Elementary 1.21
May. 5th, 2013 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the scriptwriter makes a naming pun and also appears to be a Homeland fan. (Beware of a Homeland s2 spoiler in my review.)
Unless I misunderstood, the name of F. Murray Abraham's character was Gottlieb. Which had me in hysterics, because you know what the German name Gottlieb means in Latin? Amadeus. Scriptwriters who make a German-Latin pun based on the name of the film which made their guest star famous and won him an Oscar deserve some special kind of award, even if they're not also providing adorable team interaction. (Btw, I always thought the reason Peter Shaffer named his play and later film script this - Mozart's second of the names he used (he had some more than Wolfgang and Amadeus, but wisely didn't bother with the rest) - is precisely that it means "loved by God", which is of course Salieri's big issue with Mozart in Shaffer's interpretation.) (Yes, I know that "loves God" or "God's love" are also viable translations. Or, you know: Gottlieb.)
Mind you, the episode by itself had the usual problem of eps leading up to a big finale - it's all set up and (nearly) no resolution. But Holmes and Watson were precious, as ever, and I loved the episode let Joan ask point blank that given what Sherlock did when he thought Moran was M, and never appeared to repent it, what would she be supporting him in this time, what has changed? And his reaction was perfect. Including the admission he might be tempted; there is a parallel how he deals with drugs, of course.
I was a bit worried because he was lying to Gregson again at first, but having Watson as a character and behavioral witness is a useful thing, and he did hand the captured Gottlieb over (untortured).
Building Moriarty up by making both Gottlied and Moran, who are both established as fearsome killers in their own specialties, scared as hell off him isnt the newest tactic, but it works. (And I'm really curious now whom they've cast as Moriarty, if F. Murray Abraham gets to play the sidekick.) John Douglas as a fake out was a bit pointless, though I admit that they had me there for a moment and I was pondering whether it was a bad or good thing to cast an iconic supervillain with a black actor. Which, btw, might still be a possibility. David Harewood just lost his Homeland job, after all, and someone in the Elementary team seems to be a fan, because that murder method by stolen pacemaker identity number was pinched directly from Homeland's second season. I wonder whether watchers with their own pace maker are now nervously calling their doctors?
Speaking of doctors, the "Holmes and Watson do an autopsy" (or rather, Watson does it after Holmes trolled her into it) manages to make the dissection of the human body a blackly hilarious partnership moment, which: oh, show.
Lastly: BEEEEEEES. I love each and every bee appearance on Elementary and Holmes getting to show off his bee expertise.
*starts counting the days until the next episode*
Unless I misunderstood, the name of F. Murray Abraham's character was Gottlieb. Which had me in hysterics, because you know what the German name Gottlieb means in Latin? Amadeus. Scriptwriters who make a German-Latin pun based on the name of the film which made their guest star famous and won him an Oscar deserve some special kind of award, even if they're not also providing adorable team interaction. (Btw, I always thought the reason Peter Shaffer named his play and later film script this - Mozart's second of the names he used (he had some more than Wolfgang and Amadeus, but wisely didn't bother with the rest) - is precisely that it means "loved by God", which is of course Salieri's big issue with Mozart in Shaffer's interpretation.) (Yes, I know that "loves God" or "God's love" are also viable translations. Or, you know: Gottlieb.)
Mind you, the episode by itself had the usual problem of eps leading up to a big finale - it's all set up and (nearly) no resolution. But Holmes and Watson were precious, as ever, and I loved the episode let Joan ask point blank that given what Sherlock did when he thought Moran was M, and never appeared to repent it, what would she be supporting him in this time, what has changed? And his reaction was perfect. Including the admission he might be tempted; there is a parallel how he deals with drugs, of course.
I was a bit worried because he was lying to Gregson again at first, but having Watson as a character and behavioral witness is a useful thing, and he did hand the captured Gottlieb over (untortured).
Building Moriarty up by making both Gottlied and Moran, who are both established as fearsome killers in their own specialties, scared as hell off him isnt the newest tactic, but it works. (And I'm really curious now whom they've cast as Moriarty, if F. Murray Abraham gets to play the sidekick.) John Douglas as a fake out was a bit pointless, though I admit that they had me there for a moment and I was pondering whether it was a bad or good thing to cast an iconic supervillain with a black actor. Which, btw, might still be a possibility. David Harewood just lost his Homeland job, after all, and someone in the Elementary team seems to be a fan, because that murder method by stolen pacemaker identity number was pinched directly from Homeland's second season. I wonder whether watchers with their own pace maker are now nervously calling their doctors?
Speaking of doctors, the "Holmes and Watson do an autopsy" (or rather, Watson does it after Holmes trolled her into it) manages to make the dissection of the human body a blackly hilarious partnership moment, which: oh, show.
Lastly: BEEEEEEES. I love each and every bee appearance on Elementary and Holmes getting to show off his bee expertise.
*starts counting the days until the next episode*
no subject
Date: 2013-05-05 06:05 pm (UTC)Oh my god. The scriptwriters said that Gottlieb means "God's love" on Twitter, but I didn't make the F. Murray Abraham / Amadeus connection. That's brilliant.
Bees! They need to get Eddie Izzard to guest star at some point, just to have an excuse to yell covered in bees!.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-05 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-06 03:12 am (UTC)And I really loved so much about the episode -- only that it wasn't as much of an arc-ep; it felt a lot more like a MoW still. Not in a bad way, though!
no subject
Date: 2013-05-06 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-06 04:25 am (UTC)I'm betting the pacemaker thing comes from a news story about a year ago where some white-hat hackers proved they could hack into the new! exciting! easy-to-monitor! talks to your computer! pacemakers that have been most recently put on the market. The temporary solution was access codes, such as the one Gottlieb used.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-06 04:35 am (UTC)Yes, I was wondering whether there was a headline-inspiring occurance that both sets of scriptwriters noticed back then.