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ELEMENTARY - News, Reviews, and Discussion

Based upon the article, this is the first show to possibly (indirectly) benefit from a sexual harassment scandal (specifically, Jeremy Piven's scandal and the related decision to end Wisdom of the Crowd after one season).

Elementary most recently aired on Sunday for a season and a half, and its back order comes on the heels of CBS opting not to order additional episodes of its new Sunday drama series Wisdom of the Crowd, creating an imminent opening on the night, the only one for a drama series on the network’s schedule at the moment. It would make sense for Elementary, a modest but reliable performer, to rejoin the night, possibly at 10 PM, with NCIS: Los Angeles and Madam Secretary sliding back to 8 PM and 9 PM where they had done well.

Elementary surprisingly did not make the list of early CBS renewals for the first time this year, spending its first spring on the bubble. There never was serious doubt for the crime drama, fully owned by CBS. Indeed, it was renewed in May, though for the first time it did not land on the fall schedule, getting a 13-episode midseason order. It will now produce 21 episodes, just shy of the 24 it aired in each of its first five seasons.

Though, one wonders why it was ever considered "on the bubble" (as per the article) if the show really made $80 million in profit last year.

While its linear ratings in the Sunday 10 PM hour have been so-so (7.4 million viewers, 1.2 in 18-49 Live+7 last season), Elementary has off-network and SVOD deals with WGN America, Hulu Plus and broadcast stations that fetch in as much as $3 million total per episode. It is a solid international seller for CBS TV Studios too, in part because of the central character’s global recognition. In May 2016, CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves used Elementary as an example of a program ownership success story, telling investors that the show had “made approximately an $80 million profit for the corporation” the previous year.
 
Based upon the article, this is the first show to possibly (indirectly) benefit from a sexual harassment scandal (specifically, Jeremy Piven's scandal and the related decision to end Wisdom of the Crowd after one season).

Not necessarily. I gather that Wisdom of the Crowd was panned by critics, and apparently its ratings were modest, so it might've been cancelled even without the scandal.



Though, one wonders why it was ever considered "on the bubble" (as per the article) if the show really made $80 million in profit last year.

The article also says there was never any real doubt about its renewal. CBS probably just held off on the decision for some sort of business or scheduling reason, rather than anything to do with its ratings or performance. Maybe they wanted to hold it for midseason to avoid the football delays. Or maybe they were just keeping it in a holding pattern until they cleared up some other traffic.
 
I still have all of last season still sitting on my DVR. I really need to watch it at some point before the new season starts.
 
That's awesome news about the 6th season's extension. I've been binge-watching my DVDs of the first five seasons in preparation. I'd forgotten a lot of the early episodes and am seeing S4 and S5 for the first time.
 
I wonder if Season 6 will be the end, then? Upfronts for the next TV season are usually in mid-May, so they'd have to make a renewal decision based on the ratings of maybe only the first two episodes.
 
I wonder too. IIRC, it's been on the bubble the past couple of seasons. They probably would rather want to end it on their own terms than on the network's.

Either way I'm glad that they're coming back for at least one more.
 
Season six started last night.

I've missed Sherlock and Joan. :)

I found Sherlock's fears about the loss of his mental faculties surprisingly moving.

I didn't really care about the case.

I saw the final reveal coming about a minute before the camera made the reveal. Something about the way it was staged had me go, "Oh, I bet that..." And that's exactly what it was.
 
Season six started last night.

I've missed Sherlock and Joan. :)

Yeah, it's been a really long time. Though I'm glad we don't have to worry about the show getting delayed by sports anymore.


I found Sherlock's fears about the loss of his mental faculties surprisingly moving.

Yes. Nothing could terrify him more than losing the one thing that he defines himself by. (Coincidentally, Harry Wells is going through much the same thing on The Flash right now, but this is the actual Sherlock Holmes we're talking about, the very archetype of pride in one's brilliance.) Also, Miller did a fantastic job showing Sherlock more vulnerable than we've probably ever seen him.

It's kind of refreshing, though, to learn that he has post-concussion syndrome. I mean, how many TV heroes over the decades have been conked on the noggin and knocked unconscious dozens of times, yet suffered no lasting ill effects? The fact that the violence Sherlock has suffered is having a lasting neurological impact is a refreshing dose of realism.


I didn't really care about the case.

Yup. First name in the guest credits: "Brett Dalton." Me, five seconds later: "Yeah, he's the killer."

Although it highlighted kind of a weird double standard. It treated sex tapes as such a routine fact of life these days that it seemed incongruous that the woman's family saw anything disgraceful about it. I guess they were more conservative than most, or else just wanted an excuse to disown their black sheep.


I saw the final reveal coming about a minute before the camera made the reveal. Something about the way it was staged had me go, "Oh, I bet that..." And that's exactly what it was.

Me too. He was panting hard, but he wasn't jogging, just standing in place in the middle of the woods. Not that many things he could've been doing. Plus there was the fact that the dialogue in both conversations had so coyly avoided mentioning what the guy's "work" was, which was a tipoff that there was a twist coming up.

Heck, were Sherlock at full mental strength, he'd probably have already gotten warning signs off this guy. I'm not sure how I feel about a story arc where Sherlock Holmes is clueless that someone is up to no good. That's his trademark, seeing volumes about a person on first glance. So how long can they keep this up? I hope Sherlock catches on fast. Or, better yet, maybe he's already caught on that something's off and is playing innocent in order to learn more about the guy. Maybe that's why he turned to this guy instead of Alfredo when he "needed someone to talk to."
 
Heck, were Sherlock at full mental strength, he'd probably have already gotten warning signs off this guy. I'm not sure how I feel about a story arc where Sherlock Holmes is clueless that someone is up to no good. That's his trademark, seeing volumes about a person on first glance. So how long can they keep this up? I hope Sherlock catches on fast. Or, better yet, maybe he's already caught on that something's off and is playing innocent in order to learn more about the guy. Maybe that's why he turned to this guy instead of Alfredo when he "needed someone to talk to."

Desmond Harrington is in the main credits. This will be a season-long thing.
 
Desmond Harrington is in the main credits. This will be a season-long thing.

Yeah, I got that. But if it's a whole season of Sherlock Holmes -- Sherlock Holmes -- being fooled week after week by someone he interacts with regularly, that's gonna be hard to swallow, even with his mental impairment. But if Sherlock already suspects he's a bad guy and plays a long game to ingratiate himself and get the proof, that would be a more credible seasonal arc.
 
In this show's universe, Jamie is the real Moriarty. There's never been any indication to the contrary, any more than there's been any indication that Joan Watson nee Joan Yun Jingyi was not the "real" Doctor Watson. She was the fake Irene Adler; Moriarty turned out to be her true identity. And combining those two characters was possibly the most interesting thing that's ever been done with Moriarty. I don't see how retconning a more conventional (read: male) Moriarty into existence would serve any purpose, beyond being an inferior substitute for Dormer.
 
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