Continuing my deep-ish dive into some shows and movies that mean a lot to me…
In the 2010s, Sherlock Holmes was suddenly everywhere. It was one of those brief moments when there’s a spate of similar, overlapping projects enter the world. Armageddon & Deep Impact. Two different movies about Oregon long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine opened a year apart. It happens. In 2009-2012, it was Sherlock Holmes’ time.
Well, technically, we could start that clock in 2004 with House. That was a secret, subtle adaptation of Holmes. Holmes and Watson, House and Wilson. An irascible, drug-addicted detective, his gentler, more open-hearted partner, cases that seem impossible. Same template, different mysteries.
But starting with Guy Ritchie’s film, three different Sherlock Holmes projects premiered in short order. Of the three of them, the BBC series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular detective and Martin Freeman as his partner John Watson was by far the most well-known. It was slick, cinematic, sharp and fun. Living in both the shadow of Robert Downey, Jr. and Cumberbatch was the Jonny Lee Miller/Lucy Liu CBS procedural Elementary. It probably won’t surprise you at all that’s the one I’m gonna talk about.
I’m not a Holmesian. I have a very post-modern disdain for the flowery prose of Victorian literature. I acknowledge the character and the works’ importance, but it’s never been my jam. Nonetheless, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may not have invented the detective story, but he arguably invented the modern detective. Sherlock Holmes is always the model. Haughty, difficult, brimming with knowledge, able to make huge leaps of deduction with a glance. He’s the first of the “he’s an asshole, but he gets the job done” detectives.
So with the three versions available, we can compare the portrayals. There tend to be a couple of lanes to slot him into, ways to explain his deductive abilities, his seemingly endless font of knowledge, his eccentric and odd ways. A very reductive way to describe them are ASSHOLE and AUTISTIC.
Robert Downey, Jr. opted more for the first one. His Holmes is mercurial, impulsive, a little cruel and mean. His cruelty tends to slip out almost without his knowledge. He solves mysteries because he hates the idea that someone could be smarter than him. He eschews politeness because he doesn’t see the point. The film is the only one of the three set in Victorian England and attempting to match the spirit of the original works. Granted, it’s Guy Ritchie, so it’s fast-paced, quick cuts, heavy on vibes, light on actual detecting.
Benedict Cumberbatch is very, very much the other. His Sherlock is almost incapable of any human interaction. He barely registers the existence of other people. The show practically has the tagline that “people are the only mystery he can’t solve.” His performance is otherworldly. His cruelty is almost by accident, simply because he does not actually care about people. He solves crimes because he loves puzzles. Everything about him is coded as neurodivergent. The show is also slick and cinematic. Many of the episodes are riffs on the original stories. It’s set in England and filled with the traditional Sherlock Holmes side characters.
And then there’s Elementary. Jonny Lee Miller chooses…neither. Or both, depending on how you look at it. His Sherlock Holmes is, undeniably, an asshole. He finds people and social graces boring and frustrating. He sees himself as exceptional among people and therefore not beholden to the rules of other people. He’s impatient, easily annoyed and always happy to upset people he believes deserves to be upset.
But…he’s also a creature of habit and familiar surroundings. Sensitive to sounds, smells and colors. While he can tell what other people are thinking and feeling, he often doesn’t register it. He’s a man of single focus. Honestly, in Miller’s portrayal, he’s more ADHD than autistic. His mind moves at light speed, touches on a million subjects at once, cycles between multi-tasking and hyperfocus.
His Holmes, however, unlike either Downey and Cumberbatch, is driven almost entirely by an overdeveloped sense of justice. (Justice sensitivity is also a neurodivergent trait.) He believes strongly that criminals should be punished and that he is often the only person capable of delivering that punishment. He does like a challenge, but he’s not only motivated by that.
But the biggest difference between all of these portrayals is not in Holmes, it’s in Watson. In the film and the BBC series, Watson is a supporting character. He’s there for Holmes to bounce ideas off of, to navigate social interaction, to explain his deductions. But Elementary, Watson is actually the beating heart and main character. On its face and in a very real way, it’s Joan Watson’s show.
For those who haven’t watched the very excellent seven seasons of Elementary, this version is set in modern New York City. This version of Sherlock is a consulting detective to the NYPD. At the beginning of the show, he’s just gotten out of rehab for heroin addiction and his father has hired former doctor Joan Watson as his sober companion. It’s her job to help him ease the transition from rehab to normal life, to help with starting a recovery program, to help him set up a new, drug-free life.
Very, very quickly, though, she is solving crimes with him and proves herself an adept detective in her own right. By the end of the first season, she’s abandoned her career as a sober companion and become his partner. Elementary’s Joan Watson is an empathetic, smart, caring person. She left medicine when a patient died under her care. She takes everything personally, feels it deeply. A good counterbalance to Sherlock. It wouldn’t be the same show with her.
In my mind, though, the thing that makes this show so special is not just Watson or just Holmes, but the combination of the two. While it’s a male and female partnership, there’s no sexual tension, no will-they won’t-they. They never will, they never do, they never even entertain it. This show has other things on its mind.
And that other thing is friendship. It is, quite simply, the best depiction of a friendship I’ve ever seen. Holmes and Watson start out antagonistic, as usual. Holmes resents having a minder and works hard over the first season to ditch her. Watson finds Holmes infuriating, with his nocturnal experiments and haughty manner. But very quickly, they’re working together, growing together, learning together.
Miller’s Sherlock actually grows over the course of the show. He doesn’t change, really, but he grows to care, grows to understand people better. It’s not just Watson who gets him there, either. Their NYPD counterparts, Aidan Quinn’s Captain Gregson and Jon Michael Hill’s Detective Bell, also work their slow magic on Holmes. By the end of the series, he’s learned to put other people before himself. It’s a tremendous change.
Watson also grows. Again, she doesn’t really change. But she grows more confident, more direct, and somewhat less soft. The show does such a good job of showing how people grow naturally. They’re all recognizable from start to finish, but they’ve also learned so much about each other and themselves. It’s an amazing feat.
Showing growth is one of the hardest things in television. The nature of TV inhibits character growth. People tune in every week expecting the same thing, the same characters. You can’t switch up too much on them or you lose them. So any growth has to be incremental. And it can’t be totally fundamental. It’s a tight line to walk.
Elementary walks that line perfectly. In fact, they even, helpfully, include a perfect description of friendship. In the third season, Watson experiences a major loss, something she feels responsible for. Her response is to harden herself, become less empathetic, much colder. When Holmes talks to her about it, he says, “Friendship, I've come to believe, is most accurately defined as two people moving towards the best aspects of one another. It is a relationship of mutual benefit, mutual gain.”
I can’t honestly think of a better definition of friendship. That is what the show is about. That friendship, that process of two people moving towards the better aspects of each other. That’s what you watch. It’s not a straight line or a clean journey. They break up, they resent each other, they hurt each other, but they also stick together. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, especially between a man and a woman.
The show has a few other things on its mind: its depiction of addiction and recovery is also nuanced and lovely. Holmes never stops being an addict. He even relapses during the show. Discussions of addiction and recovery thread through nearly every episode. It’s also an encouraging journey to be a part of.
You may have noticed I didn’t talk about the crimes. As always, they’re a bit incidental. But they are also always tricky and fun. It’s still a broadcast procedural, but they do often tend to go after the wealthy, powerful and influential. There are few sins worse than greed in the world of Elementary. It takes very seriously the Bible quote that the root of all evil is the love of money.
I’m midway through a third rewatch of a show that I watched nearly every episode of when it aired and I never get bored. Because I get to spend a few hours watching people become friends. The world needs more friends, doesn’t it?