Nobody is going to believe this...
Mar. 12th, 2014 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsNobody is going to believe this, but I'm actually warming to Elementary this season... or at least thawing toward it. I still think that the mysteries themselves are ludicrously complex, but this year the personalities involved are being handled beautifully.
It helps tremendously that the three things that bothered me the worst about S1 have been directly addressed onscreen.
1) Mycroft drew Sherlock's attention to the fact that Joan had no income or housing outside of Sherlock and the brownstone... and that Sherlock had been dipping into his savings to pay her. That Joan was so dependent on Sherlock was a HUGE HUGE HUGE problem for me -- easily the biggest issue I had with the show -- and not only was it addressed, it was addressed in a manner that gave Joan agency. It was rightfully pointed out to me that in S1 when Sherlock offered Joan the job it wasn't "guy gives gal order" or even "guy gives gal offer" but guy gives gal offer THAT HE RESPECTFULLY SUGGESTS THAT SHE TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT AND GET OUTSIDE OPINIONS ON and that is simply an unheard of gender dynamic on TV.
In this case, Sherlock more or less grunted at Mycroft, but at the end of the episode we see him sit down with Joan, admit the situation, and discuss with her as an equal working partner how THEY are going to handle the income issue. If I'm going to bitch when I think they're wrong, I'm equally willing to give Elementary massive, massive props making it right in such a manner that it's the only show on TV that is willing to treat the m/f partnership as a true EQUAL partnership.
2) Joan herself addressed the related issue that they were both becoming very insular in the brownstone and needed to see people. The idea of her casually dating appears to have been dropped, or at least shoved well to the back, but that's okay. It was noticed, called out, and addressed.
Joan's dependence on Holmes in S1 was what horrified me, and that is no longer a thing in the Elementaryverse. That alone makes my heart grow 3x times toward it.
And finally,
3) Joan is accepted as a full detective by the NYPD. Sherlock himself had considered her one pretty much at the end of S1, but that was offset in the same episode by Gregson practically filling out a bingo card of How To Dismiss Women: patronizing Joan, pushing her back into an old job and worst of all, repeatedly ignoring her saying "No." Joan sassing back about carrying a gun and a penis may have shown she wasn't a doormat, but it also didn't mean that she was getting the respect she was due.
Now, however, I don't think Gregson would make such a belittling maneuver in the first place.
It helps tremendously that the three things that bothered me the worst about S1 have been directly addressed onscreen.
1) Mycroft drew Sherlock's attention to the fact that Joan had no income or housing outside of Sherlock and the brownstone... and that Sherlock had been dipping into his savings to pay her. That Joan was so dependent on Sherlock was a HUGE HUGE HUGE problem for me -- easily the biggest issue I had with the show -- and not only was it addressed, it was addressed in a manner that gave Joan agency. It was rightfully pointed out to me that in S1 when Sherlock offered Joan the job it wasn't "guy gives gal order" or even "guy gives gal offer" but guy gives gal offer THAT HE RESPECTFULLY SUGGESTS THAT SHE TAKE TIME TO THINK ABOUT AND GET OUTSIDE OPINIONS ON and that is simply an unheard of gender dynamic on TV.
In this case, Sherlock more or less grunted at Mycroft, but at the end of the episode we see him sit down with Joan, admit the situation, and discuss with her as an equal working partner how THEY are going to handle the income issue. If I'm going to bitch when I think they're wrong, I'm equally willing to give Elementary massive, massive props making it right in such a manner that it's the only show on TV that is willing to treat the m/f partnership as a true EQUAL partnership.
2) Joan herself addressed the related issue that they were both becoming very insular in the brownstone and needed to see people. The idea of her casually dating appears to have been dropped, or at least shoved well to the back, but that's okay. It was noticed, called out, and addressed.
Joan's dependence on Holmes in S1 was what horrified me, and that is no longer a thing in the Elementaryverse. That alone makes my heart grow 3x times toward it.
And finally,
3) Joan is accepted as a full detective by the NYPD. Sherlock himself had considered her one pretty much at the end of S1, but that was offset in the same episode by Gregson practically filling out a bingo card of How To Dismiss Women: patronizing Joan, pushing her back into an old job and worst of all, repeatedly ignoring her saying "No." Joan sassing back about carrying a gun and a penis may have shown she wasn't a doormat, but it also didn't mean that she was getting the respect she was due.
Now, however, I don't think Gregson would make such a belittling maneuver in the first place.
