December Talking Meme: Kitty Winter (Elementary)
(B)eside him on the settee was a brand which he had brought up in the shape of a slim, flame-like young woman with a pale, intense face, youthful, and yet so worn with sin and sorrow that one read the terrible years which had left their leprous mark upon her.
This is Arthur Conan Doyle's Kitty Winter, from the story The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. Kitty Winter in Elementary retains some of these elements - the intensity, her backstory containing the traumatic abuse by a man -, but since she's not living in Victorian times (or in our times surrounded by jerks), she's not regarded as "ruined" because of this. And so far, the way she deals with her backstory does not include vigilantism. Instead, she's channeling her anger and energy by being a detective in training.
New characters in an established show are rarely popular at first, especially if they are female and perceived in any way as "coming between" a popular relationship. One of the many reasons why I appreciate Elementary's Kitty so much is that the show was conscious of this and addressed it head on at the start, thereby avoiding the trap (at least as far as this viewer is concerned). Kitty is defensive and prickly around Joan Watson at first, but realizes soon Joan is someone she can and indeed needs to learn from just as much as she can from Sherlock. Joan, initially put off both by Sherlock's introduction of Kitty by letting her run surveillance on Joan and by Kitty's brusque manner, quickly comes to see her as a person sharing the existence Joan herself has chosen two years ago, someone to relate to. And for all that Sherlock made an initial pitch about mentoring Kitty being his repeat of his experience with Joan, the show soon demonstrates that the two relationships are quite different, as Kitty is different from Joan. If Kitty resembles someone in her manner and intensity, it's Sherlock himself. Which also ties the way he relates to her to the way he instinctively sympathized with other abuse victims even at his most arrogant in early season 1, to his response to both his childhood pen pal and her present day charge she goes to prison for, who were both sexually abused, and to the emphasis the show puts on sponsor-sponsee relationships in the addiction program.
Considering Joan and Sherlock had a fallout at the start of the season due to his reaction to her moving out and wanting her own space - which consisted of him vanishing for six months with a measly note as an explanation - it's also important that the existence of Kitty, far from driving them further apart, actually serves to bring them together. Joan might indignantly refuse being cast as Kitty's mother to Sherlock's father, but between calling him on it when she thinks Sherlock is doing the mentoring wrongly, and Kitty calling Sherlock on it when she thinks he's avoiding Joan, but consistently refusing to be drawn into one of their arguments on other issues, they've become a makeshift family in practice anyway.
All of which still wouldn't work if Kitty weren't played and written as an interesting character. She's shown as smart while making mistakes (such as pressuring a witness who needed a more subtle approach), prickly but able to admit when she's wrong and able to learn from it, and interested in people (hence, for example, her observing Gregson with his daughter, drawing the correct conclusions and helping out in a way that combines intelligence and sympathy with ruthlessness). Not surprisingly for someone who's living with Sherlock Holmes, she's prone to the occasional snarky line (for example at Bell re: American gun laws when he's fishing for more background on her) and has a great "yeah, right" eyeroll reaction when Sherlock offers a more than usual bit of bluster. (You can call it her version of Joan's "seriously?" look.) Though clearly being apprenticed and appreciated by Sherlock means a lot to her, she's not seeing him as a savior figure, or infallible; once the initial defensive insecurity towards Joan makes way for curiosity, admiration and a rueful comradery, she's appreciative of what Joan does without treating her as infalliblle, either. It's up to debate whether she's seeing them as parent figures the way they've taken to responding to her as a daughter figure, but she does see them as a double package, so to speak; two people whose connection makes part of who they are. (One of Elementary's virtues: having an intense and close relationship at the centre that doesn't mean both parties can't have other important relationships as well in their lives.)
Just where the show is heading with Kitty, I don't know, though given it has pointedly avoided to mention whether the man who kidnapped and raped Kitty is dead, my suspicion is still the guy will show up at some point, mirroring Sherlock's s1 "M" crisis, and then we'll find out whether Kitty will follow her ACD precedent and avenge herself or whether she'll be able to avoid the vigilante trap. Beyond that, I think she won't stay a regular beyond this season but will leave New York to set up detective shop elsewhere and show up occasionally for guest appearances. As always, I could be wrong. I didn't anticipate Kitty at all, or how much the Holmes, Watson and their prickly apprentice scenario, all in a constant flux of negotiating boundaries with each other while supporting each other and fighting crime, would appeal to me.
December Talking Meme: The Other Days
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1037924.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
This is Arthur Conan Doyle's Kitty Winter, from the story The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. Kitty Winter in Elementary retains some of these elements - the intensity, her backstory containing the traumatic abuse by a man -, but since she's not living in Victorian times (or in our times surrounded by jerks), she's not regarded as "ruined" because of this. And so far, the way she deals with her backstory does not include vigilantism. Instead, she's channeling her anger and energy by being a detective in training.
New characters in an established show are rarely popular at first, especially if they are female and perceived in any way as "coming between" a popular relationship. One of the many reasons why I appreciate Elementary's Kitty so much is that the show was conscious of this and addressed it head on at the start, thereby avoiding the trap (at least as far as this viewer is concerned). Kitty is defensive and prickly around Joan Watson at first, but realizes soon Joan is someone she can and indeed needs to learn from just as much as she can from Sherlock. Joan, initially put off both by Sherlock's introduction of Kitty by letting her run surveillance on Joan and by Kitty's brusque manner, quickly comes to see her as a person sharing the existence Joan herself has chosen two years ago, someone to relate to. And for all that Sherlock made an initial pitch about mentoring Kitty being his repeat of his experience with Joan, the show soon demonstrates that the two relationships are quite different, as Kitty is different from Joan. If Kitty resembles someone in her manner and intensity, it's Sherlock himself. Which also ties the way he relates to her to the way he instinctively sympathized with other abuse victims even at his most arrogant in early season 1, to his response to both his childhood pen pal and her present day charge she goes to prison for, who were both sexually abused, and to the emphasis the show puts on sponsor-sponsee relationships in the addiction program.
Considering Joan and Sherlock had a fallout at the start of the season due to his reaction to her moving out and wanting her own space - which consisted of him vanishing for six months with a measly note as an explanation - it's also important that the existence of Kitty, far from driving them further apart, actually serves to bring them together. Joan might indignantly refuse being cast as Kitty's mother to Sherlock's father, but between calling him on it when she thinks Sherlock is doing the mentoring wrongly, and Kitty calling Sherlock on it when she thinks he's avoiding Joan, but consistently refusing to be drawn into one of their arguments on other issues, they've become a makeshift family in practice anyway.
All of which still wouldn't work if Kitty weren't played and written as an interesting character. She's shown as smart while making mistakes (such as pressuring a witness who needed a more subtle approach), prickly but able to admit when she's wrong and able to learn from it, and interested in people (hence, for example, her observing Gregson with his daughter, drawing the correct conclusions and helping out in a way that combines intelligence and sympathy with ruthlessness). Not surprisingly for someone who's living with Sherlock Holmes, she's prone to the occasional snarky line (for example at Bell re: American gun laws when he's fishing for more background on her) and has a great "yeah, right" eyeroll reaction when Sherlock offers a more than usual bit of bluster. (You can call it her version of Joan's "seriously?" look.) Though clearly being apprenticed and appreciated by Sherlock means a lot to her, she's not seeing him as a savior figure, or infallible; once the initial defensive insecurity towards Joan makes way for curiosity, admiration and a rueful comradery, she's appreciative of what Joan does without treating her as infalliblle, either. It's up to debate whether she's seeing them as parent figures the way they've taken to responding to her as a daughter figure, but she does see them as a double package, so to speak; two people whose connection makes part of who they are. (One of Elementary's virtues: having an intense and close relationship at the centre that doesn't mean both parties can't have other important relationships as well in their lives.)
Just where the show is heading with Kitty, I don't know, though given it has pointedly avoided to mention whether the man who kidnapped and raped Kitty is dead, my suspicion is still the guy will show up at some point, mirroring Sherlock's s1 "M" crisis, and then we'll find out whether Kitty will follow her ACD precedent and avenge herself or whether she'll be able to avoid the vigilante trap. Beyond that, I think she won't stay a regular beyond this season but will leave New York to set up detective shop elsewhere and show up occasionally for guest appearances. As always, I could be wrong. I didn't anticipate Kitty at all, or how much the Holmes, Watson and their prickly apprentice scenario, all in a constant flux of negotiating boundaries with each other while supporting each other and fighting crime, would appeal to me.
December Talking Meme: The Other Days
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1037924.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.