On the American Sherlock Holmes show, why is Watson not a soldier?

Well, they weren’t trying to be literal. It’s just a show. Besides, Watson is learning self-defense.

Probably standard sexism, and the attempt to establish the stereotypical damsel in distress.

I’m losing track of Holmses… is this supposed to be an American version of the series with Benedict Cumberbatch? If so, it’s a shame they didn’t use the same history for Watson, who is an Afghanistan vet in that series.

It is not a copy of that show. It is independent. The British version Sherlock is more of a jerk, the American version they play up his drug use.

But the biggest change from everything I have seen before is Watson is a girl. Fine, makes a nice change.

But she is not just “A girl” now. She is not a veteran, and kind of physically awkward.

Huh.

I haven’t seen the show but my guess is by creating a female lead role is a marketing thing.

Based on that I would say the decision to take away her history is as well. Figuring people are tired of the war?

It’s just a change-up of the character, is my guess. I would also guess it’s for the same reason many characters have different personalities, quirks, careers, etc… from book to screen, and from movie remakes. It’s just for entertainment purposes.

The show is set in modern-day New York City and is called “Elementary” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_(TV_series) (Wikipedia links with parentheses don’t work well, I find, but my attempts to link to the CBS official page failed, too. Mobile Fluther limitations, ugh). I have not watched it, but I did go to High School with an actor on the show.

I suppose that in changing the character to a female, they didn’t carry over all the traits of Dr. Watson as written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Is the Holmes character that true to the original? Or is it more that they are ‘based on’ those legendary characters?

I think the fact that she is a doctor is the more important part. I love both Sherlock Holmes series. I think it would be really fun, if the actors on each of the shows did a guest appearance on the other show.

Maybe we’re finally starting to evolve as a society, and we’re realizing that all of the John Wayne macho expectations that we seem to have held in regards after all of these years aren’t really all as great as we’ve made them out to be. Or maybe I’m being overly optimistic since pinheads still rule the world yet.