New trailer. Better than the first one and makes this series seem actually watchable, though not calling it Sherlock would probably improve how many people feel about it. That said the last scene of the trailer was brilliantly funny in my opinion.

 

Still looks terrible in my honest opinion. But... I'll end up watching it anyway because I've had a raging boner for Lucy Liu ever since Charlie's Angels.

Does it matter that she's 20 years my senior? No. No it does not.

 

This only looks worse, now they're trying to humanize Sherlock... making him be affected by dead bodies? having him have self-image issues? fuck this gay ass chicken-shit man.

 

Yeah, still not thrilled.

But... I can see this being something of a guilty pleasure.

 

Oh Dear God, NO.

BBC's Sherlock is Legendary. This is what I felt like after watching the trailer.

The differences between Sherlock and Elementary seem to be staggering. Compared to a John Watson who was so eager to get back to action in Sherlock, we have this.

:fire

 

I'd rather watch Castle. This shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as Sherlock.

 

So, did anyone actually watch this?

A friend recommended it and I remembered having read this thread, and was hesitant, but I just watched the first episode, and it is actually fairly good. It isn't amazing, and it certainly isn't on par with the BBC's Sherlock, but is enjoyable.

I have only seen the first episode, so I can't speak for its continuing quality, but it certainly isn't horrible, like reading this thread would imply. If you have time to kill (like I do), then give it a try.

It does irk me that they took away Watson's military background, but really, that's my only complaint so far. I'll probably watch the first season over the next week and post again, but to the people that were deterred from watching it above, give it a try, the first episode was good for a pilot.

 

it's actually pretty good.

4/5 from me.

 

Having watched every episode that is out until now from both, Sherlock and Elementary, for me, Elementary is the vastly superior show. I admit that Sherlock has a bit more style, what with the texts and so appearing and looks more impressive from the cinematography but pretty much everything else, the characters, the cases, the development of the characters and their building relationships is so much better. (okay, cases were actually rather good in Sherlock as well, I just enjoyed them more in Elementary)

Sherlock and Watson feel like a team, two people who put specific skills on the table and not just Watson fanboying over Sherlock and doing the occasional legwork or obligatory doctor-y thing. Similarly, the relationship with the police department is vastly more interesting. The dynamic to them is fascinating and rather well balanced. The police are not these incompetent and jealous hacks but rather competent and three dimensional. I especially liked the fact that the police actually appreciate Sherlock for the most part and not just the leader of the department. The dynamic between the Sherlock duo is good as well, but it's just rather one sided.

I also quite liked how Sherlock changed and that he actually faced some struggles, internal and otherwise. The stuff with Moriarty and all was brilliant. I liked the BBC Moriarty as well but that one felt quite rushed so, I appreciated this a lot more.

So yeah, for me, this is the superior Sherlock adaptation, which came as quite the shock to me, since I really loved the BBC version. But ultimately, while it looks better and I do like the actors Freeman and Cumberbatch, from the 6 episodes, only 4 are good and even in those 4, they have a lot of ill-handled (irene Adler) or meh stuff, no real character change or development. There is the difference between having over 30 45 min episodes for Elementary while Sherlock only had 6 90 mins episodes, but still, there could have been more than what was shown.

Changing Watson into a woman was a choice that I liked and didn't really detract from anything. I might have appreciated a military background more but I quite liked the change into a strictly medical background with the added change of being a sober companion, which ties quite nicely into the Sherlock character and mythos.

5/5 from me so far. I like both but Elementary seems to have done more with this, at least for me. Maybe the next Sherlock season is going to change my mind, but I kinda doubt it. I was truly pleasantly surprised when I first watched this because I expected this to be crap. Became one of my favourite shows instead.

 

Well that convinced me to watch this.

 

Elementary ended up being surprisingly good. I watch every episode, however I can't stand to watch repeats, I'm not sure why. I tried watching a couple of S1 eps the other day but couldn't get through either of them.

 

Sherlock is Conan Doyle's Holmes in the 21st century. Elementary is Hollywood's Holmes in modern New York. With a female Watson. And a wrecked Sherlock opening up his heart in group therapy.

Also, it appears Elementary bought Grey's Anatomy's ready-made soundtrack package for when characters reveal their conflicted emotional states at the end of each episode. It's rather hard to take things seriously when the soundtrack is yelling Stop and staaare!

 

Elementary is really good. Nemrut has the right of it really - while Cumberbatch plays a better Sherlock than does Miller, and I felt Sherlock's Moriarty was better than Elementary's (which takes nothing away from Elementary really, the twist with Moriarty here was rather good still), I feel Elementary takes things in a newer, fresher direction. Some diehard fans don't like the deviations from the Doyle Holmes, but as a diehard fan myself (My username says **Holmes for heaven's sake) I rather enjoy the cases in Elementary. Sherlock's Mycroft is a lot superior to Elementary's.

That said, overall the auxiliary characters (Watson, the police force, etc) in Elementary are a lot more well-defined imo, and that's what brings it to par with Sherlock.

No he doesn't. He loathes the group thing, he was just convinced to go and he most certainly doesn't pour his heart out. Also what's up ISWN? Long time no see.

I'd say try Elementary with an open mind. I love both - perhaps Sherlock just a teeny bit more.

EDIT: Also try Da Vinci's Demons - it's kind of a cross between Assassin's Creedesque Italy and Sherlock Holmes.

 

It really gets confusing when people compare the two. When they say 'Sherlock' I'm not sure if they mean the BBC show or the character.

Elementary is good though. And Lucy Liu sold me on a female Watson easily.

 

Minor spoilers. Major spoiler's are in spoiler box

Johnny Lee Miller as Sherlock is quite good and that's one of the major reason I am still watching Elementary. Though I still doesn't like the constant reminder that Holmes is an addict and his meetings at NA, I can tolerate it.

I did like Lucy Liu's portayal of Watson more than I thought I would, but I didn't like way they took her character with her becoming his apprentice. What's the use of a apprentice when you have the world's greatest detective. >_> I know it's unreasonable but they don't really seem like partners now. Also her random date scene's are always bad.

The worst thing about Elementary is that it is a cookie-cut CBS police procedural with all the things it entails. Weekly episodes have a new case most of which doesn't really require someone like Sherlock to solve it and an overarching plot is almost non-existent this season. There have been some great episode like M and Tremors, but still most of the cases are quite boring. Season 2 was quite average till 'On the Line' which was good.

Spoiler

The episode was let down by an average actor who played the villain and a tame ending. The episode was only good because of Sherlock's acting

If all you want is a Sherlock like character solving random cases, there are much better procedural like Castle or Psych or even House.

I loved how they handled Moriarty but hated how the season ended.

Spoiler

In two fucking episodes, we have Irene being revealed to be Moriarty, Irene outsmarting Sherlock, Sherlock recovering from his greatest fucking shock and then capturing her by faking his addiction

I am being quite negative above, but I still like the show and I believe it can become much better if they trim down the shitty episode's, add some great villain's and bring back motherfucking Moriarty.

Spoiler

The best villain to date was undoubtedly Vinnie Jones

 

I prefer the BBC Sherlock but I'm not caught with Elementary yet. My college roommate has seen all of it and greatly prefers Elementary so I'll have to finish Elementary to really see which is great.

I've seen the first episode of Da Vinci's Demons and it was amazing! It was a promo thing provided by my service provider and I haven't been able to see the others (at least not without paying for it haha) but the episode I saw was great! It's the perfect combination of ideas for me.

 

I prefer the BBC version of Sherlock, mainly because of Cumberbatch's portrayal. His portrayal is much more authoritative and more distant, which is similar to how Jeremy Brett portrayed him as well.

 

To me, the fault of Elementary is mostly that Sherlock is too human. It oversimplifies him, in my view, and the fact that Watson can learn what Sherlock can do doesn't sit well with me. I consider Sherlock to be somebody who is significantly... for want of a better word, better, than other humans. He can see and notice things that no other human can, with little to no effort, and by making it a skill that can be learnt, like the piano, doesn't really sit well with me. In Sherlock, he is more... unique. For that reason, I prefer Sherlock.

However, I prefer the other characters in Elementary than I do in Sherlock. If I was to choose a show based on the non-lead characters, it would be Elementary.

My other dislike of Elementary is one that some could possibly place at the feet of Sherlock too. The way in which the cases are solved usually involve a large amount of luck more than Sherlock's skill. There is always some small helpful hand from somebody who serves no other purpose, and so, again, I don't feel like I'm watching the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I feel like I'm watching a particularly smart and equally lucky cop.

In short, Elementary doesn't do enough for me to make Sherlock Sherlock enough. I still watch it mind.

 

Started watching this. Am I the only one that gets a "House M.D. as performed by the cast of Dresden files." vibe from this?