…at least according to TVLine.Com. And you know they have no reason to go along with the CBS party line. Well, no more reason than any site that wants access to things in, hip, and trendy on our dearly beloved toob.
Fall TV First Impression: CBS’ Elementary Finds a Holmes in New York City
by Matt Webb Mitovich
THE SHOW | CBS’ Elementary (Thursdays, 10/9c)
THE COMPETITION | Scandal (ABC), It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia/The League (FX), Rock Center With Brian Williams (NBC)
THE CAST | Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone), Lucy Liu (Southland) and Aidan Quinn (Prime Suspect)
THE SET-UP | Miller, here getting to keep his British accent, is Sherlock Holmes, a onetime homicide detective for Scotland Yard and recovering addict now serving as a consultant for the NYPD. Liu plays Joan Watson, a surgeon-turned-sober companion hired by Holmes’ father to keep him away from his smack of choice, while Quinn is Sherlock’s police liaison, Capt. Tobias “Toby” Gregson.
THE FIRST IMPRESSION | With Sherlock currently wowing the crowds on BBC One (and Stateside via PBS), the challenge for CBS was to cook up its own take on the iconic sleuth, ergo the NYC trappings and the gender switch for his No. 1. And while Miller’s Sherlock is every bit as cocksure and brusque as the one played by Benedict Cumberbatch across the pond (or Robert Downey Jr.’s big-screen incarnation), that doesn’t make his performance any less entertaining. (That said, while plenty colorful — and plentifully tattooed — he comes off as perhaps 20 percent less “alien” than Sherlock‘s Holmes.)
Here’s how we look at it:
- While the world may not, in fact, need yet another version of the World’s Greatest Detective (sorry, Batman), we’re always happy to get us some more Lucy Lie
- If TVWriter™ was a kinder, gentler site would we be invited to inside screenings or get sent screeners so we could lord it over mere mortals?
- If TVWriter™ was a kinder, gentler site getting special treatment, would we in fact be able to live with ourselves?
- Yes, we could endure the special treatment. But nope, being kinder and gentler would be fatal to our narcissistic self-esteem. (Just as it would be to, you know, Ben’s, Bobby’s, and probably Johnny’s Holmes.)