Matt Smith reviews the latest episode of Elementary…
Sherlock Holmes, in many of his forms and certainly all his recent ones, is displayed as quite a cold character. Untrusting to a degree that even if people he knew were guilty of a crime, Sherlock would barely bat an eyelid. As Gregory House says: ‘Everybody lies.’ Trust is not exactly a concept you can go into wholeheartedly with Sherlock Holmes, but it works both ways. Who’d trust a guy who would break into your house or cross examine you without so much as a moment’s thought?
This week, Holmes is dealing with someone who’s had the inside track on his whereabouts from the very beginning. This week, it’s all about Detective Bell. An under represented character for most of the series, it’s finally time for Detective Bell to step into the spotlight. Too bad it’s because he’s the prime suspect in a murder. We see the fallout between Bell and his brother, as well as tension rising in Watson as she deals with lying to Sherlock and what she really wants out of their relationship.
Detective Bell and his brother don’t seem to trust each other, what with one being a police officer and one being recently released on parole. Bell and everyone else is a relationship strained, what with all the murdering and his footprints at the scene, Scooby-Doo style. Watson only tells the whole truth to the one person who’s legally obligated to not tell anyone else. All in all, this Holmes, this Jonny Lee Miller Holmes, is perhaps the trust worthiest of the bunch.
Anyway, enough about the characters and on to the actual episode. Another aspect of the Holmes character we’ve seen recently is the inherent humour to be had, and this series has kept it up with a light hearted nature that means it stands out from some of the other shows on at the moment. Be it visual, with a great fade to Holmes casually lying on the ground almost posing with a dead body, or Sherlock’s impression of Kato, it’s my favourite thing on TV just because it’s fun as well as having a bit of depth to it.
After Detective Bell flips his car in an accident seemingly devoid of continuity, Sherlock must solve the case. I always wonder whether, on second viewing, the guilty party is obvious from the beginning. I mean, in the movies it’s obvious who the bad guy is because the name Mark Strong is in the credits, but the only clue we had this week as Sherlock mentioning the guilty party by name at some point.
It’s almost as if the makers of the show don’t trust Sherlock to beat us to the mark, which could be seen as a problem as the producers refuse us clues and disguise that decision as cerebral quality. This might be a reason for any potential coldness that Sherlock Holmes displays, as we only see the workings of his mind fully after he’s finished. But that’s also where the fun lies as well, as Sherlock reveals everything like the smart aleck he is. So I guess we have to trust that the producers know what they’re doing. Well, it is my favourite thing on TV. And you can trust that, right?
Originally published April 4, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
