Elementary is no Sherlock
Elementary is not rocket science. This latest revisionist, updated-to-modern-times spin on the familiar Sherlock Holmes tales is designed to be a rote, procedural crime series, and that’s exactly what it is. It hails from the same U.S. network shop that churns out CSI, Criminal Minds, NCIS, The Mentalist and Hawaii Five-0, so you know what to expect: a competent, unthreatening reasonably entertaining mystery-of-the-week, with an eccentric sleuth who’s hopeless at social interaction but brilliant at sussing out the clues.
If you accept that Elementary is no Sherlock, and you’re willing to look past the initial jolt of seeing Dr. Watson recast as a female psychologist and live-in companion played by Lucy Liu, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Jonny Lee Miller has the requisite edge to play Sherlock Holmes as a modern-day U.K. detective dismissed from his job in London and now living in New York City, where his wealthy father has forced him into rehab for various addictions.
Dr. Joan Watson (Liu), a clinical psychologist and sober live-in companion, has been hired to make sure Holmes stays on the up-and-up, as it were. Naturally, it’s only a matter of time before the local police come to him looking for help cracking tough cases. He may be impossible to deal with, but he has an uncanny ability to solve the seemingly unsolvable. An added character twist is that Dr. Watson is fighting demons of her own. She was a successful surgeon who, years earlier, botched an operation and lost her licence; she sees her present job as a form of atonement and a way to help people in need.
Holmes is a special case, though, and requires special handling, not least when he tells her that her expertise as an addiction therapist is so much New-Age twaddle and that he’s devised his own post-rehab regimen, one that involves chasing nefarious perps and aiding New York’s finest in their mission to serve and protect.
Elementary is not Emmy material. It’s not Sherlock, which actually was nominated for an Emmy. Several, in fact. It works for what it is, though: a slick, not-toodemanding hour of lightweight entertainment. It won’t rewrite any history books, but it is gently charming, often when one least expects, as in a moment in the opener when Holmes sits down at a computer and notes that when all else fails, “There’s always Google.” A witty line or product placement? You be the judge. (Global — 8 p.m., CBS – 11 p.m.)