I do enjoy that Lucy Liu.
Make no mistake, yesterday’s blog “Nightmare Watson” was
directed at the concepts behind CBS’s Elementary
and its ensuing poor promos. But today, as I worried that someone might mistake
that title for an attack on the amazing Lucy Liu, a thought occurred. A grand
thought. The kind of thought that settles into your head and won’t leave. And
that thought was this:
The creators of Elementary
got it backwards.
Lucy Liu should have been cast as Sherlock Holmes.
Her ability to go from intellectual coolness to passionate
intensity is unrivalled, and that is exactly the combo a perfect Holmes needs.
She can do exotic and somewhat alien, and Sherlock Holmes is exactly that – a human
beyond the everyday. She’s quick. She has command. Her name has the same
syllable pattern.
Lucy Liu is totally Sherlock Holmes material.
Johnny Lee Miller, on the other hand, never seemed quite
bright enough as Holmes in the promos. His accent isn’t quite the right sort of
British, somehow. But as a Watson? I actually think he could work.
While a female Watson to a male Holmes just adds
stereotyping to Watson’s somewhat subservient role, the reverse works amazingly
well. If a female Watson is a little in love with Sherlock Holmes, it’s
somewhat sad. A male Watson with feelings for a distant female Holmes? That
makes perfect . . . oh, wait, that’s what Fox’s Bones has been doing for years. So, maybe it wouldn’t be
groundbreaking, but let’s face it: doing a modern day Sherlock series now isn’t
groundbreaking in any case.
But Lucy Liu as Sherlock Holmes? Damn, I would have liked
to have seen that.
H.G. Wells, if you’re out there with your time machine,
come see me. We’ve got a television show to go back in time and tinker with.
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