#however i still love elementary ofc. joan watson <3 actually been meaning to write an elementary fic

[firearmsandflashdrives]

thesis statement elementary is a police procedural and not a murder mystery show NOT because of its actual relationship to the police (that the mcs are employed by/adjacent to the police but are not themselves cops) which is actually almost identical to those of shows like miss fishers and poirot (archetypal murder mystery/murder of the week shows imo) BUT because of its relationship to place. Rather than the investigators being immersed in a foreign world/cast of characters/tangle of relationships each episode, the show revolves around the police station itself. new characters are met BUT the mcs rarely interact with more than one suspect at a time and rarely interact with them outside their capacity as suspects. instead of staying at their cabin/visiting their circus/riding on their boat/etc and then experiencing a murder that they have to solve, holmes and watson instead are called specifically to a crime scene and it is a CRIME SCENE, not, say, a mansion that has suddenly and shockingly been converted into one. the world of the show does not change from episode to episode even if the mcs physically go to multiple new locations & this in turn informs the way they relate to the suspects/new characters.

because of this elementary does not manage to include smthn i find so compelling about detective shows, that the detective shows up and exposes everyone's private lives, every cheating spouse, every sticky-fingered employee, every bit of petty banal dishonesty, in the pursuit of greater truth, and because we're watching a detective show we are expected to believe that these people are better for it. That if every stupid secret you kept out of laziness or fear or spite was dragged out into the open in front of your entire social circle it would help. and i'm actually not saying it definitely wouldn't; it's sort of enthralling to imagine that it would. there's almost like a queer eye/what not to wear element to it. the intoxicating notion that you could live the rest of your life as the (better) person that this stranger has forced you to be for a single moment