A thing I wonder about

[bigboobedcanuck]

Why does any discussion of Elementary have to feature a comparison with the BBC Sherlock? Why does one have to be better? THEY'RE BOTH GOOD. They're such completely different animals. It's like with Harry Potter -- I love the books, and I love the movies. One doesn't have to be better. They can be judged on their own merits in their own mediums.

Comments

[nutmeg3]

I understand the impulse to compare, and I know I do it and sometimes really can't separate book from film, but I do consciously try to and am usually happy when I can. I also find it easier when I see the film first, then read the book. I feel the same about remakes, too, like the UK and US versions of QaF or Being Human. I'm perfectly happy to enjoy both. All I want is for things to be well done, which is why I loved the TV show Miami Vice and not the movie, which had a different feel that I didn't enjoy and wouldn't have no matter what the movie was titled and the charactets were named.

And as someone who left Elementary after a couple of episodes but has now seen a few recent ones and enjoyed them, I'll say now what I said when I stopped watching: I think they did themselves a disservice by making it a version of Sherlock Holmes - as much as I know that hook helped sell the network - and not just writing the same characters doing the same things without calling them Holmes and Watson. I think they invited comparison, and I think that got in the way of everything they're doing right. Stripped of the names, the show still works and I think more people would see its strengths without a gimmick (and it kind of really is that, imo) that's not crucial to what they're doing. Because practically speaking and rightly or wrongly, people are going to make comparisons, and that's something every writer/director/actor has to factor in, even if only to say they don't care, though in TV it's pretty hard not to care and still stay on the air. Just mho, seeing as the stupid people outnumber the thinking ones and probably always will.

[bigboobedcanuck]

I do understand it, and we all compare sometimes. But it's the endless comparisons when people can't let an original go that drive me crazy.

I totally agree that with books vs. movies, it's usually best to see the movie first. And definitely creators invite comparision when they remake a story. I guess it's just annoying to me that some people can't seem to mention one Sherlock without comparing it to the other, either negatively or positively, when they're so very different and it seems a pointless exercise to me at this point in the game. I get it at first, but now into season two? Let it go!

Also I'm grumpy. :)