Elementary 1.09
Dec. 7th, 2012 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFirst of all, this is how you do a story that involves a trip to Chinatown and one Chinese suspect: no exotism at all. Also the villain turns out to be the exploitative white guy, and one guilty of what seems to be this incarnation of Sherlock Holmes' most despised trait in villains: the abuse, preying on and manipulation of the powerless.
Mind you, nice as it was to see Holmes caring not "just" about figuring out the right culprit and solvling that intellectual puzzle but making sure that said powerless and abused people don't suffer further but are helped, as always what shone in the episode was the developing relationship between Watson and Holmes. Of course, at first I had a big frown on my face when it looked like the show would have given Joan the backstory of having been unprofessional enough to have a sexual relationship with one of her clients. I should have known better and have more faith. What turned out to be the case - that Watson, when still a doctor, had an inevitably ill-fated romantic relationship with an addict and that this was one of the reasons why she later became a sober companion - not only maintains her professional ethics but makes perfect sense, personality wise. And the whole thing showcases how much her relationship with Holmes has progressed. He's not being a know-it-all ass or playing silly pranks once he figures out she had a relationship with the man on the phone; he gets her access to the information about the car crash because he figures she'd rather know than not know, but doesn't interfer and lets her draw her own conclusions from them; Joan, in turn, by now trusts him enough to talk to him about said conclusions in the same way he bounces off ideas on her in the case of the week, and later to tell him what really happened between her and Liam. The last scene, where he waits with her, is just so delicate and awesome in its lovely restrained and show-not-tell support and makes me adore their (by now we can call it that) friendship.
That he conceded she was right about the Chinese tea was just an added bonus. However, note to make up and casting department: when the script claims a character looks practically at death's door in the opening scenes so that all other characters comment on it, you really need to put more effort into making the actor look the part instead of letting him look, well, like his normal self, just a bit sweaty. Positive examples of how to do this include Carrie Mathison in the last two episodes of season 1 of Homeland, when the show allows Claire Danes to look as horrible and crazy as the other characters claim she does.
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Date: 2012-12-07 07:12 pm (UTC)I've been reading the original stories, and I'd have to say that is simply Sherlock Holmes, the one and only's most despised trait in villains.
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Date: 2012-12-08 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-07 10:16 pm (UTC)That last scene where Holmes comes to sit with her while the wait (futility) for her ex to show up to rehab was so heartbreaking but it was also the clincher for me that their friendship is really starting to grow. Actually, this whole episode was about how awesome they are together.
And I agree that they did not fuck up the Chinatown part of the story. I was bracing myself for the typical fail and it never happened. Yay this show!
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Date: 2012-12-08 05:41 am (UTC)That last scene was so lovely. And the show has earned it by now. I was thinking yesterday: we wouldn't have believed it if they'd done something like this at the end of the pilot. But we believe it now because we've seen Watson and Holmes getting to that point. Most shows don't have the patience for something like this anymore, they jump to instant bff-ness in the second ep, so to speak.