ONTD

12:16 pm - 12/19/2012

Elementary: Female Watson 'Started as a Joke'


Rob Doherty's choice to pair Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock Holmes with a woman resulted in fall's No. 1 new series, and inclusion in THR's 2012 Rule Breakers portfolio.

"It started out as something of a joke," creator Rob Doherty confesses of his decision to make the Watson in his Sherlock Holmes tale a woman. When he began to research the story's original characters, he came across a handful of experts who had written up psychological assessments of Sherlock; one of them had noted an aversion to women.

"I thought to myself, 'What would make Holmes crazier than taking the figurative rock he has in Watson and making him a woman?' I scribbled it down and then went back to my research," the 38-year-old Elementary showrunner continues. "The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try it."

The result: casting Asian-American film star Lucy Liu as the first female Watson opposite Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock and an impressive 13.9 million viewers tuning in weekly, making Elementary the No. 1 new series with total viewers this fall. (Among the key 18-to-49 set, the series ranks No. 2 behind only NBC's breakout Revolution.) And come February, the CBS drama -- one of the season's few hits with critics and audiences alike -- will get the coveted post-Super Bowl slot.
The show's stars, Liu, 44, and Miller, 40, still are making sense of the series' success, particularly rewarding because the show colors outside the lines in a way that excites both of them.

"To me, one of the best things you can do in this profession is to take a risk," says Miller, whose co-star plays sober coach to his recovering-addict Sherlock. Liu says the tweak in formula can liberate the story in other ways as well: "There's an endless supply of unpredictability that we can delve into and we can change and add. It will still be a pound cake, but it could be marble, it could be lemon, it could be poppy seed."


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DELICIOUS VIDEO @ SRC
manubibi 19th-Dec-2012 06:16 pm (UTC)
It's good, but its fandom made me hate it with a passion and won't watch third season :/
bexclare 19th-Dec-2012 07:32 pm (UTC)
Same. I have zero interest. Arguing with a hysterical fangirl on tumblr last week literally gave me a migraine.
manubibi 19th-Dec-2012 07:58 pm (UTC)
I officially started hating on the fandom when I read a post from a sherlockian saying that the TWD fandom doesn't get to complain about the hiatus because they've been waiting 4 years for a season
WELL WHAT ABOUT THE LOTR FANDOM, HUH. WE HAD TO WAIT FOR EIGHT FUCKING YEARS AND NOBODY EVER COMPLAINED ABOUT IT
or the Star Trek and Doctor Who fandoms
So why do these assholes need to go around telling people that they don't have the right to complain because they've been waiting more?! UGH.
sherlockholmes 19th-Dec-2012 08:02 pm (UTC)
I'm still waiting for a Star Wars movie that isn't shit.
manubibi 19th-Dec-2012 08:48 pm (UTC)
You mean the "new" trilogy? Idk, I was a child when they came out so I'm fond of them, you know they made me fantasize about being a jedi and introduced me to that universe and also Ewan McGregor, I mean he's my fav actor
but yeah I know they're not as good as the old ones and with the Disney thing I don't think it's gonna get better but I hope kids will get interested to the whole saga and look back to the first trilogy too
bexclare 19th-Dec-2012 09:07 pm (UTC)
ASOIAF fans had to wait like 6 years between the fourth and fifth books in the series.

And the series probably will not be finished.

Sherlockians need to stop acting like the most persecuted fandom that ever was a fandom.
manubibi 19th-Dec-2012 09:17 pm (UTC)
Yeah, I forgot about ASOIAF sorry XD
but wait, why won't it be finished? Is George Martin going to write something else? This is news to me :O
and yeah they definitely act like martyrs :/
lee_chikin 21st-Dec-2012 01:53 pm (UTC)
I read somewhere that the people at HBO had the same concern so GRRM revealed to them how he intends the story to end in case he dies before finishing the books.
jaimelannister 19th-Dec-2012 09:45 pm (UTC)
Urgh, IKR, one of my friends loves Sherlock, but not in a fangirl way, but it's still gonna annoying me when he'll be like "SHERLOCK SHERLOCK SHERLOCK"
getwicked 22nd-Dec-2012 10:29 am (UTC)
Or you could keep watching it because you like it? I don't get why people say this. The Sherlock fandom IS pretty insufferable, but you can just sort of ignore them and enjoy it anyway.
manubibi 22nd-Dec-2012 10:32 am (UTC)
Yeah, but the way I am I got annoyed of constantly hearing about it and when something goes so mainstream that you can't turn around without seeing it, I instantly turn against it. And I don't think I'd enjoy it like I used to, when I could go on tumblr to talk about it and I wouldn't find obsessed aggressive crazies that have turned their lives to a constant rewatch of Sherlock.
milkradio 23rd-Dec-2012 07:14 pm (UTC)
I like both Sherlock and Elementary tbh because they're both interesting interpretations of Sherlock Holmes imo but they're different enough to both be entertaining to me, but omg the ultra-fans of each drive me up the wall. It's either ~omg Sherlock was so much better, WHY IS WATSON A WOMAN UUUUUGH!!!!~ and ~benedict cumbercube looks like a lizard, worst show worst cast, i've never became a fan of something purely to spite another show before lolol~ like goddamn just watch whatever shows you want and leave it at that already. It doesn't always have to be turned into some huge thing.
manubibi 23rd-Dec-2012 08:21 pm (UTC)
ia with you. I still like Sherlock (more the first season than the second tbh) and I will probably want to rewatch it. Not today tho lol
the_tire_swing 2nd-Jan-2013 02:57 pm (UTC)
The first season rocked. The second season was so meh.
the_tire_swing 2nd-Jan-2013 02:55 pm (UTC)
I literally could not agree more with this comment if I tried. The cumber stans are ridic
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