TV Review: Elementary - Super Bowl Episode # 14 - The Deductionist

Jonny Lee Miller and Kari Matchett in Elementary

Howard Ennis (Terry Kinney) is a serial killer who has killed several women. He was caught based on the work of Kathryn Drummond (Kari Matchett), professional profiler.

Eight years after he has been imprisoned, Howard is released temporarily to perform a kidney donation for his sick sister, Patricia Ennis (Jessica Hecht). Howard escapes from the scene of operation after killing everyone around him.

NYPD calls in Kathryn again to apprehend Howard. Holmes is also involved in the investigation and he openly resents Kathryn’s efforts.

Watson does some research and finds out that Kathryn had published Holmes’ profile in an article termed “The Deductionist”. Holmes lets Watson know that he was intimately involved with Kathryn and tried to teach her the methods of observation and deduction.

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Kathryn did not explicitly name the subject of her article but Holmes is still ruffled at some of the points made. Kathryn predicted that Holmes is destined to destroy himself.

Holmes does not believe in Kathryn’s abilities. Patricia on the other hand, does have faith in Kathryn and believes she is the one person who can stop Howard.

Like Holmes, Howard Ennis too holds a personal long grudge towards Kathryn. He blames Kathryn for the deaths of his parents.

Going into more details will be spoiling the mystery. The mystery component is pretty good and rivals that of Episode # 3 (Child Predator) for being one of the best the show has offered so far.

Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson

Canonical References:

1.   Miller’s Holmes is able to escape out of his handcuffs in the opening scene – The Canonical Holmes is an expert in picking locks. In The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, Holmes displays his burgling kit, complete with keys, glass-cutter and a jimmy.

2.   Miller’s Holmes is seen practicing his single stick skills on a dummy – Watson mentions about Holmes in A Study in Scarlet: “Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.” Holmes himself states in The Adventure of the Illustrious Client:  “I’m a bit of a single-stick expert, as you know.”

3.   Holmes deduces Howard fooled the machines in the operation theater by practiced meditation of lowering his heart rate and pulse rate – Holmes himself did something similar in The Adventure of the Dying Detective. He also mentions: “Malingering is a subject upon which I have sometimes thought of writing a monograph.”

4.   Holmes deduces that the blood stain has been diluted with some chemical agent (Propofol) – Watson mentions that Sherlock Holmes has profound knowledge in Chemistry in A Study in Scarlet

Kari Matchett as Kathryn Drummond 

5.  Miller’s Holmes displays some knowledge of astronomy – Watson mentions that Sherlock Holmes has nil knowledge in Astronomy in A Study in Scarlet. This is an indirect reference to the number of inconsistencies in the Canon. One example is the shifting nature of Watson’s war injury.

6.   Miller’s Holmes openly expresses his disdain for Kathryn Drummond’s abilities – This reminded me of the contempt held by the Canonical Holmes for the abilities of Scotland Yard officers.

7.   Miller’s Holmes detects the presence of frankincense mixed with carrot seed – Holmes states in The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier: “I have, as my friend Watson may have remarked, an abnormally acute set of senses, and a faint but incisive scent was apparent.”

8.   Miller’s Holmes wakes up Watson 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).

The Canonical Holmes’ sense of humor is one of my favorite Sherlockian traits. I enjoyed the comedic touches that Miller brought to his performance in this episode. I especially liked his reference to Kathryn’s profession as “pseudoscience”.

Lucy Liu’s Watson also gets to shine in her storyline. She applies her client’s methods and is able to resolve her problem with her landlord to her advantage. Her medical knowledge comes in handy too in the investigation.

Terry Kinney is effective as the serial killer. Terry successfully portrays an individual who is quite creepy and cunning at the same time.

Terry Kinney as Howard Ennis

A good episode and hope they continue to become even better in the future.

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Elementary Episode # 13 - "The Red Team"

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TV Review: Elementary Episode # 13 - "The Red Team"

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes

Holmes’ abduction and torture of Sebastian Moran has not gone down well with Captain Gregson and he has suspended Holmes. Watson continues to stay with Holmes, even though her contract was not extended by her employer.

Holmes likes conspiracy theorists and is particularly close to Len Pontecorvo, a conspiracy theorist of some repute. When Len does not respond to Holmes’ text messages, Holmes decides to check on his whereabouts.

Holmes breaks into the house of his fellow conspiracy theorist and finds his corpse.

The title of the episode refers to Army War Games. Len has discovered the identity of one of the members of the Red Team of 2009. This member was killed a few months back in a case of mugging that according to Len was staged.

Holmes determines the names of the remaining teammates. One of them, Carlo Anillo has been diagnosed with an early onset of Alzheimer’s. Holmes deduces that Carlo is actually a victim of domoic acid poisoning.

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Holmes tries to help the official force in the case but is thrown out of the building by Captain Gregson. 

Sherlock and Watson continue to work on the case independently. They encounter “Bill”, who later turns out to be one Colonel Todd Clarke.

Shortly after Sherlock’s visit, Todd gets murdered and Sherlock finds himself as the suspect. To keep the review spoiler-free, I encourage the readers to check out the episode for themselves.

Canonical References:

1. Holmes and Watson discussing about Napolean Bonaparte – Reference to Professor Moriarty, the “Napolean” of crime.
2. Holmes forgetting about food when he is totally absorbed in his work – The Canonical Holmes does this in many of the cases.
3. Miller’s Holmes breaks into Len Pontecorvo’s house – The Canonical Holmes broke into the house of Charles Augustus Milverton to retrieve some documents.
4. Holmes’ deduction about domoic acid poisoning – Reference to Watson’s listing of Holmes’ skills and limits in A Study in Scarlet: “Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally.”
5. Sherlock introduces himself as a temporarily suspended consultant for the NYPD and Joan as someone who prevents him from doing heroin to “Bill” – Reference to the dry sense of humor possessed by the Canonical Holmes.
6. Holmes makes some deductions based on Len Pontecorvo’s finger nails  - Holmes states in A Study in Scarlet: “By a man's finger nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boot, by his trouser knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt cuffs—by each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed.”
7. Miller’s Holmes smashing the listening device to smithereens – In The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, Holmes breaks the bust of Napolean to retrieve the missing black pearl.
8. “…why keep me from my work. My work is the greater good” – Reference to the French proverb stated by Holmes in The Adventure of the Red-Headed League: “‘L’homme c’est rien–l’oeuvre c’est tout,”. The French proverb translates to: “The man is nothing, the work is all”
9. Sherlock informing “Bill” that the surviving members of the Red Team are under his protection – Holmes makes a similar statement to Steve Dixie in The Adventure of the Three Gables: “Well, just bear in mind, Steve that the lady in that house, and everything under that roof, is under my protection. Don’t forget it.” 
10. Detective Bell remarks to Captain Gregson that it would probably be easier to fire Holmes if they ever actually paid him – The Canonical Holmes often took cases without consideration for compensation or recognition of any kind. 
11. Miller’s Holmes states to another character: “I judge people by their behavior” – Holmes states in The Sign of the Four: “It is of the first importance not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities… I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellant man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor.”
12. Miller’s Holmes blows a whistle to call a cab – In The Adventure of the Empty House, Holmes uses a whistle to summon the official force, after he captures Colonel Sebastian Moran.

Lucy Liu as Joan Watson

This was a good episode. The mystery component was OK.

Miller’s performance was definitely the highlight. The Holmes-Watson chemistry is great and results in some nice exchanges. I especially enjoyed their conversation in the car, while waiting to follow a character.

Miller does some of his best work as Holmes. He has some great dialogues:

“I am smarter than everyone I meet, Watson”

“So far, none of the conventional ways of getting oneself killed apply”

“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Watson”

Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes

I look forward to the post-Super Bowl episode “The Deductionist”.

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TV Review: Attenborough's Life Stories - Episode # 2 - Understanding the Natural World

Sir David Attenborough with a Meerkat

In this episode, David Attenborough takes a closer look at how science helps us to understand the world better.

We first meet the Austrian scientist, Konrad Lorenz. Konrad was a pioneer in the field of imprinting. He studied geese and published the book “King Solomon’s Ring” in 1952.

David gets to experience firsthand the effect of imprinting in geese. The close up shots of geese flying right next to David are simply stunning. They are in my humble opinion, the best shots in this episode.

Konrad Lorenz 

The concept of imprinting also works on animals including human beings.

We also learn that animals have a well-developed set of communication signs. For example, among vervet monkeys the signal used to alert the approach of a python is different from that used for a bird of prey.

Birds have different types of courtship rituals. In some species, males make astounding physical displays to impress females. In another species, male birds collect beautiful leaves, stones and fruits.

Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist

We then meet West African chimpanzees that are renowned for their nut cracking abilities. Human beings share 98% of their DNA with Chimps. Chimpanzees are omnivores and use complex hunting technique to catch their prey.

Another interesting aspect is that Chimpanzees communities each have their own cultures, much similar to human communities.

This is another gem from the veteran naturalist. Recommended to fans of natural history.

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Image Sources: Fanpop, Time, Humanima Foundation

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RIP Sidney Paget - The man who brought Sherlock Holmes to vivid life

Sidney Edward Paget passed away on this day in 1908.

Arthur Conan Doyle was an expert wordsmith and a master storyteller. His timeless stories featuring the Great Detective were further embellished with Paget’s superb drawings.

Paget created the iconic image of Sherlock Holmes wearing the deerstalker cap and the Inverness Cape. Conan Doyle did describe Holmes’ physicality in A Study in Scarlet but never mentioned these specifics.

As the famous proverb goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”.

In addition to Sherlock Holmes, Paget also brought two other major characters memorably to life: Professor Moriarty and Mycroft Holmes.

RIP Sidney.

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Image Source: Artintheblood.com

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TV Review: Attenborough's Life Stories - Episode # 1 - Life on Camera

From land animals to small insects to birds to natural phenomena to even Human DNA, Sir David Attenborough has seen and studied them all. He truly is a living legend.

This is the first of the 3 part series (PBS Nature). In this episode, David Attenborough gives us a walk-through the constantly evolving technical aspects of wildlife film making.

David’s sense of humor shines throughout the episode. David is humble enough to focus on the nature and history of wildlife film making.

David was 8 years old when he saw his first wildlife film, Dassan by Cherry Kearton in 1934. Thus began his lifelong fascination with natural history.

David’s first film was Zoo Quest for a Dragon made in 1956. David is headed with his crew to Komodo Island to shoot the famous inhabitant: Komodo Dragon. David shares the picture he took of a curious Komodo that literally came face to face with him and was just a few yards away when the picture was taken.

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David discusses in detail the hardships faced by filmmakers due to the technical limitations. When filming underwater, initially they could only film for 10 minutes. They had to return to the surface and put a fresh film roll to continue the filming.

This situation was remedied with the arrival of the video camera that could shoot for 30 minutes. This made the shooting of never-before-seen sequences possible (The Blue Planet, 2001 and Nature’s Great Events, 2009).

David shares a funny anecdote about the “Bubble helmet” with microphone that was meant to enable the presenter to speak underwater.

David then focusses on the problems of shooting animals that are active in dark, such as bats and lions. Presence of camera lights disturbs the normal behavior of these beings. With the help of Infrared light cameras, able to capture the normal behavior (The Life of Mammals, 2002).

We are also treated to a superb Kiwi encounter (The Life of Birds, 1998). Kiwis have poor eyesight but are compensated by an amazing sense of smell. To hide his presence, David laid among the seaweeds whose strong odor was the perfect camouflage.

Here are some of the different types of cameras and techniques used for specific purposes:

1. Thermal cameras – used to shoot animals based on their body heat readings
2. Optical Probe – used to film insects and other microorganisms such as ants inside their nests.
3. Motion detector – used to film rattlesnakes hunting rats
4. Slow motion camera – used to film Kestrels, and Hoverflies (Life in the Undergrowth, 2005). Both of these winged beings can hover in the air and slow motion filming techniques are used to understand their ability to do so.
5. Time lapse studio – This is the reverse of Slow motion camera and is used to speed up slow action (The Private life of Plants, 1995).
6. Aerial Photography – used to shoot a wild dog hunt (Planet Earth, 2006)
7. Computer animations – replaced line drawings as the best technique to recreate ancient life forms (The Life of Birds, 1998 and Life in Cold Blood, 2008)

It is an interesting fact that the human race has a lot left to learn about the natural world around us and it is the scientific and technical advances by the humankind that enables us to continue this learning process. David pays tribute to the human aspect of the filmmaking by ending the episode with the filming of Snow Leopard by Mark Smith in Pakistan (Planet Earth, 2006).

David has the candor and humility to go back and correct himself. In one such instance, David was initially mistaken about how Nepenthes rajah, the largest Pitcher plant gets its nutrition. David soon figures out that the pitcher plant and tree shrews share a symbiotic relationship. The shrew feeds on plant’s liquid and leaves its droppings that provide nitrogen supply to the plant.

This is a must watch for fans of David Attenborough and Wildlife.

Click here and here to read reviews of episodes # 2 and 3 respectively.

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BBC Sherlock - "A Study in Pink" - Revisited

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson

I have been revisiting the entire series and decided to post my thoughts about some of the finer points I liked about this episode. For an overview of the plot, click here.

Very few adaptations have filmed the first meeting of Holmes and Watson. The few exceptions are the Russian adaptation (Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin) and the 1954 series (Ronald Howard and Howard Marion-Crawford).

This is one of the highlights in the entire Canon. Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss earn brownie points for filming this pivotal moment.

The plot is based on A Study in Scarlet and has some modern updates and significant changes to the killer’s motivation.

Martin Freeman as John Watson

We meet John Watson as a depressed individual, still tortured by his war memories. John leads a very lonely existence and has taken course to blogging, as suggested by his therapist. He is just missing that one very important part to maintain a blog: interesting content.

Online therapy services can just be as effective as in-person consultations. And privacy is guaranteed. BetterHelp is an organization that is committed to provide affordable and professional therapy services.

Cue to Watson meeting the aforementioned interesting subject: Sherlock Holmes. I think this is a brilliant stroke from the writers, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. In tune with the modern tone, Sherlock maintains his own blog appropriately titled “The Science of Deduction”.

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This episode is an excellent example of the all the strong points of this series:

• Excellent writing replete with a bunch of Canonical references
• Visual representation of Sherlock’s deductions
• Superb acting, music, and cinematography.

Sherlock’s statement about the killer: “Appreciation. Applause. At long last, the spotlight. That’s the frailty of genius, John. It needs an audience.” applies equally well to himself. This ingenious way of referring to this trademark Sherlockian trait is just a knockout piece of writing by Moffat.

The taxi chase is another nice touch and is a nod to Holmes’ exact knowledge of London.

Mark Gatiss and Martin Freeman as Mycroft Holmes and John Watson

Another of my favorite sections in this episode is the way Mycroft Holmes has been written and performed. Mycroft is one of my favorite characters in the Canon and Mark Gatiss’ version is my all-time favorite. Holmes likens Mycroft to being the British Government in The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans and this episode proves why this is the case.

Like the rest of the series, this episode had a lot of nods to Arthur Conan Doyle’s text. I have listed all the references to the other Canonical stories here.

There are some subtle nods to A Study in Scarlet as well:

1. “If brother has green ladder, arrest brother” – A subtle reference to the way Stangerson is murdered and to one of the suspects, Arthur Charpentier.
2. Watson here texts the murderer from his cell phone – In the original story, Holmes places an ad for the ring with Watson’s name and 221 B as the address.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes

As respectful as Gatiss and Moffat are to the Canon, they are not afraid of shaking things up:

1. Anderson suggests the victim is German as RACHE (the word scribbled on the floor by the victim) is the German word for revenge. Sherlock is prompt to reject this theory. In the Canon, it is Lestrade who suggests looking for Rachel and Holmes suggests the aforementioned alternate theory.
2. They also refer to one of the most famous inconsistencies in the Canon: the shifting nature of Watson’s war injury.
3. In addition to being an expert in observation and deduction, Sherlock is a technical wizard as well. He is able to text everyone at the press briefing and Lestrade has no clue as to how Holmes is doing this.

This healthy mixture of reverence and the confidence to take a different approach has worked wonders. What we have here is a top-notch adaptation that stands head and shoulders above most of the adaptations out there.

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