Elementary Trailer - Verdict
Thanks to Youtube, the trailer/documentary for Elementary is doing the rounds.
The thing that screams out for me is that while BBC's Sherlock is clearly written by two people who know the Canon - Elementary is written by people who at best have (or appear to have) only a passing familiarity with it or, and this is arguably worse, have good knowledge of it but have chosen to ignore everything that doesn't suit them. Is this driven by a desire to avoid comparisons with Sherlock (if so mission failed) or a desire to avoid any legal moves from the Sherlock team (after all Steven Moffat did say he'd be watching)?
Whichever it is, the show (based admittedly only on a trailer but a trailer is supposed to make you want more) comes across as a bizarre cross between House and Crocodile Dundee (the latter thanks to the fish out of water element of the - pardon me Sting - 'Englishman in New York' encountering cultural as well as social hurdles.
It looks like it will be entertaining in the same way as RDJ's cinematic Holmes is. People will watch it and enjoy it but they will, at the same time, acknowledge that its link to the source material is, at best, tenuous. Holmes has suffered worse at the hands of screen adapters and will endure this but I think, after Sherlock, we've come to expect more.
Oh, by the way, a tattooed Holmes? Come on, seriously! He wrote a monograph on tattoos. It didn't mean he'd have one.
The thing that screams out for me is that while BBC's Sherlock is clearly written by two people who know the Canon - Elementary is written by people who at best have (or appear to have) only a passing familiarity with it or, and this is arguably worse, have good knowledge of it but have chosen to ignore everything that doesn't suit them. Is this driven by a desire to avoid comparisons with Sherlock (if so mission failed) or a desire to avoid any legal moves from the Sherlock team (after all Steven Moffat did say he'd be watching)?
Whichever it is, the show (based admittedly only on a trailer but a trailer is supposed to make you want more) comes across as a bizarre cross between House and Crocodile Dundee (the latter thanks to the fish out of water element of the - pardon me Sting - 'Englishman in New York' encountering cultural as well as social hurdles.
It looks like it will be entertaining in the same way as RDJ's cinematic Holmes is. People will watch it and enjoy it but they will, at the same time, acknowledge that its link to the source material is, at best, tenuous. Holmes has suffered worse at the hands of screen adapters and will endure this but I think, after Sherlock, we've come to expect more.
Oh, by the way, a tattooed Holmes? Come on, seriously! He wrote a monograph on tattoos. It didn't mean he'd have one.
Definitely more Downey Jr than Cumberbatch by the look of things(complete with the designer stubble). And what exactly does 'sober companion' mean anyway?
ReplyDelete@vam_221
I could not agree more. When I first heard wind of this a few months back I was overcome with trepidation. After seeing the video and I really, really didn't need to, everything I suspect had been confirmed. A staggering, daddy issue having, tattoo wielding, train spotting Sherlock with a confused look on his face. Is it just me or did he look absolutely lost for the greater part of the video? -Joe Riggs
ReplyDeleteThank you!!!! You're the first person I've seen to mention the tattoos. I saw that, and -- I don't even know how to articulate it on type. Just... ugh. So wrong...
ReplyDeleteI wanted to ask you, in my Ripper novel, I have a man jump onto a hansom and hang on the outside for a ride. The cabbie insults him, and I figured he'd say something like, "Ge' off me cab, you lazy git!" But I wanted to confirm accuracy, so could you let me know if this line's okay, or if you have a better suggestion? Thanks in advance. :)
I'll get MX to pop you my email so we can take this off-blog :-)
ReplyDelete