Elementary

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I'm watching this show for the first time, does anybody know, is Sherlock supposed to be Autistic?

It seems like that's a big trend now.

This show seems like a cross between Monk, Dexter & House. But all of these takeoffs on Sherlock Holmes (Monk & House) not Dexter - seem like the big hip idea is that SH is autistic or in some other way impaired.

I kind of liked the original sherlock holmes better. I loved the JEremy BRett version. THis show is just ok.

Whether or not Holmes has Asperger's has been discussed endlessly for over a decade, but the three most recent adaptations -- the films with Robert Downey Jr. and the TV shows with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller -- have leaned farther in that direction than any of the books ever did, or any of the previous adaptations.

I like all three, but I still value the Basil Rathbone films and the Jeremy Brett TV series above all others. I've seen over 70 Holmes films (yes, I've counted) and God knows how many TV episodes, and those two tower over everything else I've seen... though the Peter Cushing stuff comes close. He was probably the best Holmes ever, better than Rathbone and Brett, but his material was usually mediocre.

I watched the first three episodes, but dropped it. To be honest, even though I am female I didn't like the dynamic (or lack of it) created by a female Watson. The driving interest in the original stories--beyond the quirky mysteries, fun logic puzzles and eclectic cultural obscura--is the exemplary friendship between Holmes and Watson. Not that men and women can't have really great friendships, but the dynamics are just different. Even though "Sherlock" tends to be a bit surreal plot-wise, the writers and actors have hit the nail on the head perfectly when it comes to the relationship between Holmes and Watson, and it was immediate. After 3 episodes of "Elementary" I couldn't see any depth to the relationship and frankly, didn't care about either of them a whit.

I have heard some of the recent cases are interesting but I haven't had the motivation to pick it up again. I read that "Sherlock" had been pitched to CBS at first, and they turned it down as "too cerebral" for an American audience, then promptly added "Elementary" to the lineup once they saw how popular "Sherlock" was. Don't know if that is actually the case, but there was a lawsuit about it some years back, and if true it's pretty tacky of CBS.

Johnny Lee Miller is quite a good actor, but nothing about his behavior really seemed very truly "Holmes," at least in the way I imagined Holmes from the novels. "Pathetic wreck," was my general impression, rather than "mad genius." I used to watch some of the older series but frankly Rathbone seemed too Dracula-esque (maybe it was the hair); the Jeremy Brett versions were better, I think.

Sorry, I got waylaid by the discussion and neglected your original question. Holmes in "Elementary" seemed perhaps more ADHD than AS to me, but as I noted, I haven't seen the bulk of the series.

I think the Holmes character has been hit with just about every psycological "disorder" in the DSM over the years: bipolar, ADHD, Aspergers, OCD... and about a dozen others. The fact that Doyle gave him a neurological profile which is at times very vague, then startlingly complex, is part of the fun. I think frankly that Doyle just had more interest in him at certain points in his career and not in others.

I didn't know people discussed whether he had Aspergers. Heck, I've probably read threads about it here and forgotten. I only knew that House was supposed to be based on Holmes and he was considered to have it by many.

Basil Rathbone's hair, haha. He was fun though, I liked his Sherlock.

This Johnny guy was the blonde (Sickboy) in Trainspotting, one of my favorite movies. Not sure I've seen him in anything else. He's not a bad actor, I just don't find the stories intriguing.

The creators of House have been pretty open about the Holmes inspiration. There have been plenty of references to Holmes on the show: the names of the main characters (House/Wilson, Holmes/Watson), House's apartment number being 221, a character named Moriarty... and those are just the ones I can remember.

They actually did an episode which raised the question of whether House had Asperger's. The result was negative. I remember Wilson telling him: "You're not autistic. You don't even have Asperger's. You're just a jerk."