Elementary, the CBS procedural inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of Sherlock Holmes, is the most watch new drama of the season. It’s doing so well, in fact, that the Eye has given it the plum post-Super Bowl slot this February 3. At the TCAs series creator and showrunner Rob Doherty (joined by stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu and exec producers Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman) discussed his excitement regarding this unique opportunity.
“It was a tremendous honor to get it as a first-year show,” Doherty said of the news. He said he hopes to “do our level best to keep the audience in their seats after the game.” The episode was made with potential newcomers and viewers from the beginning in mind. He understands that “It’s an incredible opportunity to expose the show to people who haven’t checked it out yet, and we took that into consideration when developing the episode.” He says the installment will tell “a story that we felt that not only was a good example of what the show could be, but also something that our viewers would have fun with.” A critic reminded him that the post-Super Bowl spot is one that pretty much guarantees the episode will attract “more people than anything you’ve ever done in your life — and if it works might result in you being set for life.” Doherty responded jokingly, “Well, now I’m stressed. Yes, I’ve felt all of those things. I mean, I’m stressed out all the time anyway. It’s hard to go from a 10 to an 11, but I did. Mostly what we felt was great excitement.”
After talking about the Super Bowl episode, Doherty dug a little deeper into the show mythology. In this week’s episode “M.” Sherlock’s famous nemesis Moriarty was introduced in name only. The showrunner was asked when we might see Moriarty turn up on the show in the flesh. He’s “still coming,” Doherty promised. “We have that to look forward to as we move into the back end of the season.” He plans “to dollop Moriarty out appropriately.” He added, “We’re approaching [the casting of Moriarty] very carefully and as quietly as we can. At the end of the day, we want a tremendous actor. It’s less fun for me if you know who he is. It’s probably in the immediate future, but we have a few more weeks before we have to sweat that.”
Earlier this season viewers learned that Sherlock had a fling with a mysterious woman named Irene Adler; and in this week’s episode we found out that Sherlock was in fact in love with this woman and that she was possibly murdered by Moriarty. When asked if Irene is actually dead Doherty responded, “She’s alive in my heart.” He pressed on, “She’s an important element of Sherlock’s backstory. I’d love to have a face to that name. We’ve talked about doing a flashback show [to] see why Sherlock would be drawn to this particular women — she’s got to be pretty unique — so we definitely want to meet her. In that sense, you will see a living, breathing actress reading lines and portraying Irene.”
“We have a strong sense of what we want to do,” Doherty shared. “As we get closer and closer to wrapping the season, there will be more serialization.” Along these lines, he said that they’ve cast Scottish actor John Hannah as Sherlock’s old drug dealer from London. “The window into Sherlock and his experience in London will be opened that much wider,” he said. He added that he hopes to have back on the show Roger Rees (he played Alistair, Sherlock’s “friend” from London who he hired earlier in the season to act as his father) and Vinnie Jones (he played Sebastian Moran, the assassin who worked for Moriarty before Sherlock locked him up in this week’s episode).
When it was announced that Doherty’s take on Sherlock Holmes would feature a Watson portrayed by a woman–Lucy Lui–fans of Doyle’s work went into a bit of a tizzy. Since then, Doherty admits things have settled down a bit but for all those naysayers still out there he has this message: “Please move on.” In that regard “We’re really not trying to undo anything that Conan Doyle tried to do,” he told the crowd. When asked if Sherlock and Watson will eventually hook up he turned that notion completely down. “People will always anticipate that. Many people will be desirous of that. But we love to defy expectations on this show. For as long as I’m a part of the show, it’s not something I will want to see, mostly because I don’t think we need it.”
Elementary airs Thursday nights at 10PM.