On the whole, I found it dull, uninteresting and unengaging.
I've stated in the past I like both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. But they just didn't grab me as Holmes and Watson. They could have been any other addict (well, former addict) and councellor solving mysteries maybe I'd get into the characters. But not as Holmes and Watson. There was just very little chemistry between them.
And I was just not feeling this whole apologetic/sympathetic Holmes. It's so typical of American Television to try and make the character likable. Holmes would never admit he was making it up, guessing or apologize for his actions. Even at Benedict Cumberbatch's most angsty in the past season, you got the feeling he was only being apologetic because he had another trick up his sleeve.
I'm not going to get too much into their decision on casting a female Watson. I'm sure enough has been said. But I feel as though it's no longer Holmes by making that change. I'm well aware having a female Watson has been done before. First with a George C. Scott movie called They Might Be Giants and later in a made for television movie starring Michael Pennington called The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
However, in the first movie George C. Scott's character was a millionaire under the delusion he WAS Sherlock Holmes and the second movie Michael Pennington's Holmes was cryogenically frozen and the female Watson was the great-granddaughter (or something) of Dr. John Watson.
And I haven't even gotten to the mystery itself. The crime, the characters and the story were so forgettable. It's bad when a show loses your interest in the first three minutes. They tried to make Miller look like a cross between Robert Downey Jr.'s slovenly unshaved Holmes with the way Benedict Cumberbatch wears his scarf. Worse than that, you have Holmes spouting lines like "Sometimes I hate it when I'm right" when they found a body just irritated me. Again, I could never imagine Holmes saying such things.
True. Many of Doyles original stories could be very slow and plodding. However, it was Holmes's snappy dialogue and the way he would solve the crimes (as well as the crime itself) that would make the story intersting.
This episode had NONE of that!!
And the frustrating thing is American Television HAS done successful variations on Holmes with House and Monk. Not to mention not ALL shows over here are bad. Criminal Minds (also produced by CBS) is a great show. Good characters and great storylines. WHY couldn't the production team take a tip from any of those shows?
In all, I go back to my original feeling that this series's is just trying to ride on the coattails of the BBC series's success. So CBS threw this together as quickly as possible.
And the result is a very dumbed down and shallow Holmes and Watson.
I've stated in the past I like both Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. But they just didn't grab me as Holmes and Watson. They could have been any other addict (well, former addict) and councellor solving mysteries maybe I'd get into the characters. But not as Holmes and Watson. There was just very little chemistry between them.
And I was just not feeling this whole apologetic/sympathetic Holmes. It's so typical of American Television to try and make the character likable. Holmes would never admit he was making it up, guessing or apologize for his actions. Even at Benedict Cumberbatch's most angsty in the past season, you got the feeling he was only being apologetic because he had another trick up his sleeve.
I'm not going to get too much into their decision on casting a female Watson. I'm sure enough has been said. But I feel as though it's no longer Holmes by making that change. I'm well aware having a female Watson has been done before. First with a George C. Scott movie called They Might Be Giants and later in a made for television movie starring Michael Pennington called The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
However, in the first movie George C. Scott's character was a millionaire under the delusion he WAS Sherlock Holmes and the second movie Michael Pennington's Holmes was cryogenically frozen and the female Watson was the great-granddaughter (or something) of Dr. John Watson.
And I haven't even gotten to the mystery itself. The crime, the characters and the story were so forgettable. It's bad when a show loses your interest in the first three minutes. They tried to make Miller look like a cross between Robert Downey Jr.'s slovenly unshaved Holmes with the way Benedict Cumberbatch wears his scarf. Worse than that, you have Holmes spouting lines like "Sometimes I hate it when I'm right" when they found a body just irritated me. Again, I could never imagine Holmes saying such things.
True. Many of Doyles original stories could be very slow and plodding. However, it was Holmes's snappy dialogue and the way he would solve the crimes (as well as the crime itself) that would make the story intersting.
This episode had NONE of that!!
And the frustrating thing is American Television HAS done successful variations on Holmes with House and Monk. Not to mention not ALL shows over here are bad. Criminal Minds (also produced by CBS) is a great show. Good characters and great storylines. WHY couldn't the production team take a tip from any of those shows?
In all, I go back to my original feeling that this series's is just trying to ride on the coattails of the BBC series's success. So CBS threw this together as quickly as possible.
And the result is a very dumbed down and shallow Holmes and Watson.
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