Elementary: T-Bone and The Iceman Review

Elementary had a very smart, capable, and entertaining week. If this week’s episode had been a burger, it would have been a step above McDonald’s and/or Burger King and step below some place that people freak out over the excellence of the Kobe beef patties. It was a meal you eat and don’t regret, but you don’t necessarily force all your friends to go eat it the next time you all hang out. I’ve taken this burger analogy far enough, I think we can all agree. Why don’t I just start a new paragraph and leave all talk of beef and cows and fast food behind us, yes?

Watson is having a tough year! Let’s look at the facts: She thinks she’s got this great new job but it turns out it’s just a serial killer employing her to get close to Kitty. She thinks she’s got this great new boyfriend but then it turns out she wants to dump him and he is poisoned in front of her. Moriarty finds out that someone wants her dead and kills that person for her making her feel thoroughly creeped out, and now it seems that her mother may be suffering some major dementia. Also she lives with a man who frequently does stuff like turn off the power for hours at a time so that he can try and build his own light bulbs. Frankly, she deserves a vacation.

This week her mother’s deteriorating memory was the crisis of the moment. That sounded overly glib of me, but it’s hard not to be in the face of her Joan’s icy cold mama. In a really lovely exchange, Holmes stepped up and helped Joan’s mother Mary accept that she needed to go and see a neurologist after she became convinced that her son was cheating on his new wife. Holmes was able to convince her to seek help because he wasn’t afraid to use rougher tactics. It is insanely refreshing to see their relationship to each other continue to grow into a familial one instead of a romantic one. Think about it – how often does that happen on network TV? Alllllllmost never.

The crime of the week complimented Joan being confronted with her mother’s mortality and dwindling health. While the series of murders centered around the vaguely futuristic idea of a shady cryogenics firm was quirky and strange enough to captivate a viewer’s attention for an hour, it also managed to instill an underlying panic about life, death, and disease throughout the entire episode. For a show that’s at its best when the procedural aspect feeds the emotional center each week, this was a strong, watchable episode if not the most remarkable that has ever aired.

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