TV Review: Elementary Episode # 19 - Snow Angels

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes

A security guard, Frank Dempster (Nick Sullivan) is killed in his attempts to stop a robbery.

Joan Watson has a surprise guest, one Miss Hudson (Candis Cayne), a longtime associate of Holmes from London. Miss Hudson’s Greek knowledge has helped Holmes in his case(s). Miss Hudson needs a place to stay after being dumped by her current lover.

Captain Toby Gregson (Aidan Quinn) calls in Holmes to assist him in catching the perpetrators of the aforementioned robbery and murder.

The seemingly straightforward robbery does not appeal to Holmes’ interests until a massive power shutdown happens.

Holmes realizes that stealing phones was just a cover up for a much more significant crime of stealing millions of dollars.

Detective Marcus Bell (Jon Michael Hill) finally does some deductions on his own and captures one of the three robbers.

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The absconding criminals have some tricks up their sleeves. I will leave it to the viewers to check out the episode to know the resolution.

Canonical References

1. Joan mentions Holmes having more than one case involving “Greek” – Reference to The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter
2. Miller’s Holmes quotes the line “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent” from A Case of Identity
3. Miller’s Holmes states that the robbers “made a real hash of it” with respect to their handling of the lock – Holmes makes a similar statement in The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax : “"Well, Watson," said he, "a very pretty hash you have made of it!"”
4. Holmes notices some scratches on the lock – The scratches around a key hole played a significant role in the solving of The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
5. Holmes wakes up Joan from her sleep - In the Canon, it has happened in many cases – either due to the sudden visit by a client (The Adventure of the Speckled Band) or after Holmes has had a sudden brainwave (The Man with the Twisted Lip)
6. Criminals using a seemingly simple idea/crime to hide a crime with much more higher stakes involved – This is very similar to the plot of The Adventure of the Red Headed League
7. Miss Hudson expresses her liking for Holmes’ monograph about Bees - In the story His Last Bow, Sherlock mentions he is writing a book on Bee Keeping entitled “Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen”.
8. Holmes asking Watson to read aloud the reports in the police station  – In the Canon, Holmes often asks Watson to read aloud a newspaper article or a correspondence from a client.
9. Miller’s Holmes is impressed by Detective Bell’s acting abilities and remarks: “The stage’s loss is NY city’s gain” – Holmes makes the following statement in The Adventure of the Mazarin stone: “Old Baron Dowson said the night before he was hanged that in my case what the law had gained the stage had lost”

The most significant part of this episode was our introduction to Elementary's version of Mrs Hudson.

Candis Cayne as Miss Hudson

Continuing with the gender swap the show initiated with John/Joan Watson, Miss Hudson is a transsexual. And in the same vein as Joan Watson, Miss Hudson is played wonderfully by real life transsexual actress, Candis Cayne.

Miss Hudson has OCD and can’t resist doing some much needed housecleaning. Holmes hires her to be paid on a weekly basis.

Next to Miss Hudson’s introduction, the Holmes-Joan interactions were the highlights. Joan gets frustrated with Holmes making deductions without explanations and mouths off a bunch of patently hard-to-believe deductions.

Another interesting exchange happens as Holmes and Joan hitch a ride with a plow driver, Pam (Becky Ann Baker). Holmes refuses to indulge in small talk and it is left to Joan to keep up the conversation. Holmes and Watson bickering, much to Pam’s amusement was fun. In the end, Holmes retains Pam’s card and I look forward to her appearance in future episodes.

Becky Ann Baker as Pam

In a scene, Holmes makes a reference to Joan’s multiple Karate belts. This seemed to be a reference to Lucy Liu’s previous action-oriented performances.

Holmes preferring to work upstairs to avoid the “Lovers’ tiff” was a fun touch.

Holmes remarking about letting the robbers go out of his respect for the ingenuity of their crimes, (but for the murder) was a good piece of writing.

Miller’s HoImes using the British terms “ingress” and “egress” was a nice nod to his British nature.

Holmes helps a homeless man

Holmes providing some cash to help the homeless man reminded me of the leniency shown by Canonical Holmes in some cases like The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle and The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.

Holmes’ pet tortoise, Clyde makes a comeback and should makes his fans happy.

The initial few minutes were kind of boring. The second half of the episode was quite interesting and helped make this one of the best episodes.

Trivia
The song “Penny” by Hanni El Khatib is played at the end of the episode, as Holmes spatters paint around as part of Joan's coaching.

Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as Holmes and Watson

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Redbox Movie Codes Giveaway - Winners announced!

Dear Readers,

We had announced a free movie codes giveaway a few weeks back.

Here are the lucky winners (as selected by Random.org):

1. Theresa M

2. Vincent

3. Yona Williams

4. James the Movie Reviewer

Congratulations!

The rest of the participants will each receive one complimentary movie code.

Everyone will receive the movie codes by email.

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Disclosure: I am not getting paid for giving away these codes by Redbox. The codes have been supplied to me by Performics (on behalf of Redbox).

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Happy Birthday, Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall was born on this day in 1934. She has been studying chimpanzees for nearly half a century. She is one of Leakey's Angels along with Dian Fossey (Mountain Gorillas) and Birute Galdikas (Orangutans).

Please visit her website, Jane Goodall Institute to learn more about her work.

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Conan Doyle, Holmes & Watson – An Enduring Friendship: Guest post by Chris Allen (author of Intrepid series)

Dear Readers, please join me in welcoming Chris Allen, author of Intrepid series. Chris is a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories and has contributed this guest post about the same. Over to you, Chris:

Chris Allen

One of the great pleasures in my life to date has been in watching directors, producers and screenwriters re-interpret the great writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as new productions are brought to the big and small screens. I literally count the days until the next Robert Downey/Jude Law collaboration hits the box office, and I always attempt to create a quiet environment at home when it's time to take in the BBC Sherlock series and the new US take on Holmes, Elementary. I collect the DVDs (special edition if possible) and watch them at my leisure, all the while re-reading at least one of Conan Doyle’s stories each week. Such is my obsession enjoyment of these stories and the literary inspiration I derive from them. It is indeed a pleasure to see them out again in the mainstream media for our general consumption.

One of the things I like to reflect upon when I’m viewing one or other of the latest iterations is the variety of ways in which the main characters, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have been presented to us over the years.

Before the recent adaptations, many people only knew of Holmes through the old black & white movies of the late 30's/early 40's, featuring Basil Rathbone. Fans of those movies will kill me for saying this, but I feel they were clichés.  Rathbone's Holmes was too perfect, the ultimate version, I suppose, rather than the complex, flawed, sometimes opiated, routinely depressed yet highly intelligent character we see on Conan Doyle’s pages.

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

That said, my greatest bugbear with the older versions was the reduction of Dr. John Watson, as portrayed by Nigel Bruce, to little more than a bumbling oafish sidekick. I appreciate that the 'straight man & comic relief' pairing probably reflected the times, especially considering audience familiarity with the Crosby & Hope, Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis partnerships. In the books however, John Watson is nothing like that at all. Conan Doyle had put so much of himself into Watson’s history and character that you can’t help but admire them – they were incredible men, one real, the other fictional but steeped in reality. Note: In fairness to Rathbone & Bruce, both men saw action during World War 1. Rathbone was awarded the Military Cross for bravery and Bruce was shot and severely wounded.

Probably my favourite element of the original stories was that they were all written from Watson’s perspective, which was very effectively captured - in a contemporary sense - in BBC's Sherlock via Watson's blog, something that viewers of the US Elementary series may not realise.

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Holmes is so reliant on his partnership with Watson. In fact, in the books Holmes often states that he is so much better off when he has his trusted friend and ally at his side. If it wasn’t Holmes saving the day with some well-paced judo moves, then it would be Watson with his revolver. I love the duo. They are much more like Bodie and Doyle from The Professionals than Batman and Robin, if you know what I mean: a much more equal pairing than the old movies ever gave them credit for.

Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Although the stories have been done many times over, the real resurgence of interest in Sherlock Holmes in recent years has been due to, I think, directors and producers of my age who loved the books throughout their lives and imagined them as similarly vividly as I always have. I really got into the Sherlock Holmes (2009) movie with Robert Downey Jnr. and Jude Law. While they gave the camaraderie between the two characters a great treatment, they also gave the story more of a modern edge, particularly in terms of the banter between them. It’s perhaps not as gentlemanly, but still in the same vein as Conan Doyle’s original. Then the movie sequel to the 2009 hit became more slapstick again, and took it a bit far from Conan Doyle’s books for my personal preference, but I still enjoyed the interplay between Downey Jnr and Law across both films.

Since then, obviously, we've had two equally interesting but vastly different treatments of Sherlock Holmes: BBC’s dark but modern-day Sherlock (2010) and CBS’s quirky and equally contemporary Elementary (2012). BBC’s Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch (Holmes) and Martin Freeman (Watson) came pretty close to the originals of Holmes and Watson and stayed true to the stories. They established a great equal relationship between the two men.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in BBC Sherlock

Next to Sherlock, I’m equally enamoured with CBS’s Elementary, featuring Johnny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson. It’s a great take on the complexity and eccentricity of Holmes counterbalanced by the thorough, no-nonsense medical professionalism that is Watson. It’s such a thought-provoking angle with a man and a woman, and it really breathed new life into this incredibly enduring story.

In terms of my own writing, I also enjoyed the camaraderie inherent to military life, just as Conan Doyle obviously did. I've tried to replicate that in my stories, with regard to the banter and conversational exchanges between my protagonist Alex Morgan and his colleagues, the way they are and the way they interact with each other. It reflects my view that no one is an island; we are all reliant on each other in some way and there are people you must and can trust during times of adversity. I guess that’s what I love most in Conan Doyle’s stories and probably the reason I try to bring it out in my own humble offerings.

In this day and age, I don’t want to have just male agents in my thriller novels; Alex Morgan and his compadres are great, but they need some female energy in the mix. Just as we’ve seen Lucy Liu acting as Joan Watson in Elementary, I’m writing a new key character in the latest book, Avenger. She’ll be the first female Intrepid agent to be introduced to the legions of Intrepid and Alex Morgan fans currently amassing across the globe! She sure knows her stuff, but I can’t tell you her name or anything else just yet.

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson in CBS Elementary

I’d love to hear your thoughts on your preferred adaptation of Sherlock – or maybe you can’t beat the books? We know, for example, that our good friend B2B (Is CBS Elementary a good adaptation of Sherlock Holmes?) is a fan of Basil Rathborne and doesn’t believe that Elementary will hit cult status. Leave your comment below!

A former Paratrooper, Government Security and Counter-Terrorism expert, and - most recently - the Sheriff of New South Wales, Chris Allen's series of thriller novels feature Interpol's ultra-secret sub-directorate Intrepid and star agent Alex Morgan. His experience of the publishing revolution has been up close and personal, self-publishing before being signed to Pan Macmillan's digital imprint, Momentum Books. Defender and Hunter have become instant eBook sensations with traditional print deals and a film franchise underway.

For more information visit www.intrepidallen.com, or say g’day to Chris at www.facebook.com/intrepidallen.

To read a sample of Defender: http://intrepidallen.com/getdefender/ to read a sample of Hunter: http://intrepidallen.com/gethunter/

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Happy Birthday Richard Dawkins!

Richard Dawkins was born on this day in 1941.

He is the world's most renowned atheist and the author of international best seller, The God Delusion. He has made the popular documentaries, The Root of All Evil? and The Enemies of Reason.

He is also an evolutionary biologist and has written several books on the subject, including The Selfish Gene.

Richard continues to be an agent of reason and understanding, and is one of my role models.

I wish him the very best of life ahead!

To know more about Richard and his work, please visit his website: Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

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FREE Redbox Movie rental codes giveaway!

Movie lovers, rejoice!

I am happy to host a movie rental codes giveaway, thanks to the kind folks at Redbox.

The giveaway ends on Thursday, April 04 2013. Winners will be randomly chosen on April 05 2013. 4 lucky winners will each get 5 FREE Redbox codes.

I will post another entry listing the winners. Winners need to send me their email addresses, to which the rental codes will be sent.

To enter the giveaway:

1. Follow my blog either here publicly with Google Friend Connect on the right sidebar (or) Like Buddy2Blogger on Facebook. Leave a comment mentioning that you did. If you are already following my blog here or on Facebook, mention that as well.
2. Also specify in the comment, the movies you are interested in watching, should you win the codes.

Note:
The offer is valid through July and can be used only once. Further, the codes work only for movies and not video games. These codes can be used in Continental US only.

Announcement: This giveaway is closed as of April 04 2013. Click here to see the lucky winners. Thanks for participating!

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Disclosure:  I am not getting paid for giving away these codes by Redbox. The codes have been supplied to me by Performics (on behalf of Redbox).

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Mark Gatiss reveals the title of the first episode of Sherlock Season 3

The name of the first episode of Season 3 has been revealed by Mark Gatiss: "The Empty Hearse".

The name is a play on the original story The Adventure of the Empty House. In the Canon, this story follows The Final Problem. Holmes is back from his self-imposed exile after his confrontation with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. He takes on Colonel Sebastian Moran, Moriarty's own Watson.

The ending episode of Season 2 "The Reichenbach Fall" was based on The Final Problem and it is a logical choice to start off the third season with an adaptation of The Empty House.

This announcement officially marks the beginning of Season 3 filming. I eagerly look forward to further developments and hope for an early announcement of the actual airing dates.

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TV Review: Elementary Episode # 18 - Deja Vu All Over Again

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes

The episode opens 6 months back as a woman is waiting to board her subway train. She is offered a bouquet of flowers by a hooded stranger. Her joy is short lived as she is soon pushed to her death right in front of the approaching train.

Meanwhile, Joan Watson is dining out with her friends when she receives a call about a possible client. Joan is intrigued with her client’s name – Sherlock.

We move back to the present. Sherlock’s sponsor Alfredo Llamosa (Ato Essandoh) has started teaching Joan “street skills”. In turn, Holmes spends couple of hours with Alfredo for each hour, he “mentors” Joan.

As readers might remember, Holmes had borrowed 2.2 million USD from his father. It is payback time and Holmes has to help a woman who works for his dad’s attorney.

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Rebecca Burrell (Geneva Carr)’s sister Callie Burrell (Roxanna Hope) has been missing for 6 months.  Rebecca believes her brother-in-law, Drew Gardner (Josh Hamilton) forced Callie to make a confession video and then killed her. Callie mentions that she is disturbed with the aforementioned subway death and is thinking of leaving her husband.

Holmes pushes Watson to take this up as her first case. Holmes takes the case of the subway killer, as he had lost an informant in a similar crime.

Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) takes up her first case as a Consulting Detective

Joan follows Drew around and breaks into his car to investigate the trunk, despite Alfredo’s strong protests. This lands Joan in jail and Holmes bails her out.

Holmes too is hot on the trail of a suspect, Anson Samuels (Jim True-Frost), who used to work with the subway victim, Vivian Tulley (Penny McNamee) and stalked her regularly.

Holmes is certain that these 2 cases are related just as Joan is convinced that Drew murdered his wife.

I will leave it to the readers to discover the solution for themselves.

Canonical References

1. Inside the attorney’s office, Holmes mentions about the glass being made of six inch polycarbonate – Reference to Watson’s listing of Holmes’s skills in A Study in Scarlet: “Knowledge of Chemistry. - Profound”.

2. Holmes’ remark: “There is no aspect more neglected than the art of tracking footsteps” – Direct reference to this statement by the Canonical Holmes from A Study in Scarlet: “There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps.”

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) approaches a fellow violin enthusiast

3. Holmes recognizes the tune being played by a violinist in the subway footage and tells Captain Gregson that he plays violin - Reference to Watson’s listing of Holmes’s skills in A Study in Scarlet: “Plays the violin well.”.

4. Captain Gregson’s comment to Holmes about not noticing him eat on that particular day – The Canonical Holmes is known to skip food when he is working hard on a case.

5. Miller’s Holmes quotes the eminent psychologist, Silvan Solomon Tomkins’ infamous line – “The face is like the penis”. This seeming indifference to Joan’s sensitivity reminded me of the deductions made by Holmes about Watson’s brother from his watch in The Sign of the Four. Yes, it is a bit tenuous connection and I can say it in no better way than to quote Holmes himself from Silver Blaze: “A long shot, Watson; a very long shot!”

This was one of the better episodes. There were a lot of fun moments.

Holmes’ statement: “Fortune favors the bold” was very Sherlockian in nature. His usage of the term “Tube pushers” was a nod to his British nature and a nice touch too. Holmes’ reaction to Joan’s intention to settle with Drew to drop his charges was a fine piece of acting by Miller.

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Aidan Quinn as Captain Gregson 

I also liked Holmes and Gregson working together while interrogating Drew. This aspect of their relationship is similar to the great chemistry between Basil Rathbone's Holmes and Dennis Hoey's Lestrade.

Homes’ meeting with the imprisoned Joan was a pivotal moment and showed the level of passion with which Joan has taken to her detective work. Joan’s Columbo impression was funny too.

There were a couple of weak points though. Joan approaches Drew and introduces herself as being interested in solving the mystery of his missing wife. She proceeds to ask a number of questions about his personal life. Drew answering personal questions about his missing wife to a stranger (who did not present any official credentials or credentials of any kind) was not a believable sight.

As good as it was to see Joan gain the confidence of being a good detective, the closing scene of her updating her status as a “Consulting Detective” on her social media profile was a bit clichéd and induced some unintentional laughs.

Oscar Wilde said in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying - "Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life." This episode reminded me of the subway tragedies in NYC towards the end of 2012.

On the whole, a good episode (by Elementary’s standards). The question is: Can they maintain this quality for the rest of the season?

Trivia

Holmes refers to Gas Light, a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton. He makes this point during his discussion about “gaslighting”, a psychological form of making a person doubt his/her own sanity and beliefs.

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