A post full of questions?

[adiva_calandia]

Waaaaait wait wait.

Are Sherlock fans getting up in arms about Elementary just because they think it's a rip off?

. . . Did nobody notice Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes coming out before Sherlock and making beaucoup money and no doubt paving the way for Moffat and Gatiss pitching a Sherlock Holmes adaptation?

Has nobody noticed that this is how Hollywood, and indeed most creative media, works? You know, that thing where execs are really leery of spending money on something that's not a sure thing and so once a concept proves it can make money a whole bunch of similar things will inevitably pop up? Does no one remember that time we had all the zombie movies possible because things like Shaun of the Dead started to become hits? Or that time Law & Order hopped over the pond and gave Freema Agyeman a wig?

I mean, is that what's going on here? Or are people ticked off about Elementary for other reasons? Like Watson being a WoC. Please tell me it's not that?

Comments

[adiva_calandia]

Aaaaahkay, that is rather sketchier. I thought it was a bandwagon-jumper, not a remake. That does make the fans' annoyance more understandable.

[campkilkare]

Well, that is CBS's position, that it was not intended to be a deliberate remake. It just... was a really hard position to defend, before the retooling.

[campkilkare]

...in part because--and this is the most important part, which I left out because I'm an idiot and forgot until I refamiliarized myself with the series of entertainment news posts from the AV Club--CBS originally approached Moffat about adapting his show, and when they got turned down they just happened to spontaneously get their own idea for a totally, totally different show based on the same public domain source.