Elementary Premiere

My thoughts on the first Elementary episode. I might have more to say after I've slept on it. Spoilers below:


I'm glad they got that "you decided to stay as my companion" out of the way in the first episode. She's choosing to stay with him, not being forced to because of a job. She could leave and arrange another sober companion at any time that she's fed up with him.

I'm very pleased with Watson being competent, and enjoy her responding to Holmes's insensitivity with her own barbs, like her comment about no mirrors, and him being a "lost cause." In the books, Watson does protest angrily sometimes, instead of just passively taking Holmes's abuse. I'm glad she continued to work on the case even when Holmes was in jail because of his temper tantrum. I do like that Holmes does apologize for his bad behavior, instead of pretending he did nothing wrong. His beehive on the roof was cute.

I liked that the case started out as a kidnapping (before they found the body). I think it means that Gregson won't call Holmes in only for murders. I would like more variety in cases. I'm not sure how I feel about Holmes's incident in London, and Watson's idea that it had something to do with a woman. I hope this is not a hint about an Irene Adler character who'll show up eventually. I don't trust anybody with that character nowadays.

It's interesting that the "Google" line turned out to be about her parents and not about Watson being a surgeon (as it appeared in promos). Because I definitely said, "No way!" when he apparently knew about the affair just by looking at the picture on the phone. So I'm glad he didn't deduce it from the phone; he was just faking her out, like when he pretended that he knew the redheaded lady would tell the truth to Watson. I suspect that he's pranking her somehow with the baseball game too; that he has somehow delayed the television feed and got a normal feed somewhere else (or used the internet to look up the results) so he can pretend to predict things. I mean, how else did he predict the lines from the TV soap opera at the beginning? He rewound his Tivo a few minutes?

Edit: I forgot to say, I liked the villain being the doctor husband in the end. I recognized the actor from The Good Wife as Alicia's affable gay brother, so I thought his performance as the calculating doctor was very good. Reminded me of Dr. Grimesby Roylott in Speckled Band, and Holmes's line that doctors make the best criminals.

Here's a review of Elementary's pilot at Vicariously.