Well, here it is Elementary Thursday and no new episode to sharpen my knives on. But traditions must be honored, I suppose, and what do we do in fandom when there's naught of the real thing available?
We turn to fanfic.
A quick Google search on "Elementary fanfic" brings a host of things, but the first one I try is utter free-from artsy dreck, so I try a search on "best Elementary fanfic" and quickly locate a story of Clyde the turtle. As Clyde has long been one of my favorite things about Elementary, I spend a little time enjoying that one, then move on to the "shipping" category.
Relationship tales between Sherlock and Joan abound, but since that'll be coming in the series eventually anyway . . . yeah, the creators say they aren't going to go there, but the minute CBS says, "Hook 'em up for the finale, we want ratings!" . . . mark my words. No, Sherlock and Joan isn't cool, but Joan and Moriarty?
Now that's interesting.
I start with balanced on my head like steak knives, a simple, intriguing little tale of a painting being painted. And found I actually enjoyed it better than the average episode of the show.
Next came Of the Devil's Party, a longer work. Interesting, but mostly just teasing the topic. And way too much of Joan's room-mate, who, I must admit, is much more tolerable when a.) he's left to the mind's eye, and b.) actually makes sense when the writer seems to be thinking of him as a real person.
Oddly, after all that tease of the last one, a little post-coital tale called A Dress for Watson for Joan and Jamie rolled up. Too brief to really delve too deeply into the subject, I'm sorry to say.
Moving on, it seems like Jamie Moriarty painting that giant picture of Joan Watson has inspired a lot of Moriarty/Watson relationship thoughts, which makes a lot of sense. You have to be pretty fixated on someone to paint a portrait that large, and not in a pissed-off sort of way. If Jamie were truly fixated on Joan as a foe who bested her, she'd be plotting instead of painting. And her actions upon getting within arm's reach of Joan don't exactly say "payback."
I've often considered that Elementary would have been a better show if they'd have bit the bullet and gone female Sherlock as well as Watson, and their female Moriarty is as close as they come to that. Moriarty-Watson shipping seems somehow like the world of Joan and Jamie just trying to right itself.
But that's what fanfic is all about, in the end . . . supplying something absent in what was originally supplied, whether it's a relationship, a heartfelt moment, or just more content. And whether it's about Clyde the turtle, Jamie Moriarty, Miss Hudson, Alfredo Llamosa, or even restauranteur Mycroft, Elementary is leaving plenty of wide open spaces for fans to fill with fiction.
And on a rerun Thursday night during the February doldrums, well, it's somewhere one might wander.
The ongoing investigation of Sherlock Holmes, reported from the Peoria, Illinois outpost of Baker Street's dirtiest half a dozen.
"But that's what fanfic is all about, in the end . . . supplying something absent in what was originally supplied..." How odd then that there much more "Sherlock" fanfic than "Elementary" fanfic. Does that mean there is more "wide open spaces for ["Sherlock"] fans to fill with fiction"?
ReplyDeleteYou surely must miss your weekly Elementary fix, if you're now seeking out fanfic about it.... Just sayin'. ;-D
ReplyDeleteThat painting becomes more interesting when you recall that Moriarty didn't do any originals (other than the one she claimed to have done before she faked her death) during flashbacks with Sherlock. Then bam, we get hit by a huge original portrait of Joan in her confines.
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