(TV SERIES) Elementary Season 1 - Another Adaptation of Sherlock Holmes

As I was browsing through the TV series that might interest me, I noticed that I had not seen this one at all despite it has been running for the fifth season now. Which would translate to a good series and attracted a lot of viewers (US TV producers tend to be very vicious when deciding which series to continue or stop, which would depend entirely on the viewership. The lesser it is, the quicker it would be cancelled). So anyway, another series about Sherlock Holmes should be interesting, right? Ok, now let's move on to the story.

Brief Story Line

Series started with the introduction of Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu - Charlie's Angels, Kungfu Panda trilogy etc) who had stopped from her medical practice and instead opted to become a sober companion. Her scope of work as a sober companion would be to accompany a former addict and ensure smooth transition from rehab to everyday life, and also ensure the person did not relapse into addiction, be it drug or alcohol addiction.

(TV SERIES) Sherlock - Season 2 and 3

After watching the first season of Sherlock (which I happened to reviewed earlier before), I could not stand not to watch the second season after that. So once I got the chance, I immediately start watching season 2 and continued to season 3 in less than a week time.

Brief Story Line (spoiler warning, particularly with reference to season 1)

Season 2:

If you already watched season 1, you would know that by the season finale, Sherlock and Watson were threatened Moriarty's men and Sherlock threatened back by aiming his gun towards the bomb near Moriarty's location. The 1st episode of season 2 continued where it left off. Moriarty got a phone call and decided he would not kill Sherlock and Watson after all, leaving both of them relieved. Later, Mycroft requested Sherlock to acquire "indecent" photos of certain high powered political person in England from a dominatrix lady named Irene Adler. She was portrayed as a very smart woman and seemed able to match Sherlock's brilliance through her wit. I felt this episode was funny and enjoyable to watch, with Sherlock seemed to be a little bit attracted by Irene, even Watson and Mycroft can also sensed about this. The ending provide some shocking scenes as well.

Second episode titled "The Hound of Baskerville" was inspired by the same novel published in 1902. However, they made it into the modern world. Story was about Henry Knight who brought Sherlock the mystery about a giant hound that murdered his father when he was a young boy in a small town near Dartmoor where a military base called Baskerville was located. This story was different from other Sherlock's stories as it had a few element of thriller and suspense. The brilliance of Sherlock was not shown too much but it also showed that Sherlock was a human being after all as for the first time ever, he doubted his own mind. 

The season finale again pitted Sherlock with Moriarty. In this episode, Moriarty once again showed his brilliance by getting himself captured by police only to show Sherlock that he was capable of found not guilty during trial. This is where it gets interesting as Moriarty was able to put doubts in the eyes of police and press about Sherlock's ability. The doubts were so high that Sherlock had no choice but to run away from police hands when he was suspected of coordinating all crimes for him to solve in order to bring fame to himself. The episode ended with very very huge surprise and upset for the audience. Once again, I felt the thrill and excitement watching this episode and could not wait to watch the 3rd season.

Season 3 (spoiler warning)

The 1st episode of this season happened around 2 years after the supposed "suicide" of Sherlock Holmes, where he was finally asked by Mycroft to return to England to solve a possible terrorist attack. Watson who never knew about the fake suicide had finally returned to 221B Baker Street to meet with Mrs. Hudson and informed her that he was going to get married. Sherlock wanted to surprise Watson during the time when Watson wanted to propose to his girlfriend Mary which of course became hilarious as Watson understandably very very upset and angry for being kept in the dark more than 2 years. However, after Mary convinced Watson, he was of course coming back to help Sherlock on this case. I enjoyed this episode particularly seeing Watson's expressions when he found out Sherlock still alive. The case itself felt a little bit like background in this episode.

The 2nd episode was about Watson getting married to Mary. Before the wedding party, Sherlock and Watson went to help a British soldier who felt like being stalked and finally found dead when he was taking a shower in a locked bathroom. This was told through a flashback by Sherlock during his wedding speech as a best man for the wedding. Sherlock was unable to solve that case apparently. Later on, he also told another case involving some women who felt they were dating a ghost of a deceased man. This case was not able to be solved by Sherlock as well. When Sherlock finally wanted to put up the toast, he realized that there was going to be a murder during the wedding. So the wedding ceremony became like a "performance" by Sherlock. I enjoyed this episode a lot and I felt that this was a very touching episode. It truly showed the affection of Sherlock to his only friend while Watson also really loved Sherlock as his very best friend.

Finally the season finale. This episode introduced us to a new villain who was very obnoxious and snobby named Magnussen, a newspaper mogul who was able to know every dirty little secret of all powerful people in England and possibly the world. Sherlock who was asked by 1 of the person blackmailed, wanted to retrieve the letter consisting incriminating information which supposedly locked in the room of Magnussen's office. This episode also showed Sherlock having a relationship with Janine, Mary's bridesmaid from episode 2. When Sherlock and Watson was trying to locate the letter, there was a shocking moment when Magnussen was under threat and later Sherlock got shot by that person. Ultimately there were lots of twists and brilliance of Sherlock and of course Magnussen as the main villain. I also enjoyed this episode a lot and was amazed that I could still feel surprised on the story lines and the ending.

End of Brief Story Line

After watching 3 seasons of this TV Series, I felt that the 2nd and the 3rd season was exciting, a little bit darker, but also had some touching moments compared to the 1st season. However, even though they were still very very good seasons, I still feel that the 1st season was the best of them all.

Of course, if you are a fan of films where the detective is as smart as Sherlock Holmes, this TV Series still is a very recommended one to watch. My suggestion is to watch 1 episode a day or maximum 2, so that the episodes can be better absorbed by our mind, coz I personally felt a little bit overwhelmed when trying to watch 3 episodes in 1 night.

Btw, till now the 4th season has not aired yet. So at the moment, the season finale of 3rd season was the last episode that we could watch of this series. I hope they won't suddenly cancel it as it would leave a huge cliffhanger.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

(TV SERIES) Sherlock - Modern Day Adaptation of the Famous Detective

At first, I thought that this is a series set in the 19th century just like in the books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But apparently it was told in the modern day. So instead of seeing Sherlock Holmes using a large magnifying glass, we will see him using his smartphone. Instead of writing books, he writes blogs. and all other modern culture references in the current day London.

Anyway, this series only consisted of 3 episodes in each season. The first season started in year 2010 and each episode has a length of approx 1.5 hours. What I am about to write next would be related to the first season.

Episode 1 titled "A Study In Pink" would introduce us to Dr. John Watson (played by Martin Freeman - as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit trilogy), an ex military person who just came back from war. He was advised by his therapist to do normal people's stuff and write about his experience in his blog. While walking by himself, he met an old friend who informed him of his friend looking for a room mate to share the rent. Watson was interested and introduced to this person who happened to be Sherlock Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberbatch - Star Trek Into Darkness, Imitation Games etc).

Needless to say, Sherlock who was able to deduce many things about Watson and made him intrigued and interested. So they both went to the apartment located at 221B Baker Street (for those who has ever read Sherlock Holmes stories would know that this is the address of his home). The landlady was Mrs. Hudson, who Sherlock & Watson sometimes asked her help as if she was their housekeeper.

The first case was about a series of suicides which at first seemed unrelated but Sherlock was able to deduce that they were not suicides and they were done so smartly by a serial killer. Using his power mind, Sherlock was always able to find out things that the normal eyes, coroner or even the lead detective, Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade could not see. These very very quick deduction made by Sherlock would always amazed Watson. He thought it was very fantastic for Sherlock to do those deductions, including in the very early stage where Sherlock gave the explanation of how he was able to find out so many things about Watson so fast. So this episode would be more of introduction to the characters.

Episode 2 titled "The Blind Banker" would tell the story where Sherlock was asked by his old college friend to investigate on the break-in of the bank where he worked at, leaving paint symbols on the wall which at first seemed random. The investigation would reveal something a lot bigger than just the break-in and involved lots of other people.

In this episode, instead of Detective Lestrade, another detective inspector named Dimmock would be the representative from police, whom at first was very skeptical of Sherlock.

We would also see Watson started to be a little irritated with Sherlock's way of doing things by himself including also his remarks about Watson (and everyone else) never use their brain. But ultimately Watson was still very protective of Sherlock and amazed with his deductions ability. 

Last episode of the 1st season, titled "The Great Game" was I think the best of them all. This was a very very fast paced episode. Sherlock was given the task of finding out the fault or crime done by other people with certain hours to complete before a person who was strapped with bombs would be blown up. In total there were 4 cases that Sherlock must solved. Meanwhile, Watson also would help on another smaller case provided by Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes who worked for the government about the missing flash disc contains a secret weapon information. 

This episode would totally blow your mind and strapped you to your seat. With such fast pace, you do not want to miss a scene. And the ending was just crazy and made you want to watch the second season immediately as it ended with cliffhanger. There was also a new character introduced here that would be crucial to future seasons played by Andrew Scott.

In conclusion, the first season of Sherlock was totally great! I really truly enjoyed this TV Series. The portrayal of Sherlock in modern day is such a nice touch that it would made the new generations love this series, while the older generation who have read the books, I am sure would be appreciative of how Sherlock would be in the current situation. Watson portrayal also is very nice, and I can imagine the real Watson would be like this. He was always serious, very English, and charming to the ladies. I believe Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman did a fantastic job in this series. 

Other characters also were very lively and add to the charm of the series, such as Mycroft Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, even Lestrade.

So I am going to give the first season of this series something that I never done before, which is to give it a 5 stars!

This is a very very recommended TV Series. I am just hopeful that the 2nd and later seasons would be as incredible as this one.

Oooh before I forgot. They somehow produced the pilot episode in a shorter version (less than 1 hour), which I happened to watch first and confused why the episode was similar to the 1 that saw next. Apparently that version never aired and I suggest to avoid confusion, better stick to the ones shown (the 1.5 hour long) and only watch this one if you are interested. That one since it was shorter, did not introduce to the important character we would see in the future episodes.

Mike's movie moments rating: 5 out 5 stars