A Justified criticism.

From the start, CBS's Elementary has failed my expectations of a Sherlock-related production with its writers inability to portray intelligence and mastery of one's profession. Pulling random cards out of a Trivial Pursuit game and working them into the plot or having the main character spout them for no reason just does not convert to "Sherlock Holmes" in any mental translation I can make. Your mileage may vary, of course.

And it isn't that Mr. Elementary just fails next to other fellows who have successfully taken the mantle of Sherlock Holmes in the past. He fails next to other investigators currently on television, who definitely aren't Sherlock Holmes, but come closer to the mark than he does.

Take Raylan Givens, for example. The main character of FX's series Justified.

Raylan is a good ol' boy from Kentucky, a deputy U.S. Marshall who returned to his home state after practicing his vocation in Miami until a "justified" quick-draw shooting. Now, to the casual observer, Raylan Givens is definitely not Sherlock Holmes.

But Raylan comes up with some impressively clever ways of dealing with the criminal element on Justified. His powers of observation may be a little more specialized than Sherlock's, but they're there, honed for searching out that right moment to pull his gun from its holster. He has a Moriarty of his own in the equally clever Boyd Crowder, who definitely has the Moriarty forehead. Raylan's Watson is a little harder to pick out, but after this week, I'd go for Constable Bob, who would do Nigel Bruce proud in being both goofy and stalwart.

I'd match Raylan Givens and Constable Bob against Mr. Elementary and Joan Watson in the brains department any day. In fact, I'd love to see Raylan give Mr. Elementary a wry sideways glance and a bemused grin as the delusional Brit tried to show off his idea of smarts. Of course, each of the investigators would get to bring his writers to the duel. Justified appears to have some decent ones.

I often get the question, "Why don't you stop watching Elementary if you dislike it so much?" Well, the answer should be obvious. I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, and that shows creators decided to associate it with that name. You take a name like Sherlock with a goodly fan base, and you get that fan base for better or worse. Especially if you're going to take up a prominent spot on a network schedule and play the peacock (even though that's another network's mascot).

If anybody asks me why I watch Justified, they might get a different answer.  Because there's still good TV out there. Especially when you line it up beside a certain other hour of melodrama.