Elementary 1x22

[killerweasel.livejournal.com]

Discussion post for Elementary 122 - 'Risk Management'

Spoilers in the comments.

What did you think?

Comments

[atheist-cheese.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was pretty impressed with the finale. They took what I thought were two pieces of weak writing (fridging Irene and Moriarty's storyline -- which I had a hard time getting into) and smashed them together into something good.

I was really intruiged with how they handled the Irene/Joan interaction. That's when Joan figured her out, I assume. Joan's complete lack of fear, her jab at Irene's ability to read her. Despite being the one kidnapped and being held against her will, she felt way more in control of that scene.

Although with both Sherlock and Elementary the biggest annoyance in their Irene storylines was the fact that Sherlock wins, in the end. You're right, it was way more offensive with Sherlock (BBC), but the spirit of Irene's story is she is one of the few people (not women) that outsmarts him. That's why she made such an impact on him. I don't even care if they feel they must make her a love interest every single time (although in the original she had a husband and clearly gave no fucks about Sherlock) it just infuriates me that she never gets to win.

Yeah, I suppose you could justify Elementary's decision with the fact that they also brought in Moriarty -- it's just a disappointment. Sherlock-esque characters often begin to suffer from the can-never-be-wrong/defeated syndrome after a few seasons, making storylines hollow and predicable because you know they're always going to be right/figure it out. (See: House). Letting someone win is not only a good writing choice it would be sticking to the intent of the original story. It's kind of sad that something written during a period of patriarchy and in a very sexist society still dares to go farther than modern TV will.