Elementary - Lucy Liu as Watson?

As long as Liu doesn't start claiming to be a Bartitsu master, I guess I'm okay with this. It sounds very Kato....

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Sherlock Holmes: Lucy Liu to be first female sidekick
American actress Lucy Liu will be cast opposite Johnny Lee Miller in the new American version of Sherlock Holmes, Elementary.
By Daisy Bowie-Sell
1:10PM GMT 28 Feb 2012

She's well known for her portrayal of kung fu masters on film, but how will American actress Lucy Liu fare as Sherlock Holmes's sidekick Watson?

The 43-year-old actress, who has appeared in Charlie's Angels, Kill Bill and Kung Fu Panda, will become the first woman to play Holmes's number two. She will star in the new American take on Sherlock Holmes where the stories, originally by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and set in London at the turn of the twentieth century, will be transposed to modern day New York.

Jonny Lee Miller will star opposite Liu in the new CBS pilot Elementary. The pilot follows several big-budget re-workings of the classic detective stories. Last year saw the release of Guy Ritchie's second Sherlock Holmes film which starred Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock and Jude Law as Dr Watson.

The BBC has also seen huge success with its television adaptation, Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in a modern-day adaptation set in London.

The American adaptation is under a legal obligation not to recreate too closely anything that is particular to the BBC TV series. But according to copyright laws, the concept of Conan Doyle's Sherlock is unprotectable.

Sue Vertue, Sherlock Executive Producer at Hartswood Films, told the Independent in January that she was aware of the American version:

"We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes. It's interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show. At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn't resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying."

Elementary has Sherlock Holmes as a former consultant to Scotland Yard whose addiction problems meant he had a spell in rehab in New York. 'Joan' Watson (the character played by Liu) will be his sober companion and is a former surgeon who has lost her license.

The pilot is being written by Robert Doherty, known for his work on Star Trek Voyager and Tru Calling.

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I like Jonny Lee Miller's work in Eli Stone. That was an amusing series, especially the acupuncturist character.

With Liu in this and MwtIF, we'll be hearing a lot about her for a spell...

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4 July 2012 Last updated at 11:28 ET
US Sherlock drama Elementary to air on Sky
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Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller in Elementary In Elementary Sherlock is a recovering alcoholic and Dr Watson a woman

New US Sherlock Holmes drama Elementary will air in the UK on Sky this autumn.

The broadcaster has bought the rights to the series, which stars Jonny Lee Miller in the title role, and Lucy Liu as Dr Joan Watson.

The US reboot follows the success of BBC One's Sherlock, a modern day take on the classic detective story, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

Elementary, which sees the action relocated from Baker Street to New York, will be shown on Sky Living.

The show casts Holmes, played by Trainspotting star Miller, as a recovering alcoholic who is assigned to live with Dr Watson after leaving rehab.

They eventually become a crime-fighting team tackling some of the NYPD's most difficult cases, combining Holmes' skills of deduction with Watson's medical expertise.

Last year, Miller appeared on stage with BBC Sherlock star Cumberbatch, in the National Theatre's production of Frankenstein.

The Bafta-award winning UK show is due to return for a third series in the future.

Earlier this year, Sherlock writer Steven Moffat told the BBC he was "annoyed" by CBS's show, saying it could "degrade" the Sherlock brand if it was not handled properly.

"It isn't a version of our show," he said. "They've just decided to go off and do one of their own, having been turned down by us to do an adaptation of our version."

Sherlock Holmes has featured in hundreds of books, films and television shows since he was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887.

The detective holds the record as the human literary character most frequently portrayed on screen.

In recent years, Robert Downey Jr has also played the fictional detective, starring in two visceral films directed by Guy Ritchie.

Sky has recently bought the rights for several US shows including Vegas, starring Dennis Quaid as Las Vegas Sheriff Ralph Lamb, tasked with bringing the city to order in the 1960s.

Superhero adaptation Arrow and dark drama The Following were purchased from Warner Bros. The latter will air on Sky Atlantic in early 2013, featuring Kevin Bacon.

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if she is like her character in lucky number slevin then ill be satisfied... cause i feel like that was the only movie where i felt she was really in her character..and not "acting"

Well, it wasn't totally bad, but not particularly good either. I do like the lead Jonny Lee Miller - he was great in Trainspotting and Eli Stone (another 'where the heck is that in SF?' show), but he's no match for Benedict Cumberbatch. And I must confess that Lucy is acceptable in this role, surprisingly so. It quickly descends into another deductive detective & hottie police procedural like Castle or Mentalist (another 'where the heck is that in SF?' show), both of which owe a tremendous debt to the original Sherlock. And in a very recursive manner, Elementary owes a debt to those shows, both of which amuse me now and again (although Castle lost it when they hooked up at the beginning this season - totally kills the sexual tension). That being said, the gay sexual tension in PBS's Sherlock is much funnier and more interesting than any of these three US shows.

There's a horrible logic flaw in Elementary's pilot SPOILER If that doc was prescribing drugs to the perp, there would have been a record at the pharmacy that would have been simple to trace END SPOILER. I did like the nod to the original work with the beekeeper bit. Those nods make those of us who actually read the originals feel special.

I might watch tonight's episode. I might not. It all depends on my mood tonight.

rich spoiled kid who solves crimes for fun=boooring.

Missed the first episode last week but caught the beginning of yesterday's. Notice how i said beginning? I went into this without reading anything online about it so my view won't get skewed in any way, something i'm doing now as i have found that in the past i have into it with either too much hype or expecting the worst. Anyway, i couldn't really get into it. Not sure what it was, but it reminded me of Downey's portrayal, which i enjoyed, the actor seemed to be trying to hard to be witty and non-chalant and didn't pull it off for me. He seemed more like a caricature.

Went to bed early last night. Still catching up on my sleep from last weekend, and lo and behold, the weekend is upon me once more. Good thing I slept well last night.

I might tune in again if Lucy does some kung fu.

I thought that was a violation of the rules, to mention Lucy Liu and not have lots of pictures of her....

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I've been watching Elementary on and off again. Lucy Liu has won me over in it. The chemistry between the characters is amusing.

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Wednesday, Jan 22, 2014 03:59 PM PST
Hooray for Joan Watson: Why well-rounded Asian-American characters matter
Asian-American characters used to be a rarity on TV. "Elementary" and a few others are changing that
Estelle Tang

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My younger sister and I used to play a game when we watched TV. It didn’t have a name, but I’m going to call it “Asians!” It was pretty simple, really; there was only one goal. Whenever an Asian – specifically, an East or South-East Asian – appeared on the screen, we’d cry, “Asian!” Then, we’d just continue watching “Charmed,” the evening news or whatever game show was on. We never arranged rules or consciously decided we would play. An Asian person on TV was so rare that we felt excited to point it out. Mind you, it didn’t have to be a main character or even a bit part to warrant the exclamation. We’d even yell when an extra in an insurance commercial or someone in the background of a nightly news story was Asian. In this game, there was no winner – it didn’t matter which of us managed to spot the Asian first. All that mattered was that there was an Asian on TV. Didn’t that mean we were all winning?

It’s been 20 years since we started playing “Asians!” but the frisson of seeing people who looked like me on the small screen has endured. One of the shows I religiously watched on weekend mornings as a kid was “Ghostwriter.” The show was about a group of child detectives who solved crimes with the assistance of a ghost who unraveled verbal clues. As well as appealing to the burgeoning reader and writer in me, “Ghostwriter” had a racially diverse cast, a real novelty at the time. More specifically, one of the mystery-solving kids was a young Vietnamese girl.

Although I had a Malaysian-Chinese background, I identified more strongly with Tina Nguyen (Tram-Anh Tran) than with any other television character. My suburban Australian upbringing couldn’t have been more different from her Brooklyn, N.Y., childhood (especially with added ghost), but even then I realized I’d immediately zoned in on her character because she was the only TV character who looked remotely like me. Although that wasn’t the only aspect of a character I could identify with, it made me feel like Asians’ experiences and dreams were worth portraying to a TV audience.
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In the intervening years, there have of course been several Asian TV characters. Some of these, like the title role in 1956 series “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan,” weren’t even played by Asian actors. I can only imagine that other Asian roles sent their actors home despairing of ever playing a character that would be more than a flat stereotype. Things were slightly better in the ’90s and aughts with the crop of “Doctor Asians”: Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy,” B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” and Ming-Na as Dr. Deb Chen in “ER.” Though stereotypical in their professions – Asians are “allowed” to be doctors on-screen more often than they appear as politicians or dads or executives – these characters were mainstays in hit shows, with their own story arcs, foibles and personalities.

These days, it seems there are more Asian characters on TV than ever. From “Glee’s” singin ’n’ dancin’ Mike Chang and Tina Cohen-Chang (both, oddly, Changs, as Victoria McNally pointed out) to “The Walking Dead’s” zombie-killing Glenn Rhee and “Sleepy Hollow’s” Andy Brooks (um, a zombie), Asians are no longer doomed to serially portray backgrounders or doctors.

While this increased representation is welcome, Asian representation on TV has rarely been discussed with the same urgency as LGBT or African-American representation. And while it’s not No. 1 on my list of world problems, I can’t help looking back at my childhood self and what she would think of the depth and breadth of roles available to people who resemble her.

Broader frustrations around Asian representation in cultural spaces have recently surfaced. Organizer and activist Suey Park’s #NotYourAsianSidekick hashtag sparked a Twitter conversation about Asian women and feminism. Australian writer Michelle Law’s partly joking Instagram series “Asian People Doing Normal Things in Advertisements” highlights, in only two installments so far, how rarely Asian people are cast in commercials.

But there have been some signs of increased representation too. For example, casting decisions do change in response to practical market considerations; for example, there was an uptick in Asian models being cast in advertisements by luxury goods brands when Chinese consumers took over as the highest-spending luxury buyers in the world. And East Asian TV actors have at least one champion in ABC’s head of casting, Keli Lee, whose mission is “to change the face of television.”

As merely a casual couch potato, I can’t speak to whether Lee’s project has succeeded. What really impresses and draws me in about the Asian characters now on TV, though, is not their number but their variety. Asian characters on TV today range from the token or caricatured to more complex, fully layered humans.

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Let’s start at my least favorite end of that spectrum. Many critics have noted that the Rebel Wilson–created “Super Fun Night” has problems (the New York Times called it “not super fun,” while the Daily Beast named it the “most disappointing” show of the new TV season). While I am definitely a fan of the hilarious and daring Wilson, “Super Fun Night” isn’t the show I’d hoped for either. One of its woes is the stereotypical treatment of its supporting characters, particularly main character Kimmie Boubier’s BFF/roommate Helen-Alice (Liza Lapira), a shy gal with a big-glasses geek vibe.

Helen-Alice is also Asian. In case you couldn’t tell just by looking, she is also a worrywart, usually playing the killjoy voice of reason in Kimmie’s wild schemes. She says things like, “I like rules.” Oh, I get it! Asians are meek and conform to societal norms! Right, I never would have realized. Thanks! Other Helen-Alice dialogue selections: “Every time I drop a fork, my parents say, ‘You shame us’” and “Refusing a guest brings dishonor to the family.” I’m not totally against these kinds of clichéd zingers, because clichés often come from truths. But because Helen-Alice is so thinly drawn (she doesn’t even have a surname), her Asianness and shy geekiness become her whole character.

A totally different approach to the studious Asian stereotype can be seen in Chris Lilley’s first mockumentary series, “We Can Be Heroes.” Those whose first exposure to Chris Lilley was the execrable “Angry Boys” might find it surprising that he’s capable of nuanced, heartwarming representations of non-white characters. But “We Can Be Heroes” character Ricky Wong was one of his most well-rounded and funny creations. (It probably helped that the most obvious visual marker of Ricky’s character was just a black wig, rather than the offensive blackface Lilley wore when portraying “Angry Boys” rapper S.Mouse.) Later series like “Ja’mie: Private School Girl” took his signature well-observed typologies to horror-show extremes, without tea and sympathy to sweeten them. But “We Can Be Heroes,” Lilley’s first offering, is arguably his best. Following six candidates for the Australian of the Year award, the series administered I-know-that-person social satire but balanced it with lots of heart.

Ricky was an endearing physics Ph.D. whose dad-style jokes (“I used to always say physics is fun, but I would spell it with a ‘ph’: phun”) and slightly incorrect syntax (“I’m known for a very comedy style around the lab”) struck delighted recognition into the hearts of Asian viewers like me. Lilley’s Cantonese-inflected English was pitch perfect, and capped off a character that was clearly a loving portrait. The mockumentary followed Ricky in his pursuit of efficient solar power, but also on a personal journey: starring in a university drama production. While there was a recognizably “Asian” twist to the tale – that he yearned to act, despite his parents’ disapproval – it read as a specific, individual story rather than a cliché. This is a testament to Lilley’s unforced performance and the emotional resonance of the good-hearted, optimistic Ricky.

On the other end of the Asian-representation spectrum is Dr. Joan Watson, played by Lucy Liu, on “Elementary.” In the show, a modern-day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes’ detective stories, Watson’s ethnicity is never an issue. Minor characters don’t blink an eye when she gives her obviously Anglo name, and nor do they subject her to racial taunts or innuendoes. Not that they should, but this kind of non-issue treatment means Watson is almost as far from a caricatured Asian character as you can currently find on TV. Sure, Watson trained as a surgeon (as did Arthur Conan Doyle’s original version of the character, John Watson). But when we meet her, she’s Sherlock Holmes’ live-in sober companion while he recovers from heroin addiction; she then becomes a partner in his detective work.

“Elementary” even finds a way to play with Asian family stereotypes. In one first-season episode, Watson’s mother visits her and seems dissatisfied with her ex-surgeon daughter’s job as a sober companion. Yet, as it turns out, this is not a case of high filial expectations; Watson’s mother is merely concerned that her daughter isn’t challenged enough, and therefore unhappy. The character of Joan Watson is almost colorless, and while this is by no means a benchmark by which all characters of color should be measured, seeing an Asian main character whose race is never an issue in her personal or professional life is a welcome change.

Somewhere in the middle of this range falls community-college Spanish teacher Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) in cult hit “Community.” Chang launches his class with a rap (“Not another teacher with this much flavor”) and deflects questions about why an Asian-American man is teaching Spanish with a hysterical declaration that he is “a Spanish genius.” The show, famed for engaging playfully with storytelling archetypes, acknowledges Asian-character clichés. In an episode where the students are pitted against one another in a paintball game, Chang suddenly enters the frame, cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, to dramatic Chinese music, à la kung-fu movies of the ’60s and ’70s. But there’s plenty of Chang that is just his own unhinged individuality. Jeong’s talent for slapstick has seen Chang tase himself, oil his naked body to climb through vents, and throw arm-flailing tantrums that would put a 3-year-old to shame. In this ensemble show, Chang is the over-the-top hysteric, not “the Asian one.”

With the range of Asian characters now on TV, my childhood game may have lost its significance. Certainly it seems like overkill to be shouting “Asian!” every time characters like Joan Watson, Chang and Helen-Alice get screen time. While some TV characters still rely heavily on Asian stereotypes, plenty have emerged whom I can adore or revile – not simply because of their race, but because of their unique, complex personalities and stories, of which race is just a part.

This piece is the latest in a series by feminists of color, curated by Roxane Gay. To submit to the series, email rgay@salon.com.

Estelle Tang is an Australian writer and critic based in NYC. Follow her on Twitter at @waouwwaouw and read more at http://estelletang.tumblr.com.

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And while there's no Kung Fu, Johnny Lee Miller does do some single-stick (it's absurd, but y'all know how much I love my swordfights).

The show's won me over too. I was skeptical of Liu's casting at first, not because she's Asian, but because she's a she and I wasn't sure if I was ready for a female Watson.

I just had issues with Lucy. It's funny when this series is compared to BBC's Sherlock with Smaug and Bilbo, which I also enjoy for it's style and humor. Very different takes on Doyle's work, but both rely heavily on the chemistry of the characters, which makes up for some gaping plot holes.

And I must say that the female Moriarty twist in Elementary really works for me. Natalie Dormer is smoking in that role.
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Originally Posted by GeneChing

And I must say that the female Moriarty twist in Elementary really works for me. Natalie Dormer is smoking in that role.
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that was a daring choice - I don't think it's been done before (having a female Moriarty/love interest).

and Kevin73's right. We're doing a disservice to this thread.

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The TV show Elementary featured some British Singlestick in last night’s episode. Made some GIFs of Orphelia Lovibond as Kitty Winter with Singlestick

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Enjoy 5 more GIFs here

http://www.stickgrappler.net/2014/11...nter-with.html

I haven't watched this in a long, long time. I might tune in for the finale. Seven seasons is a good run. Ironically, I do subscribe to CBS All Access, but that's for ST:DISCO

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‘Elementary’ To End After 7 Seasons On CBS
by Nellie Andreeva •
December 17, 2018 4:00pm

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CBS

EXCLUSIVE: CBS’ modern-day Sherlock Holmes & Watson drama series Elementary will end its run with its upcoming 13-episode seventh season. The decision comes as the crime procedural, created by Rob Doherty and starring Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, wrapped production Friday on Season 7 with the final scene in the finale the last one to film.

I hear that when the network renewed Elementary for a seventh season in May less than two weeks into its Season 6 run, a decision was made that it would be the series’ final chapter.

“A lot of parties came together and talked about their positions on the show — both in terms of business and in terms of creative — and we all decided that this was an opportune time to say goodbye to a show that has been very, very good to us,” CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl said.

Added executive producer Carl Beverly: “Rob set out to tell a story, and it feels like he has accomplished what he had set out to do. The actors, the crew and the staff feel that way, and we feel that. So are grateful and celebrating what we had and looking forward to the future.”

One of the reasons for the decision to end the show is believed to be related to the fact that the contracts of stars Miller and Liu were coming up. With the story also winding down, everyone involved felt that this was a natural end where the series leaves on a high note creatively and everyone walks away happy and successful.

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CBS

Not sure whether there would be a seventh season, Elementary creator/exec producer Doherty and exec producer Beverly decided heading into Season 6 to craft a final episode that could be a series finale. That is why Season 6 ended with Holmes (Miller) and Watson (Liu) moving from New York to Holmes’ iconic Baker Street address in London, where they began to investigate cases and work with Scotland Yard.

While returning Holmes to his roots would’ve been a fitting finale, the series was renewed for a 13-episode seventh season.

“It was great news for us, we felt we had more stories to tell,” said Doherty who, along with his writers, started mapping out the last chapter and a true finale to the series.

Holmes and Watson won’t stay in London for a long time. “We really wanted to go back to New York and Gregson (Aidan Quinn) and Bell (Jon Michael Hill), and we found what we felt was a satisfying way to bring them back,” Doherty said.

He also teased an upcoming time jump. “Something that I knew I wanted to do was move forward in time a bit with the characters by the very end.” He took some inspiration from canon. “There was a period when Sherlock and Watson were not together; they went down very different paths, and their lives were very different from having been apart. We felt that would be appropriate for our show. A lot was Season 7 working towards that: How can we tell a larger story that would allow us to devise a finale that sets in not-so-distant future?”

The final season of Elementary also will feature the great Holmes foe Odin Reichenbach. Played by James Frain, the character first will appear in Episode 5.

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CBS

Elementary has produced 154 episodes over its seven seasons and is only one of three new broadcast series to debut in fall 2012 that are still on the air, along with NBC’s Chicago Fire and the CW’s Arrow. Elementary started as a breakout ratings hit; it was the most watched new series of it freshman season and finished in the top 20 among all shows in its first two seasons. Elementary also aired a special episode after Super Bowl XLVII (Ravens-49ers, with a long power outage midgame) and delivered 22.15m viewers with a late 11:11 PM ET start time.

While its linear ratings have slipped in the past couple of seasons, the series has remained a solid utility player for CBS, airing on Thursdays, Sundays and, most recently Mondays. While the bulk of Season 6 aired over the summer, it still ranked No. 21 in viewers. Elementary also has been a solid gainer in delayed viewing, with the most recent sixth season growing 65% in viewers and 80% in adults 18-49 from Live+same day to Live+7 ratings.

Elementary also remains a major profit generator for CBS with lucrative off-network and international deals. The procedural drama has off-network and SVOD deals with WGN America, Hulu and broadcast stations (on weekends) that fetch in as much as $3 million total per episode. It is a big international seller for CBS TV Studios too, in part because of the central character’s global recognition, and has been licensed in 200 territories. In May 2016, then-CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves used Elementary as an example of a program ownership success story, telling investors that the show had “made approximately an $80 million profit for the corporation” the previous year.

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“This ticks a lot boxes for a successful show for us,” Kahl said. “It’s almost a template for what makes a successful CBS show: initial strength, strength in various time periods over time, very successful in terms of international and domestic distribution and, last but definitely not least, a very high-quality show with terrific producers and terrific actors.”

Elementary follows Holmes (Miller), reimagined as a recovering drug addict and former consultant to Scotland Yard who assists the NYPD, with Dr. Joan Watson (Liu, in a gender switch on the popular sidekick character) initially serving as his sober companion. The series has received praise for its depiction of substance abuse and addiction recovery.

While CBS has not set a premiere date for Season 7 yet, “we are going to try to create some excitement around the finale for sure,” Kahl said. “Any show that does 150 episodes has served the network very well.”

There are no current plans for any followup or spinoff series, though Kahl is not ruling that out for the future.

Doherty admits that filming Season 7 knowing that it is the final one has brought “a lot of colliding emotions.”

“Everyone is sad, we are scattering to the wind and will miss each other, and because of that, there is a lot of sadness” he said. “But at the same time, there is a ton of pride in the seven years of hard work and devotion to this show and devotion to each other.”

Elementary is produced by CBS Television Studios, with Doherty executive producing alongside Beverly and Sarah Timberman, who moved from CBS Studios to ABC Studios earlier this year, Jason Tracey, Robert Hewitt Wolfe and Bob Goodman serving as executive producers.

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