5.3.1 Elementary- The modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
As a new television series in late 2012, how Elementary attracts people’ attention among other Holmes’ adaptations, or other crime series? By exposing it is another Sherlock Holmes adaptation. According to Linda Hutcheon, adaptations generally show their origins and have to determine the relationship between original texts and themselves openly. (Sanders 2005) Creators of Elementary do reveal their sources, but since paratexts usually release earlier than the series itself, television or Internet audiences realize the fact that it is an adaptation by those paratexts. Firstly, the title of this series is from seemingly the most famous quotes of Sherlock Holmes, ‘Elementary, my …show more content…
In fact, he never spoke it, at least spoken by him separately. He once said ‘”Elementary,” said he. “It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction.”’ (Doyle 2007: 254). Robert Doherty, the creator of Elementary, used this well-known quote to simply reveal the basic …show more content…
On the other hand, plots and roles’ development in Elementary goes beyond simply playing a numbers game of representational politics. What Elementary does, and does very well, is not only attributing intelligence to a female leading role and a woman of colour, but also challenging the very conception of intelligence through the characters of Joan Watson and Sherlock Holmes, and through the gender factors in the personal and working relationship between them. Eventually, Elementary interrogates gendered politics related to cultural binaries, such as intelligence/emotion, personal/professional, success/failure, and teacher/student, and in the process illustrates that there is space for representations of intelligent and complex or racialized women, as well as for representations of intelligent and emotional men on mainstream television. Through a textual analysis of three seasons of Elementary, in this chapter it demonstrates how Joan Watson embodies both emotion and logic, thus blurring lines between femininity and masculinity as well as redefining the parameters of the intelligent woman in North American popular culture. It also suggests that her professional journey complicates contemporary notions of success and failure in the work place, raising questions about what counts as authorized work for intelligent
As a new television series in late 2012, how Elementary attracts people’ attention among other Holmes’ adaptations, or other crime series? By exposing it is another Sherlock Holmes adaptation. According to Linda Hutcheon, adaptations generally show their origins and have to determine the relationship between original texts and themselves openly. (Sanders 2005) Creators of Elementary do reveal their sources, but since paratexts usually release earlier than the series itself, television or Internet audiences realize the fact that it is an adaptation by those paratexts. Firstly, the title of this series is from seemingly the most famous quotes of Sherlock Holmes, ‘Elementary, my …show more content…
In fact, he never spoke it, at least spoken by him separately. He once said ‘”Elementary,” said he. “It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction.”’ (Doyle 2007: 254). Robert Doherty, the creator of Elementary, used this well-known quote to simply reveal the basic …show more content…
On the other hand, plots and roles’ development in Elementary goes beyond simply playing a numbers game of representational politics. What Elementary does, and does very well, is not only attributing intelligence to a female leading role and a woman of colour, but also challenging the very conception of intelligence through the characters of Joan Watson and Sherlock Holmes, and through the gender factors in the personal and working relationship between them. Eventually, Elementary interrogates gendered politics related to cultural binaries, such as intelligence/emotion, personal/professional, success/failure, and teacher/student, and in the process illustrates that there is space for representations of intelligent and complex or racialized women, as well as for representations of intelligent and emotional men on mainstream television. Through a textual analysis of three seasons of Elementary, in this chapter it demonstrates how Joan Watson embodies both emotion and logic, thus blurring lines between femininity and masculinity as well as redefining the parameters of the intelligent woman in North American popular culture. It also suggests that her professional journey complicates contemporary notions of success and failure in the work place, raising questions about what counts as authorized work for intelligent