Elementary 'Pilot' Review

                                               
Got round to watching this now and I have to ask why I bothered.  It wasn't as if it was anything new, it's been done before, even if it's not exactly in a Sherlock Holmes storyline.  I admit I even tried to watch this with 'blinkers' on in relation to the BBC Sherlock which I enjoy.  Okay it's brilliant but that's cos Benedict Cumberbatch makes it so, as does Martin Freeman as put upon Watson.  It works.  Simple as that.

This version tried to be clever, Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) in need of a minder/babysitter/companion, cos he's a recovering drug addict who really abhors sex but must partake, handcuffs 'n'all.  He's got tattoos, so? Doesn't mean he's slap bang in the middle of  modern living.  His father pays for him to be 'kept' in the manner to which he is accustomed and quite frankly with a son like this Sherlock, don't know why he bothers.  How many people can afford to have a live-in "sober companion?"

The story predictable, it was obvious a mile off who the real killer was, is there ever a spouse who hasn't killed their respective partners.  Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) from NCIS, would have been quite at home here with his theory the wife/husband did it.  It wasn't exciting she was found in a 'safe' room and a marble rolled across the floor showed the room was at an angle.

It was formulaic detective stuff.  Watson, Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) is a failed doctor, having lost a patient on the operating table.  Sherlock knew that but was trying to spare her feelings by saying she had lost someone close instead.  How did he know, not mere powers of deduction but Google.  Same thing with telling her that her father had an affair.  There was an earlier scene about deducing things about her from her phone and her parent's photo on the phone which reminded me of A Study In Pink (BBC Sherlock) when Sherlock first met Watson and was trying to figure him out.  All the things he said about his sister, partner and the damaged phone, are exactly what I thought of here.  I tried not to.

The fact that oxycodone tablets are meant to be white not pink, he couldn't fathom this for himself and had to disturb Watson at her night at the opera and he was obnoxious too.  I would have given him an earful for disturbing my night. Then calling the detective Olshansky (Manny Perez) to confirm the pills in evidence weren't white but pink and round.  Pray why was he not privy to this evidence beforehand.

Getting one of the survivors of the serial killer to lose her temper with him so she'd open up to Watson was just another old ploy.  As was the 'deduction' the killer kept rice in his cupboard cos he was using them to dry his phone, again obvious.  This Sherlock's power of deduction wasn't that crash hot!  Certainly not in the league of a consulting detective.  He keeps bees.  He's writing a book on bees in his mind and has written 18 chapters.  Thank God we didn't get to hear them.  An allusion to Sherlock and the inner workings of his mind. Better portrayed in BBC Sherlock when he had all that stuff going through his head and his thoughts were spilling out onto the screen in those clever graphics.

Watson: "It's so incredible the way you can solve people just by looking at them.  I noticed you don't have any mirrors around here."
Sherlock: "What's that supposed to mean?"
Watson: "It means you know a lost cause when you see one."  I concur!

Shacking down with Sherlock cos she's his sober companion was kind of forced.  Their relationship/friendship didn't just happen naturally and develop.  They didn't just meet but she was made to come to his house to look after him.  As if Sherlock needs to be looked after and pandered to.  It's so wrong and miles away from the original Conan Doyle writings.

I didn't enjoy myself at all watching this piece of hokum finding I had too much contempt for this character and portrayal of a superb character when played by others.  We're entitled to our opinions and this was mine.  It just didn't appeal and neither did the chemistry between the two.  Sherlock had too much pent up rage which he demonstrated by ramming Watson's car into Dr Mantlo's (Dallas Roberts) car and he got away with it.  If I was Watson I'd have packed my bags and never looked back!
It's as outrageous as Jennifer Garner as Miss Marple!  Now where can I vent my anger and pent up rage?