrigued by the man’s mind and by solving cases to promote a greater good… This Watson feels like she’s bored.)

I can’t help comparing this series to the British produced Moffat helmed version. And while I’m not going to write this series off after a single episode… at the moment, Cumberbatch’s Sherlock is more intriguing, and Freeman’s Watson is less boring. It’s sad, because I like both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, but I feel like this series – unless they do something spectacular with it – is going to be a waste.