SusiGo wrote:

First of all, I didn't watch Elementary yet so this has nothing to do with my opinion about this show. However, I stumbled upon this very positive review on tumblr from which I quote just one passage.

(...) Because Elementary is explicitly about their relationship it also feels like a much deeper show than Sherlock, in which the poorly-reformulated mysteries form the inarguable focus of the show and no tangible emotional or intellectual connection has ever been made between Sherlock and John. The fact is that a modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes needs to have a modern sensibility — to sex, to class, to race, and to storytelling; that’s why I feel comfortable saying at this point that Elementary is the true modern adaptation of Holmes and Watson from the way it is structured (and it is important that a woman of colour is given such a prominent and essential narrative role, particularly in the context of Sherlock‘s Orientalist racism) to the way it is executed. This is a show where Sherlock can be destroyed by a woman, and reconstructed by a woman.�
—   
-Mary O. (Elementary 1.01, “Pilot� )

Just two questions: 1. No connection between Sherlock and John? WTF have many of us been talking about for months? 2. Is this a TV show or a politically correct anti-discrimination programme? End of rant.  YES - this. All of it.

Not sure what "Sherlock" that reviewer thought he watched (and did he really watch it?) Good grief, what a bunch of hoo-ha! No emotional or intellectual connection between John and Sher? I do admit that Ben's Sherlock is not exactly forthcoming about his affections for anyone, but it's that way on purpose, John can see his connection with him, and so do the viewers, very clearly.

Elementary "deep"? What? It was not deep-- it was formulaic to the max. If they hadn't made John into Joan and transplanted the British Sherlock to NYC, it wouldn't even have rated a blip on anyone's radar. I thought the fact of Lucy Liu's being Asian was a complete non-event, had nothing to do with anything at all.... as far as I could see, she was there for her gender, not for her ethnicity.

Davina wrote:

Do the tongs not actually exist? Best make sure that ALL baddies are WASPs from now on then! Oh! I just realised that probably means that Jim Moriarty is all wrong too!

As an Irishman, Moriarty could very well have been a WASC, not a WASP.  ahem

Hello!! WASC, WASP, WIC ???
Help a stupid German, please.... 

Molly Hooper wrote:

Ok... the stupid Englishman's Googled it and I'm guessing....
WASP- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
WASC- White Anglo-Saxon Catholic
WIC- White Irish Catholic

That's right, Molly, at least if we're going by the American interpretation of these terms (what else is left?)
I think people are getting too technical with this, though. WASP is usually just a term (often derogatory) for someone who belongs to no minorities. I think it's more common in the US, being a great melange of cultures, but I'm not positive.

Saw the Pilot last night.
It really has very little to do with "Sherlock" except the names of the main characters. Very different emotional undertones. Not much to do with Canon, either- will have to see if that changes.
I mildly enjoyed it, and will watch the next 2 or 3 episodes to see if it is worth watching- I watch very little TV, so it'll have to grab me. It has fewer emotional ups and downs than 'Sherlock"; it had no times when I squeeled- "Whoever wrote this is a genius"- like I did from Episode I of "Sherlock". It is less spectacular, more in sepia. Which might work very well, too. I like Lucy Liu, always have ( I always considered her a gloriously beautiful woman), and I like her understated delivery here. But again, to me, the show bears no resemblance to the one on BBC. The fact that it seems humorless might be a deal- breaker; straightforward sincerity might get tedious. But I'll give it a go.

Sorry... I just have to...

Mattlocked wrote:

Sorry... I just have to...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  OMG, that's is PERFECT. I love it.

Hilarious! Poor John/Joan!

monitaa wrote:

I too watched Elementary's first episode last night...Just out of curiosity...To be very honest, I found it quite boring. What i didn't like about the episode was that everything about this show was just 'average'.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, monitaa. I agree with a lot of what you said.

I see you live in India, so I don't know how familiar you are with US TV, our policies about prime time fare, etc. For them to lead off with that stoooopid hooker thing in the beginning (who gets dressed in the window, I ask you? in broad daylight yet? even hookers in the US don't do that!), and him having that S&M set-up with the handcuffs in his living room, all of that was just a blatant ploy for ratings. As if..... as if anyone in heck who cares about canonical Sherlock would be grabbed by that crap.... *shakes head* Stooooooopid, I tell you!

I'm convinced that they told Sherlock's actor to do something about his British accent--  first of all, he barely had one. Sometimes I had to strain to even hear it! Almost no Britishisms at all-- he called someone a prat once, and one other time there was some kind of word Americans don't used (might have been chuffed, I can't remember), but that was it. OTOH, *our* Sherlock often sends me to my dictionary, once I've used the subtitles to even hear/tell what they're talking about-- *our*Sherlock and John are British through and through, as far as I can tell-- accents, vocabulary, type of humor, all laced with reserve.

I hope they do something about this Sherlock looking so darned ugly. Too skinny, unshaven, tattoos all hanging out, dark sunken half-in-the-bag eyes stuck in his head. He just was not attractive. He doesn't look as though he brushes his teeth. Yucko.

And lastly, they MUST stop having him do irrational stuff, like taking Joan's car and deliberately ramming the bad guy's car. Stooooopid as well. What was even more stoooooopid was her complete and total lack of emotion about it. He took her keys, ran over to her car while she just stood there like a dummy, and then she watched him total her car with no reaction to that, either. ????  What?

Weird show. I will watch again this week. Glutton for punishment here, apparently.

HAHA I love that pic Mattlocked, although this one is my fav:



I read the reviews too (LOVED the denofgeek one) and one thing has jumped to my immediate attention. This show is forgettable. I watched it ages ago (whenever I posted about it on about page 2 of this thread). Reading the reviews I had no idea what they were talking about because very little of the episode was memorable. Unlike Sherlock, where we watch each episode (including TBB) 14 million times and still find new stuff each time.

Ah well, I think the one major thing Sherlock has against it in an American setting is that they only make 3 episodes. And then only every 18 months to two years. Americans are, it seems, not very patient - particularly with their tv shows. If they were more patient, things like Firefly, Dollhouse, Dark Angel and Stargate Universe might not have been canned before they had a chance to get really going.