Lucy Liu cast as Watson in CBS' Sherlock Holmes show

[Allyn Gibson]

Moffat is "annoyed." Elementary could, if it's not good, damage his "brand."

Really? Sherlock is a brand? We're talking about a series that has six episodes, and will have three more eighteen months from now. Some brand.

And Moffat seems not to have considered the possibility that Elementary might even be good. Though in that case, he might protest that Elementary's producers took his idea and eclipsed him with it. But would that be such a bad thing? It would force Moffat to up his game.

 

[Starkers]

Does anyone seriously expect this to be better than Sherlock?

Some interesting points from that article though...

They've just decided to go off and do one of their own, having been turned down by us to do an adaptation of our version.

So clearly they are trying to ride Sherlock's coat tails. Which I think we all knew anyway.

"We don't own Sherlock Holmes," he said. "We don't even own the idea of updating it. It's been done before.
"I hope they know their Sherlock Holmes very, very well indeed because we know what's in our show and wasn't in the original.
"So if we did discover our material had made it into somebody else's show we would have a problem with that. If there is no such incidence of that, then there's nothing we can object to."

Seems reasonable, they know they don't own Sherlock Holmes, but they do know what they've added to it.

I don't see why Moffat isn't allowed to be annoyed at this? Remember he's already seen one of his shows butchered by American networks.

 

[Beagleman]

He kinda looks like a cross between Cumberbatch's Sherlock and House.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Does anyone seriously expect this to be better than Sherlock?

I don't think it's automatically going to be bad, which is what Moffat seems to think and what much of Sherlock fandom I've encountered definitely thinks.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

If Moffat has an infringement case, he should call his lawyers. If not, his comments are pointless, and he should stfu. He's just trying to get some free PR by inventing a controversy. The stuff about the coat and scarf is just desperate and sad.

Most likely, this pilot will never go to series. CBS has a lot of pilots and few available slots. (Given their ongoing success, this is the case every year.) Pilots have a much easier time on ABC and especially NBC.

So clearly they are trying to ride Sherlock's coat tails.

Sherlock has no coattails to ride. Do you honestly think CBS viewers have even heard of it? Trust me, Americans know only two types of TV: American TV and Downton Abbey.

 

[Harvey]

Moffat is "annoyed." Elementary could, if it's not good, damage his "brand."

I've only heard good things about the series, but, "his brand?" It's a series based upon a literary character more than a century old who has been adapted to the screen (small and large) more times than I can count.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Let the wailing of Sherlock fandom resume -- Variety is reporting that CBS ordered Elementary. Article here.

I wondered if anything were happening on that front, and then I saw this article on why Masterpiece is cutting Sherlock, which had this quote from Sue Vertue: "CBS asked if they could do ours and we said 'No'. We could have gone for financial gain but we wanted to keep creative control. It will be annoying if they use elements that can be traced to our show rather than the original stories." I had the impression from that that she knew because of lawyerly contacts that Elementary was likely to make the CBS schedule.

 

[JoeZhang]

Moffat is "annoyed." Elementary could, if it's not good, damage his "brand."

I've only heard good things about the series, but, "his brand?" It's a series based upon a literary character more than a century old who has been adapted to the screen (small and large) more times than I can count.

He sounds awfully precious in that interview.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I just woke up.

Somehow I thought this was a thread about Spider-Man.

Even if Mary Jane was cast with a asian... She's still going to be ginger.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Moffat is "annoyed." Elementary could, if it's not good, damage his "brand."

I've only heard good things about the series, but, "his brand?" It's a series based upon a literary character more than a century old who has been adapted to the screen (small and large) more times than I can count.

CBS is also very concerned with brand - their brand. They make a certain style of TV show for their audience. Their continued first-place status is due to their brand discipline. Everyone knows what kind of show CBS will make. CBS doesn't care about Moffat or his so-called brand. Very few of CBS's viewers have even heard of the guy.

Let the wailing of Sherlock fandom resume

Although that will be very entertaining, I'm hoping they would gain enough sophistication to understand that CBS isn't making this show for them, unless it just so happens they are also CBS viewers. Everyone already knows whether they are CBS viewers. If you watch CBS' type of show, there you are. If not - this is not for you.

 

[Kegg]

Trust me, Americans know only two types of TV: American TV and Downton Abbey.

American viewers, maybe. TV Execs are a different deal, obviously, as 'let's look at succesful TV shows in other markets and make a US version' isn't exactly uncommon - The Killing, Homeland and In Treatment are three that come to mind off the top of my head.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17453924
Really? Sherlock is a brand? We're talking about a series that has six episodes, and will have three more eighteen months from now. Some brand.

British TV. Six episodes is par for the course. Moffat is obviously pretty well regarded in British TV (ever since Coupling, I think). Never liked Coupling that much - like most British sitcoms, I just feel kind of spent on it by the time I hit the second season - so never saw anything else he did.

 

[Sheep]

Moffat is "annoyed." Elementary could, if it's not good, damage his "brand."

I've only heard good things about the series, but, "his brand?" It's a series based upon a literary character more than a century old who has been adapted to the screen (small and large) more times than I can count.

If we see Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock running around hallucinating and seeing monsters in the forest or unlocking an attractive woman's mobile phone with a witty passcode, Moffat will have a point. I don't think CBS will be that brazen about borrowing from the BBC version, though.

 

[Christopher]

I think that Sherlock is defined not merely as "Holmes in the 21st century," but primarily as "Holmes as told by Steven Moffat (with Mark Gatiss)." It's very much a product of Moffat's distinct, quirky, frenetic style, as also seen in his Jekyll and Doctor Who. So I don't expect Elementary to be even remotely in the same vein as Sherlock. It will probably be far more sedate and in the vein of your usual CBS crime procedural with an eccentric-genius lead.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

IOW a lot like The Mentalist.

 

[Christopher]

^That's one example of the pattern (which isn't limited to CBS -- see Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Monk, etc.). At least I assume it is, since I've never seen it.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

CBS released a trailer/behind-the-scenes look at Elementary today.

Looks promising!

 

[Christopher]

Promising, yeah... but that's a very young, scruffy Holmes, and he seems softer than I prefer the character to be. There's a rather David Tennant-ish quality to him at times.

Well, I guess "young" isn't a dealbreaker. Holmes was only in his 20s in A Study in Scarlet, IIRC. And if he does have a more sympathetic side (like when he apologized to Joan toward the end of the video), maybe that makes him a more conventional character, but at least it differentiates him from Cumberbatch's Sherlock.

Anyway, I always feel cheated when I see something promoted as a "behind-the-scenes look" at a show and it's nothing but the actors talking about their characters. To me, as someone who first read The Making of Star Trek when I was eight, "behind-the-scenes" material should entail a look at the creative process, the production, the nitty-gritty of how the work was conceived and made.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Promising, yeah... but that's a very young, scruffy Holmes, and he seems softer than I prefer the character to be. There's a rather David Tennant-ish quality to him at times.

I was reminded, actually, of Matt Smith. The scene where he's talking to the woman about hand distances, eye colors, and how she's lying came across to me as a very Smith kind of line reading.

Well, I guess "young" isn't a dealbreaker. Holmes was only in his 20s in A Study in Scarlet, IIRC.

Yes, he's only twenty-seven in STUD. I think we tend to think of Holmes as older because the actors who have portrayed Holmes have generally been older, and so our perceptions of the character are colored by that.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It will probably be far more sedate and in the vein of your usual CBS crime procedural with an eccentric-genius lead.

Right on the money. From the trailer, it looks like a slight iteration on the CBS formula - enough to stand out in a crowd, not enough to take the slightest risk of being rejected by the audience.

CBS will do well with both Elementary and Vegas (which should have been named Ralph Lamb, but I guess it doesn't much matter what they call it. I would have gone for Cowboys vs. Gangsters. ) The latter is more of a risk than the former, but both are squarely on-brand for CBS. They never make shows I like, but they sure know what they're doing.

the nitty-gritty of how the work was conceived and made.

Here's how it happened. Les Moonves gave his marching orders: we need shows that are on-brand for us, with a baby step or two in some "new" direction but no more than that, or I'll shoot it down in flames. I'm sure show development at CBS is more like making different flavors of dog food than anything approaching creativity.

I'd be far more interesting in the process at NBC - scattered, desperate, searching for some strategy that might work.

 

[Borgminister]

Saw the extended clip from Elementary, and yup, typical CBS procedural. Nothing Holmes-like about it, frankly, at least not in terms of distinguishing it from your typical buddy-cop detective show.

At least Rizzoli and Isles have a repartee between them that is unique. And the British Sherlock established the Holmes / Watson dynamic perfectly. This looks bland and quite unworthy of the Sherlock Holmes mystique.

I suppose it'll depend on the writing, but I'm not excited about this show in the least. I would've trusted AMC to make a good run at it, maybe FOX, but not CBS.