Series premiere review: 'Elementary' - 'Pilot': The (Mets) game is afoot!
What did everybody think of the new CBS mystery?
Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller are Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes in "Elementary."
Credit: CBS
I posted my review of CBS' "Elementary" yesterday. Now it's your turn. For those who tuned in tonight, what did you think? Was it too easy to compare it to either "Sherlock" or "The Mentalist" (or any other CBS procedural) to enjoy, or were Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu interesting enough to make it work? If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, did this feel like a fair take on the character? Did you figure out where the story was going before Holmes and Dr. Watson did? And will you watch again?
Have at it.
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
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September 27, 2012 at 11:20PM EST Reply to CommentFINALLY! A Sherlock show that isn't ridiculous, melodramatic, contrived, and overrated like that crappy UK version.
None of your damn business You are entitled to your opinion. Just know that it's wrong.
September 27, 2012 at 11:41PM ESTBIC @NOYDB didn't anyone warn you about feeding the trolls?
September 28, 2012 at 12:04AM ESTAction_Kate Don't you know a Poe when you see one? :)
September 28, 2012 at 9:55AM ESTsick boy
September 27, 2012 at 11:36PM EST Reply to CommentWell, at one time, you've got it, and then you lose it, and it's gone forever. All walks of life: George Best, for example. Had it, lost it. Or David Bowie, or Lou Reed...
FistOSalmon All I'm trying to do Mark is help you understand that The Name of The Rose is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.
September 28, 2012 at 4:30AM ESTAnonymous For a vegetarian you're a fucking evil shot.
September 29, 2012 at 12:18PM ESTBEWBTUBE
September 27, 2012 at 11:46PM EST Reply to CommentDid nothing for me. I wasn't disgusted like I had expected I might be going in, but that's not really saying much.
Mormegil
September 28, 2012 at 12:09AM EST Reply to CommentYour typical procedural, except it's Sherlock and Watson this time around. In short, generic and boring. Watson being a woman lends to an interesting dynamic between the two, but that's really all it has going for it.
Also a shame that this Sherlock has nowhere near the charisma of Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock.
BrettPoker
September 28, 2012 at 12:28AM EST Reply to CommentNot really sold on Mr. Holmes yet, but I'm loving Lucy Liu as Watson.
Beleaguered Mets fan
September 28, 2012 at 12:40AM EST Reply to CommentIt was better than I was expecting. But the final scene was just completely unrealistic. There's no one on the Mets you'd intentionally walk as the tying run with the bases empty in the bottom of the 9th inning!
Ashley I liked it. I know everyone will compare it to the bbc Sherlock, but this one's different and there's enough to go around.
September 28, 2012 at 12:52AM ESTJMJ well, if he had said "the mets are gonna lose" it'd have been too easy!
September 28, 2012 at 10:13PM ESTMw
September 28, 2012 at 1:38AM EST Reply to CommentI like it!
Gene Bivins
September 28, 2012 at 2:06AM EST Reply to CommentI'll keep watching it. Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu are both great in their parts.
keith
September 28, 2012 at 2:13AM EST Reply to CommentMore than any pilot I've seen, it felt like I knew all the lines.
Beejay
September 28, 2012 at 2:31AM EST Reply to CommentWhile Jonny Lee Miller crushes his role, Lucy Liu gives her usual bland ass Velveeta approach to acting, and Aidan Quinn is underserved by giving him a role where he isn't sure just what he is supposed to do.
In my opinion, this show could be much more interesting if they played JLM's Holmes as a guy with a disorder that led him to believe that he was actually Sherlock Holmes, and Lucy Liu could bland her way through attempting to treat him while they solve mysteries and have adventures! You could overlay JLM's Holmes' interpretation of modern day NYC as Victorian England. Carriages become taxis, the subway becomes the tube! Yaaay! Oh, wait, we've done this before.
Unfortunately we get this. This makes CSI:Miami look like The Wire.
The NYC setting is egregiously bad. I'd rather that they were in someplace more every day American than NYC. While I wouldn't do the whole Victorian London/Modern day London dichotomy, someplace like Portland or San Diego or New Orleans could be a much better location than tired as hell NYC.
My conclusion has to be that this is a tired, weak attempt to cash in on buzz from the BBC's Sherlock.
Adler
September 28, 2012 at 3:14AM EST Reply to CommentOf all the new shows I was most looking forward to, it was this one, and then halfway through I was disappointed. Don't know how everyone can keep a straight face when they say Sherlock Holmes' name as if they never heard of the fictional detective before.
Tracey
September 28, 2012 at 6:44AM EST Reply to CommentIt's not bad. Actually, what it reminded me of more than anything else (and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it) is Monk (the Sharona years). Incredibly observant man with no people skills working as a consultant for the police; female sidekick with a medical background who is employed to keep him out of trouble, who sticks around because she's fascinated by what he does, and she's getting pretty good at it herself; plotlines that bounce around between different suspects, with the police congratulating the consultant while he's still not convinced that they have the right man. Sherlock is much darker, of course, and more bloody. I'll give it a chance.
cadfile The show looked like to me a Dirty Monk
September 29, 2012 at 1:21PM ESTAlso there doesn't appear to be some larger mystery like Monk had with finding his wife's killer which in this case is good.
firegragon76
September 28, 2012 at 7:31AM EST Reply to CommentI won't be watching episode 2. I liked Lucy Liu as Watson, but Miller's Sherlock is completely unlikable to me. In every other TV or movie adaptation I saw, there was something in his character that made me forgive his not so stellar character traits. I just couldn't find anything in this one.
chalmers
September 28, 2012 at 7:49AM EST Reply to CommentWhen the teaser said "Sherlock," I thought the squirrel from "The Magic Garden" finally got his long overdue starring gig.
OldDarth
September 28, 2012 at 9:52AM EST Reply to CommentBasil Rathbone where are you when we really need you?
Robin
September 28, 2012 at 10:12AM EST Reply to CommentBoring. I wanted to like it but I don't like procedurals in general and this is really nothing but a procedural with Sherlock Holmes instead of Thomas Jayne. And a fairly bland Sherlock at that. I'm sure it will be a hit, but I'm out.
Lee
September 28, 2012 at 10:53AM EST Reply to CommentEven if Benedict Cumberbatch hadn't electrified the screen in "Sherlock" - this thing would be (to me) just embarrassing. In what universe is this Sherlock Holmes? Have the showrunners ever even peeked at a Holmes story? Somehow, I doubt it.
I saw the screen version of Frankenstein - both; one with Cumberbatch as the monster and Dr. Frankenstein and then JLM as both - sorry. As talented and nice as JLM is, he just doesn't have the natural talent and charisma of BC.
I hope he stays employed but I won't. Maybe if the writing had a least been good - smart, witty, Sherlockian - but, it isn't and I can't imagine it will be if they didn't bother for the first episode.
Sacha
September 28, 2012 at 11:07AM EST Reply to CommentHaving no affection for any of the Sherlock iterations and not being a fan of procedural cop shows, I actually enjoyed this pilot. Maybe it's cause Lucy Liu can do no wrong for me. Will definitely watch a couple more.
jenfullmoon
September 28, 2012 at 11:15AM EST Reply to CommentIt was okay. I don't feel strongly about it one way or the other. Somewhat different, this Holmes isn't quite as douchey so that's kinda refreshing. I probably wouldn't have cast Lucy Liu though--she wasn't really doing much for me there.
Cabbage
September 28, 2012 at 11:30AM EST Reply to CommentWith Lucy Lui casted. I'm out. She's horrible. No interest in anything she is associated with.
DidiM
September 28, 2012 at 2:58PM EST Reply to CommentI can't help to be reminded of a non-comedic Monk. Quirky special detective with a female overseer. He makes observations quickly and doesn't always follow basic etiquette (interrupting Watson at the opera). I enjoyed the show a lot and will continue to watch.
Hannah Lee
September 28, 2012 at 7:09PM EST Reply to CommentIt was a bit dull...I mostly liked Jonny Lee Miller's performance, but wished the character had more energy about him. And that he got to show his intelligence more.
Always happy to see Aidan Quinn on my screen (and Dallas Roberts as well) Lucy Liu, on the other hand, seemed like a deer in the headlights for the whole episode, nothing about her character drew me in, it was just dull.
I don't think you can get a solid Sherlock Holmes adaptation if you botch the Watson. And I'm afraid they did, with a combination of Liu's performance, and taking a soldier/skilled doctor and turning her into a disgraced ex-surgeon.
Larslarspantsonfars
September 28, 2012 at 8:33PM EST Reply to CommentI hate it when they use the whole "Let's make a man's character a woman" formula. It's like "Let's pretend like we're creative and thinking outside the box". It's as bad as "Let's make the tall sexy blonde a martial art expert!" or "Let's make the hero a loser". Too much of those. I don't buy it.
unclevanya
September 28, 2012 at 11:50PM EST Reply to CommentIf the Brits do a fabulous Sherlock, why would anyone think we can do it better? No, we didn't! Think original. Why do casting people hire Brits and tell them master an American accent? Aka Rose Byrnes (DAMAGES) no Americans good enough?
Why don't they hire a British actor to do Sherlock?
I can live without the CBS Sherlock. PERSON OF INTEREST with Jim Cavelais and Michael Emerson are great in This CBS 2nd season
Action_Kate ...you do know that Johnny Lee Miller is British, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Lee_Miller
September 29, 2012 at 3:52PM ESTunclevanya Now I know! Sorry about that. He was on WEEDS and a quirky Law show. I thought he was "cute guy" after seeing him on Letterman, I apologize. But why couldn't use an American?
September 29, 2012 at 7:51PM ESTunclevanya
September 28, 2012 at 11:57PM EST Reply to CommentIF the BBC wanted to copy BREAKING BAD it would terrible. SO we copied Sherlock and did it terrible. Just sayin!!!
Lynn
September 29, 2012 at 1:42PM EST Reply to CommentNobody's critiqued the plot yet, so I will. Awful! 1. The husband's master plan was to happen to have a violent sex offender as a patient, and set things up so that over two years later, the guy would kill his wife? Brilliant. 2. That plastic surgery two years ago, that was necessary so that the patient would be violently attracted to the wife? What? Didn't she just change her hair color? I don't know any sex offenders who choose victims based on wrinkle reduction, nose jobs, or whatever. 3. The wife built a safe room off their bedroom that the husband didn't know anything about? If Holmes hadn't found it, would the body have stayed there till it started to smell? 4. No evidence to link the husband to the murderer? Even though the husband was his therapist, prescribing drugs for him, and cell phone records would've showed lots of calls (you can get the records even if the phone is missing). 4. And the husband was using him as a flower delivery man, for weeks? Still no plausable link? 5. The murderer was in a roid rage, but still had the presence of mind to kick the door afterwards to make it look like a break-in even though it wasn't?
And a really strange narrative flaw - Watson is the one who solves the crime - noticing the rice allergy and making the connection to the bag of rice? Since when is Watson solving crimes? In episode 1, no less.
No, sorry. I loved Monk. I like the Mentalist. I loved House, at least sometimes. But this didn't hit the mark for me at all.
greatplans Couldn't agree more. And really, the killer just happens to be allergic to the rice he's using to dry off the phone where he's recording the evidence tha links him to the Dr. What a remarkable coinkydink. Which, of course, begs the question: What crime did the Dr. commit anyway? He still didn't actually kill his wife.
September 29, 2012 at 5:45PM ESTMadlyMild The rice thing was my major problem with this episode and maybe the show. As a nutritionist, I know that rice is one of the least allergenic foods that exist. Someone might have this allergy, but it is much more likely that the writers just thought, "Let's hide the phone" "Where?" "How about rice, that's a thing, right?" and then worked backward to hide the rice in plain sight via an allergy. Not good.
October 1, 2012 at 11:33AM ESTbearcouch
September 29, 2012 at 2:28PM EST Reply to CommentI gotta say, first episode was impressively shot. Very easy on the eyes.
Girl Detective
October 1, 2012 at 12:30PM EST Reply to CommentI'm feeling very done with the violence-against-women procedural. I like both Miller and Liu, but neither were good enough to transcend a thoroughly uninteresting story. I don't love the BBC Sherlock--find it wildly uneven, and think the best ep was the first one--but it's still better than this. Also, the claims that the relationship is going to be a platonic one? Yeah, right. Oh, and another thing, Aidan Quinn's cop in an Irish bar? Please.