Thursday, December 6, 2018

ELEMENTARY SEASON 6: A NEW ARCH ENEMY



I’ve long championed the TV series ELEMENTARY. In part that’s because I grew up reading the books and watching the old black and white movies about Sherlock Holmes that starred Basil Rathbone in the lead and Nigel Bruce as his sidekick Dr. Watson. When I first heard of this series I wondered how it would turn out, replacing Watson with a female sidekick. It turns out there was nothing to fear and the series was great.

For those who remember the books the character of the retired soldier Dr. Watson has been changed into a female lead, Joan Watson (Lucy Lui), an ex-surgeon and now rehab counselor companion. As the series opened she’d been employed to be a companion to Sherlock Holmes (Johnny Lee Miller), now living in New York City and a recovering drug addict. Eventually the series began to change and Holmes took Watson under his wing to be his partner in crime solving, teaching her the skills that make him the best detective to ever live.

Each week the pair came to the aid of police Captain Thomas Gregson (Aidan Quinn) and his top detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill). They covered all sorts of crimes from theft to murder to corporate espionage. Holmes never made a point of embarrassing the police and they always benefitted from his expertise.

But repetitive series can grow stale and in an effort to keep the show fresh new characters and situations were brought in. Holmes’ father Morland (John Noble) was introduced, an unscrupulous businessman who ran his own crime ring of sorts who was always at odds with Sherlock. His brother Mycroft (Rhys Ifans) came onto the scenes as a potential love interest for Joan and a far cry from the books depiction of him as an equal of Sherlock who worked for the British government, instead here as a chef and restauranteur. And of course the ever diabolical Moriarty, Holmes’ nemesis was brought in the mix except this time she was an ex-love of Holmes’ but still a criminal mastermind.

With Moriarty imprisoned that left Holmes without a specific nemesis, someone to challenge him on his own level. That changed with season six, the season now available on disc. The season opens with Holmes recovering from post-concussion syndrome, a disorder that can leave the person experiencing it with fatigue, dizziness, headaches or worse. In the midst of recovering from the disorder Holmes continues working with the NYPD. That is until he discovers a severed head in his possession and must admit to Gregson he has no idea where it came from as well as his problem. This leaves him officially sidelined for part of the season but doesn’t stop him from continuing to help.

But in the opening episode Holmes meets a new friend at one of his AA meetings, a man named Michael (Desmond Harrington) who tells Holmes that he inspired him. What he fails to mention is that he inspired him to return to his wicked ways as a serial killer. Various episodes in the season involve his taunting Holmes and trying to get him back on his feet, back to his top level.

Along the way the season includes the various stories that we’ve come to expect as well. The duo prevent a nuclear terror threat, solve the murder of a man in a Revolutionary War enactment, find a partially mummified body and get involved in the dark web. Then they solve the murder of a hitman, deal with the murder of a worm expert, aid Holmes’ mathematic friend and finally find themselves in a predicament that could lead to their arrest. All in a day’s work as they say.

Season five was good but got bogged down in the efforts of Joan to help rehab a prisoner she once worked with who was involved in gang violence. This season returned to the more normal week to week caseload that the pair are known for. And Joan’s abilities have increased from the past making her not quite the equal of Holmes but a fine example of his methods at work.

The leads as portrayed by Miller and Liu are excellent in season six as much as they have been in the past seasons. Lee’s quirky Holmes has slowly come round to being more thoughtful of others, more caring and less outrageous as the series has progressed, showing the effects of Watson on him as well as his rubbing off on her. And Liu continues to show grace and depth of character with a side story this season of Joan thinking perhaps she needs to adopt a child to take care of.

The end result is another season that makes this series one worth watching every week. And in addition to that owning the series on disc provides a major opportunity for fans of the series to go back and watch every episode from the start to witness the development of the characters and to enjoy their exploits over and over again. If you’re not a fan you will be if you start watching.

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