I have feelings. Let me share them with you.
I am unsure of my feelings on the US Sherlock casting. fyi.
Let us start with Watson. Or actually, let's start with a cut-tag because this was longer then I thought and I do actually like you, my flist.
On the one hand, female Watson might make for interesting dynamic and also I would like to see how they handle her backstory. This could be very very cool (I…have my doubts that it will be but I’m going to be positive in this particular paragraph!) and I would like to see American TV write a good bit about females in a more realistic military then most TV shows do. The relationship between Watson and Sherlock has, AND THIS IS PROBABLY AN UNPOPULAR OPINION, never really been one of equals - and historically Watson got a really strange rap for a while there as being a short, round man who was basically there to go ‘oooOooo’ a lot and be overly ‘British’ - and I would really like to see how they handle this in a world that is probably going to be scrutinizing this to the point of obsession.
What this means for me is that I am longing for a Watson that is smart enough to be a doctor and strong enough to do so in a hostile military situation. I would like a Watson who returns from a war zone hurt and unsure of how to be a civilian but seeking help - even if she thinks her therapist is feeding her lines about the colours of the world - who maybe even encounters problems (depending on if they go ahead and base this in America which is a theme in American remakes so I’m going to say they do) in her ability to seek help for her mental symptoms due to her gender* that has maybe made her a bit untrusting of the system. I’d like a Watson who meets a know-it-all who is admittedly an amazing know-it-all and does decide to chase after him because she is bored and missing the excitement that everyone tells her she shouldn’t miss and she sort of wants to wag her middle-finger at authority figures and gosh-darn-it it’s giving her something to do that isn’t settling down into a boring practice as a GP when she used to be a battle surgeon! I’d like for them to become friends based on their shared situations; I’d like for female Watson to be witty and occasionally probably a bitch because who isn’t occasionally a bitch and I’d like for her to enjoy curling up with a tea (or a rum and coke, or coffee or whatever makes her happy) and a book in a pair of sweatpants or a big wool sweater and ignore Sherlock’s over-dramatic temper-tantrums (should he be the sort of Sherlock who has them).
I don’t want Watson having boobs to be incidental because it isn’t; you have boobs. You are a woman. That is a big part of what will make this so interesting! But also I do not want those boobs to mean Watson becomes a caricature of ….well. Of a female or of some weird non-Watson Watson. Watson isn’t Irene Adler. Watson is Watson.
Most of my dreams here will inevitably fail because it’s TV and media is sort of over-sexed these days* and probably also I will not get this awesome friendship that is totally possible to have between the sexes* because, again, it’s TV and TV sometimes cannot help but squish romance in place of friendship.
I am less sure of my thoughts on Watson being played by Lucy Liu but that is more based on my memory of Lucy Liu roles (which is in turn based upon the fact that I really only remember her from Charlie’s Angels. I wish I didn’t remember those movies at all). As an actress, Lucy Liu is probably pretty good and I just don’t remember it because I really haven’t watched a lot of movies or TV productions that she’s been in besides the fore-mentioned Thing and also Shanghi Noon which most of what I remember from that was wanting Owen Wilson to just go. Away. There’s also going to be a race issue here. I’m not saying this to be a bitch or because I think people will bitch. Nor am I saying this because I am . I am saying this because it is an issue in the world we live in and I hope that it will maybe be handled by …someone who understands race issues a lot better than I do.
I actually have no thoughts on Sherlock because based on the actor whom I know nothing about there is no way for me to make any wide-sweeping hopes or generalizations. I have no idea who Jonny Lee Miller is. I understand that he is …a man so no difference there and British so, again, no big change unless they get him to play an American which …seems a bit odd to get a British citizen to play an American character based on a British character but who am I to say.
I mostly hope he doesn’t have that moustache as Sherlock. But that is my personal opinion on strange, skinny moustaches.
*Gender issues in the US Military: We all know they’re there. This particular issue I was referencing has to do with female soldiers returning with symptoms of trauma or PTSD and not receiving their due help from military institutions because, as ‘non-combatants’, there was nothing to be traumatized about. This is a conversation we can have later if anyone is actually reading this.
*Media is oversexed: This isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Yay sexual freedom. But it is sort of a bad thing. Boo the need for characters to wear heels 24-7 or makeup or to be hotter in a way that is sleeker. I will miss a Watson who will wear cardigans or beat-up jackets. I know this Watson has to go but …I sort of wanted a female Watson who wasn’t overly tall or really skinny (there is nothing wrong with skinny. Skinny is a body type do not even get me started) or the Irene Adler from Sherlock BBC (there is nothing wrong with Irene Adler dressing that way if Irene Adler wishes to dress that way but Irene Adler is not Watson. Boy I have a lot of addendum)
*Relationships between sexes: It can happen! Really. I can, 99% accurately, say that I have male friends who I do not wish to bone and not just because I do not have a bone with which to do so (that is what sex shops are for). My relationship with them is different then it is with my friends who are girls but that is mostly because I do not often have conversations with my male friends about Diva Cups. Except that one time and James was a trooper who was more horrified that he initially mistook the conversation to be about a cool new coffee place then about any tmi issues. So go James and go non-sexual relationships between characters of different sexes (who incidentally, do not always want to protect me, Rick Santorium, but you are also another conversation and I will get to you one day, sir).