Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
Elementary is back. This is great for lots of reasons, but here are my key reasons: Lucy Liu is a goddess. Jonny Lee Miller is like the future husband I imagine for myself. The secondary female characters on the show are always surprisingly well thought out. And the show has a history of handling addiction with delicacy and thoughtfulness.
But as we move into the fourth season of the show, I can’t help but long for some new characters. After such a successful third season, which largely hinged on the introduction of Kitty Winter, it only makes sense that more amazing women enter the show as secondary characters.
And why not? Sherlock’s dad has had a prominent role in the first few episodes, but I’m itching for a little more diversity in the ranks. As such, I’ve done a little literary history thinking and I believe I’ve pulled some inspiration from Doyle’s original stories that are worth considering.
Characters Elementary Should Consider Bringing to the Show:
- Mrs. Neville St. Clair: Don’t mistake this woman as just some dude’s wife. She is the instigator of basically all the madness in The Man With the Twisted Lip. You can read more about her origins here.
- Beryl Stapleton: The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the most adapted stories from the Holmes Canon, which is why Beryl is one of the most common characters we see in screen adaptations. She’s played differently nearly every time, sometimes helping Holmes, sometimes deliberately getting in the way. Either way, she’s got plenty of potential. You can read more about her here.
- Sergeant Sally Donovan: Fans of BBC’s Sherlock will recognize this name. It’s the Scotland Yard cop who often distrusts everything Sherlock has to say, in large part because of how he handles himself, not necessarily because of his lack of insight. On Elementary, we rarely see cops challenging Holmes. It might be a nice time to bring a new character like Sally to the plot. You can read more about her here.
- Baker Street Irregulars: In Elementary, they regularly use Irregulars to solve cases, but surprisingly not often in their most common form: as street children. In the original stories, these homeless kids often served as Holmes’s eyes and ears in dark alleys, so why not bring a few female youths to the show? You can read more about the literary history of the Irregular Girls here.
For those that aren’t aware, I’ve been reviewing Elementary for years for the Baker Street Babes, a fantastic organization for all the ladies of the Holmesian fandom. You can read those reviews here. I’m not reviewing Season 4 because there are just not enough hours in the day, so if you’re looking to get into TV reviewing and want to write reviews, let us know!
Sometimes I have to pinch myself, because this blog has changed my life so damn much. Perfect example: last week, I interviewed Elementary showrunner Rob Doherty for the Baker Street Babes about his amazing interpretation of the Sherlock Holmes canon.
I could just tell you to go listen to the show, and you should! Link below! But, I wanted to pull out a few favorite moments for you that specifically speak to how the show has expertly crafted kickass female characters that don’t fall victim to typical stereotypes on network TV:
When you have a straight male/female friendship on TV: “You potentially raise the expectation that it will change everything, when in fact, it shouldn’t change anything. … I think typically when you have a male lead and a female lead on this kind of show, there is this sense of inevitably that they will tumble into bed together. And I don’t want to do that.”
On Kitty Winter and Sherlock Holmes working together: “This was not a one-sided affair. He got a lot out of that partnership too.”
On Mrs. Hudson: “What we like about the idea of Mrs. Hudson is that her being transgender just isn’t supposed to matter. We never really speak to it. We never really make a point of it. And that’s the point.”
LISTEN TO THE BAKER STREET BABES FULL INTERVIEW WITH ELEMENTARY SHOWRUNNER ROB DOHERTY HERE.
We talk about the possible return of Moriarty and Mycroft in season four and lots of other details about how the show approaches the original stories. And of course, you can catch up on all my feminist writings about Sherlock Holmes and Elementary in the archives. Here’s a great place to start.
I think we can all agree on this one thing: Women on television are getting better. Some shows are making crazy brilliant strides towards progress: see Orphan Black, Agent Carter, Orange is the New Black - name your favorite here. Sure, there are plenty of others that are just stuck in the past, but the fact is that there has never really been a better time to be a woman in television.
So colored me surprised that I’m saying this: It’s time for more women on Elementary. The foundational change of John to Joan Watson was a brilliant start that firmly cemented the show as a forerunner in challenging gender and relationships between men and women. It’s still doing that too, by the way.
The truth is that Elementary’s real value in the canonical adaption sphere is that it has systematically challenged the role of women in Sherlock Holmes’s world. Women largely don’t factor as anything other than victims or daughters or wives in the original stories, with rare exception. But on this show, we get a veritable sampler platter of good women, bad women and somewhere in the middle women all solving crimes, committing them, being central to them and occasionally, yes, as victims. The writers have never been afraid to talk about the gender of their characters and what that means for virtually every part of their lives. Whether that is their work, their relationships, their sex lives, their hobbies or even their approaches to solving a problem. This honesty means we don’t get women who are stereotypes, we as viewers are treated to women who represent real people, which is all we can truly ask for in storytelling. MORE. REAL. WOMEN. PLEASE.
This observation is both self-serving and built out of a real desire to see a show that is usually pretty great and occasionally mind-blowingly good to serve the things that make it the latter. As we slide out of season 3, I’ve noticed something incredibly important: when the women of Elementary serve more prominently to the story, the stories are better.
Season 1 we spent so much time getting to know Joan as Joan that it was impossible not to fall in love with her. She was a thought out, deep, and meaningful character, so adjusting to her point of view from time to time felt natural. I should say, not just for women, either. So many people will argue pointlessly that men don’t want to see a women’s perspective on screen. I’d point to Joan Watson for proof that this argument is void.
Just as we started to get used to her dynamic with Sherlock, we were introduced to Natalie Dormer’s take on Irene Adler. This ending arc was powerful, beautiful and emotional and it was largely because of Dormer’s deft and smart handling of her double agent status. The emotional resonance comes from Sherlock’s reaction to her and discovering new things about their relationship. When “the woman” is “the one” - in all its possible Holmesian iterations, it’s a lot of fun for viewers. Also, Natalie Dormer is just a genius, so there’s that going for you.
Arguably, season 2 was weak. As much as I loved Rhys Ifans as Sherlock’s brother, his in and out relationship with Joan just felt like an unbelievable distraction. And it didn’t serve the Joan we got to know in Season 1. Beyond that, it didn’t create many opportunities for Holmes to be more than an awkward bystander in a relationship that he wasn’t all that excited about. I’m just going to say it: Season 2 was weaker than Seasons 1 and 3.
What made Season 3 excitingly unmissable? Miss Kitty Winter, that’s what. Her story, again, brings out a new dimension in Holmes and draws us closer to him as a man. Add in Joan’s personal struggles to work in a new system and suddenly this is a story about power, weakness, growth and demons. That mix is undeniable, especially as we get closer to understanding Kitty’s past and her quest to find the man who harmed her. Her storyline did feel like it came to a natural close at the mid-point of season 3, but her departure has left me wanting ever since. Not necessarily for Kitty’s return, but for this sense of progress, growth and challenge.
Which brings me to the point, it’s time for another amazing woman to get a chance to tell her story. Mrs. Hudson is the obvious choice. After all, we already know that she is transgender, which seems full of potential and beauty and awesomeness. But just in case, here are a few more suggestions.
Characters Elementary Should Consider Bringing to the Show:
- Mrs. Neville St. Clair: Don’t mistake this woman as just some dude’s wife. She is the instigator of basically all the madness in The Man With the Twisted Lip.
- Beryl Stapleton: The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the most adapted stories from the Holmes Canon, which is why Beryl is one of the most common characters we see in screen adaptations. She’s played differently nearly every time, sometimes helping Holmes, sometimes deliberately getting in the way. Either way, she’s got plenty of potential.
- Sergeant Sally Donovan: Fans of BBC’s Sherlock will recognize this name. It’s the Scotland Yard cop who often distrusts everything Sherlock has to say, in large part because of how he handles himself, not necessarily because of his lack of insight. On Elementary, we rarely see cops challenging Holmes. It might be a nice time to bring a new character like Sally to the plot.
- Baker Street Irregulars: In Elementary, they regularly use Irregulars to solve cases, but surprisingly not often in their most common form: as street children. In the original stories, these homeless kids often served as Holmes’s eyes and ears in dark alleys, so why not bring a few female youths to the show?
For those that aren’t aware, I’ve been reviewing Elementary for years for the Baker Street Babes, a fantastic organization for all the ladies of the Holmesian fandom. You can read those reviews here.
Kitty Winter is one of those characters from so deep within the Sherlock Holmes canon that even the most dedicated Baker Street Irregular may not recognize the name. She’s rarely seen in adaptations. She is only found in one of the original stories. And she’s a mistress, so as you can imagine, the number of stories she would be useful in are rather slim.
And yet, Kitty Winter is making a come back of sorts with her appearance in Season 3 of Elementary.
A little background first. Kitty Winter first appears in The Adventure of the Illustrious Client. The story involves a case where Sherlock is hired to find evidence that a local Baron is a murderer and a cheat after a General’s daughter has fallen hopelessly in love with him. Normally, this may not be a case Sherlock would entertain, however, the Baron had just recently been acquitted of murder of his previous wife in a rather nefarious legal battle and so Holmes and Watson begin their quest to discredit the man. And this is where Kitty Winter makes her appearance.
Kitty is the Baron’s most recent mistress and she is hell bent on exacting her revenge on the Baron. She tips Holmes and Watson off about a small book that the Baron keeps to track his various female conquests. When the knowledge of the book doesn’t dissuade the hopeless General’s daughter, Kitty attempts to team up with Holmes and Watson again to steal it from the Baron’s home. They are indeed successful in the quest, but not without Kitty facing charges for throwing acid at the Baron in her final moments of rage.
She’s a short-lived character, but she’s full of fire in the original story. The Kitty Winter we have met through CBS has been less vivacious, but much of the ethos is there. It’s so rare to see a deeply hidden character from canon on screen, that it seemed worth investigating why she’s been a great resurrection in the first place.
Read more about Kitty Winter over on the Baker Street Babes.
Elementary Season 3 is nearly halfway done and I’m ashamed to report that I haven’t kept you in the loop. We’ve been reviewing the show week after week over on the Baker Street Babes and this season has been a lot of fun. Let’s talk about some of the reasons why:
1. Joan Watson is living on her own. She’s got a fantastic apartment, but that’s not the real issue. It’s changing her relationship with Holmes and caused a new, fantastic character to enter the brownstone.
2. Kitty Winter is Holmes’ new protege and she is all kinds of kick ass.
3. Holmes is facing some new levels of fear, frustration and well, boredom, with his quest to stay sober. It’s creating more opportunity for Jonny Lee Miller to be truly brilliant.
Catch up on the reviews here.
