Elementary, My Dear Watson

The CBS show "Elementary" became one of my favorites. I liked how it brought forward Sherlock Holmes to the 21st century. I enjoyed many of the updates they made to the storyline, characters, and mythos of the character. Don't get me wrong, I also enjoyed "Sherlock" on the BBC, and it did pretty much the same work of bringing the characters forward to modern times, but it didn't stretch as far as Elementary did in recasting characters.

The biggest editorial decision Elementary made was to cast Watson as a woman. This led to the second biggest decision they made: to have Watson and Holmes just be friends and colleagues, like in the books, even though the characters were now male and female. Nearly every show on TV with male and female co-leads has a 'will they, won't they' vibe that, in most cases, ruins the show. People start "'shipping" the characters, talking about when they will get together, debating about how it will affect the show (spoiler: almost always negatively), and wondering if they will get married.

What I have constantly wondered is whether a TV show can simply present a heterosexual male and female being close confidants, working together, and having mutual respect for one another. This show finally did it. Through the current episode of season 6, Holmes and Watson simply respect one another's skill sets and intelligence and use their close working relationship to help them confidently delegate tasks. Sometimes Holmes takes more of the lead on a case and sometimes it is Watson. Sometimes one does the grunt work, sometimes both, sometimes the other.

Each has been shown to have a healthy sex life, but not with each other. Sometimes Holmes, due to his quirky behaviors, oversteps a bit into Watson's personal life, but she recognizes it for what it is (he has many personality quirks, bordering on autism) and knows it comes with the territory of being Holmes' friend.

Both characters have shown a 'got your back' attitude toward the other, as well. Each has stood up to both authority and criminals for their partner without hesitation. Both know the other person well enough to know when to lie, to tell the truth, or otherwise to defend the other when accused of something. Each has successfully defended the other against accusations, frame-ups, and possible physical assaults. They have each helped the other to move on from hard and painful life lessons.

I hope that, in the final few episodes remaining before the series is canceled at the end of this season, the writers do not force Holmes and Watson together romantically. I hope that the show remains one of the few to have aired where colleagues can just work well together, regardless of gender. I really liked this show and will miss it.

Addendum

The show was originally going out on a 13 episode order in season 6. However, the network upped that to 21. I hope that the writers don't fill those remaining 8 episodes with some sort of surprise relationship between Watson and Holmes for the series finale. I will admit I've been getting a bit of a vibe from the show that they might. Even if they do, the writers have earned my trust that they could possibly do it in a way that makes sense for, and respects, the characters as they have been presented for the previous five seasons. Here's hoping!

SPOILERS BELOW

One other choice the writers made that I thought was brilliant was introducing Irene Adler ("the Woman"; the one person to have bested Holmes) as also being Moriarty. Arthur Conan Doyle, writing in the era he was, would never have made the male protagonist's main antagonist be a woman, so it was nice of the modern writers to see the similarities between the one person (who wasn't named Moriarty) who beat Holmes and the evil antagonist that Professor Moriarty became and make them one and the same person. Plus, the woman who played Irene Adler in the TV show (Natalie Dormer) was a really good choice.