I talk more about BBC's Sherlock when talking about Elementary than I ever did watching the damn thi

Elementary episode five:

Yay, Joan gets to explain a deduction! She is a baby investigator and she is Learning Things. (Sherlock is also Learning Things, but these are mostly along the lines of learning to respect people's boundaries.)

"--failed Sapphic dalliance—fingers crossed for the last one--" me too, Holmes, me too. Maybe they can pick it up again later.

I love how he just yells "WATSOOOON! 'S FOR YOU!" It's just cute for some reason. And I think he's called her Joan before—she, at least, has called him both 'Sherlock' and 'Holmes'—so I like the possibility here that they are comfortable using both first and last names for each other. Because while I enjoy the closeness of 'Joan' and 'Sherlock', I also have a fondness for the old-school feel of 'Holmes' and 'Watson'.

I also like that Holmes isn't manipulating her back into medicine; he thinks she was a great doctor, and might be a great doctor again, but he's not trying to shove her back into her old career. Because that is her decision and he recognizes that. Boundaries!


Can we talk about how much this version of Holmes likes working with the police? It's been so long since I read the original stories I don't remember if that Holmes enjoyed working with them very much (though obviously he dealt with a lot of cases outside of their purview), but BBC's Sherlock quite obviously hates the police as an institution and wants to do everything by himself. Private sector, woooo. But Elementary's Holmes really likes the police, and not just Lestrade Gregson. He likes working with a group of people who have authority over him, who can tell him to back off when they think he needs to or give him access not whenever he wants but when he really does need it.

I know I keep comparing him to BBC's Sherlock, but honestly it's hard not to, especially when the reasons Elementary's Sherlock are different from BBC's are the exact reasons I like him. (For example. BBC Sherlock: Total dick. Brilliant, with flashes of actual human feeling towards John, but a terrible person and the absolute epitome of Privileged White Dude. Helps people more by accident than anything. Elementary Sherlock: A jerk sometimes, because he's deliberately pushing people away b/c he thinks he doesn't deserve having them around. Smart, observant, but not infallible and no-one thinks he is. Likes working with other people and helping them. Poor impulse control, but getting better. Frequently apologizes after he's been a jerk. Likes working for the public sector. Clever, but I just don't get that feeling of Amazing White Genius that lots of similar characters give me.

I think the main difference here is that Elementary's Sherlock is not a racist sexist classist douchebag, and that is the reason I like him.)

Like, just read this essay-thing and just try to tell me that all the problems raised in it are not the ones Elementary is completely lacking.