Lucy Liu to play Dr. Watson in CBS Sherlock Holmes pilot

[karadinart]

She's Joan Watson, a former doctor who lost her license because of a patient's death, and she formerly consulted with the NYPD. Sherlock Holmes, played by Jonny Lee Miller is a former consulting detective for Scotland Yard, who's in rehab in New York for drug addiction.

More train wreck to follow!
(as a commentor said, I'd be more engaged if Liu was Sherlock, and Miller was Watson! But no one NO ONE can match Cumberbatch and Freeman for sheer chemistry on screen)
(deadline.com)

I mind the most that Dr.Watson is no longer an Army vet, wounded in action, a crack shot, etc. Lost a license due to losing a patient? wth? And beyond the fact that Sherlock is in rehab, I miss LONDON!

Comments

[earthspirits.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well that's something anyway. If it does fly as a series, I'll definitely give it a chance. At least I admire Miller and Liu, and that's also something.

This isn't the first time Hollywood's used a female Watson, or New York as a setting for Holmes and Watson. There was a clever film made back in the 1970's, "They Might Be Giants" with George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward. The premise was that Scott is a retired judge who believes he is Sherlock Holmes and and Woodward is Dr. Mildred Watson, his psychiatrist. The pair are drawn into a search for Moriarty in New York, where they find real danger, and much more. It was actually a fun little film.

We'll see how this new gambit goes.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I loved They Might Be Giants. :D

If they wanted to shake things up, they should have cast Sherlock as female.

[earthspirits.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind a female Sherlock Holmes (and I've read a couple of pastiches where Sherlock was female).

And I don't really mind Watson being female (to me, it really depends on how it's presented), but I don't like setting up the Doctor as losing her medical license (rather cliche). Nowadays she certainly could have been a former Army doctor, etc. returned from war (as there are certainly plenty of real American female veterans returned home), and therefore fit the basic Watson character premise more accurately.

Also, as exciting a city as New York is, I'd just rather have London as the background. However, I can see that it could be a problem to the new series, as they are probably trying to tread carefully, and make their series different to the BBC one.

That said, though, I wonder if this new series will just be a basic (dull) police procedural, complete with grit, gun fights and loud car chases, just with a Holmes and Watson involved? I'd rather see the pair investigating more unusual and intellectual cases, otherwise (to me) the series would lose that Holmes and Watson edge.

Well, as I said, I'll certainly give the series a look if it flies, and will judge at that time as to whether if works for me (or not).