On switching up Sherlock Holmes

[xparrot]

So I heard the news about the casting of Watson in the new American Sherlock remake, and...

I admit, my first thought upon hearing Lucy Liu was going to be Watson was, Oh great, UST. Because sure, it's fine if fangirls slash any version of Holmes/Watson up one side of London and down the other, but if you're going to turn their epic partnership romantic on actual broadcast TV, you better make sure it's het. >.>

I could be wrong; they might not be going there. On the other hand I can't think of a single TV show in pretty much...ever...that stars a male and female of approximately the same age that doesn't have some kind of major romantic tension between them. X-files gave platonic a good run but surrendered eventually - and if the USA!Sherlock actually tries, I'll give them credit for that; but I don't see it happening. And don't get me wrong, I OTP a lot of those shows - but the thought that they've got to genderswap to make the romance palatable leaves an awful taste in one's mouth.

Even so, putting aside the romance angle, there's some awkwardness with gender roles when it comes to Holmes and Watson, when you have Holmes the rational super-intelligent male and Watson the less-clever, more-emotional female...yeah. I'm not saying it couldn't be done well, but it's tricky ground and I confess to a lack of faith in the ability of the average TV writer to negotiate it. (There are other issues with f!Holmes and m!Watson, though gnine pointed out they already have that show; it's called Bones...)

What I really would love is for them to genderswap both Holmes and Watson! Someday, someday...

Then I was thinking about what else I would like to see - like, this version, if it turns out to be male!asexual!Holmes and female!lesbian!Watson, oh god I will watch the HELL out of that show (platonic m+f soulmates ftw!)

And then, since we're race-changing (I do like Asian!Watson!) - black!Holmes, omg yes??? (In that case I would actually want Holmes to be American. Or else played by Adrian Lester. Or both - by the later seasons of Hustle his American accent is pretty spot-on!)

...So now I want black!male!asexual!Holmes and Asian!lesbian!Watson and can someone be getting on that now, please?

Comments

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like I said, while I think a f!Holmes and m!Watson could still fall prey to some gender stereotypes (there's that super-smart super-bitch thing) it would still be more interesting (and while I don't really know Johnny Lee Miller or Lucy Liu as actors, she at least has much more a Holmes look than Watson to me!) (admittedly super-smart asexual Asian woman would be falling into its own set of potholes and uhh I might be overthinking this? but yeah...)

(Actually NCIS has some good het friendship stuff - Ziva & McGee have some super cute moments that have a 0 UST count, in part thanks to the Tony/Ziva. Ensemble shows tend to be better for that, they'll pair off one set but then that will free up relations otherwise. Like Sam & Daniel in SG-1. Or Sheridan & Ivanova! "What am I, chopped flarn? Granted, I have no interest in you, you have no interest in me, but if you're going to come barging in the middle of the night, the least you could say is, 'Nice outfit, Ivanova!' and then go on a tear!")

And Watson not being a war vet...yeeeeeeah, that's kind of a major change to the character, more than the gender. If it were set in the past, it'd be excusable, but in modern times...it's ridiculous. >.>

..erm, which is to say, sorry for fueling your fan-rage? But yes, I am with you...

[naye]

Is super-smart super-bitch really a thing? Is this a Bones reference? Because I can't think of any good examples of it. But it's true that what in a dude passes for arrogance is interpreted as bitchiness in a woman. Double standards, go!

I think you're right in that the ensemble shows are the ones where you also get nice m/f friendships! There are more examples I can think of: Mal and Zoe, for example. (♥♥♥) But in a duo show? How is Bones doing on that? I haven't even seen the pilot! And I can't think of any other m/f pair since Mulder and Scully (and oh god the trainwreck that became).

Oh, don't worry. I am already on the fan-rage train, you didn't sell me tickets!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yes, the arrogant woman = bitch thing is what I was thinking of. I can't think of specific character examples but I know I've seen chars like that - often in shows I don't watch regularly, soap operas and such? The 'ice queen' type of doctor or lawyer or businesswoman, in which an intelligent, ambitious woman who is confident of her competence is shown as being cruel/conniving/evil/otherwise threatening (often sexy as well, since doms are sexy? but rarely heroic in the way male chars with such traits can still be heroic.)(...but the only example coming to mind to me now is Better Off Ted's Veronica, who is a parody of the type and also made of awesome, so...? ^^;)

Bones, like Castle, set up the m/f dynamic as UST pretty much from the start, and I actually really like both pairings - though Castle is getting increasingly absurd in its attempts to prolong the UST without consummation; Bones imo has done more interesting things with it, and apparently now they are together in the latest season (I'm behind.). And Bones does good female chars, too - as an ensemble show with a bunch of women, it passes the Bechdel test pretty much every ep, and Bones herself is super-intelligent and super-arrogant but avoids a more bitchy stereotype by also being extremely and hilariously socially tone-deaf. Her partner Booth often ends up mediating between her and the rest of the world, very much like John with Sherlock; they've got the cute co-dependent partner thing going on, and I like that regardless of gender.

Though to be honest I like Tony/Ziva, too (mainly because that one does a good job of convincing me they're friends beyond the attraction, which tends to be my biggest problem with TV romance.) I won't watch a show just for the het romance (I started watching Bones because I wanted more David Boreanaz, and Castle for Nathan Fillion + promise of cute father-daughter stuff), but I don't have anything against m/f pairings in particular - if the female characters are well-written (which is encouragingly becoming more common on TV, if not in movies) and the show can convince me the chars are cute together, I'll go with it. But I get annoyed when it always has to be (het) romance, when romance is placed as the most important relationship, and the most important part of relationships. And especially in the case of Sherlock Holmes, because I do fall more on the ace!Holmes side, as you know; and also to have 2 recent Holmes versions playing massive gay chicken without actually crossing the line, and then they make a het version? Yeeeeeah... >.<