shadowkat

And it's a week since I watched the Elementary finale. I feel bereft of Watson & Holmes (and friends) already. Woe. Even more so since I don't think fanfiction can help there, because Elementary (so far) is the type of show which gives me precisely what I want on screen, which usually means fanfiction does not. I'm not saying it's perfect. But somehow I suspect that better plotted mysteries won't be what fanfiction-writing fandom will focus on. :) (If I'm wrong there, all the better, of course!)

The greatest charm of Elementary to me was that it really sold me on the Holmes & Watson friendship, and used its 24 episodes for the season luxury well. There are American shows which make me feel they would benefit from a shorter season (for example: Battlestar Galactica not so coincidentally had a far better ratio of good versus mediocre or bad epsiodes in its first season when it had only half the usual number of episodes), but not this one. Because for the relationship to work the way it does, it's important it doesn't start instantly. There is no immediate recognition in our two main protagonists that they are exactly what's missing in their lives. Not that there is something wrong with instant attraction (either in romantic or friendship stories), but it's a far more often told trope, and so a friendship that developes slowly felt like something fresh and rately told on screen. It also works very well with the show's premise of letting Holmes and Watson learn from each other. By the time we arrive at the mid season point which an episode opened and closed by the statement "I think what you do is amazing" , it has earned this mutual recognition and respect, because we've learned about the main characters along with themselves.

The mutuality is so important for Elementary. One fear that was voiced before the show aired was that making Joan Watson a sober companion so she'd have a reason to move in with Holmes at the start of the show would simply be a gimick, or reduce her agency compared to all her male predecessors who move in with their Holmes because they want to. Instead, Joan being a sober companion proved to be instrumental to the how the show works, and how the friendship comes to be, and that it gives her a reason for house sharing at the start is the least of it. When Arthur Conan Doyle made Sherlock Holmes use cocaine, the disastrous effects of drug use weren't as known as they are today, and so many later incarnations took that element and dealt with it in various ways Doyle couldn't have anticipated when he introduced it. Though I think the only example of a SH story that made it crucial was Nicholas Meyer's novel and later film script The Seven Percent Solution, and even there one is left with the impression that once Holmes has gone through the immediate cold turkey stage of withdrawal with the help of Sigmund Freud, he's fine. By contrast, Elementary, because it's a tv show that has the space and time to do so, makes it clear that addiction is something that never goes away. In the finale, we get this exchange:

Spoilery character, apropos Holmes' drug addiction: But you're well now.
Holmes: I'm sober.

Which sums it up. (It's not just Sherlock Holmes, either. We meet various other addicts in the show. There is one who's spent decades being sober, being a great sponsor and helping other addicts, but in a terrible crisis, he's still tempted to go back to the drugs, and it's really hard not to.) It's also something the Sherlock Holmes from the pilot, who denies needing help to begin with because hey, he's clean now, he's fine, would never have said. Elementary has a deep respect for the whole (life long) recovery process, the AA system, sponsors - and sober companions.

Mutuality, though. If it were only about Joan helping and Sherlock learning, if this Holmes and Watson relationship were one sided with one party endlessly giving and the other endlessly receiving, it would not be attractive, it would be horrible. (Well, to me, anyway.) Now Joan Watson doesn't need Sherlock Holmes in the sense that her life is bad without him. She has friends, family and a job that she's good at when she meets him. But if he's learning from her about dealing with addiction, the importance of help both giving and receiving, community interaction, she's learning from him the art of deduction. The very premise of a Holmes & Watson combination involves Watson giving Holmes a reason to provide the exposition of how case X is solved and thus explain it to the reader/viewer, too by having Watson repeatedly ask "but how did you" etc. Elementary turns this into a deliberate learning process when Joan accepts Sherlock's offer to become his partner in detecting, and then not only tells but shows us how she gets better and better (with the occasional set back). This, however, is only possible after the two of them have come to respect each other as human beings. If this Holmes had nothing to offer but brilliant detecting skills, this Watson would not stay with him beyond the sober companion time. This is why it's so important that Elementary does not position an "either/or" between mental brilliance and emotion. The show's Sherlock Holmes can be a self-centred jerk (and if he is, he gets called on it, not only by Watson but also the other ensemble members), but he has a genuine passion for justice, a deep loathing of exploitation and power abuse (when the Doyle line about regarding blackmail in some way worse than murder comes two thirds into the show, it fits with what the audience has seen so far) and cares about the victims of the cases beyond solving the puzzle du jour. Which is why the show's Joan Watson can want to stay with him and the audience can want her to as well. Again: if Elementary's Watson were a great character but Elementary's Holmes was not, the show would have failed, at least in my eyes, because nothing is worse than having to continually wonder why on earth character X, whom one loves and respects, would not only put up with but actively seek out character Y, whom one can't stand/is indifferent to/insert negative emotion of choice.

(This, btw, goes for fanfiction as well as pro fic, and certainly applies for 'shipping in any form. I never got people who were rooting for ship A/B despite hating B, and only because character A wanted B. Same goes for friendship or family relationships.)

Tied to this is the fact that Elementary's Holmes and Watson don't exist in a two-of-us-against-the-world universe. Holmes has a lot of respect for Gregson (and vice versa) to start out with, and as the show continues, the initial hostility between him and Bell gives way to friendly respect - with the occasional ribbing - as well. As mentioned, Watson has family and friends, and they are in varying degrees interested, concerned or supportive of her life changing decisions. Both Holmes' and Watson's initial reaction to Alfredo - who goes on to become Holmes' sponsor - shows their inherent biases (if the show presented Joan as perfect and eternally in the right, it would fail as well); they both then go on to form relationships with him that show them learning. It's part of the show's deep humanity and as mentioned connects to the way addiction/recovery is handled overall: people learning from each other. But also: people having principles. Again, I'm not denying that the "unconditional loyalty" trope is appealing. But the older I get, the more I find "conditional loyalty" even more appealing, especially if the condition in question is an ethical one. Over the course of its first season, there are several points where different characters - Holmes, Gregson, Watson and Bell - are in a position where another character they're attached do either seems to do or in fact does something ethically wrong. And their response, while conflicted, is never "my X, right or wrong!"

If you have a show that focuses on people learning from each other, you don't want one of the lessons to be "I can do whatever I like, X will support me anyway". And on this show, it really never is.

This is also a show that lives in the quiet, for all the fun that the banter often provides. The biggest emotional moments often involve nothing more than a sentence or two, and Holmes and Watson sitting next to each other. These are the moments that make me melt in a viewer puddle of goo. And they could not have come earlier in the show's continuity than they do. These are not two people born or destined to be friends, or two people who hit it off immediately. These are two people who have become friends and have taken us along every step on the way. And it was a delightful way, which I already miss going on with them.