Wow just what we needed after the BBC's, slightly over rated, Sherlock we get another Holmes update. This time it is Jonny Lee Miller as the super sleuth and the whole thing is transported to New York. Sherlock, recently out of rehab, is assigned a kind of monitor, slash, minder, by his father, in the shape of Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) to help him cope.
Apparently Holmes was a consultant something or other in London and now he is a consultant something or other in New York. It was kind of explained, but I missed it and really couldn't be bothered to rewind. As you would expect Sherlock doesn't immediately take to the monitor, slash, minder Watson. But this is not the Holmes we know, to their credit the BBC and especially Benedict Cumberbatch gave us a believable and recognisable Sherlock. With Elementary this is Holmes via House, The Mentalist's Patrick Jane and that dude from Perception. Jonny Lee Miller darts about like Ken Dodd on crack, at times all that was missing was the tickling stick. But, at least, he still comes up with those marvellous deductions we all know and love. The chemistry between Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu was kind of shaky, but I suppose that's how it should be at the beginning. We also have Aidan Quinn in the role he always seems to play these days, the slightly grizzled, slightly baffled detective. He deserves better. But the main problem, with the opening episode, was the crime itself it wasn't only dull, straight out of the Mentalist stuff, it was puzzlingly dull. It went by the numbers, but the numbers just didn't fit or I was too bored to be arsed to put them together; I let Holmes and Watson get on with it. I knew they'd get there in the end.
It is very early days, with Elementary and it remains to be seen if we get a Mycroft or Moriarty showing up, but on the evidence of this episode they can't come quick enough.
Over
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