Lucy Liu cast as Watson in CBS' Sherlock Holmes show

[Takeru]

I just watched the pilot, it was very good! I especially liked Lucy Liu as Watson, she's great and I love her and Holmes as a team, I loved that he apologized and pretty much admitted he acted like an arrogant ass without stopping to be an arrogant ass.
I think I liked it even more than the first episode of Sherlock, can't wait for the season to start. I wasn't sure about this show before but now it's the new series I'm looking forward to the most this season.

[Borgminister]

Did they have a showing I missed? Thought its debut was late September...

[Takeru]

Borgminister wrote:

---

Did they have a showing I missed?

Sort of

The main reason I preferred this version to Sherlock's premiere is because the cops weren't so antagonistic, I also think the introduction of Watson was done better on Elementary, it was very quick and not drawn out.

I prefer the way they do the deductions on Sherlock, the visual stuff help me understand things much better, I had problems understanding Holmes on Elementary sometimes (english isn't my first language), I'm still not sure how he knew Watson was a surgeon for example, something about one of her hands and how surgeons use products to take care of their skin ... I don't get it.

[Guy Gardener]

I'm half way through it.

Sherlock's Holmes is better, but the Watson here is more interesting.

[Allyn Gibson]

Borgminister wrote:

---

Did they have a showing I missed? Thought its debut was late September...

A workprint of the Elementary pilot leaked online last week.

[Enterprise is Great]

I was checking out Entertainment Weekly's Fall tv preview issue at the supermarket yesterday and they put Elementary on their five best new shows list.

[Guy Gardener]

Well they're idiots, or everything else which is new is a bigger turd.

it's just a very blunt show.

"You're troubled and brilliant, but it doesn't really matter that you're troubled because you're brilliant."

Exchange asshole for "troubled" and that's the plot to every episode of House.

Problem is.

The murders ain't that complicated, and Holmes in this incarnation isn't that rude.

And most importantly this show is a pale shadow of it's English brother.

However episodes of Sherlock are an hour and half long.

So they have more room to be amazing.

[Anwar]

There's also that British shows have fewer episodes, easier to have quality when you don't have to make 22 episodes per season.

[Locutus of Bored]

I don't have time to post a longer review at the moment, but I really enjoyed this. The back and forth banter and the dynamic between Miller and Liu is entertaining and intriguing, and I'm glad they showed both of their strengths and vulnerabilities. And the guy they got to play the first killer was delightfully evil when he was taunting Holmes. If the rest of the series can maintain the quality of the pilot this should be a first rate show.

[Guy Gardener]

Anwar wrote:

---

There's also that British shows have fewer episodes, easier to have quality when you don't have to make 22 episodes per season.

You're not wrong, but I'm just trying to imagine the set of Breaking Bad when Vince says "Right, what we have been doing is good, but I think if we want to be awesome that we have to cut our episode number down to 3 a year so that all the damn couch potatoes out there learn to appreciate us."

[Saul]

Not a patch on the Uk show, but on it's own, even if this was a non-sherlock holmes show this was pretty enjoyable.

Sherlock is a little bit too apologetic. Greg House and Cumberbatch do the Holmes personality more justice in their portrayal. I liked Lucy Liu's Watson and that her Watson is able to wound Holmes more easily than the other Watsons have.
I think the fun part was the mystery behind the murder. This could be a typical detective series but it's less bland than others. I agree with what Locutus said. If they can maintain this type of story telling i'm happy to keep watching.

Also doesn't step on the toes of BBC's Sherlock. Good good.

[Guy Gardener]

I recall earlier in the thread someone citing that the producers of English show was livid about this abomination.

Seriously, the English sell their scripts/series all the time.

Elementary is something that could have been generated form the English material.

It's practically theft.

Especially since now, an Americanized Sherlock can't be sold in America because it will just be seen as a knock off of Elementary.

[Allyn Gibson]

Guy Gardener wrote:

---

I recall earlier in the thread someone citing that the producers of English show was livid about this abomination.

Seriously, the English sell their scripts/series all the time.

Elementary is something that could have been generated form the English material.

It's practically theft.

Especially since now, an Americanized Sherlock can't be sold in America because it will just be seen as a knock off of Elementary.

CBS has been trying to develop an American-setting modern Sherlock Holmes series for about a decade now, and there are scripts of previous efforts floating around on the web.

What Sherlock did was give CBS the impetus to finally pull the trigger and commission a pilot. I think Moffat really should have just taken CBS' money when they talked to him about an American Sherlock. They had familiarity with the material from previous efforts, they wanted to commission a show like that, and he was essentially being offered free money for the concept.

[Guy Gardener]

Oh he turned them down?

Then it's Moffats fault.

Glaring error in the CBS preview last night.

One of the Two Broke Girls says... "And now for a show that's really Elementary."

It's almost as if someone writing the copy doesn't know the meaning of the word.

[Christopher]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

---

CBS has been trying to develop an American-setting modern Sherlock Holmes series for about a decade now, and there are scripts of previous efforts floating around on the web.

What Sherlock did was give CBS the impetus to finally pull the trigger and commission a pilot.

That happens a lot. I remember the old Stephen Collins show Tales of the Gold Monkey from the '80s. Everyone thought it was a Raiders of the Lost Ark knockoff, but Donald Bellisario had pitched it before Raiders came out, and ABC had just had it sitting on the shelf, neglected, until Raiders was a huge hit and suddenly they were all, "Hey, do we have anything like this that we can put on the air?" I bet there are plenty of other examples too. I think a lot of people don't realize how many series ideas networks have sitting around in development hell. So as often as not, instead of making something up to capitalize on a new trend, they can just grab something they're already sitting on and finally put it on the air.