Elementary: The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction
December 13, 2014 6:00 PM - Season 3, Episode 7 - Subscribe

Joan is hired to find a woman who had mysteriously disappeared five years ago. Joan, Sherlock, and Kitty soon find themselves investigating several disappearances which all had one clue in common: the smell of nutmeg. Is it the signature of a serial killer, or something else?
posted by filthy light thief (15 comments total)
 
This show is rapidly moving towards being off my PVR list; I thought the season started with promise, but the mysteries are less than compelling, Holmes has somehow become more of an insufferable jerk, and Watson is not reacting in any way that makes sense to me. Kitty remains rather pointless, and her great insight this week was to notice a guy in a photograph.

The way that Holmes spoke to Watson this week, after butting in on her case and assigning her work that he felt was beneath him, was inexcusable. Even more inexcusable was the fact that Watson barely responded to him. Sherlock's justification for using "colorful metaphors" was weak-ass, and Watson's lack of calling him out on his behaviour was even more weak-ass.

I'll give the fall finale a shot, but if there's no signs of improvement here, I think I am going to pull the plug.
posted by nubs at 7:31 PM on December 14, 2014 [1 favorite]


oooh, harsh but true, Nubs. I think they should wrap up the series with a nice bow
posted by rebent at 12:07 PM on December 15, 2014


I am not at the point of abandonment for this show, but I deeply wish they would regroup and focus on what made this show enjoyable in the first place.
posted by Julnyes at 12:56 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


There's something soothing about it for me, somehow. I like having it on but I don't always pay very much attention.

I keep thinking Kitty is going to be murdered eventually. I don't see any real reason for her character to exist, plus they are really heavy-handedly bringing up her crime victim past all the time. Her death would also provide a convenient and effective way for the Sherlock-Watson team to come back together.
posted by something something at 1:23 PM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]


This has been a favorite, but yeah, I also agree with nubs. The writers seemed to hit a really harsh, way-off note with Sherlock's dialogue. Unexpected, too, as I thought the writing was pretty nuanced in the past couple of episodes with a more tender side of him coming out with respect to Kitty.
posted by shortfuse at 5:23 PM on December 15, 2014


The fun has really gone out of this show. Sherlock has been super uptight this season and Jonny Lee Miller has upped some really annoying body language playing him. We have Clyde, so I don't need to see Sherlock poking his head around like a geriatric turtle all the time.

Joan isn't really getting to shine (I like warm funny Joan, or angry Joan, not passive Joan.)

And the mysteries are so weak, not clever or intriguing. Usually procedurals bring in a bunch of suspects in hopes you won't be able to guess who did it, but Sherlock this season seems to be going the route of introducing you to one person and then dithering around with lots of talking before "revealing" that person did it. Maybe they have no guest cast budget?

I guess I should be getting mushy that Sherlock told Kitty she could listen to her music and then she listened to classical, but I just don't care. And I hoped the identity theft B plot of Joan's friend was going somewhere interesting but lo, it was a set-up for Sherlock to tell Joan she'd be more interesting if she had sex with more people.
posted by Squeak Attack at 5:40 PM on December 15, 2014 [2 favorites]


I liked and agreed with Sherlock's final point about Joan - she is a person who shrives for the outward appearance of normalcy, but doesn't actually want a normal life in reality. However, I did not like how he spoke to her to get to that point.

Kitty is still not working for me.
posted by Julnyes at 8:03 AM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


wanting to be like everyone else ("normal") when in fact you are your own person is, in fact, pretty normal. I don't care how many "observations" he's made, I will never take sex advice from sherlock. And I wish he'd just stop with it. It's obviously not appreciated which makes it inappropriate. He needs to stop forcing the issue and maybe change the convesation to who gives a shit, anything else? maybe instead of insulting her sex life, he can insult her makeup or intelligence or maybe just stop insulting her all together? maybe say something like "Joan you really seem to miss your beau, why dont we go out for drinks so you're not as lonely"
posted by rebent at 8:52 AM on December 16, 2014


I keep thinking Kitty is going to be murdered eventually. I don't see any real reason for her character to exist, plus they are really heavy-handedly bringing up her crime victim past all the time. Her death would also provide a convenient and effective way for the Sherlock-Watson team to come back together.

Yeah, me too. I'd love for it to end up with, like, Kitty goes back to London and starts her own practice and makes the occasional guest appearance! But that's not really how this show works, is it.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 9:16 AM on December 16, 2014


Sherlock as sexual adviser is a bad idea, but I think the point that Joan's idea of the kind of life she should want does not match up with the life she does want is a legitimate conflict in Joan's pysche that she has been wrestling with since Season 1.
posted by Julnyes at 9:56 AM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


Joan, it seems to me, was doing just fine while Sherlock was out of the city. Now he's back and he's making his trenchant observations and throwing her off. Is there really a conflict for Joan, or is Sherlock just continually manufacturing one for her so that she never gets to be fully independent? And the fact that his commentary about her life is pretty much constantly about her sex life is becoming rather distasteful.
posted by nubs at 10:47 AM on December 16, 2014 [3 favorites]


I just see Joan as still trying to find that balance. This may just be a difference in the way we as viewers perceive the character.
posted by Julnyes at 11:05 AM on December 16, 2014


And I'm not trying to say that it isn't there - it may be, and it would be a great thing to explore. However, the show seems to have reduced it to something that allows Sherlock to treat Joan like a lesser person.
posted by nubs at 11:16 AM on December 16, 2014


I've been far behind on the show- just caught it as my folks were watching it- so I can't really comment on the characters, but it seems like Sherlock was really leading the witness with the guy in prison. "Hey, this woman you might have wanted dead was murdered! Did you pay someone to murder her? If you say you did, we'll make you a deal, and you have literally nothing to lose by confessing because you're already in jail for life!"

And then he confesses and the hitman is conveniently already dead and so has nothing to say about it one way or the other. I was half-expecting it to turn out that he had nothing to do with it at all and was just making it up for garden privileges. That would have been more interesting, imo.
posted by insufficient data at 12:32 PM on December 16, 2014


And then he confesses and the hitman is conveniently already dead and so has nothing to say about it one way or the other. I was half-expecting it to turn out that he had nothing to do with it at all and was just making it up for garden privileges. That would have been more interesting, imo.

I thought the plot might go that way too, just in hopes of a bit more layering to the story. Alas.

I think Joan being an unconventional person has been pretty well demonstrated and explored in her move from being a surgeon to becoming a sober companion, and then leaving that behind to become a PI. Who Joan sleeps with, and when, is way less interesting than her forging her new career path.

The supporting cast on this show has never gotten a lot to do, but man, I'm missing Marcus Bell, or Sherlock's sponsor (Alfredo?), or anyone else who we could focus on while Jonny Lee Miller tries to suck all the air out of the room.
posted by Squeak Attack at 2:51 PM on December 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


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