Thursday, August 23, 2012

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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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