I mentioned yesterday that I tried out a Paramount+ show named Watson.
The premise is nuts: A modern (and black and American) John Watson,
after Holmes' death, is carrying out Holmes' last wish of running a
medical clinic specifying in exotic diseases, while Moriarty lurks
around. This is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Sherlock Holmes.
I can't help speculating that this was originally planned to be a
spinoff of House, M.D. This is a medical mystery drama with sudsy
subplots among the clinicians, so it's a similar show in many ways. Did >Watson begin as Foreman? Did the people who own the House, M.D. rights
want too much money? Did they have to yoink it back to an earlier
generation of the idea?
That's just a guess. The show is so unHolmesian that it feels a little >jarring when they mention Moriarty. I keep forgetting this Watson is >supposed to be that Watson. My guess is probably wrong, but I prefer it
to the more likely possibility, which is that they couldn't get the show >greenlit without tacking some older material on it.
. . .
I mentioned yesterday that I tried out a Paramount+ show named Watson.
The premise is nuts: A modern (and black and American) John Watson,
after Holmes' death, is carrying out Holmes' last wish of running a
medical clinic specifying in exotic diseases, while Moriarty lurks
around. This is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Sherlock Holmes.
I can't help speculating that this was originally planned to be a
spinoff of House, M.D. This is a medical mystery drama with sudsy
subplots among the clinicians, so it's a similar show in many ways. Did Watson begin as Foreman? Did the people who own the House, M.D. rights
want too much money? Did they have to yoink it back to an earlier
generation of the idea?
That's just a guess. The show is so unHolmesian that it feels a little jarring when they mention Moriarty. I keep forgetting this Watson is supposed to be that Watson. My guess is probably wrong, but I prefer it
to the more likely possibility, which is that they couldn't get the show greenlit without tacking some older material on it.
EXEC A: "Sherlock Holmes has a doctor and a big bad in it. Let's use
that."
EXEC B: "Isn't there supposed to be a detective in that?"
EXEC A: "He was dead for a while. We'll set it then."
Services already have whole shelves of reboots and restarts and reimaginings, and the studios keep making more. I think they've learned
that familiarity is a useful hook. We say we want something original,
but in fact we're more likely to tune in if it has familiar elements.
If that's so, then this will continue forever. Most shows will be
putatively based on some other cultural reference point, whether there's
any real relationship or not.
Other arts are also mining the past. Movies love franchises and sequels,
and leaks indicate that movie studios are literally making movies by
formula -- it will have certain required kinds of characters, and the
plot will hit certain beats. In publishing, it's gradually becoming a process of massaging desired characters and tropes into something
resembling a story.
In "This Is Why We Never Got Another Lord of the Rings," The Second
Story tracks Del Rey's damage to high fantasy. They catered to LoTR fans
by publishing only novels which used elements from it. Their press
became very popular. The genre suffered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=_BBrDhgGz1k&pp=ygUec2Vjb25kIHN0b3J5IGxvcmQgb2YgdGhlIHJpbmdz
We shouldn't let this happen to every genre in every art.
The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote:
I mentioned yesterday that I tried out a Paramount+ show named Watson.
The premise is nuts: A modern (and black and American) John Watson,
after Holmes' death, is carrying out Holmes' last wish of running a >>medical clinic specifying in exotic diseases, while Moriarty lurks
around. This is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Sherlock Holmes.
I can't help speculating that this was originally planned to be a
spinoff of House, M.D. This is a medical mystery drama with sudsy
subplots among the clinicians, so it's a similar show in many ways. Did >>Watson begin as Foreman? Did the people who own the House, M.D. rights >>want too much money? Did they have to yoink it back to an earlier >>generation of the idea?
On House, M.D., Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) was the Watson >character, not Foreman.
Making it a spinoff rather than in the style of Sherlock Holmes means >unnecessarily paying royalties. The Arthur Conan Doyle estate had been >demanding royalties till copyright on every story expired on the legal
theory copyright applied to the body of work and not individual stories
and novels as they were first published. Fortunately, no trial court had >sustained that legal theory. Any new element introduced by a later story >remained under copyright till expiration, but there was no restriction
on use of elements from any story whose copyright had expired.
He died in 1930. Anything he wrote at the very end of life expired. I
forget whether the 95th calendar year is in copyright or out of
copyright. I would argue, of course, that keeping anything in copyright >decades after death did not inspire him to write subsequent stories, but >others disagree.
On House, M.D., Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) was the Watson character, not Foreman.
I agree with you, but I will point out that it?s not a bad show (with the exception of the episode where he murders Morarity).
ahk@chinet.com deliver unto us this message:
On House, M.D., Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) was the Watson >>character, not Foreman.
Yes he was, but this character isn't really Dr. John Watson. He's just a >doctor identifying exotic diseases, named John Watson to tack the Holmes >stuff on.
I speculated Foreman because Foreman was already a black man and already
had some trouble in his distant past. The other two ducklings could also >have worked for such a show, but I think Wilson would be too old now
(and was an oncologist anyway).
anim8rfsk@cox.net deliver unto us this message:
I agree with you, but I will point out that it?s not a bad show (with the >>exception of the episode where he murders Morarity).
I haven't got to that point, but the spoiler encourages me to keep
watching. I like medical dramas, at least sometimes, and the Moriarty
arc is kind of dumb anyway.
Over on RAT Facebook we have found out that it?s been renewed for season
two, Sherlock Holmes will be in it and they are trying to get Lucy Liu to guest star.
I know what you are saying, that Watson was sold on the basis of being a House-like show and there are comparable characters, but I think it was nothing more than a vehicle for Morris Chestnut. I absolutely agree that
his Watson ain't the Watson of literature.
The very idea that Holmes would somehow become so fabulously wealthy
that he could afford to endow Watson's department at the hospital
(allowing him to treat, what, two dozen patients a year) or that the
Holmes we know from literature would have any interest in doing so was laughable.
I watch it because my taste in television is almost as bad as Ian's.
It's sort of fascinating to watch for much of what it does poorly. It's
a little engaging without being actually entertaining.
Verily, in article <1499190455.778527774.460378.anim8rfsk- cox.net@news.easynews.com>, did anim8rfsk@cox.net deliver unto us this message:
Over on RAT Facebook we have found out that it?s been renewed for season
two, Sherlock Holmes will be in it and they are trying to get Lucy Liu to
guest star.
Just to be sure... they're not trying to get her to guest star as
Sherlock, right? You never know these days.
Verily, in article <1097jl4$o3dt$1@dont-email.me>, did ahk@chinet.com deliver unto us this message:
I know what you are saying, that Watson was sold on the basis of being a
House-like show and there are comparable characters, but I think it was
nothing more than a vehicle for Morris Chestnut. I absolutely agree that
his Watson ain't the Watson of literature.
Yeah, I agree with you really. Thinking of it as a disguised House
spinoff was the only way I could make it make sense, but there's also
the strong possibility that it just doesn't make any sense.
The very idea that Holmes would somehow become so fabulously wealthy
that he could afford to endow Watson's department at the hospital
(allowing him to treat, what, two dozen patients a year) or that the
Holmes we know from literature would have any interest in doing so was
laughable.
Apparently he had the money all along and just never mentioned it.
I watch it because my taste in television is almost as bad as Ian's.
It's sort of fascinating to watch for much of what it does poorly. It's
a little engaging without being actually entertaining.
It is definitely fast food. I'm okay with it as a bedtime show -- it's engaging enough to watch, but not enough that I mind if I miss the
ending.
I mentioned yesterday that I tried out a Paramount+ show named Watson.
The premise is nuts: A modern (and black and American) John Watson,
after Holmes' death, is carrying out Holmes' last wish of running a
medical clinic specifying in exotic diseases, while Moriarty lurks
around. This is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Sherlock Holmes.
I can't help speculating that this was originally planned to be a
spinoff of House, M.D. This is a medical mystery drama with sudsy
subplots among the clinicians, so it's a similar show in many ways. Did Watson begin as Foreman? Did the people who own the House, M.D. rights
want too much money? Did they have to yoink it back to an earlier
generation of the idea?
That's just a guess. The show is so unHolmesian that it feels a little jarring when they mention Moriarty. I keep forgetting this Watson is
supposed to be that Watson. My guess is probably wrong, but I prefer it
to the more likely possibility, which is that they couldn't get the show greenlit without tacking some older material on it.
EXEC A: "Sherlock Holmes has a doctor and a big bad in it. Let's use
that."
EXEC B: "Isn't there supposed to be a detective in that?"
EXEC A: "He was dead for a while. We'll set it then."
Services already have whole shelves of reboots and restarts and
reimaginings, and the studios keep making more. I think they've learned
that familiarity is a useful hook. We say we want something original,
but in fact we're more likely to tune in if it has familiar elements.
If that's so, then this will continue forever. Most shows will be
putatively based on some other cultural reference point, whether there's
any real relationship or not.
Other arts are also mining the past. Movies love franchises and sequels,
and leaks indicate that movie studios are literally making movies by
formula -- it will have certain required kinds of characters, and the
plot will hit certain beats. In publishing, it's gradually becoming a
process of massaging desired characters and tropes into something
resembling a story.
In "This Is Why We Never Got Another Lord of the Rings," The Second
Story tracks Del Rey's damage to high fantasy. They catered to LoTR fans
by publishing only novels which used elements from it. Their press
became very popular. The genre suffered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=_BBrDhgGz1k&pp=ygUec2Vjb25kIHN0b3J5IGxvcmQgb2YgdGhlIHJpbmdz
We shouldn't let this happen to every genre in every art.
It's basically a knock-off of "House", mixed with a reimaginating of Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson.
It's also a ethnicity-swapping of an existing character to appease the Politically Correct whiners ... as if ethnicity AND gender-swapping
Doctor Watson in the awful "Elementary" wasn't enough for them. :-\
I think I'm going to give up on the show. It's okay in itself, but
molesting the Holmes canon constantly is getting annoying. No, Irene
Adler was not Sherlock's girlfriend, and she was not in and out of his
life. She was a one-time person of interest who escaped to America, from >which Sherlock learned not to underestimate women.
Sherlock's take, in which she got turned into a smirking sexpot, was >probably the worst Irene Adler I've seen.
In <MPG.4321f81a7bfc9bfb9898ce@news.eternal-september.org> The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> writes:
[snip]
I think I'm going to give up on the show. It's okay in itself, but
molesting the Holmes canon constantly is getting annoying. No, Irene
Adler was not Sherlock's girlfriend, and she was not in and out of his
life. She was a one-time person of interest who escaped to America, from
which Sherlock learned not to underestimate women.
Sherlock's take, in which she got turned into a smirking sexpot, was
probably the worst Irene Adler I've seen.
One of my Elementary [a] school classmates was (and likely still is)
named Irene Adler.
I doubt whether she's ever forgiven her parents.
[a] I see what I did there.
Verily, in article <1098ijc$utv3$1@dont-email.me>, did
YourName@YourISP.com deliver unto us this message:
It's basically a knock-off of "House", mixed with a reimaginating of
Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson.
It's definitely a reimagining, not just an update. The canonical Watson
was a retired military doctor, experienced in treating injuries, not
really all that into exotic diseases.
It's also a ethnicity-swapping of an existing character to appease the
Politically Correct whiners ... as if ethnicity AND gender-swapping
Doctor Watson in the awful "Elementary" wasn't enough for them. :-\
Enh, I'm okay with it. It's a reboot set in modern times. It makes sense
for a period production to be all white, and it also makes sense for a modern reboot not to be. As long as it doesn't turn into that nonsense
of counting to make sure we have enough of each kind of person, it's
fine.
Sex swaps are trickier, though.
I think I'm going to give up on the show.
molesting the Holmes canon constantly is getting annoying. No, Irene
Adler was not Sherlock's girlfriend, and she was not in and out of his
life.
She was a one-time person of interest who escaped to America, from
which Sherlock learned not to underestimate women.
Sherlock's take, in which she got turned into a smirking sexpot, was probably the worst Irene Adler I've seen.
If you want to see Watson murder Moriarity skip ahead to the season finale
It's okay in itself, but
molesting the Holmes canon constantly is getting annoying. No, Irene
Adler was not Sherlock's girlfriend, and she was not in and out of his life.
That?s a standard version these days though. Both Robert Downey Junior and Benedict Cumber Scooch support that. And probably any version that has a 21st century descendent of Sherlock. And several movie versions.
Verily, in article <139678771.778605627.431642.anim8rfsk- cox.net@news.easynews.com>, did anim8rfsk@cox.net deliver unto us this message:
If you want to see Watson murder Moriarity skip ahead to the season finale
Good idea.
It's okay in itself, but
molesting the Holmes canon constantly is getting annoying. No, Irene
Adler was not Sherlock's girlfriend, and she was not in and out of his
life.
That?s a standard version these days though. Both Robert Downey Junior and >> Benedict Cumber Scooch support that. And probably any version that has a
21st century descendent of Sherlock. And several movie versions.
I still dislike it. Canonical Irene Adler had a role in Sherlock's
story, and it's lost when she's turned into his girlfriend or a sex
kitten or something. In fact, that's kind of the opposite of the point
of the character. The point was that she had a mind, that Sherlock underestimated her, and that he wouldn't make that mistake again.
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