Elementary: Step Nine, Review

Elementary returns for its second season with a strong season premiere that features Rhys Ifans as Mycroft Holmes and Sean Pertwee as Inspector Lestrade!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it until somebody listens to me: Elementary is every bit as entertaining as the BBC’s Sherlock, with a cast that’s every bit as capable. While not as cinematic or nuanced as its BBC counterpart, Elementary has been (with a few stumbles) a thoroughly entertaining show from the outset. The Season Two premiere, “Step Nine” not only continues this tradition, but improves on it by introducing a few more familiar elements of the Sherlock Holmes mythology and taking another baby step away from the traditional procedural formula that has occasionally hampered it.In the first few minutes, Elementary tips its own formula out of the beaker by getting Holmes and Watson out of New York City and over to London. Why? Because Sherlock’s former police contact, the familiar Inspector Lestrade (Sean Pertwee) has gotten himself into a spot of trouble over a murder case that he’s trying to crack. In the process, he ends up looking like a madman. In short order, we also get to see this show’s iteration of 221B Baker Street and meet Sherlock’s Brother, Mycroft Holmes, played to perfection by Rhys Ifans.In fact, Ifans is such a perfect addition to the already impressive chemistry that defines Miller and Liu’s Holmes and Watson that you may find yourself counting the minutes until he’s back on screen complicating things further. Ifans and Pertwee end up overshadowing the otherwise pedestrian case (with a rather too-tidy solution), and at one point, I found myself wondering whether or not this might actually be a two-part episode to encompass these great new characters and flesh out the crime and the suspect. No such luck, sadly. Still, everthing we get in this episode, including Sherlock’s shady London connections, Mycroft and Sherlock’s hilarious sibling rivalry, and the barest hint of sexual tension (played, thankfully, to comedic effect) between Holmes and Watson, all elevate the proceedings considerably.Elementary has never been a perfect show, but it is almost always perfectly entertaining, and “Step Nine” is exactly that. Talk about getting the second season off on the right foot! Elementary‘s season premiere is arguably the best episode the show has had so far. If this is an indicator of the overall quality of season two, then we should be in fine shape. I think that there’s room for a couple of episodes for Mycroft and Lestrade to visit their old pal in NYC… Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!

Rating:

4 out of 5