Elementary: Season 1 (2012/13) - Review

With all this fuss about Sherlock, its easy to forget that there is in fact another modern day adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes stories, Elementary. Is this deserving of its less popular status, or is it a gem underrated because of its BBC counterpart?

Elementary follows Sherlock Holmes, played by the brilliant Jonny Lee Miller, living in New York after having broken out of his rehab facility the day he was set to be released. Joan Watson (Lucy Lui) becomes his sober companion after learning of Sherlock's history with drugs and the two become partners in crime, solving various cases for the NYPD with Captain Gregson and (from episode 2 onward) Detective Bell. Sherlock's past with the mysterious Irene Adler and M linger on through Holmes and Watson's cases though...

Jonny Lee Miller is excellent as Holmes, balancing the quirkiness, intelligence, arrogance and obssession with his work brilliantly. The writers clearly have a lot of fun writing for him, and Miller clearly enjoys playing the character. He brings a lot of his own elements into the character while also remaining true to Doyle's character adapted to modern day.

Joan Watson, however, proves to the series' weak link. Her character bears little-to-no resemblance to the Watson that Doyle wrote in the stories, and ends up seeming like a completely different character, so quite why she should be called Watson confuses me. She isn't Watson, so why call her that? I'm sure its because she fills Watson's role in the series (with some major alterations), but she just isn't Watson, let alone a female Watson. Lucy Lui is good in the role, but gets very little range and despite Watson's arc, the character never quite stands out.

Its great to see Captain Gregson being a main character in the series, allowing for Lestrade to still be at Scotland Yard, and giving Gregson more than he had in Doyle's stories. He doesn't get an arc, but works well as a supporting character to help Holmes. Detective Bell gets a bit more of a character, with a whole episode all about him and his brother, and although he never quite stands out, he does well for a generic Police Officer.

The episodes are mostly standalone, building up character arcs and building up to Moriarty's reveal throughout the 24 episodes to tie it all together, and are well-structured in building up the series' story. The cases are mostly self-contained with some memorable and some more generic ones, but they never feel too boring, and some even build up to the Moriarty arc. At the end of Episode 24 we get a nice conclusion leaving the story open for a second season but a nice ending had the show not been recommissioned.

Elementary deals with some good cases and characters, amounting to some great entertainment, and despite the show being a rather generic US crime drama, Elementary rises above such a status to be something I'd definitely recommend watching if you like a good murder mystery series. There is some great writing, great acting all round and the music by Sean Callery is excellent. Elementary is a great series and worth checking out.

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The one thing I have left to talk about though is Irene Adler herself, so BEWARE SPOILERS in the next paragraphs. The Irene Adler arc, if a little predictable at points, is well done and the twist revealing she was in fact Moriarty all the time is just brilliantly done. Natalie Dormer excels in the role as Holmes' nemesis, and is quite possibly my favorite interpretation of the character I have ever seen. I can't way to see where they go with Dormer's character in future seasons, and she is a brilliant actress in the role.