What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 1, Episode 21 “A Landmark Story” (A-)

It’s great to see this show kick into high gear two weeks before its two-hour season finale, delving into the Moriarty mythology and confronting its storylines with a much more serious attitude. Beginning with F. Murray Abraham’s assassin set the tone for the whole hour, because he’s just as brutally effective as Vinnie James’ Sebastian Moran without being quite as physically violent. Abraham was terrifically chilling and surprisingly forthcoming about everything he had done after Sherlock apprehended him and brought him into the station. Finding out that he was supposed to stage Sherlock’s death and that it was the only job he ever got that was cancelled added a degree of relevance to a case that, for Sherlock, is immensely personal. I’m not too familiar with the Holmes/Moriarty dynamic other than what I’ve seen in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” where he was portrayed by “Mad Men” actor Jared Harris, but I’m so far quite drawn in by the notion of this mysterious villain, who finally gave Sherlock a call at the end of the episode so that they could meet and the story could continue to become even more interesting. Let’s hope Sherlock doesn’t lose someone else he cares about as memories of Irene Adler are inevitably brought up. I’m eager to see what comes next. Sherlock convincing Watson to dissect a dead body for him was the comedic highlight, along with his throwing of an air conditioner from a roof to test a theory, of an otherwise dramatic and deadly episode.