I Watch TV: Elementary
The final episode of Elementary threw Holmes references at us as though they were going out of fashion. The time skip was of course a reference, but was mostly there to give the characters one more turn of the screw that would usually have taken three months of episodes, so the pacing turned the drama towards melodrama. The mystery itself was perfunctory and uninteresting. The fake-out in the penultimate scene was insultingly telegraphed.
Unfortunately I cannot report on the last scene as there was something in my eye.
Watch This: The procedural seems to be going out of fashion though it’s perhaps a little early to take it down to the morgue. Nevertheless this is the most recent great American procedural, every week having something of interest. Almost none of the crimes are dull, having a good twist or bizarre backdrop. On top of that the ongoing struggles of the characters are compelling. Holmes' sobriety waxes and wanes in the plot but never goes away. In an early episode he declares that he doesn’t need support, he’s sober now and he will deal with it through sheer willpower, and we believe him because he’s Sherlock Holmes. In a later episode Joan Watson talks to another recovering addict who tells her that every addict goes through that stage. Holmes and Watson are fallible, flawed human beings; even when Holmes makes the effort to be less of a dick, he does so in his own dickish manner. For lovers of crime TV I cannot recommend this too highly.
Don’t Watch This: There’s 154 episodes, who has that kind of time?
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