Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Elementary.

A trailer for Elementary, the American TV take on Sherlock Holmes. There can't be too many remakes of a good thing, I generally think. If it departs too much from the book, hopefully that is for the sake of better television. If it gets shown here, I'll watch it with interest. I wouldn't compare it to the excellent BBC Sherlock, but will it be as good as The Mentalist? The Mentalist already basically is Sherlock Holmes in American procedural crime show form. Patrick Jane is like Holmes, with powers of observation and trouble being human. Red John is Moriarty, evil nemesis, unknown serial killer with a network of fans. Lisbon is Watson and the CBI is Scotland Yard. Anyway, Elementary. I can see why they cast Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes. He's starting to look like Hugh Laurie, which is a big improvement, and his accent makes him sound clever. Americans will like that. He seems to have copied Adrian Monk for quirky detective acting (Monk is another Sherlock Holmes, actually) He has tattoos, which is a little bit try-hard. The nice thing about BBC Sherlock Holmes is that he is modern and cool without being a bad boy—smart is the new sexy, or something, they said.

See, I'm picking it apart already. I do hope it is enjoyable.

2 comments:

/Karen/ said...

Doesn't it have a female Watson? That would be ... interesting.

House is another variation on the theme: Wilson (not Watson), piano-playing (not violin-playing), Vicodin (not cocaine).

Jessica said...

Yes, Joan Watson.

Hmm, House! So true!