CBS Investigates New Sherlock Holmes TV Show

[ShadowStar42]

While I have to admit I'll probably watch it, it seems odd to me to throw another one of these out here. I mean Sherlock Holmes Re-imagined has become almost a genre in itself at this point.

House
Psych
The Mentalist
Lie to Me
Monk
Endgame
The Finder

And that's just off the top of my head (and I have this damn itching that I'm missing at least one other obvious one). I like them all, but the novelty of having the character actually be named Sherlock Holmes doesn't really seem like a big selling point to me.

 

[qeinar]

Well it might be good, but i really can't see it beating sherlock which is just pure awesome. I kinda doubt they will get to make long episodes also, which really helps make the sherlock episodes good.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

no.
nothing against America redoing British TV shows, but its wrong.
Sherlock Holmes is a very British thing.
Sherlock works very well with the stories being adapted for the modern day, but just how would CBS do Hound of the Baskervilles (which Sherlock did a few weeks ago because it is probably the most popular of the Sherlock Holmes stories).

Is this show going to leave us with a cliff hanger for a year too?

which cliff-hanger are you talking about, the first season or the second?

 

[Albino Boo]

This - why the hell can't they just lease it from the BBC. Why go on and attempt a version of something that's already been done to a critically acclaimed standard where all that could be changed without hampering it is an American accent in American locations. Both of those are subject to opinion and would do little to improve the overall experience of watching the show. Besides, surely Americans would find it more entertaining to watch an English Sherlock Holmes based in the UK with the same technology? It'll be a fresher experience to the concrete grids most of their shows are set in.

The big reason is because the BBC shows Sherlock on BBC America to increase its own viewing figures at the expense of the CBS et al.

Another reason is the format of Sherlock isn't good fit for the US market. Each season consists of 3 90 minute advert free episodes. When you add in the adverts you end with a running time close to 2 hours which covers most of prime time. The normal US setup is 20 odd episodes with a running time of 1 hour including ads. They really cant increase the number per season easily because the writers and actors are all heavily committed elsewhere. Peter Jackson isn't going to the guy playing Bilbo walk off and play Doctor Watson for 6 months.

 

[Joccaren]

(Reads responses to thread... Wow, why do you all really tell us how you feel about America? Does it make you feel special to hate on a country?)

Nobody is hating on the US, everyone is just saying they do a terrible job of British humour - something I completely agree with.

Now that Sherlock Holmes is back in the public eye, CBS wants to put bring the detective to televisions across the United States.

I just wanted to point out the awkward error, "put bring".

Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed.

 

[TimeLord]

But but but....

We already have Robert Downey Jr playing a fairly awesome Sherlock Holmes.

We also have these two playing a very awesome Sherlock and Watson!

I don't want an Americanised Sherlock! I bet they won't even set it in Baker Street!

 

[ShadowStar42]

no.
nothing against America redoing British TV shows, but its wrong.
Sherlock Holmes is a very British thing.
Sherlock works very well with the stories being adapted for the modern day, but just how would CBS do Hound of the Baskervilles (which Sherlock did a few weeks ago because it is probably the most popular of the Sherlock Holmes stories).

Is this show going to leave us with a cliff hanger for a year too?

which cliff-hanger are you talking about, the first season or the second?

I wouldn't say that Sherlock Holmes is any more British than Law and Order is American and that made the jump fairly successfully. So far as Hound of the Baskervillee they could either just not do it, or set it in either New England or along the Mississippi river where you can have similar cultural settings.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

What this basically says is

"Now that Britain has got some viewing figures, America wants to steal them by making it's own one, with blackjack and hookers."

Haven't we already established with "The Iron Lady" that your treatment of fiction is dodgy at best, and pandering to modern sensibilities at worse.

You've already done the best American version of Sherlock Holmes:

 

[Vault Citizen]

An American Sherlock Holmes? Blasphemy!, of course I said something similar about Sherlock (a modern day Sherlock Holmes? Blasphemy!) so there is the slight chance however little I care to admit it that the yanks mignt not screw it up.

As for why make another tv series I think it is because American companies assume that their audiences need something to be American or they won't enjoy it as much.

 

[Pinguin]

Bah! Say I. (And, no doubt, say you: A Holmes fanboy! You'd be right.)

Sherlock Holmes works best as a period piece. Personally, I thought the new BBC version was pretty bad. It was well-made enough to be watchable, but the writing team (known, in part, for that epitome of child-friendly writing, Dr Who) have massacred the story so much to make it fit a modern setting and their own poor opinion of their audience, that it bears scant resemblence to the original. To get Holmes to fit a modern setting you of course need to change the stories, and you need to change the characters, too. So I ask "what's the point"? Why not just write a new detective series and give yourself some creative freedom? Oh right, because production companies are so scared of new material that they won't fund it: they'll instead plump for another sequel or re-make.

As others have said: Jeremy Brett is widely renowned as the best Holmes, as you would expect from an actor who so completely immersed himself in the role (sadly at the expense of his health). He recognised that the character and stories are much-beloved, and to keep them so you should try and follow them closely. This is the point, despite the inevitable trappings of Hollywood, that the Downey/Law films got. And why they work, even with the differences; they retain enough to be faithful. It's this point that the new series misses, and that I predict the CBS version will miss too.

/rant

 

[BrotherRool]

It's very easy, Elementary will differentiate itself from Sherlock by being not as good.

Personally, I thought the new BBC version was pretty bad. It was well-made enough to be watchable, but the writing team (known, in part, for that epitome of child-friendly writing, Dr Who) have massacred the story so much to make it fit a modern setting and their own poor opinion of their audience, that it bears scant resemblence to the original. To get Holmes to fit a modern setting you of course need to change the stories, and you need to change the characters, too.

? Some of the episodes have almost been step for step rehashes of the short stories and because they aren't films, they've all been tonily much much similar to the magazine format of the originals. I mean I'm clearly not the Holmes expert that you are but for the life of me I can't think of a more faithful adaptation. I recognise 3 characterisation changes, one that of Molly who didn't exist before and occupies a place that perhaps people wouldn't associate at all with Holmes, two that of Irene Adler, who they, like all adaptations, overplayed but in it's defence to a much less extent and they captured several aspects of her character and her plot that every other adapation has pretty much ignored in their eagerness to stick the words 'love interest' there.

Finally Moriarty, who was played very straight until the finally episode where he has a strange and hugely important character change. It's the only one I recognise as really significant and it is significant.


The other inconsistency in the show would be the solution of the Hound of the Baskervilles and the general plot of the 'mass suicides' but with the hound of the baskervilles, it was a mistake which almost every adaptation ever makes, despite it being really stupid. Other than that, this Holmes cold scans, consults, is bored, makes Watson run around, cares for him, enjoys infuriating him, doesn't like wearing a deerstalker and has no respect for the richness or appropriateness of a case, like no other Holmes

 

[wooty]

Noooooo, listen here US producers. You already tried to emulate British tv shows and failed miserably, Life on Mars, Red Dwarf, Hustle, Ab Fab, Coupling, Fawlty towers, The IT Crowd, Skins, Spaced, The Vicar of Dibley.

Just air the damn bbc versions and let your audiences enjoy it.

 

[IndianaJonny]

"a modern-day take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic Sherlock Holmes cases."

Read this and immediately thought

Another American version of a British TV show?

This

But then realised that they're not even saying "Sherlock was really good, lets make an American version" they're honestly trying to come across as having an original idea. . . .so sad

I know right; have you read the permalink article? Here's an excerpt:

"In 2010, the BBC and PBS premiered Sherlock, which, similar to CBS' Elementary, is a modern-day telling of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and his chronicler Dr. Watson. The show stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek 2) and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), respectively."

Not only do they act like it's a done deal, the behave as though they got there first! And wtf are they doing referencing ST2 and The Hobbit as credentials, it's like saying Samuel Jackson (Avengers).This is just plain rage-inducing.

 

[Daverson]

Toot! Toot! All aboard the band-wagon!

Strange how the US claim to be against socialism, but are more than happy to lap up almost anything produced by the beeb.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Oh you American networks. Why don't you just admit the War of Independence was a waste of time and come rejoin us? Tear up that silly old Constitution and start singing God Save the Queen in your schools?

Btw, yes, this intended to be humour before someone starts screaming at me about American rights

 

[jezcentral]

Why do they feel the need to remake anything they think is good? Especially when it's an English program. There's just no fucking excuse then. Because it's already in English.

It's because of the fact that the better a UK program is, the fewer shows we will make of it. It's a standing joke (The Simpsons have already done this one).

Fawlty Towers, Sherlock, The Office, The Young Ones, Life On Mars....

Of course there are exceptions, but even then, they don't do the 22-plus episodes per season that the US do. This gives then Networks more programs to show. Obviously, making 24 episodes of one show is easier and cheaper than making 4 different shows of 6 episodes.

 

[Captain Booyah]

Well, I guess everybody's already pointed out that this is just going to be an American version capitalising on the success of BBC's Sherlock. Unless they find a way to improve upon Sherlock's formula/premise, rather than copying it, then I don't really see the point.

Also, I'm sick of "elementary" jokes. ...And titles. DO NOT WANT.

Double also, HOLY SHIT A PICTURE OF BASIL THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE. Screw Brett and Rathbone. That's the best interpretation. <3 <3 <3