Elementary (Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu)

The last season I watched was Season 4. I've yet to see Season 5.

**spoilers for the last three episodes of Season 1**

I definitely agree they need to bring Natalie Dormer back on the show (she should be free now to make guest appearances now, shouldn’t she?).

The reveal of who she truly was in the second last episode of Season 1 was great, as was the season final and dealing with the fallout of the reveal, but the episode of the season which really got to me was the third last one, where Sherlock found ‘Irene’. The way Jonny Lee Miller played it, as he slowly came to the realization she was alive, was well-performed, but especially the moment when he uttered her name and almost collapsed (I loved Joan’s reaction at seeing him get so emotional, plus her supporting him).




I also enjoyed Ophelia Lovibond as Kitty in Season 3. I know some people didn’t like her and wanted her gone, but by the time her story arc was over, I wanted her to stick around. I thought she had a great/different dynamic with Sherlock than Joan did, and I loved her antagonistic relationship with Clyde the tortoise.

Well, we just finished Season 5 of Elementary on TV here not that long ago, and I have to say…the season as a whole wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

**spoilers below for the season (including the season final) if you haven’t seen it**

I mean, there were good bits here and there (the best thing this season was the return of Ophelia Lovibond as Kitty, who I’d wanted to see again ever since she left halfway through Season 3. I know some people didn’t like her, but I did and really enjoyed her dynamics with Sherlock/Joan), but on the whole...this season felt rather average.

While it was nice to see Nelsan Ellis (who I’ll always remember as Lafayette from True Blood), his character and the season-long storyline he was a part of just seemed too dragged out for me and it didn't really seem worth it considering where things ended up by season’s end (though it was sad to hear about the actor passing away).

I think it became obvious partway through the last episode that the woman Sherlock kept meeting, who claimed to “love” him and whatnot (seemingly appearing out of nowhere), was a hallucination.

The most important part of the season final, though, was Sherlock and Joan’s fight. I usually really like Joan, but here she was verging into unlikeable territory. I get that she was upset about Sherlock not making it to the service for Shinwell (I even felt bad for him that it appeared no one else was turning up), but her automatically assuming Sherlock was using again, combined with the fact that she essentially told him to get over Shinwell beating the crap out of him, really rubbed me the wrong way. I can at least maybe understand her leaping to the conclusion of Sherlock relapsing (since he’d done so before), but I’d felt that Joan had given Shinwell too much of a free pass on his hurting Sherlock (who had only ever tried to help him). Friends don’t let friends beat the living snot out of other friends, Joan.

Anyway, the ending with Sherlock getting a brain scan leaves me wondering what next season will be like. Here’s hoping Holmes and Watson can repair their friendship/partnership and that the writers learn from their mistakes in Season 5. I still enjoy the characters of Sherlock, Watson, Bell and Gregson and they're what keeps me watching.

I gave up the show at the end of last season. It's no different than every other quirky detective procedural on TV now. And it's not even as good as some others. There's no deductive reasoning anymore. The audience can't figure out who done it because they don't find the important clues until the last 15 minutes of the show. Not that any of that matters because the killer is always the recognizable actor that they meet very early in the episode but appears to have nothing to do with the crime.

There's only 3 reasons to watch this show anymore; Lucy Liu and her legs.

I love that John Noble continues to play Sherlock's dad, Fringe was the love of my TV life, and Walter Bishop was the greatest character ever on TV.

If I may ask, never having seen the show—when you write “anymore,” do you mean there was detective reasoning earlier on, then? I never saw it because—well, it upset the Holmesian purist in me, but I could probably try and get past that if it’s good enough. But if it isn’t any different from any other “quirky detective procedural,” then I probably shouldn’t even bother.

This is a problem I noticed with the British Sherlock, which I have seen, as well. It had some very good and intelligent, if goofy, episodes and plots early on, then became ponderous and self-indulgent. Luckily the acting was always good.

Just watched the Season 6 final of Elementary which I recorded last night.

**spoilers below**

After last week’s episode which ended with Joan Watson getting the blame for murdering serial killer Michael (Desmond Harrington), we found out in this episode that it was actually Captain Gregson’s daughter, Hannah, who was responsible – having taken revenge against Michael for killing her best friend/roommate in an earlier episode. Though I think it’s safe to say that it wasn’t just her need for revenge that motivated her, it was also the fact that (like her father told Sherlock) she *knew* Michael wasn’t going to stop, and no one seemed capable of putting him away…so she took care of him. I think people condemning her are being unfair. She made it clear she didn’t know Joan was going to get the blame, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that although Gregson (understandably) covered for his daughter...Sherlock came right out and said he was prepared to do the same thing for Joan. So people saying that “Hannah wasn’t worth it” seem to only see things from one side. They’re all for Sherlock being protective of Joan/doing anything for her...but not Gregson doing the same for his daughter?

There was some really good scene between the characters this episode. Firstly, the ‘fight’ between Sherlock and Joan when he got angry at her for being willing to risk getting sent to prison. It’s not very often we see these two get legitimately mad at each other, so when it happens it’s all the more effective/sad. While I appreciate Sherlock’s devotion to Joan, but he tends to have ‘tunnel vision’, I think, when it comes to her – no one else matters.

I thought Aidan Quinn did a really good job in the scene where Sherlock showed up and confronted him about his part in the whole cover-up of who really killed Michael. Both actors did, actually, and both characters were getting justifiably mad at each other (I also really liked one shot of Sherlock where he was shrouded in shadow and he said “She’s my best friend” in response to Gregson’s “She’s my daughter.” when they were both explaining the reasons for their actions). And let’s not forget all the times Gregson has ‘looked the other way’ in regards to things Sherlock and Joan have done. He helped cover for Kitty too. So people/Sherlock judging him for covering for his own daughter need to remember that. It’s good that they finally gave Gregson a ‘meaty’ scene. While Bell didn’t get much to do in the episode, what he did get proved just how devoted he is to Joan too. He stood up for her completely – as if he’d ever do anything else (and I was so happy to see him stare down Mallick – a truly unlikeable character who was hell-bent on putting Joan away no matter what).

I was curious what was going to happen in/after the scene with Sherlock and Hannah. Obviously he wanted her to confess, but Gregson had made clear just how bad it’d be for her (being a cop) getting sent to prison. I actually didn’t mind that Sherlock was able to find a way to keep Joan, Gregson and Hannah all from going to prison. Of course he did that by confessing himself and making it so he would be stuck in England, never able to return to the US.

Though, just when I thought hearing that^ was the end of the episode...we (thankfully) got a goodbye scene between him and Joan. This was such a well-acted scene between Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. Six seasons’ worthy of building up their characters’ partnership/friendship/bond all led up to this...and it was as emotional as could be expected. I liked that Sherlock defined what they had as not merely a ‘partnership', but as them being “two people who love each other”. Of course, any shippers out there would probably take this to mean that they’re *in* love...when in fact I think it’s not that at all. They’re just two people who care so deeply about each other without it being romantic – and that’s why this show defies what’s expected of these police procedural type shows with a male and female lead. Typically the two eventually hook up, but this show has firmly kept from resorting to that with these characters – for which I feel it deserves to be commended.

And just when I thought the goodbye scene would be the end...we got a final scene with Sherlock in England. For a minute I thought he was imagining things again (like he did at the end of last season when he hallucinated his dead mother) when he could hear next door but the person he was in the room with could not. However, he then marched next door, banged on the door and it was revealed that Joan was now living next to him in England. That was certainly one way of solving their problem.

I’d read somewhere that it wasn’t certain that the show would get another season, so I don’t know if they wrote this season final imagining it may have ended up as the series final or not, but if it had...I would’ve been pretty happy with it. I thought this was as good an ending as we could’ve hoped for involving these two characters, as they walked off to solve a case together.

While this show might appear to be the ‘typical police procedural’, I think what elevates it above a lot of ones are the lead actors and their performances/characters. They’re what keeps me watching, even when the weekly cases might be boring or just downright confusing. The show’s strength is the acting/chemistry of Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu.

Here’s hoping the seventh - and what will apparently be the actual final - season doesn’t undo the perfection of this ending. I personally have no interest in a child being written into the show (that whole storyline with Joan was just annoying) and I really hope they manage to bring back Moriarty one final time. That’s the only thing that would’ve made this an even more perfect ending - if Moriarty had returned. However, I was quite content with the almost fourth-wall-breaking comments from Sherlock about not being sure about him and Watson being in England and Joan replying that it felt exactly like where they’re supposed to be. Good job, show.

Cancelled. Upcoming 13 episode 7th season will be the last.