Joan Watson - Tumblr Posts - Page 2
CBS’ Elementary is everything to me.
Between the “i made you breakfast” and the “i’ll see you at home” and the “when was the last time you slept?” and the “i know you didn’t eat so i brought you your leftovers” and clyde going from “pet tortoise” to “our pet tortoise” and the “we’re two people who love each other” …
They are individuals in their own right and yet depend on each other so deeply, but it’s not co-dependency, they actively choose each other everyday all the time. They are two halves of a whole but they are not incomplete as individuals, rather they lift each other up. It’s so nice to see a holmes/watson relationship that’s so unproblematic and wholesome and loving. I love this adaptation. I just love them.
elementary may have been copaganda but they were really onto something with their version of holmes he's autistic. he's a sub. he's canonically into bondage. he's a recovering addict. he keeps bees. he's tattooed AND hairy. his posture is insane. he texts in a near-undecipherable string of abbreviations and acronyms. he's the most irritating man in new york city. he's even aromantic
Elementary!Sherlock is superior because when he was angry and had to make several phone calls he dug out a rotary phone from his storage closet to be able to hang up on people with more emphasis
I love how it's easy to read Joan as on the aromantic spectrum, or of some other sort of non-normative romantic attraction type.
She gets with a great guy, whom she clearly likes and cares for and enjoys having sex with...but she doesn't love him, not romantically. She "doesn't feel what [she's] supposed to". Sherlock points out that romantic love doesn't work according to a checklist, which Joan seems to finally realize (as though she's spent years trying to adhere to a checklist when in romantic relationships).
Joan finally realizes that she doesn't want what she's "supposed" to want. That the way attraction and love work for her isn't how it works for "normal" people. Joan is finally realizing that she herself isn't "normal" (in more than one way).
Joan Watson learns to stop trying to shove herself into a societally acceptable box, and eventually accept and embrace her preferred, non-normative relationship wants and needs.
Good for her.
Okay, bear with me
Laurie R King, author of a looooong and ongoing series of books inspired by Sherlock Holmes, once said that she had to convince the Doyle estate that her books were not going to be bodice-rippers (my words not hers). They were very concerned about the reputation and vibes of Sherlock and wanted to ensure she would honor ACD and the original Sherlock appropriately (she does imo).
Now, let's talk about the TV show Elementary, specifically the pilot. It immediately sets the stage that Holmes and Watson - who is a woman this time - are meeting for the first time. With Watson being a woman, you could easily see people assuming this show is going to be about them falling in love. Most shows with a male + female leads do, after all.
Then, the first thing Sherlock Holmes says to Joan Watson is a couple sentences about being in love/love at first sight: "Do you believe in love at first sight? I know what you're thinking: the world is a cynical place, and I must be a cynical man, thinking a woman like you would fall for a line like that. Thing is, it isn't a line, so, please... hear me when I say this. I have never loved anyone as I do you right now, in this moment."
And Joan is shocked and confused. Understandably!
Then Sherlock hits play on the remote in his hand, and the TV starts playing right as a character says the EXACT speech he just gave. He gives a "nailed it" and finally introduces himself like normal.
It's funny AND sets a tone for his eccentricities, but I don't think that's why they did it. I think that scene went exactly like that to announce right out of the gate that this would not be a love story, there would be no sexual tension, Watson being female changes NOTHING.
And it didn't. And it was perfect. Not usually wholesome or beautiful, but perfect.
I don't really have a point here, just had to connect those two points after re-watching the pilot last night
One of the major ways Elementary stands out from other Holmes adaptations to me is how they wrote Watson. Like it would've been so easy to write her like any other Watson, brilliant, yes, undoubtedly, but forever attached to Sherlock. Watson is there because Sherlock wills it so, because Sherlock needs a rock and because Sherlock Holmes is a man forever in need of a partner. Usually.
But they broke that. They said this is Dr Joan Watson, and she is incandescent and ruthless. She's a surgeon and there's an episode where Sherlock says surgeons have a healthy dose of god complex and you think sure buddy and then Joan threatens Moriarty in the middle of a restaurant and you go, huh. She learns to pick pockets and watches out of boredom. She changed careers over and over again till she found the one that fit. She became a detective and could and would absolutely kill a man and vouch for someone killing a man because it's Sherlock and she loves him very much. She's a partner, in the very literal sense. She kept track of murders as a teenager. She enchanted the most dangerous woman on the planet and EARNED her protection. She's a cancer survivor. She threatens gangs and online hacker conglomerates in free time. She's a mother. She's half of two people who love each other very much. She moved across oceans for him and she would do it again.