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| Elementary stars Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller |
Whenproducer Carl Beverly first posed the idea to Rob Doherty of transplantingSherlock Holmes to present-day New York, the writer’s response was Elementary.
“I daresay Sherlock is the most popular character inliterary pop culture from the last 100 years,” enthuses Doherty; perhaps that’swhy there have been so many prior filmic depictions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’sprototypical detective. Doherty says itwas “one of the wonderful little details that Doyle crafted a very long timeago” that became the key to Elementary,his new CBS series adaptation starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. The 19th Century Holmes wasfamously addicted to opiates, “and that’s the way I’ve always looked at him, asan addict,” the writer explains – and not just to drugs. “He’s driven by and very much addicted towhat he does for a living. He enjoysunfolding the origami of a crime, matching wits with someone who thinks he’ssmart enough to get away with something horrible, and bringing that person tojustice.”
Yes, this new Holmes does have a literal addiction to dealwith, too. Having just returned fromrehab – a vanishing he explained to his local police contact, Captain TobyGregson (Aidan Quinn), as a holiday in his native London – the hyper-observant detective“was previously used to being so ahead of everyone, and oozed confidence,”Doherty says. “Now he’s left rattled,concerned that he may not be what he used to. I liked the idea of a person like him feeling a little bit of doubt forthe first time.”
That’s where Lucy Liu’s Dr. Joan Watson comes in. As a former surgeon haunted by her role inthe death of a patient, Watson has now gone into business as a sober companion,hired by Holmes’ concerned dad to keep him in line. That means accompanying him everywhere, wherethe new duo finds that “as a doctor, obviously she has many skills in forensicscience,” Miller says. “So Holmes beginsto realize that she’s not just a companion, but she’s very useful.”
It was Doherty’s innovation both to alter this Watson’soccupation and to make Watson for the first time a female, who, he says, “hasmuch of the empathy Holmes is missing. In that way, she completes him.” Asthe writer praises, Liu brings her innate strength to Watson, who needs to beable to stand up to this quirky and demanding Holmes. But it’s also theircharacters’ more vulnerable moments that both Miller and Liu say attracted themto Elementary. Watson, Liu says, “is not going in withher ‘sober companion’ coat on. I likethat she’s trying to bring a certain sense of humanity and understanding to herclient.”
Miller adds that “one of the things that struck me, reading[Doyle’s] books, is how colorful and funny the characters are.” Doherty fully intends to weave that same witinto Elementary, which is why he isexcited that Miller’s embodiment of Holmes exhibits “a warmth, intelligence, anda fantastic sense of humor.”
But perhaps the most important quality that both Miller andLiu are bringing to their new show is appreciation. In filming Elementary’s pilot, “the first time I heard Jonny say ‘Watson!’ itwas a thrill to be creating that, to be part of history,” Liu reveals. The British-born Miller feels it, too. “There’s a reason why the Holmes stories keepbeing retold and redone,” he theorizes. “People play Hamlet a lot, and always want to play Shakespeare. Good stories and good characters come back.”
ElementaryPremieres Thursday, September 2710 PM Eastern / 9 PM CentralCBS
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