I began watching Elementary for Sherlock Holmes. I'm a huge fan. But, pretty quickly realised it was one of the best, if not the very best portrayals of the darkness of addiction and the daily struggles of recovery ever on primetime television. A masterclass I'd recommend to anyone interested in understanding the dark underbelly of the scourge...
How does one take the legend of Sherlock Holmes and so subtly tackle a topic that's considered taboo in most circles? An addiction storyline on one of the most-watched networks in the world at that? Cringeworthy!
My first thoughts were that the network execs missed the punchline but as the series progresses you realise that everyone who is part of the show is serious about the message they are delivering.
The premise of the show? A drug-addicted Sherlock Holmes is sent from London to New York for rehab where a Dr. Watson is hired by his father to be his sober companion. The rest unexpectedly, is television history!
In April 2013 the Prism Awards, given "to writers, producers, actors and actresses for their accurate depictions of mental health and substance abuse", how it affects the person involved and those around them, awarded the EIC President's Award to Elementary "for its continuing, in-depth integration of substance use and recovery into its storyline and characters."
At the Sentinel for Health Awards, given for exemplary achievement in television storylines that inform, educate and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives, Elementary came in Second Place in the category of Primetime Drama (Major Storyline).
Elementary is certainly not television's first exploration of the road to recovery and will mot be the last. But, this modern adaptaion takes courage to pull off.
It focuses not on the dark days of Sherlock's addiction but follows the man he has become after putting his demons to rest. And, how his brilliant mind fights something as common as a trigger that can bring all the good work crashing down in the blink of an eye.
But the addiction, at first obvious then oblique in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, has always been what made Sherlock Holmes a man rather than a machine; it's what drew "Elementary" creator Rob Doherty to the character in the first place.
Addiction does not discriminate
You feel the pain. You live the moment with the brilliant cast Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as a genderbent version of Watson named Joan. We are glad CBS went ahead with their adaptation even though it was not initially well received by fans - because the BBC had just wrapped up the second series of its wildly popular Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman in the same roles.
Take this scene when early in an intense episode Watson learns that a friend of Holmes has died unexpectedly. It is revealed eventually that Alistair (Roger Rees), a stage actor and close confidant of Holmes, overdosed on heroin after 30 years of sobriety. He is found dead with a needle in his arm.
Holmes wrestles for answers before conceding that he is driven by fear for his own sobriety and, more importantly, an addict's self-absorption.
Both moments, in which he reveals the fear — "I have two years; he had three decades" — and then acknowledges what really drives it, are delivered with Miller's steadfast refusal to adopt the hollowed-eye heartbreak so popular among broken heroes today. When stating the obvious, this Holmes sticks with simply stating it: "I took the passing of a dear friend and twisted it into an indulgence in narcissism," he says matter-of-factly. "It's left me in a mood."
Meeting him cadence for unsentimental cadence is Liu's Watson, who at one point sums up not just the truth of recovery, but also why it is so difficult to depict on television. "I'm sorry he's gone but his relapsing doesn't change a thing for you," she says. "You woke up today, you didn't use drugs, just like yesterday. You know what you have to do tomorrow? Wake up and not use drugs. That is just the way it is. That is just the way it's going to be."
This what The Los Angeles Times had to say about the episode
Very few shows could pull off a homage to the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman without seeming exploitative, sensational or culturally carnivorous. Only one could do it in the middle of an episode dealing with a bunch of missing anthrax and Garret Dillahunt as a dairy farmer.
Indeed, so sure-footed has the show become that it recently side-stepped its way into an acknowledgement of Hoffman's death by overdose with some of the most succinct and moving commentary offered on the subject.
TV has certainly played a part in our growing awareness of addiction but it seemed more like civic duty...
Take Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) on "NYPD Blue," Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) on "The Wire" and Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) on "Rescue Me". All struggled with alcoholism while the central character of "The John Larroquette Show" coped with early sobriety. "The West Wing" had its own AA meeting.
Reality shows like "Celebrity Rehab" attempt to mirror the process in real-time, while dramas like "House" and "Nurse Jackie" slip and slide around the possibility of addiction as life choice.
But long-term, consistent recovery is rare — "Cheers'" Sam Malone is one of the few "success" stories — because TV prefers the high drama of the addicted life. Sobriety, though personally challenging, is a cinematic bore. It's tough to win an Emmy by embodying serenity for an entire season.
Even when dealing with recovery, writers go more for the big pivotal moments: The addict passing on sobriety's Splendid Life Lesson, the recovering alcoholic staring down a brimming shot glass.
"Elementary" has its share of pivotal moments, but they are invariably underplayed, woven into crime-solving story lines that allow the larger narrative to emerge with surprising power. It is the best portrait of recovery on television.
Here's why Elementary works
The plot in the Alistair episode seamlessly moves on, to all that missing anthrax. No mournful horns, no soaring strings, just a weekly reminder that the drama of recovery is its lack of drama.
Which may be the reason "Elementary" is able to land such substantial thematic punches without seeming sardonic or sanctimonious. Sobriety is not the point of "Elementary"; the deductive powers and social ineptitude of its famous lead and his relationship with Watson are what drive the show.
Hoffman's death, Doherty said in an interview, seemed impossible to ignore because it allowed the writers to put Sherlock "in the position to ask some of the questions many people were asking … to make the point that addiction does not discriminate."
And to take down a beloved myth of recovery. Many of us find strength in the days and months and years we have stacked between ourselves and self-destruction, as if they form a wall that, if tall enough or thick enough, cannot be breached. We look to others whose stacks are higher and seem stronger to assure us that this is so.
But there is no wall, no number that will magically hold true any more than there's a "cure." Recovery is a strong but slender thread spun daily. There is only this day without a drink, without a drug, and then, with work and luck, there is the next.
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