CBS has a new crime drama called "Elementary" which puts the iconic character in a modern setting and changes Watson's gender. You can see the trailer here.
Holmes at his most basic is the brilliant socially crippled genius paired with the practical supporter. The practical person is usually our POV to guide our understanding of the eccentric person. And like all good characters they are fine on their own but taken together are so much better. In the original stories Watson was Holmes' chronicler of their adventures and our viewpoint character. This new show takes that formula and runs with it.
This isn't the first show to try this. Robert Doherty, creator of "Elementary," mentioned in an interview that a lot of shows these days have a kind of Holmes character in them. He isn't wrong. My favorite TV show of all time is The X Files and Mulder played Holmes to Scully's Watson. House, MD was the Sherlock Holmes of Medicine and his team plays the role of Watson. Law and Order: Criminal Intent had Detective Goren in the role of Holmes while Detective Eames played Watson. "Bones" has Tempe Brennan in Holmes' role while Seely Booth is her Watson.
Doherty's version is not the craziest revision I've every heard of with these public domain characters. The Guy Ritchie films turn Holmes and Watson into superheroes despite the period trappings. Dan Simmons has an insane take in bringing Sherlock Holmes into a story that I'm praying he writes it in the future.
However, in the realm of TV/Film I think my favorite take comes from John Rogers, co-creator of a fun caper drama called "Leverage." I pulled this from his blog where he recreates a favorite rant of his.
-----------------
"At the beginning of "A Study in Scarlet", Watson has just returned from Afghanistan with a nasty case of PTSD. He went straight into the Army from medical school, and straight to Afghanistan the next year. So he can't really be more than 26 or so when the novel starts - Victorian doctors went to university at 18 or so and studied for five or six years. And Holmes is about the same age if not younger - he's studying at the university, he's had no previous job that anyone mentions, and Watson doesn't describe him as significantly older than himself.
John Watson is a twenty-six year old combat hard-ass with mujhadeen shrapnel buried in his leg (or shoulder, depending on the story), not some foppish fuckwit with a bowler hat. Sherlock Holmes is your substance-abusing perpetual grad student solving cases for the London underworld/working class that the cops won't touch. THAT'S why everybody fucks up Holmes and Watson including, probably, my favorite writer in the world.
About two years ago I was developing that version of Holmes and Watson with a director to do a TV pilot, and our agents correctly argued that no network was really looking for that. However, it's my fondest wish to someday do that show.
Oh, and they're women. Did I mention that?"
------------------------------
Come on, who wouldn't want to see that?
Of course, being late to the party for lots of things, I just discovered that the BBC has already done a modern Sherlock Holmes show and some comparisons have already been done between "Sherlock" and "Elementary."
I will be looking at both with great interest in the future.
