5.11.2015

Television: Elementary, "Absconded"

Um . . . The death of a bee researcher turns into some story about the kidnapping of a sheikh? Honestly, I lost interest pretty quickly. Like, the bee guy was going on about hive deaths, and then he died, and of course at first the finger was pointed at evil capitalist corporations, but then it turned out that the researcher was involved with a woman who, along with her husband, was luring a apiarist sheikh to the States so they could kidnap him and get a big payday.

Or something like that.

It wasn't very engaging. Which is a shame because I had been thinking it would be nice to see more of the beekeeping. But, you know, with more interesting plot. Points for taking things in a completely different direction, though, I guess.

Meanwhile, Gregson is offered a promotion and asks Watson to investigate the person who would take over his current role. His excuse is that he wants to leave his division in good hands. But really . . . He doesn't want to go. Right? And so of course he turns the promotion down, which doesn't go over well with the brass. I mean, who says "no" to being booted up the ladder? So I suspect we may see repercussions down the line.

I can applaud the effort that is being made to round out the secondary characters, give them more story, add tension from places other than the cases themselves. But so far it feels a bit overt and clumsy. There's very little subtlety in this, which is made all the more obvious by how gently forged the relationship between Holmes and Watson has been. Their interactions remain the best part of the show, so episodes that split them suffer for it. Though I have enjoyed the greater use of Bell, both with Holmes and Watson.

It has just been announced Elementary will be returning for another season. The question remains whether CBS will move it away from Thursday, which is now dominated by ABC.

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