'Child Predator' -- Elementary 1x03

Warning: Spoiler Alert

If the writers continue on the track that they've been going on, maybe I won't give up completely on this show. I still think that the Beeb does it better, but even within the three episodes of this show that have been presented, the writers seem to be getting better at what they are doing. Perhaps they have figured out where they want to go with the show, or maybe they are feeling a bit more confident in their own abilities when it comes to the show ... maybe it's a little bit of both?

With that in mind, I'm still not sure how I would feel about this version of Sherlock Holmes tackling stories from canon. It would seem almost inevitable that at some point the show would deal with Moriarty and Irene Adler, but it seems like the show (and the writers) should get more firmly on its feet before trying to tackle two of the more notable characters from canon. I have the feeling that if the writers try to bring either of these two into the canon of the show to early, they may be bungled. The episodes may be getting a bit better with each new offering, but there are still only three episodes, and until the writers and the actors are able to really sink their teeth into the material, and they are able to stand on their own feet as far as what they are trying to present to the viewing public, I'm not sure that they will be able to do justice to either Moriarty or Adler (hell, if they aren't even able to really present Holmes and Watson as well as they could be presented, when they are the main characters, doing the epic bad guys right now may not be the best of ideas. And no, I don't think that they've got Holmes or Watson down quite yet ... but then, it is still early in the show's run yet).

I don't know if it's because of the American sensibility when it comes to television programs, but it feels almost like the Holmes of the American version of events isn't nearly as smart as he should be. Sure, he's clever, but he doesn't feel nearly as clever as he should be. Of the episodes that are out so far, he's really only solved one of them as far as I see it. In the other two, Watson was far more instrumental in getting the case solved than she was given credit for. In "Sherlock," Watson is clever, and he certainly helps a ton on the cases, but Sherlock is still the cleverest person in the room (unless maybe Moriarty is there), and he isn't quite as dense when it comes to figuring things out. It almost seems like you kind of have to shake the Holmes of "Elementary" a little bit before he is able to be clever, and I'm not sure that I really like that. At this point, if that continues, Moriarty and Adler would mop the floor with him; and seeing as how he is supposed to be the protagonist of the show, I'm not sure that would look good on him.

So, even though it's getting a bit better, I still think that "Sherlock" (and even the Guy Ritchie movies) are better at this point.

'While You Were Sleeping' -- Elementary 1x02

Warning: Spoiler Alert

I thought that this episode wasn't nearly as awful as the first episode was, but it still wasn't as good as it could have (or should have) been. I have two issues with this episodes ... well, two that are larger than the others.

1. The implication that Watson needed to have sex to be in a good mood, and therefore have Sherlock be able to stand her for a little while longer. Sexism much? So far, Watson has gone out of her way to be a help to Sherlock in the cases that he has taken on with the police, and while he may think that she has gone a little too far into what he considers personal, the fact that he has gone out of his way to go into parts of her personal life (where he has no business being) and implying that she needs have a man in her life (to at least be able to have sex with). That isn't even considering the fact that Sherlock's unwanted "help" to get the ex back in the picture accomplishes nothing but making an already complicated relationship a little more strained than it needs to be. For all Sherlock knew, he was adding an expectation that Watson did not, or could not want to fulfill. And the reason that he seemed to do it seemed to have a lot to do with revenge for her doing her job. Yes, she noticed the violin, and she suggested that he pick it back up, but it had nothing to do with spite on her part. It wasn't as if the violin was hidden, and her suggestion that he start playing again had everything to do with trying to help him along with his recovery.

2. The writers went from a plot last week that was kind of convoluted, to one that was predictable. The pilot episode seemed to kind of go out of its way to make it so that the audience couldn't figure out what was going on to this one ... where really anyone could have figured out what was going on. The second that they pointed out the fact that you can always tell when someone is in a coma cuz of the "drop their hand on their face" test, it became obvious what was going on. Things shouldn't be so convoluted that there is no way that anyone could figure things out, but there shouldn't be so much emphasis on something that it gives away what is happening and who the killer is.

'Pilot' -- Elementary 1x01

I'm going to try really hard to give this show a chance, since the source material is so very awesome. That being said ... I wasn't very fond of this episode, and I'm really hoping that what happens is that they find their groove with this show. "Sherlock" on the Beeb has been awesome since the very first episode, even with them making it a little bit more modern, but "Elementary" ... not so much.

I think that part of what my issue is here, is that with "Sherlock," the writing staff was still able to keep the soul of the show intact (even while making it a little more modern, and while still giving us all sorts of nods to things from canon). But with "Elementary," the writers seem to have taken the canon, and not so much left the soul intact. They turned Watson into a woman, I can handle that ... in fact, I thought it wasn't that bad of a change. The problem is that the Watson of this show is different in ways that I don't really care for. I would have liked it if they had kept the army stuff in there (even if they took out the part about him having a limp, like they did with "Sherlock"). The fact that Watson was an army doctor was kind of a big deal, and the fact that now Watson was a surgeon that came from money ... that's just a little too much of a departure for me.

I also had a bit of a problem with them sexualizing Sherlock so much, when the canon doesn't show anything like that. My god, the only woman that he really had any interactions with was The Woman ... cuz her mind was so awesome. From everything that I've ever seen, the man was asexual, and was only interested in the work. Why do we need to turn that into something else? Because it's American television? Stupid. And this Sherlock's "drug problem" ... not really happy with that either. Yes, in canon he smoked a pipe (and the patches that Cumberbatch wore as a nod to that were brilliant), and he also used cocaine, but I think that we need to remember that it was a different age then. Back when these stories were written, cocaine wasn't considered to be addictive, or even harmful. Yes, we know better now, but that doesn't mean that at the time we did. It's just that I feel kind of like, in focusing on the drugs, the writers of this show are trying to do the big PSA of "Drugs are bad, kids," instead of focusing on the character the way that he should be focused in on ... in that he is brilliant and an egomaniac, and he needs Watson to help even him out.

What I did like? Giving Sherlock tattoos. That may seem completely random and out of canon (and here I'd been harping about the spirit of canon), but I like it. I would imagine that the ink was really the actors, and the production staff really didn't have any say in whether his skin had it or not ... but they could have kept him covered up so that the ink was never shown.

I'm thinking that I'm going to give this show a couple more episodes before I really decide whether or not I'm going to stick with it, but as it is right now, I'm not holding out much hope.