well, that didn't take long at all.
I’ve been waiting for Elementary to disappoint me since I got into it, and sure enough, last night’s episode is not sitting well. I actually put this up on tumblr at first because it was going to be me venting quickly, but it turned into a whole ~thing and I'd ultimately rather discuss on journal, so.
Before I get into it, I want to establish the angle I’m coming from: I’m critiquing, not declaring all-out Tumblr war. I still think it’s an overall good show that does a lot of good things I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. Still, it had a problem that I don’t like seeing pass without comment, and I don’t see anyone else commenting, so I’m just gonna be the change and unpack it.
1. the VOTW’s settlement scam? The idea that lawsuits are an “easy money” thing for people who are marginalized in one way or another is a really nasty one to perpetuate. As if we as a society are just so intolerant of airlines who are unfair to customers of size!
This does not bother me as an instance of characters holding unfortunate but realistic biases, though I won’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed by hearing Sherlock unleash a torrent of fat jokes and Joan accept it. The VOTW really was a con man, which narratively frames him as abusing some social indulgence which manifestly does not exist.
2. Alfredo’s rant at how Sherlock needs to “get over himself” and accept the sobriety chip in order to be the little sobriety mascot for all his little camp friends was way out of line. A person in recovery from addiction is responsible to and for their own recover, and they are entitled to respect as to how best that works for themselves.
Alfredo’s a fan favorite, for good reason. He is still overall likely to be the best sponsor for Sherlock, he is a good friend to Joan, and he does not need to justify his existence as a character by being completely flawless at his job any more than the rest of the main or supporting cast. He was still wrong here, though in context I am not as sure as I would like to be that this came through clearly.
Like the problem above, this isn’t merely an issue of a character screwing up. The story of Sherlock’s relapse itself was, IMO, handled with compassion and sensitivity. But it does have the unfortunate effect of implying that Sherlock’s resistance to being turned into someone else’s object lesson was in part related to the fact that he was hiding something, and not simply an assertion of his personal autonomy which should have been respected without question.
These two problems are quite likely unconscious coding for the same assumption: that people who are deviant - specifically in some way which society considers a moral failure, whether Sherlock’s addiction or the VOTW’s weight - are not to be believed when they ask for their needs to be considered. If you have ever had to navigate the Kafkaesque world of institutional disability accommodations, or needed to but not been able to access it, or simply had to put up with someone else’s whining disappointment and aggravation that your mind or body is inconvenient for them, you probably already understand why this is a problem; if you have not, consider this a free lesson in TAB/normative body-and-brain privilege 101. YOU’RE WELCOME. (It’s just that I’m a lot like Jesus, you guys.)
This is troubling in context of the structure of the case of the week, which of course comes to Our Heroes’ attention when the father of a rape victim asks for their help. This comes from the same cultural pace of “the Normals are the Objective Arbiters of what a person affected by an injustice needs, not the affected person themselves.”
I’m not writing all this out because I think the show SUCKS! OMG. I like it and think it usually does a lot better. I consider standards to be a compliment; the more I feel I can expect from a narrative, the more I respect it and its creators. But because it has earned some credibility on high-visibility issues, I think it’s important to draw out the subtler issues, and I found this one unsettling.
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