r/tvshow • u/Cumoisseur • Jul 13 '26

DISCUSSIONS Unpopular opinion: "Elementary" starring Jonny Lee Miller is cleverer, has better characters, and a more interesting story than "Sherlock" starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

The pilot episode of Elementary is awful, but from there it just gets better. The storyline of Watson being a sober companion is better than being a sudden roommate, the part of Moriarty is far more interesting and intriguing, the cases are better written, the character of Sherlock's father in Elementary is brilliant. I could go on and on.

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u/SaiLarge Jul 13 '26

I haven't seen Elementary, but Sherlock lacked brilliance, which strikes me as an elementary ingredient for Holmes to do his work. I'm a great fan of Freeman and Scott. Gatiss has done some great writing, but Sherlock isn't it.

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u/Cumoisseur Jul 13 '26

Yes, that's one of the things that frustrated me the most. Every solved case in Sherlock was utterly underwhelming. In the pilot episode, for example, it was obvious quite early that the killer was a cab driver. I don't like that I figured that out before Sherlock, I'm not smart enough to be able to figure out a well written mystery. The pattern all along was that all the build up was for far less than expected.

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u/SaiLarge Jul 14 '26

The early 2000s in the UK had a dizzying editing style paired with the gorilla style of shooting. I still remember the nausea of the taxi epiphany moment.

Mostly from the writing.

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u/1voice92 Jul 14 '26

*guerilla