Improbably, we already live in a world with two successful Holmes franchises. The first is, of course, the set of rebooted action flicks starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes -- a second one debuted in December 2011 and another is expected in 2013. The other, and many TV watchers would argue -- superior -- version is the BBC's complete reinvention, "Sherlock," which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular detective and is set in present day London.
Now, CBS has aroused the ire of Holmes enthusiasts -- including the BBC's own "Sherlock" Facebook page administrator, who responded to the news with a well-timed "WTF" post* on the show's official Facebook page -- by announcing plans to order a pilot called "Elementary."
"['Elementary'] is described as a modern take on the cases of the pipe-smoking private eye created by Arthur Conan Doyle, with Sherlock now living in New York City. Veteran Medium writer-producer [Rob] Doherty wrote the script and is executive producing the project with Sarah Timberman & Carl Beverly."
So, a good news bad news situation. The good news: "Medium" was a smart show so it isn't a sure thing that the script will get mangled into some kind of "Murder, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Wrote" farce. The bad news: that CBS is doing it at all. The BBC has a good thing going with "Sherlock" and American viewers are fully engaged via the show's PBS "Masterpiece Theater" runs, so why jump on any already stuffed bandwagon when there are certainly more "CSI" spinoffs to be had?
The BBC's full Facebook comment: "WTF. American version of Sherlock Holmes. You be crazy!"
