Sherlock’s John Watson vs. Elementary’s Joan Watson
Who knows if we’ll ever be able to answer the age old question “which show is better Sherlock (BBC) or Elementary (CBS)”. By age old I mean the two year old question that fandoms of both shows have been arguing about, and will most likely be arguing till after they have long ended. Personally I believe that Sherlock is a better television show by far, the writing, directing and acting are far superior to that of Elementary and it doesn’t seem like a television show, each season feels like three different films and when it’s airing the whole of Britain comes to a stand still.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a show which we can use to partake in water cooler talk but Sherlock is something that even strangers can bond over, discussing an episode years after it’s aired. Even though I adore Sherlock I do still enjoy watching Elementary (yes, it is possible to enjoy both) even though it doesn’t quite stack up to the usual Sherlocks that we’ve had over time but it’s a fine procedural drama with likeable characters, and although I may not get as invested in it as Sherlock I do still enjoy the time I spend watching it.
Sherlock may be the better show for me as a whole but there is one thing that I think Elementary does a hell of a lot better than Sherlock, and that’s the character of John Watson. In Elementary the genders have flipped and the character is known as Joan Watson who is a former surgeon and sober coach, played delightfully by Lucy Lui. I’m not writing this to give Martin Freeman a bad review of his performance because he plays the character well in his incarnation, he plays him exactly how he should do which is the problem. The Sherlock Holmes stories have been around for over a hundred years now and are always told from the perspective of John Watson, he is constantly watching Sherlock and what he does but the role John plays in the investigations is quite limited, sometimes it feels as if he’s just another audience member. Sherlock has kept in line with the character and often it feels like John is just a spare part, just someone for Sherlock to discuss problems with but very rarely makes a difference. Often his presence is a hindrence, he’s used as a hostage more than once and makes life a lot more difficult for Sherlock.
Joan has also been in sticky situations that Holmes has had to help her out of but the characters differ greatly. Joan has managed to build up her own skill set and although she may have started off as Sherlocks companion she has become a competent detective in her own right. This is quite evident in the first episode of season 3, she is working for the NYPD as a consulting detective and has been doing so for quite some time without the help of Sherlock. I can’t picture John being able to do this, when Sherlock ‘died’ at the end of season 2 he went back to his old life and became a general practitioner even though it frustrated him greatly. He actually regressed as a character without Sherlock, he didn’t even stay static whereas Joan has grown over their time apart. Joan has managed to become her own character over the course of the three seasons as well as the time the audience hasn’t been with her and it seems like quite a natural growth. We haven’t seen anything like that from John, he’s the same year in and year out and I don’t think that will change anytime soon.
Elementary is doing quite well ratings wise and we’ve probably got a few years of it left so who knows what else we’ll get from Joan. She already seems to have outgrown Sherlock so will she be taking on more and more cases alone? Will Sherlock now have a limited role within his own series? Doubt it but who knows? I look forward to watching. Sherlock is a ratings powerhouse for the BBC so I expect at least couple more episodes before the decade is out and it will probably be back with a few surprises but there is one thing I can expect. Lack of character growth from John Watson. Of course this is just my observation, if you disagree feel free to let me know!
Blasphemy.
Let the flame war begin.
Martin Freeman did save Sherlock in the first episode, and the eighth episode shows him saving a man’s life when Sherlock is just trying to solve a murder, with Sherlock pointing out that John is the better person.
Although I do agree that he hasn’t grown much, I wouldn’t say that he has regressed.
While Freeman’s role seems to be “foil”, to me at least, Liu’s seems to be “irritant.” Busybody? Do-gooder? Maybe it’s better now that she’s doing the investigating, but the “stiff sobriety nanny” thing was her only thing for a long time.
I’ll bet she can act, but the script really seemed to hamstring her.