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Vivian Lin
Professor Haas
Writing 39B
27 August 2014
Holmes and Watson, Teacher and Student
When you hear the phrase detective genre what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Sherlock Holmes? John Watson? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories
first gained popularity during the Victorian Era. Doyle's stories were such a success because
improvements and changes were made to the way detective stories were written, and these
changes resonated with the Victorian audience. Doyle was one of the first to write detective
stories as short stories with a targeted audience of middle class (Panek, 75). The classical
convention of detective genre typically uses the protagonist as the narrator, but that was not the
case for Doyle's stories. The main protagonist is Sherlock Holmes, but he is not the narrator of
the stories. Instead, Doyle decided to use Dr. John Watson to narrate the story in order to
represent the reading audience and let them connect with the stories through him. At the same
time, the identity of Holmes remains mysterious because he is not the narrator. Doyle's stories
were popular because they reflected the British culture at that time period. Not only did Doyle's
Sherlock Holmes series contains the traditional qualities, but he also invented most of the
primary conventions of the genre that are still being followed today. One of the classical
convention Doyle's created, pointed out by literary scholar Leroy Panek in Introduction to
Detective Story is the teacher student side of the Holmes-Watson relationship (90). Holmes
frequently tries to teach Watson detective skills and scold him for his mistakes. This classical
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convention begins to alter as modern adaptation of Holmes begin to rise.
The detective genre, although born for the Victorian era, still remains very popular today,
as the modern day adaptions of the Holmes appear in the form of films and television shows.
Steven Moffat, Scottish producer and television writer, is the show runner for BBC Sherlock
series, which began broadcasting in 2010 starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes
and Martin Freeman as John Watson. Also, Robert Doherty, American television writer and
producer, created another Holmes adaptation for CBS entitled Elementary which began
broadcasting in 2012 starring Johnny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan
Watson. Both of these television adaptation maintain the most important classical convention.
For example, both series utilize the convention of Holmes and Watson as teacher and student,
but the two text differ in their interpretation of that convention. Moffat's Sherlock stays more
traditional, while Doherty's Elementary contains a slight twist and alteration to the convention of
Holmes-Watson teacher student relationship.
Moffat incorporate the student-teacher convention early in the series, in first episode of Season 1,
titled A Study in Pink. The plot of this episode starts with Holmes and Watson arriving at the
crime scene of the latest victim part of a series of apparently suicidal victims. Through
observation and deduction of the woman in pink coat Holmes concludes that the victim's luggage
is missing from the scene and the murder must have taken it away with him. As Watson returns
back to 211B Baker Street he sees Holmes sitting in the chair with the missing pink suitcase.
Holmes demonstrates his teacher role by explaining to Watson how he found the pink suitcase.
Watson remains shocked by how fast Holmes retrieves the pink suitcase. This scene uses a Point
of View shot where audiences are able to see through the perspective of a character and connect
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with the characters as well. The Point of View shot starts with a frame of Holmes then at eye
level it is focused on Watson's face because we are seeing through the perspective of Holmes.
With this Point of View shot the audience is able to connect with Watson's reaction of being
surprised. Watson's surprised reaction mimic a student who is awed by his teacher's vast
knowledge. As Holmes continues to explain his deduction, there is a rhythm frame shot
switching back and forth in between Watson and Holmes along with fast paced background
music. Watson bombards Holmes with loads of questions about his finding process and Holmes
swiftly responds to each. This fast paced rhythm allows the audience feel the tension and how
heated up the conversation was. Holmes fast responses to Watson is like a teacher who has
answers to all their students' questions. Low key lighting is also used in this scene because there
is low filling and a strong light source showing the significant contrast between the brightness
and shadow. Light is shine on one side of Holmes face and his background is all dark and
shadowy which sets the mystery and suspense to what Holmes was about to say. This technique
sort of portray Holmes as the superior of knowledge, teacher, and Watson being the clueless
student. All these cinematic elements are all purposely placed in order to further strengthen the
teacher student relationship being depicted to the audience.
Moffat probably decide to maintain this teacher student relationship between Holmes and
Watson in his television series because it preserves Holmes' credibility and image. As a student
of Holmes Watson often time praises Holmes and shows great admiration toward Holmes
detective skills such as his strength of taking notes of very little details. Watson's continuation of
compliments for Holmes makes the audience have no hesitation and truly believe Holmes will
always remain the skilled one. The Watson Effect by Toadvine tells the placing [of] John as
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the key component in determining Sherlock's heroic status (71). This might be a reason why the
teacher student relationship remains in the 21st century adaptation of Sherlock Holmes
Adventure. With this characteristic, viewers perceive Holmes as the hero without a doubt.
As a teacher it would be nature for them to feel compelled to point out their students'
mistakes and correct them. Holmes having the teacher role always have the urge to correct
Watson's mistakes (Panek 86). Doherty not only decide to not retain this classical convention of
Holmes and Watson as Teacher Student relationship, but also chose to twist it, and sometime
also reverse the role in his Elementary television series. Writer Emily Asher-Perrin in her article
Battling Super Sleuths points out in "Elementarys Holmes gets called out for his personal
failings, to be scolded and never allowed an inch of superiority no matter how hard he grasps for
it." In many cases Watson is the one of the people that calls Holmes out on his personal failings
such as relationships with other peoples. The episode titled "The Marchioness" starts with
Holmes's brother, Mycroft, coming from London and meeting Holmes in New York. In the scene
where Mycroft had just finished cooking dinner at Holmes' place, but Holmes refuses to simply
sit down and have a nice dinner despite of Mycroft's convincing. Mycroft then left, proceeded by
Watson scolding at Holmes for ruining his opportunity to reconcile his relationship with his
brother. Watson points out Holmes' mistake for overthinking his brother's intention for dinner
and corrects him by telling him Mycroft only wanted to have a nice simple dinner together. The
scene frame Watson at a low camera angle to show her superiority when chastising Holmes.
Along with this, high camera angle is used on Holmes to show his vulnerability and also being
the more subservient one. Then a close up shot on Holmes faces help emphasized what a failure
he was in his relationship with his brother. These cinematic elements not only makes the scene
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more interesting and dramatic, but it also places heavy emphasis on the relationship between the
characters.
Doherty may have purposely not retain the classical convention because he wanted to
meet the needs of people today. First of all, in Elementary the lead playing Watson is a female
which is quite different to the original male Watson. The female Watson is created also with the
intention of being a more complex and interesting character than the original male Watson
(Chapman). Because Watson in Elementary started out a sober companion to Holmes then
becoming a consulting detective, it seems more acceptable for her to scold Holmes. As a sober
companion, Watson constantly acts as a hawk eye to Holmes and prevents him from doing drugs,
but as she transition to a consulting detective she continues that duty of being that teacher.
Watson is not afraid to speak up and when appropriate she will point out the mistakes Holmes
made in things such as life choice and lecture him about it. In modern day, women are also
educated so the audience is no longer restricted to just men. Doherty may have chosen the lead
role Watson as a woman to reach out to the female audience as well.
Although both television series are based on Sir Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories
they greatly differ from one another. Sherlock series maintaining the teacher student relationship
in ways reflect the modern day British Culture of having hierarchy and superiority. In this case,
the teacher is the superior with the rights to correct his or her students wrong doing and
demonstrated with the different cinematic elements. Whereas American television series
Elementary did not keep the classical convention and alter it to reflect the American culture with
great diversity. Elementary also had a more diverse cast compared to Sherlock such as using a
female for Watson's role. In present day the role of women is no longer the same as olden day
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where they were confined to being a housewife. The different adaptions of Holmes in 21
st

century adjusts the traditional convention of teacher student relationship between Holmes and
Watson in order to accurately reflect the viewers' culture.



















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Work Cited
Asher-Perrin, Emily."Battling Super-Sleuths: The Awkward Case of Sherlock, Elementary, and
Building the Better Adaptation."Tor.com, Macmillan, 24 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.
Chapman, Brian."10 Reasons Why Elementary is Better than Sherlock." What Culture.What
Culture, LTD., 9 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.
Dove, George N. The Reader and the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1997. Print.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State
University Popular Press, 1987. Print.
Toadvine, April. "The Watson Effect: Civilizing the Sociopath."Sherlock Holmes for the 21st
Century. ed. Lynette Porter. Jefferson, NC: Macfarlane & Company, 2012, 47-62. Print.