Title: Elementary Season 1
Starring: Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu and Aidan Quinn
Running Time: 17 hours, 18 minutes (6 discs), Not Rated (TVMA)
Special Features: Featurette – A Holmes of their Own; Featurette – In Liu of Watson; Featurete-Holmes Sweet Holmes; Set Tour With Lucy Liu; CBS Launch Promos; The Power of Observation: Behind-The-Scenes Webseries (6 mini-featurettes)
The classic characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gets a modern twist, changing Dr John Watson into Dr Joan Watson and 1880’s London to present day New York City. Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) is a former consultant to Scotland Yard now living in New York recovering from heroin addiction and former surgeon Dr Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) has been hired by Holmes’ father to be his sober companion. She is suddenly thrown from her current somber career helping addicts stay clean into the exciting world of crime deduction by riding along with Holmes as he provides his detective consultant services for the NYPD under the eye of Captain Tommy Gregson (Aidan Quinn). Many familiar elements of the beloved stories remain, including the ominous Moriarty, but with yet another modern twist.
I was a little apprehensive about this series, but was pleasantly surprised. Sherlock is the original character that many shows have tried to emulate and it feels very at home in this series (I have yet to watch the BBC version). Joan Watson is an intelligent character in her own right and doesn’t necessarily play a sidekick, but an assistant who brings unique skills of her own to help catch the killer that Holmes doesn’t have or forgets to utilize. It’s interesting how they developed the characters to not have sexual tension or attraction towards one another. They both have the capability to have intimate relationships, but not with each other. They’re intellectuals that play off one another. It’s more of a platonic/work-friend/brother-sister relationship with Holmes and Watson.
The Positive: This DVD set has several featurettes on the many elements that make up this show. The most interesting I felt was the director of photographer explaining the reversed film effect on the flashback sequences.There are a lot of effects and details that go into a seemingly simple hour dramedy.
The negative: No episode commentary and no option to “play all.” It rubberbands you back to the menu so you can’t have a seamless marathon like so many other dvds allow you to do.
I’m finding it more difficult to like television because of all the repetitive crap out there, but I think I have found a new favorite show. I like the audience participation inclusion in the writing and I just feel smarter by watching this show. I can’t wait to see what they do for next season.
Total Rating: A
Reviewed by: JM Willis
