Lucy Liu recently discussed racism in Hollywood, the problem with not being American enough and not being Asian enough–the classic paradoxical existence every Asian American lives in. She’s tired of being the emotionless Asian girl or the Asian girl that kicks your butt.
But her role in “Elementary“, a contemporary re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes in New York, throws a sizable wrench in the Asian female stereotypes by casting her as Dr. Joan Watson. What’s cool about this from an Asian American perspective?
First of all, she doesn’t have an Asian sounding name because, you know, not all of us do. Duh. Second, she is a female doctor who is drawn into forensics. That just screams Scully awesomeness. Finally, she’s just a person in this show. Not an Asian person or and Asian American person, just another person, a character with thoughts and feelings, with a personal past of some sort of tragedy or conflict, who finds herself having to deal with the bizarrely enigmatic Holmes. You don’t see her prancing around in geisha wear or striking a kung fu pose. She’s just Dr. Watson, doing her job, and letting herself be dragged into Sherlock’s world.
I watched the first episode and was pleased with it for all the reasons stated above. Then I proceeded to hate the show, because as cool as Lucy Liu’s Dr. Joan Watson was, I could not stand this Sherlock Holmes.
I’m a fan of the original Sherlock Holmes series. I haven’t read all of them, but I plan to. All of it put together is like two and a half Bibles.
Everyone was complaining and griping about having a woman, and a Chinese American woman at that, play the dear Dr. Watson, but seriously, they should have been paying a lot more attention to the reconstruction of Holmes himself. Nothing against the actor (Johnny Lee Miller), I don’t really know his work too well. Here are the reasons I hate this Sherlock.
First, when you first meet him, he creates sexual/romantic tension between himself and Joan Watson. NO! Why are we starting this relationship off with gender at the center of the equation? If that’s the case, then please change Watson back to a man right now because it’s ruining everything!
Second, Sherlock apparently has sexual encounters with random women to “satisfy” his primal urges. WHAT? This is Sherlock Holmes we’re talking about! He’d rather study the various types of glue used in envelopes than be distracted with women, most of whom he finds dull and predictable.
Next, he’s a drug addict here. Yes, Holmes used to smoke some stuff to help him think, probably to calm his ever-racing mind, but drug addict? If Holmes is addicted to anything, it’s the chase.
Finally, he’s apparently under the thumb of a rich but controlling father of some sort who had hired Dr. Joan Watson to be his sober companion. Let’s just make it clear, Sherlock Holmes is under no one’s thumb but his own, even if it is smelly from weeks of chemical experiments.
I know I’m getting emotional, but hey, I just don’t handle it well when someone messes with one of my favorite characters.
Despite this rocky beginning, I am going to try to give this show another chance and try to watch the rest of the first season, because I do like the Joan Watson character so far, and I want to support the groundbreaking that Lucy Liu is doing here with the Dr. Watson role.
In the meantime, I’m much more excited about another Sherlock series, namely the BBC PBS Masterpiece Sherlock, starring the Star Trek: Into Darkness bad guy, Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Bilbo Baggins Martin Freeman as Watson. Now here’s a contemporary re-imagining of Doyle’s Sherlock. It is so much more intelligent and true to the original Holmes than an Iron Man Sherlock or a drug addict one, and the random banter between Holmes and Watson is simply golden. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the Iron Man Sherlock movies, but after seeing the BBC one, there’s just no comparison.
Happily, despite the possibility of cancellation (EGADS! How dare they!) Season 3 is scheduled to broadcast Fall 2013 and is currently being filmed. I wait with bated breath. In the meantime, I guess I’ll hack away at that mountain that is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s complete Sherlock Holmes.