Thursday, August 24, 2017

Elementary: a Missed Opportunity
On CBS and Hulu.

It's too bad CBS couldn't see their way to doing something a little different with their Sherlock Holmes. How about having Lucy Liu play a female Sherlock, instead of the Watson role, for instance? Instead Liu is stuck in essentially the same role Bitty Schram played opposite the much more appealing Tony Shalhoub in Monk. Oh, but that was comedy and this is drama, you say? Let's not kid ourselves that Elementary is somehow serious drama. There are no social issues, no philosophy, not much psychology, nothing to elevate this above a hundred other TV series with smart, anti-social male protagonists. A woman in the Watson role is not news, even if Lucy Liu does her best to make her Watson fun to watch; it's just a "spunky" woman in her traditional place, playing the social interface for the man, three steps behind him.

More compelling, if less pretentious, is "Rizzoli and Isles." As the title suggests, the two female lead characters are more nearly equals. Rizzoli (Angie Harmon), as the detective, naturally is the more dominant character, but Isles (Sasha Alexander) holds her own as the chief pathologist. Not only does this reflect a more democratic ideal, but Rizzoli's leadership seems organic, based not only on their different roles in solving investigations, but also on their personalities. Let's have more of that.