Spoilers WATSON: New Sherlock Holmes-based series on CBS

[Christopher]

While I'm not a fan of skinny Mycrofts, I appreciate that they were more accurate than most productions in portraying Mycroft's sedentary nature, his reluctance to go anywhere besides the Diogenes Club. Although that's likely to change if the show has future plans for the character.

I actually have no problem differentiating the twins. Stephens is the dour one with glasses while Adam is the more upbeat one without glasses.

See, that's what I'm having trouble with. I know they have specific differences -- glasses/no glasses, upbeat/dour, etc. -- but I have trouble remembering which traits go together. Maybe the actor just isn't differentiating their performances enough for me. Or maybe I just need more time to get used to them.

 

[Christopher]

Incidentally, there's another Holmes-based TV series coming to The CW on April 16 at 9 PM Eastern, Sherlock & Daughter, starring David Thewlis and Blu Hunt in the respective title roles, with Dougray Scott as Moriarty. Looks like it's a US/UK co-production filmed in Ireland, 8 episodes long, created and written by Irish filmmaker Brendan Foley but showrun by James Duff, who co-created The Closer, created Major Crimes, and was an executive producer on Star Trek: Discovery and Picard.

I was just saying not long ago how Holmes adaptations set in the present had made a comeback in recent years, but this one goes the traditional route as a period piece, presumably set in the early 20th century, since Holmes is old enough to have an adult daughter. (Thewlis is 62, so it would be 1916 if Holmes were the same age.)

Here's the trailer:

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So we'll have a Watson show without Holmes and a Holmes show without Watson airing at the same time. That's a first.

 

[Christopher]

Pretty good episode this week, with a lot of revelations about Ingrid. I'm starting to wonder if she's a one-season character, since I don't see how she can come back from all this. Granted, other shows have done the "You'll never work here again after what you did" plot and then bent over backward to hit the reset button -- Elementary did it two or three times -- but it's hard to see Ingrid being redeemed after that final revelation. Although it occurs to me that maybe Eve Harlow could stay on the show if Ingrid ends up on Moriarty's side. Her character has that potential for darkness in her.

As far as this season goes, apparently it's 13 episodes and this is #9, so Mary giving Ingrid two months to find another job means she should stick around until the finale, at least.

They did a good job casting the actresses who played the young Ingrid and Gigi. Amanda Arcuri didn't quite look like Eve Harlow, but she had the voice down. And the younger and older Gigi looked convincingly like the same person.

Oh, and I didn't realize until I read the credits on IMDb that that helpful doctor who pointed young Ingrid toward Mary was actually Watson. I mean, I suspected it after the fact, but it seemed like too much of a coincidence, and it was weird that Mary remembered meeting "Didi" that day but Watson didn't. (Although maybe Watson's TBI could account for the memory lapse.)

Also, according to the credits, Ingrid's father was named Ivo Derian. That's the sort of name that sounds like it should be from the Holmes canon, but apparently it isn't.

I found the episode kind of ableist in the way it treated being in a wheelchair as this horrible tragic fate that ruins a person's life rather than just being a change they can adapt to. (There are wheelchair athletes, so I figure there are probably wheelchair dancers.) It seemed like they were trying to balance that out with the subplot about Stephens adopting the three-legged dog and showing that it was happy the way it was, but that seemed like a token gesture.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I found the episode kind of ableist in the way it treated being in a wheelchair as this horrible tragic fate that ruins a person's life rather than just being a change they can adapt to. (There are wheelchair athletes, so I figure there are probably wheelchair dancers

Doing a bit of quick research on the topic and applying a small dose of logic to the issue, I would say that it might depend to a degree on the dancer, what stage of their career ("mid-career" would seem be best), what sort of dancing that they do, what sort of support they have.

Wheelchair is certainly a thing, but transitioning to it would require a significant amount of time and professional support for retraining and frankly the issue IMO is more one of presentation within the fictional scenario*, rather than it being inherently ableist.

*For instance, if an IRL media source reported that a young corps de ballet dancer (or indeed a mature, established dancer who was probably approaching the period where they need to drop down to mostly teaching anyway) has had their career ended due to being paralysed, then it wouldn't be ableist because that would be true... at the time of going to press, even if they were able to retool later).

 

[Christopher]

*For instance, if an IRL media source reported that a young corps de ballet dancer (or indeed a mature, established dancer who was probably approaching the period where they need to drop down to mostly teaching anyway) has had their career ended due to being paralysed, then it wouldn't be ableist because that would be true... at the time of going to press, even if they were able to retool later).

That's just it, though -- Gigi's had over 15 years to adjust, but she was still treated as a tragic case who suffered from depression, as someone whose life had been ruined by her paralysis and whose only hope of happiness was to walk again. Granted, someone suffering from depression would find it difficult to adapt to a change that other people could adapt to successfully, but nothing was done in the episode to suggest that her depression was atypical. It just felt like a backward, old-fashioned handling of a paraplegic character.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm starting to wonder if she's a one-season character, since I don't see how she can come back from all this.

I remember at the start of the episode where Ingrid worries "this could end my career" I immediately scoffed "you're main cast, this won't end your career." Indeed, at the end, Mary did tell her she has two months to leave voluntarily or be fired, which basically guarantees she'll be able to stick around for the rest of the season. Which I suspect was the writers making preparations in case the show got cancelled, provide some closure. Since we know it's returning for a second season, I wouldn't be took shocked if they pull the whole "well, I guess we have a use for you after all..." trope.

 

[Christopher]

Since we know it's returning for a second season, I wouldn't be took shocked if they pull the whole "well, I guess we have a use for you after all..." trope.

I would've agreed, if not for the final revelation that

Spoiler

she's literally a murderer. Granted, he was abusive, but the murder was premeditated and ruthless, which makes it hard to absolve as self-defense. I'm not sure she can be redeemed as a character after that, at least not as a doctor sworn to do no harm.

Plus, this is halfway a Sherlock Holmes-based mystery show, and the role of a murderer in such a show is to be exposed and brought to justice.

 

[Christopher]

Pretty interesting episode this week, starting out as a medical case but turning into a murder mystery, with a fairly clever resolution. Rachel Hayward debuts as Detective Lestrade, in this version an Pittsburgh detective who's never met Watson before or Holmes at all, but who's clearly being set up as a recurring character. Weird to have a Lestrade who's not a rival of Holmes. (And I never get used to hearing "Lestrade" pronounced the French way, with an "ah" sound, since the Jeremy Brett series conditioned me to assume it's pronounced like "trade." I know that's the exception, not the rule, but I think of it as the default, since I always considered the Brett series the most authentic adaptation I'd seen.)

I can see Lestrade being a way to get Watson involved in more criminal cases in the future, since he offered his services as a medical consultant if she needs one. That's good, since it's hard to keep up being a hybrid medical/detective procedural if the criminal cases all just happen to crop up in the course of their medical cases.

I'm surprised that Ingrid came clean to Sasha about what she did. It occurs to me that she was a minor when she did it, IIRC, so maybe that's a way she can be absolved and stick around for season 2.

A bit of an Elementary link, since the plot involves lab-grown meat, a plot element in that show's fifth-season episode "How the Sausage is Made," and the characters in both episodes use the same unusual nickname for it, "shmeat," short for "sheet meat." This episode is much more skeptical about the viability of lab-grown meat than the other one was, though. I'm not sure why it was even featured in this episode. I kept expecting it to turn out that something in the lab-grown meat was causing the patient/suspect's condition, but it was just one of his random failed business ventures.

I also just realized that the Holmes Clinic's resident robot Clyde shares its name with Sherlock and Joan's pet tortoise from Elementary. There are no Clydes in the Holmes canon, so presumably it's specifically an Elementary nod.

 

[Procutus]

Good ep indeed. I love watching Shinwell's continual battle with his conscience over what he's being made to do. It appears from the preview that we're going to get a bit more Moriarty action next week - perhaps we'll learn what his evil intent with gathering the staff's DNA really is all about.

Cool that we now have this show's version of Lestrade. I agree, she's being set up to be a recurring character and with it, giving Watson a chance to become more involved with solving criminal cases.

 

[Christopher]

Cool that we now have this show's version of Lestrade. I agree, she's being set up to be a recurring character and with it, giving Watson a chance to become more involved with solving criminal cases.

Interesting that Elementary used Gregson as Holmes's main police ally in the US with Lestrade as an occasional guest star from back in England, while here it's Gregson who was Holmes's (so far) unseen ally in London and Lestrade who's being set up as the recurring American police liaison for Watson.

I don't think I'd realized this show was filmed in Vancouver, but once Jill Teed showed up, that made it obvious. Also, Rachel Hayward's filmography includes tons of Vancouver-made shows I've seen, but she's rarely been more than a one-shot guest star in anything.


Incidentally, did anyone else watch Sherlock & Daughter last week? I'm not sure an 8-episode series warrants a separate thread. It's somewhat interesting so far. David Thewlis is pretty good as Holmes, and it's interesting to get a look at Holmes's world from the perspective of the servants. The idea of 221B having a whole servant staff instead of just Mrs. Hudson is novel, or else Doyle just presumed the staff's existence without ever acknolwedging it.

 

[Procutus]

Haven't watch S&D yet, but it's in the DVR. I reckon we'll take a gander at it tonight. I figured that Thewlis would make a decent version of Holmes.

 

[Christopher]

Haven't watch S&D yet, but it's in the DVR. I reckon we'll take a gander at it tonight. I figured that Thewlis would make a decent version of Holmes.

It's also streaming next-day on The CW's app, which is good, since for some reason my digital antenna decided not to work when I tried to watch it live.

 

[Procutus]

Having an app that you can catch a show on the next day is always good, in cases of equipment failure or simply forgetting to set your DVR (which I've done on occasion).

It sure is a far cry from the old days where if you missed a show the night it was on, you might not have the chance to catch it again for months.

 

[Stephen Lee]

I watched the WATSON pilot and I was on the fence, even the ending didn't really entice me to comeback but the 3 week gap between the pilot airing and the 2nd episode probably didn't help either. I just forgot and moved on.

I did randomly come across Sherlock & Daughter, did not know what to expect, watched it and I am interested.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

It's interesting that the show is filmed up in Vancouver because I'm familiar with city, having made frequent trips there from Seattle, and they've done a good job of disguising some of the more well known landmarks that tend to crop up in shows filmed in British Columbia.​

 

[Christopher]

Part 1 of the season finale was last night, so naturally the secrets are coming out and crises are building. As soon as the episode opened with the twins talking about their brotherly bond, I felt the writers were setting up the death of one of the twins, at least potentially. I've wondered if they might kill off one of the twins to generate pathos and save themselves from having to do split-screen effects. It could be why they cast one actor in both roles to begin with, if it was always their plan.

It seems they found a way to reverse Ingrid's firing, but I'm not sure it'll hold, given the line she crossed with doing Moriarty's bidding.

I'm still not impressed with Randall Park as Moriarty. He's not an actor who really conveys "sinister mastermind" to me. Probably casting against type was the idea, having him be this seemingly innocuous, friendly guy that nobody would suspect, but I've seen actors that could switch gears from innocuous to malevolent more effectively than Park has done.

Incidentally, this was the first episode I decided to watch live on CBS instead of the next day on Paramount+. I prefer getting to skip the commercials, but the P+ app on my smart TV is glitchy. When it shows the title and rating information at the start of the show, there's a faint, dark translucent underlay beneath the words that's supposed to fade out when the words do, I guess to make them more legible, but the past couple of weeks, it's stayed there after the words faded, making the top of the screen subliminally darker. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, and I was able to get rid of it once by restarting the app and the episode, but I decided it was easier just to watch live.

 

[The Wormhole]

So, that whole thing between Sasha and Stephens seemed to come out of nowhere.

 

[Christopher]

So, that whole thing between Sasha and Stephens seemed to come out of nowhere.

Yeah. I haven't noticed any signs building up to it, aside from the basic fact that Sasha's pretty hot, so it seems axiomatic that a heterosexual male coworker would be interested in her.

I admit, I'm still having trouble keeping track of which twin has which character traits and which relationships. Granted, I sometimes have trouble keeping track of who's who in ensemble casts when two characters resemble each other, but usually I'd have gotten it straight well before episode 12. Part of the problem, perhaps, is that both characters tend to be referred to as "Dr. Croft" or collectively as "the Crofts" rather than by their first names; I didn't even remember until this week that one of them was named Adam. Also having them both be doctors working in the same setting makes it harder to distinguish them, as does having one date the other's ex. But maybe it's also that the writing and acting haven't differentiated them strongly enough, or maybe it's just that I don't find either of them particularly interesting.

Maybe that's why I've been half-expecting them to kill off one of the twins -- I might actually prefer it if there were only one of them, and if they brought in a more interesting character next season to fill the gap in the team.

 

[The Wormhole]

I didn't even remember until this week that one of them was named Adam.

A problem I had during the first few episodes is I kept thinking Adam's name was Adams, with an S at the end. I guess it had to do with how they kept emphasizing in the early episode Stephens had an S at the end with him irritably correcting everyone whenever they called him Stephen I just assumed both twins had a similar naming convention in that regard.

I might actually prefer it if there were only one of them, and if they brought in a more interesting character next season to fill the gap in the team.

Ah, but would they though? Even if they do kill off one of the Croft twins next week and keep the other next season, since they're both played by the same actor that wouldn't create any vacancies in the cast. I suspect if anything, they'll just use having one less character as a means of giving Mary more material in season 2, as she has probably been the most neglected of the main cast this season.

 

[Christopher]

Ah, but would they though? Even if they do kill off one of the Croft twins next week and keep the other next season, since they're both played by the same actor that wouldn't create any vacancies in the cast.

But since the show is successful, they could shell out for an additional main cast member. It's not uncommon for the number of regulars in a show to increase in a second season or after, as supporting characters get promoted to leads, new regulars are added, etc. For instance, Buffy the Vampire Slayer promoted David Boreanaz from a recurring guest in season 1 to a regular in season 2, upping the number of regulars from 5 to 6, while season 3 promoted Seth Green to a regular and upped the main cast to 7. By season 5, they were up to 8 regulars. For a closer example, House M.D. had 6 regulars in its first three seasons, but when House got a new team in season 4, the original three team members stuck around in new roles, upping the cast size to 9.

Plus the cost of paying another regular would be offset somewhat by the savings of no longer having to do split-screen effects every week. Even with the fairly basic twin effects this show did (did we ever see the twins physically interact on camera, or even cross the matte line?), having to shoot each twin scene twice would add time and complexity, and therefore cost more.