CBS Sherlock Holmes programme

We have heard increasing amounts about an American Sherlock Holmes style drama entitled Elementary that has been commissioned by CBS. The news has certainly polarised opinion, whilst some people seem interested in the idea a larger number seem repulsed. The amusing thing is that a large number of the repulsed appear to be American themselves.

To add insult to injury this detective will be a resident of New York (apparently almost the only part of America where anything happens if you believe their programming).

Why oh why do American TV stations and film studios appear to be obsessed with taking British stories (and those from elsewhere too) and moving them to the U.S.? Do they really believe, even when their own audience says otherwise, that Americans can only cope with stories and dramas that are set in the U.S.? If I was an American I think I'd feel insulted.

You can more easily see how daft this all is if you imagine it reversed. How daft would it be if the BBC produced a version of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and had the characters travelling the Thames rather than the Mississippi. Perhaps Spider-man and Batman need to be fighting crime on the streets of Birmingham or Glasgow.

Sherlock Holmes is as British as the red bus and the cup of afternoon tea. Please leave him where he belongs - in London and in the hands of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

Comments

  1. Count me among the mortified. CBS will make a mess of it. In fact, they already have with their title and choice of location. And just wait until we learn that Ashton Kutcher will play "Sher".

    I'll just sit back and wait for Season 3 of SHERLOCK, thank you very much.

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  2. Add me to the number of insulted Americans. CBS should just stick with their cookie-cutting (mediocre)CSIs and not try to add CSI: Baker Street (thank you, Lestrade and Steve Thompson for such a witty reference) to that list. American television already made a shambles of one of Moffat's best creations (anyone, remember the American Coupling...no, because it was an Epic Fail). MAYBE some work out, but I rather enjoyed Tim(Martin Freeman's other role) much more than Jim and prefer Mitchell, George and Annie over Aiden, Josh and Sally (Being Human UK and US, respectively).

    I'll just enjoy season 1 and 2 (and support PBS/Masterpiece) by sticking with the original, best and only 21st century SHERLOCK.

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  3. Yeeurgh. Me too. New York City is not where Sherlock belongs. There's just no way it would make sense. And CBS probably will make a mess of it. I'm a born and raised New Yorker and I don't want to see this -- my pride in New York makes me want to keep it as far away from us as possible for Sherlock's sake and our own.

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