All Episodes Talk: The Brownstone

[Driad]

What did you think of Elementary when it started? I liked the characters, but calling them Holmes and Watson just seemed like a cheap way of getting viewers for a show that differed from canon in several important ways.  (Sherlock aired at about the same time.)  With time, though, Elementary became one of my favorite shows.

[Athena]

32 minutes ago, Driad said:

What did you think of Elementary when it started? I liked the characters, but calling them Holmes and Watson just seemed like a cheap way of getting viewers for a show that differed from canon in several important ways.  (Sherlock aired at about the same time.)  With time, though, Elementary became one of my favorite shows.

I watched this show from the pilot. I tuned in because I like both the leads and like the original canon. I have not stuck with any procedural/cast of the week show and I was unsure if I would keep watching. However, as we know, this is a show more about the two characters and their relationship than a standard procedural. It did not take long for that to happen because early on, Sherlock sees Joan's value and asks her to work with him. Then we had the Irene Adler/Moriarty arc which was a perfect end to the first season. I felt the show's tone and the relationship was true to the one in the books. Sherlock in ACD canon has a lot of respect for Watson from the beginning, and I feel like some of the adaptations over the years have missed out on that. This was the wonderful exception.

[jhlipton]

3 hours ago, Driad said:

What did you think of Elementary when it started? I liked the characters, but calling them Holmes and Watson just seemed like a cheap way of getting viewers for a show that differed from canon in several important ways. 

Any new telling of the ACD stories is going to differ from the canon in one way or another.  I liked that Watson was an Asian woman -- that intrigued me from the get-go.  The main characterizations -- Holmes as a socially inept genius (but not an a**hole like the one in Sherlock, or Dr Gregory House) coping with addiction and Watson as his sober companion seemed right on for me.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Driad said:

What did you think of Elementary when it started?

I tuned in because I enjoy whodunnits and loved Jonny Lee Miller in Eli Stone, but stayed for Jonny Lee Miller's native British accent and Lucy Liu's wardrobe.

I had only read a few ACD stories in high school and often sensed from comments here that I was missing a lot because of my ignorance of things Sherlockian.

[johntfs]

The thing that struck me about Elementary is that I never saw a bad episode.  Some episodes were better than others, but I never once had the reaction, "Dear God, did that ever suck!"  I had that reaction two or three times with Sherlock.

Edited August 21, 2019 by johntfs

[MisterGlass]

5 hours ago, jhlipton said:

The main characterizations -- Holmes as a socially inept genius (but not an a**hole like the one in Sherlock, or Dr Gregory House) coping with addiction and Watson as his sober companion seemed right on for me.

This may be the most distinctive feature of the series, as far as TV Holmes adaptations go.  There is a humanity to the characters that can be missing in other versions.

[frenchtoast]

9 hours ago, Athena said:

I watched this show from the pilot. I tuned in because I like both the leads and like the original canon. I have not stuck with any procedural/cast of the week show and I was unsure if I would keep watching. However, as we know, this is a show more about the two characters and their relationship than a standard procedural. It did not take long for that to happen because early on, Sherlock sees Joan's value and asks her to work with him. Then we had the Irene Adler/Moriarty arc which was a perfect end to the first season. I felt the show's tone and the relationship was true to the one in the books. Sherlock in ACD canon has a lot of respect for Watson from the beginning, and I feel like some of the adaptations over the years have missed out on that. This was the wonderful exception.

I'm a big fan of the original stories, too, and it was such a pleasure to see characters that weren't necessarily exact adaptions, but got the feel of the relationship the two shared. To be fair, it's a bit more superficial in the books, but, there was always the undercurrent of partners on an adventure.

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I tuned in because I enjoy whodunnits and loved Jonny Lee Miller in Eli Stone, but stayed for Jonny Lee Miller's native British accent and Lucy Liu's wardrobe.

I had only read a few ACD stories in high school and often sensed from comments here that I was missing a lot because of my ignorance of things Sherlockian.

Yeah, I knew exactly who Ronald Adair was and was not surprised what happened. (Though, in the books, it was Moran)

5 hours ago, jhlipton said:

Any new telling of the ACD stories is going to differ from the canon in one way or another.  I liked that Watson was an Asian woman -- that intrigued me from the get-go.  The main characterizations -- Holmes as a socially inept genius (but not an a**hole like the one in Sherlock, or Dr Gregory House) coping with addiction and Watson as his sober companion seemed right on for me.

19 minutes ago, MisterGlass said:

This may be the most distinctive feature of the series, as far as TV Holmes adaptations go.  There is a humanity to the characters that can be missing in other versions.

It really is missing in a whole lot of adaptions and it's such a shame because it's what I love about the canon Holmes.

I started watching because it was a Sherlock Holmes adaptation and I'm a sucker for those. I stayed because it clicked with me, I really liked how Watson and Holmes clicked. And then I just loved how they sprinkled in so much fun stuff. Ms Hudson. Clyde. Everyone. Bell and Gregson. Kitty. The Nose (was that the name?) It just worked so well and I'm going to miss it. I have discovered it is eminently rewatchable.

[jhlipton]

9 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I had only read a few ACD stories in high school and often sensed from comments here that I was missing a lot because of my ignorance of things Sherlockian.

I don't think you missed that much.  The references were fun, but didn't affect the plots or the characters much, if at all.  Just for example, Sherlock refereed to himself as Sigerson and as Lestrade.  The first was one of his aliases in one of the stories and the latter was an Inspector who worked with Holmes on 13 cases.  This is fairly typical of the way the references were used.

[Andrew Boate]

I've noticed, on the most part, that when a crystal/glass ball appears in any scene it usually denotes that the murderer/criminal is in that scene. I've heard it's just a common thing that the set dressers do. Anyone else notice?

[sinkwriter]

I've been doing a rewatch of the series in the last month or so, and have made it to the end of season 4.

Someone please remind me, are there good parts to season 5? Because when the season 5 episodes first aired, for some reason I remember thinking it wasn't a good season, that it really dragged (especially the Shinwell plot thread). It's possible I'll see it in a different light on rewatch, but I've been stalling because I remember being annoyed by a lot of that season.

Is it worth it, are there specific episodes I should rewatch, or should I skip to season 6?

[johntfs]

On 6/6/2020 at 4:18 PM, sinkwriter said:

I've been doing a rewatch of the series in the last month or so, and have made it to the end of season 4.

Someone please remind me, are there good parts to season 5? Because when the season 5 episodes first aired, for some reason I remember thinking it wasn't a good season, that it really dragged (especially the Shinwell plot thread). It's possible I'll see it in a different light on rewatch, but I've been stalling because I remember being annoyed by a lot of that season.

Is it worth it, are there specific episodes I should rewatch, or should I skip to season 6?

Unlike any other show I have ever seen, Elementary has no "bad" episode.  Even in depths of the Shinwell depression (and let's keep in mind that it's likely that one of the reasons for actor's low-energy performance was that he was suffering from what killed him after the end of the season), the episodes are still quality.  Some are better than others but all of them are at least decent.

Edited June 14, 2020 by johntfs

[Sarnia]

The Primetimer Awards nominations are going on so maybe check if you feel that there are some categories where Elementary should be nominated and currently isn't : https://forums.primetimer.com/forum/3310-annual-awards-show-the-primetimers/

(Clyde has been nominated in the "Favorite performance by a live animal" category 😉 ).

I think some categories that have already received 25 nominations have been removed (Elementary has been nominated at least for Best drama, Best writing and Best pairing).

[Athena]

I saw this article about Horshoe crabs and their use for developing vaccines and immediately thought of Sherlock and Joan. I miss this show.

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, Athena said:

I saw this article about Horshoe crabs and their use for developing vaccines and immediately thought of Sherlock and Joan. I miss this show.

Me too. I wish they kept going.