MY DEAR, WATKINS?

Mr. Holmes

The Scottish author and physician, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle had a much different picture of his fictional character Sherlock Holmes when he created the detective so many years ago. A favorite of mystery readers, Holmes, who first appeared in publication in 1887, was featured in four novels and 56 short stories! In all the stories, he analyzed the crime, weighted the clues and questioned the suspects with a plan, unassisted by anyone but his sidekick Watkins.

Where's his pipe?

Today, there is a show on CBS called Elementary, a successful show starring: Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu. It is about a modern day Sherlock Holmes and his faithful partner Watkins. BOOOOOOOOO!

Having watched the show a few times, it has left me with sense of wanting more than they can come across with. It seems to me that reading the old verses watching the new, my imagination did a better job! It is the old problem of seeing it in my mind first then seeing it on the screen where I become disappointed. In my mind, I can relate a rainy day or fog, or even the streets of London having been there before.

That's better

On the TV version, they do what everyone else does, using the same confusing techniques and with a little sexual tension, a click or two and they have a data base, or report of some kind, and the assistance of the local and international police forces, and all their computers to find who the killer is. They use a team of forensic experts and the use of photography, fingerprinting and lab tests, along with the coroner’s office, a cell phone and don’t forget texting to help solve the crime.

Years ago, Holmes did it all by himself. One man and not a moment too late solved a crime. There was no sexual tension, and although Sherlock was full of himself, he deserved to be, he was a master.

WHATkins!

When you looked at Watkins, you saw a mustached gentleman in his sixties, a bowler’s hat capped askew on his head, waiting on Sherlock and his great probing and deductive reasoning mind. He was always stating the obvious or thinking within the limits of an ordinary mortal. And today’s Watkins? She is a beautiful Asian woman, with a name like Watkins! I think they should have called her Schneider or Feinstein instead.

Today, if the TV version of the detective were to approach the book version, he would be waiting all day in the book version’s waiting room, hoping for an appointment. Let’s face it, the TV version has all these writers sitting around putting this story together, when between patients, Dr. Conan-Doyle wrote by himself, alone, and without spell check!

Leave it alone!

My point is this: Why oh why do you need to take a classic like Sherlock Holmes, and think you are being clever by remaking it? I have yet to see a classic turned into a modern day version and think it was better than the original.

If you disagree with me, you can send your comments to the website for universal health care, just go to the tab marked Holmes and type in your complaint about all this and you can use a pull down menu to select a dirty filthy name to call me!

After all, it IS elementary!