Elementary: Strong to the End

For New Year's, I finished up Elementary by watching The Final Season.

It has its weak points: some of the mysteries are a little rushed and tad sketchy on the clue side. It is shorter than the average U.S. season, so the arcs, namely Odin Reichenbach, run most of the season, as opposed to the season being a combination of single episode mysteries and arcs.

The strengths outweigh the weaknesses. James Frain is magnificent. Rather than being the overblown villain of so many mystery shows, he is a deeply flawed man who truly (mostly) believes he is principled. His insidious reach is far more believable than the "big bads" of so many other shows (in which the bad guys just magically know everything). And his undoing is inevitable since those who fear him also loathe him. Even the man himself is unable to sustain his villainy; at some level, he is aware of the compromises he makes to retain his supposed principles, which principles become conflated--as with so many self-righteous people--with power. He is very well-written. 

Check out The Closer, Season 2, "Critical Missing"

for a forty-minute virtuoso performance by Frain

Another strength of the season is the finale. So many seasons fall apart in the finale. The writers of those shows act almost embarrassed at their desire to end things well. They fall back on some of the most (and worst) pretentious literary ideas in Hollywood: it was just a dream, everybody dies, multiple alternative endings, abstract and completely deconstructed endings with no real pay-offs.

Two shows that end perfectly are Monk (however simple the plot) and Elementary. Holmes and Watson forever is the way things are meant to be.

The final strength is the strength of the show overall. The Elementary producers/writers never forgot their mandate. The show never becomes entirely a family drama or entirely a soap opera or entirely a social lecture or entirely a conspiracy theory or entirely about the "big bad" villain or entirely anything but a mystery show. Sure, the show swerves in all those directions. But it continually pulls back to being a tribute to Holmes & Watson as they were meant to be.

Love the Baskerville dog--it's so cute!

Granted, Jonny Lee Miller is one of the sweetest Holmes on record, but he is entirely consistent with the original.

So are the episodes. Watch them closely. Not only do the writers make continual references to Arthur Conan Doyle's written texts, they also use a similar approach/tone. The combination of science and "new" discoveries--the use of a gentlemanly/gentlewomanly threat--the chivalrous behavior of Watson and Holmes--the edge of suspense--the slight horror element that always returns, ultimately, to forensics--the tension and friendship with the police. All of this is part of the original tales.

Elementary is a strong, noble, and loving tribute.