Elementary: Season 1 (2013)

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

The dynamic between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Joan Watson was a surprise. I was concerned the gender switch of Dr. Watson was being done just for the sake of novelty, but Lucy Liu brings a very good balance to the role. Her take on Dr. Watson blends admiration for Sherlock’s talents with repudiation of his lack of tact and regard for others.

This version of Sherlock Holmes is also distinctive from other incarnations beyond simply the change of locale to New York city. Jonny Lee Miller’s portrayal of Holmes is fresh and compelling. He manages to bring a quiet intensity to the portrayal while still capturing Holmes’ penchant for tantrums. ‘Sherlock’, the BBC version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective, stars Benedict Cumberbatch (notable for his work in Star Trek: Into Darkness) as a Sherlock Holmes who is, by his own admission, a high functioning sociopath. Miller’s Holmes is driven not only by his need to solve puzzles/homicides, but by his desire to see justice served. Miller judiciously lets Holmes facade of confidence and imperiousness slip just enough to give us glimpses of the character’s vulnerability. He allows just enough of a peek behind the curtain so we can see the regard he holds for Watson while not devolving into a sentimentality that would rob the character of all credibility. Thank God it was renewed for a 2nd season.

– M.Bresford

The world can be neatly classified into those who don’t care about Sherlock Holmes, those who profess to care but simply put on airs, and those who are devoted enough to Sir Arthur’s original masterwork to recognize that one measure of its greatness is its ability to be translated and reconstituted across time and continents and vast social changes, all while maintaining the major character traits and plot threads that made the stories great in the first place. For myself, I started out firmly in the second category and as a Basil Rathbone traditionalist. Reluctantly, however, I was forced to admit that even Basil was exceeded by Jeremy Brett’s rendition. I drew the line at acknowledging the legitimacy of Robert Downey, Jr., but found myself enjoyably watching and re-watching his movie versions of Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch started strong and I remained a fan until he jumped the shark in the later episodes, but seriously–enough already, right?

Now they come out with still more Holmes, this time putting Sherlock in modern day New York City, as a full-fledged drug addict fresh out of rehab, paired with a Watson who is not a man, not English, and not even a doctor anymore? Preposterous! And it easily could have been preposterous, except for the marvelous writing, exceptional acting, and the most judicious directorial touch imaginable. In fact, the quality of the show is so uniformly strong in all respects that they really need not have bothered presenting it as yet another version of Sherlock Holmes; the show would have easily stood tall on its own merits even if they had called it “Jonny and Lucy in NYC.” I rank it next to Breaking Bad as some of the best TV ever. Slightly lower than Breaking Bad in terms of revolutionary originality, but slightly higher in terms of craftsmanship and consistently high quality. If you don’t appreciate this show, you should definitely order the discount package of “Three’s Company” re-runs instead. To each his own.

– LawDawg

There are three takes on Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” franchise in the media today: Robert Downey Jr.’s ongoing Warner Brothers “traditional” portrayal; Benedict Cumberbatch’s updated portrayal with Martin Freeman as Watson on the BBC, and this one, Jonny Lee Miller with Lucy Liu as an interesting twist on the Watson side-kick. Each has it’s own strengths and exploration of twists in the plot driven by the “alternative universe” of characters.

Of the three, however, “Elementary” stands apart in the most distinct and exciting ways. It bends the “Holmes” saga in a truly new direction, not only substituting a woman for Watson, or America for England, but expanding the stories into new and thoroughly modern cases in a more “realistic” police environment. The role of Watson becomes more transparent; amazingly, because Liu as Watson comes from a completely different direction than the previous incarnations. The ancillary details that Doyle carefully skipped in his stories: dinner at Holmes home, the banter around the house, the more detailed interaction of Holmes and his “companion” becomes more central to the story, and explains much about the relationship that we’ve KNOWN was there before, but is openly displayed in “Elementary”. This alone would make the show outstanding as a “companion” to any of the other Holmes arcs…but combined with the ingenious plots and superb characterization, and adding in the “dark” side of Holmes that we glimpsed only once before (in the 1980’s film “The Seven Percent Solution”), we have a richer tapestry of the character than ever before.

– Brett Brennan

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu, Jon Michael Hill, Aidan Quinn
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: English, Portuguese, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number of discs: 6
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: August 27, 2013