In 1887, readers of the popular periodical Beeton’s Christmas Annual were to receive quite a special treat. There wasn’t much fanfare or hype to the event. Inside the pages of the magazine was a story called A Study In Scarlet. It was a detective story, perhaps like many published before, except for the detective himself, a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Together with his faithful companion and chronicler Dr. Watson, Holmes would win the hearts of those holiday readers. It might have been an ordinary day, but the world was about to change. Sherlock Holmes would become the most famous detective in the world. His stories would remain in print nearly 130 years later. Over 100 films would be made featuring the character. There would be television shows and cartoon spoofs. No other character has appeared in more productions. When his creator dared to kill the beloved detective in order to move on to newer stories, his very life was threatened. It would seem that Doyle was on the verge of becoming a victim much like those in his stories. There was only one man who could save him from such a grim fate, and he did just that. It was Sherlock Holmes himself, but if Doyle had actually been harmed over the ordeal, he wouldn’t turn to his iconic detective; he would need the services of Dr. Watson.
Holmes has been depicted in many ways on television, but we haven’t seen a show that focused on his faithful companion and chronicler Dr. John Watson. So now we have a television medical show that channels the spirit of the great detective in medical mysteries. They say it hasn’t been done before, but I must have just imagined the seven seasons of House I watched recently. The name might be Watson, but the idea is familiar.
“I know what being a detective does to people. I’ve seen it, and so have you.”
That quote could have come from my wife or any assortment of family and friends. I spent several years as a detective, and it absolutely does make one cynical and rather suspicious of others. it would be hard for Dr. Watson to just return to medicine without bringing those traits along for the ride, and that’s what you’ll find here as CBS Home Entertainment brings you Watson: The First Season to DVD.
The series begins at the end. It’s not the end of the show, of course. It’s the end of Sherlock Holmes. As in Doyle’s stories, Holmes and his nemesis Moriarty. They fell from Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, and that was to be the end of that. As I stated above, it wasn’t. For the purposes of the new series it is. Watson also goes over the Falls. When he recovers, he is met by Shinwell Johnson, played by Ritchie Coster. He’s told that Holmes left a rather sizable grant to his friend for the purposes of starting a Sherlock Holmes Clinic in Watson’s home town of Pittsburg, PA across the pond in America. The clinic happens to be at the hospital where his soon to be ex-wife Mary (Aytes) works. He’s told he can put together his own staff and can handpick the patients he wants to accept. Of course, he picks those deep mysteries, and is any of this sounding familiar yet?
Morris Chestnut plays the titular Dr. Watson. He has chosen his staff for odd and often mysterious reasons and he lords over them with an arrogant self-confidence and superiority that often comes out harsh. They’re here because of the chance to work with a great doctor. Familiar yet?
Meet the staff. First up are the two Dr. Crofts, played by the same actor, Peter Mark Kendall. You tell them apart by the state of their hair and that one of them wears glasses. The one with the glasses is Stephens, yes, with an s, and Watson takes great pleasure in making fun of it. He’s the serious hard worker if something of a cynic. His twin brother is Adam, who is more disheveled in both appearance and manners and doesn’t take things as seriously. Watson’s own neurologist is Dr. Ingrid Derian, played by Eve Harlow. She’s not the trustworthy kind. She is trying to become a better liar and sees Watson as the supreme test. There’s some weird stuff going on with her. Inga Schlingmann is Dr. Sasha Lubbock. She’s a southern girl who reminds me a lot of Sheldon’s mom in Young Sheldon. I swear if you close your eyes it’s the same person. Again she has some hidden stuff going on and likely not as naive as she appears. And Shinwell appears more like a character out of Dickens than Doyle, and somewhere in all of this is a connection to Moriarty, or is there? There’s a lot of red herrings here, and that’s just the out-there stuff. The weekly stories are about rare cases and unusual patents. Are you sure this doesn’t sound familiar?
You get all 13 first season episodes and a few extras that include a gag reel and the CBS standard season wrap-up feature. It’s available on DVD right now, and yes, it’s familiar, but it’s interesting enough to see what happens next. Thought I’d mention they are spending a lot of money and time to have one actor play two roles often sharing the screen together. I have suspected one of them might not be long for this world, but that’s the betting favorite in my book. “I wanted you to know the whole story. There it is, the whole story.”
