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On switching up Sherlock Holmes
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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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?
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?
no subject
It's just... does anyone really trust that this show is going to do any of those potentially good/interesting things? Does anyone believe that, with what we know of how they're changing the Watson character to be a disgraced surgeon rather than an honorated war veteran, this doesn't have a far higher chance of being awful than it does of being good? Sigh.
no subject
I am so curious if this is true. Because yeah, to me it smacked of 'let's genderswap to have a proper het romance' but you're totally right that it could've gone the other way - 'let's change things up and make Watson a lady! --Oh, and then we can have romance!' (I am convinced the romance is there somewhere, it's TV, it's how these things work. But I find the latter much less offensive.)
And yes, I don't get why they had to change Watson's backstory. It sounded like Holmes's is getting changed too - and I do wonder if they wanted to drop the war vet thing to avoid controversy? - but Watson in the original was always a competent doctor (...if not always an actively practicing one...) and why they'd take that away...doesn't bode well for their treatment of her character. :/