Sherlock Drama ‘Elementary’ Just About Escapes Benedict Cumberbatch’s Shadow

Sherlock Drama ‘Elementary’ Just About Escapes Benedict Cumberbatch’s Shadow

Following the recent success and news of its renewal in the States, the Sherlock Holmes themed drama ‘Elementary’ made its UK television debut last night (October 23, 2012) and again found favour with critics. It’s been widely reported that CBS will be extending the show in the US to 22 episodes, and the omensare  cautiously good for it in Britain too, in spite of the aesthetic of the program being very different indeed to how Brits might usually come to expect from a Sherlock-themed show.

A contemporary update sees Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu play Sherlock and Watson respectively, the pair solving crimes in the hustle and bustle of the 21^st century as opposed to the Victorian age. The Guardian made a lot of the similarity in intent of the script to the Bernard Cumberbatch-starring ‘Sherlock’, pointing out “For a British viewer of Elementary, there is a definite sense of watching a very slick and skilful translation of Sherlock … Liu and Lee Miller had a dialogue, identical in intent though not specifics, to Cumberbatch and Freeman's first meeting, in which the sleuth made astonishing instant deductions about his newly recruited assistant.”

The Daily Telegraph was more positive, however, and though again drawing comparisons between the two shows, it did comment the drama was “definitely worth stumbling upon”.