What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 4, Episode 2 “Evidence of Things Not Seen” (B-)

I’ve said it before, and I mean it this time. This show isn’t bad, but I don’t think that I really need to be watching it. Though the arrival of Sherlock’s father was supposed to be this big event many years in the making, and while John Noble is certainly good, I don’t find myself caring much about it. This feels like the perfect time to break free from the show and not feel as if I’ve abandoned it or given up because it’s gotten bad, and there’s so much else I’m watching that I could use the end of the week to catch up on everything from the first half. It seems impossible that Sherlock and Watson wouldn’t have ended up back working with the NYPD because, unlike the other above-average procedurals I watch on CBS, “Person of Interest” and “The Good Wife,” this show is not all about reinventing and redefining itself each season – it was content to do that with its premise of modern-day Holmes and sober companion Watson. The case itself was actually a more interesting one, and I liked that the suspect was framed after the fact because of the information released that made it easier to make him look like the culprit. Watson’s conversation with Sherlock’s father was inarguably an intriguing one, and she’s definitely looking out for her friend whom she would never have known without his having set their relationship up. They’ve come a long way, and regardless of where they’ve ended up professionally, they’ve formed an incredible bond.

What I’m Watching: Elementary (Season Premiere)

Elementary: Season 4, Episode 1 “The Past is Parent” (B)

This show waited so long to return that I had almost completely forgotten that it was even ever on, and I wasn’t particularly excited about it returning. I’ve gone back and forth over the past few years about whether to give up on this show, since it sometimes intrigues me but also sometimes loses me almost right away. Perhaps it’s my fault, but I feel that, more with this show than any other, I get distracted for a moment and miss something big that then means that I’m not remotely interested in what’s happening in the episode. Sherlock being confronted by a man who confesses to a few crimes but purports innocence for another before committing suicide was certainly a sensational start, but too much time has passed for the departed character himself to seem important, and the pacing of this episode was far from thrilling. This is the umpteenth time that Sherlock and Watson have faced potential expulsion from their roles as consultants to the police, and just because Watson cleaned out her stuff doesn’t mean that they’re done. Sherlock shopping for other jobs for both of them was a nice touch, but I think all that work is going to have to be put on the back burner since his father, played by none other than John Noble, has officially come to down to put his son’s life back together in whatever way he sees fit. I hope that’s intriguing, since I’d rather see more of Sherlock enlisting female companions to play out murder scenes to help him solve crimes than actually investigate them conventionally at this point.

What I’m Watching: Elementary (Season Finale)

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 24 “A Controlled Descent” (B)

This show bringing back its recurring characters is always a good thing, but I’m not as fond of it returning to Sherlock’s addition at the same time. Moriarty and Irene resurfacing was one thing, which was great, and Mycroft’s role in the second season finale was considerably less satisfying. Now, the big villain is Michael Weston’s Oscar Rankin, Sherlock’s junkie buddy who lords over Sherlock with his half-witted scheme to show him that he’s not perfect and should in fact succumb to his desire to take drugs once again. I think Sherlock has faced far more formidable battles on the show and that this isn’t a productive use of time, especially since, in the end, he didn’t end up using and Alfredo got rescued before he succumbed to the environment in which Oscar left him. (Random trivia – did you know that Weston and Ato Essandoh, who plays Alfredo, both starred in “Garden State”?) It’s not possible that Oscar is clever or vindictive enough to concoct such a plan to shame Sherlock yet still lives on the street and spends his time as he does. The bigger takeaway from all this is that Sherlock’s father is finally coming to town because he’s aware of what’s going on, and hopefully that will be a legendary encounter that could head in a truly interesting direction rather than an unfortunate distraction from Sherlock and Watson’s crime-solving ways. This season has covered a lot – remember Kitty? – and I’m hopeful that season four and beyond will be a bit more focused and consistent.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Lucy Liu as Watson

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 23 “Absconded” (B-)

Sometimes when I watch this show, I get distracted for a moment and then feel like I’ve long the entire gist of where the story is headed in a given episode. I’m not really watching any other police procedurals right now since “Person of Interest” and “iZombie” are both distinct enough variations to not count as such, and so maybe it’s just that sometimes criminal cases aren’t all that engaging to follow. This show also tends to feature elaborately spun tales that aren’t easy to prove or confirm, and this episode was the epitome of that, what with a missing sheikh who in the end turned out to not have been missing at all, or so his government claimed to protect his reputation and avoid encouraging future abductions. I enjoyed Sherlock getting stung by pees on purpose and Joan’s reaction that she hadn’t had enough caffeine to deal with the fact that he was doing that. Gregson being offered a promotion was a big deal, though I find it hard to imagine that this show would part with him so easily even though he’s not such a featured element these days. It speaks to his strong character that his first step was not to blindly accept the offer but to have Watson investigate the effectiveness and morality of his replacement. Turning it down, as he was told, may have been a grave mistake, but I expect that he’ll manage to come out ahead with the bright minds of Sherlock and Watson in his corner.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 22 “The Best Way Out is Always Through” (B+)

This show does like to be as creative as possible about its cases, and it’s fun to see Sherlock stumped. Truth be told, he was correct and the inmate did not actually escape using any of the eleven ways that he deduced she could have and was instead killed as part of an elaborate plot related to swaying a gubernatorial race. What’s most entertaining about all this is the way that Sherlock casually drops information to Watson about how he’s done something that she would find very objectionable but plays it off as if it’s no big deal. Explaining that he used the underwire of her bra to help test her theory and would also need to replace her toothbrush were particularly amusing revelations. And then there are the more serious and affecting moments of intimacy between Sherlock and those he cares about, most evocative in this episode when Sherlock talked to Bell about having a tendency to magnetize people around him so that they feel isolated from others. I liked meeting Bell’s girlfriend Detective Scott, played by Afton Williamson, who plays D.A. Allison on “Banshee,” and I’m surprised that Bell of all people has such an aversion to the notion of internal affairs since he’s always been quite the straight arrow. Ending the episode with Sherlock and Bell using what he firmly believed was the real Stanley Cup as a receptacle for a game of toss was a nice instance of friendship and equal absurdity in the same moment.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 21 “Under My Skin” (B+)

I’ve always been a fan of Alfredo, and it’s good to see him as a focus of sorts for this episode. He didn’t actually appear all that much, but he was a part of the hour’s most poignant scene. Telling Sherlock that they weren’t friends prompted a very interesting response from the police consultant who doesn’t tend to value personal relationships. His willingness to can Alfredo as his sponsor so that he could invest instead in their friendship and helping to ensure that he didn’t get sent to prison or slip back into addiction was sweet, and it prompted an immediate reply from Alfredo that wasn’t terribly warm but indicated an acceptance of the dissolution of their professional connection and a transformation into a personal one. The main case was a fearsome one with a scared injured woman pleading for her life to no avail when her paramedics were shot because she too was killed and left with no organs. It’s a worrisome concept to think that people fly to foreign countries for weight loss surgeries only to be unknowingly outfitted as drug mules. As a plotline on this show, it was very effective, and served as one of the more involving recent mysteries. This show has been featuring the actual commission of a crime at the start of a number of episodes this season, and I like that as a device to introduce the case since it provides some important information but still leaves plenty to be deduced over the course of the episode.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 20 “A Stitch in Time” (B)

This wasn’t the most enthralling episode, but what a trajectory! Initially it seemed like real estate scare tactics, then ghosts, and then terrorists whose voices some poor woman reported to have heard. What it actually was turned out to be far less incendiary, but it was still devious, giving a certain trader a distinct advantage over his competitors in terms of gaining crucial knowledge. It was hardly a surprise that Colin Eisley was the perpetrator, given that he was played by Eric Bogosian, an actor I recognize from a show I never watched, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.” He seemed overconfident and shady from the start, and therefore it wasn’t a stretch to believe that he was so driven to succeed and to overcome his law-troubled past that he would commit numerous crimes to do so. The subplot featuring Captain Gregson’s daughter Hannah felt like it came from out of left field, an unusual focus for this show, which so rarely highlights the family lives of any of its characters. Her previous appearance was equally random and oddly timed, and this one felt far less poignant since it was more about Hannah not being cut off for hard, arduous work and less about her fighting arduous and legitimate battles against sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace. Sherlock being so sure that she wasn’t cut out for the job of detective the entire time Watson was helping her felt unsupportive in an unproductive way, since she was really just trying to be a good friend to both Hannah and her father. Unfortunately, he was right, and now no one is really rooting for Hannah’s success.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 19 “One Watson, One Holmes” (B+)

What a great title for this episode, one that pushes the boundaries of the friendship that currently exists between two very effective work partners. What little we’ve seen of Watson’s personal life has never been too affirming, and it was obvious that her involvement in the planning of her friend’s bachelorette party wasn’t really taking her full attention. Sherlock pointing out that their dynamic works so well precisely because there is just one Watson and one Holmes is pretty much his way of saying that he needs and appreciates Watson. This was a case with a fun connection to Sherlock and his occasional interactions with the hacker group Anonymous, who, after enjoying the opportunity to humiliate him on numerous occasions, now are entangled in both a legal and murderous mess. It took me a minute to recognize Sucking Chest Wound, or Petros, as Joseph Cross, who starred in the lead role in “Running with Scissors” back in 2006 and hasn’t done much since then. The murder right after that visit of Species did feel awfully convenient, but it also cast Sucking Chest Wound in too suspicious a light, which made his visit to Sherlock’s loft a defense of his innocence rather than his guilt. Agent Branch showing up seconds after Sherlock and Watson showed up to question Tessee left no doubt that the killer was in fact an FBI informant, raising the ethical dilemma of whether someone’s crimes should be overlooked if they are providing a more crucial service in the name of the greater good. Clearly that’s something that Sherlock wasn’t okay with, and he took irreversible steps to ensure that the truth came to light.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 18 “The View from Olympus” (B+)

This was a rather multi-faceted episode, and I liked both the case of the week and the personal element of the storyline as it related to one of Sherlock’s repeat dalliances. The increasing discord between taxi drivers and independent companies such as Uber or the fictionalized Zooss feels like a plotline ripped from the headlines in a positive way but reframed and targeted here for the purposes of creating a mystery for the show. The reasoning behind the murder of a Zooss driver turned out to have many unexpected parts to it, and it was good to see participatory efforts in the solving of the case by Sherlock, Watson, Bell, and Gregson, who do function well as a team even if we don’t usually encounter them in exactly that dynamic. On the personal side of things, Sherlock’s behavior changed dramatically when Agatha came into town, and it was interesting to see Watson express her take on it, displeased to see the sex blanket coming out but not altogether unhappy about staying in a hotel. I think this is the first time that I’ve seen Anastasia Griffith, who I know from roles on “Damages,” “Trauma,” and “Burn Notice,” use her native British accent, and it’s truly jarring since she sounds completely different. While there were some unfortunate influencers in Agatha’s proposition of having a child with her frequent lover, I do think that the two of them are a terrific match. In the end, however, it’s Watson who came through for Sherlock, even enticing him not to wallow alone without having some ice cream.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 17 “T-Bone and the Iceman” (B)

This show is always all about the cutting edge of technology. Freezing people seems like a thing of the future, but obviously it’s not, and the fact that it is happening in the present creates considerable problems like, say, the lack of space necessary to preserve people as they were promised they would be kept before they died. Sherlock, Watson, Bell, and Gregson got to have some fun acting incredulous about the state of affairs in the body preservation industry, and it unraveled and uncovered a much more complicated crime than initially seemed to be the case. This wasn’t the coolest of scientific focuses for this show, but it did manage to be interesting throughout the course of the hour. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a member of either Sherlock or Watson’s families, and this latest opportunity to see Watson’s mother presented an unfortunate new development that is sure to have reverberations on Watson in the coming episodes. I like that, once he realized what was going on, Sherlock sprang into action and, for once, put himself out there to be directly involved in helping a good friend of his tackle an enormously difficult obstacle in her life. He may be looking at it from a pragmatic, technical point of view, deducing that assisting her in overcome the challenge of having to confront her mother’s fading memory will help her concentrate better on being a consultant, but I think he’s also remembering just how much she’s helped him and that being nice and genuine isn’t such an impossible thing.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 16 “For All You Know” (B-)

I’m not a huge fan of amnesia, and while I know that we’re dealing with Sherlock’s dark period in which he blacked out regularly because of his intense consumption of drugs, it still counts as the same thing. Sherlock, even in his darkest days, should know that he wouldn’t have been capable of killing someone, and that he shouldn’t doubt himself like he did. Obviously, bringing up his time as an addict measurably affected him, and it was particularly bad timing considering the fact that he had been conducting a lack of sleep experiment that left him especially unprepared for the task ahead. It was great to see Watson, rescued from a terribly irritating consulting case, step in to help her friend who has helped her so many times in the past, intent on proving his innocence, both to him and to the police. I liked the casting choice of the real Michael Weston (not to be confused with the “Burn Notice” character), a familiar face from “Garden State” and “Six Feet Under,” as Oscar, Sherlock’s homeless buddy who sold misspelled Prada knockoffs and seemed like a relatively decent guy considering his circumstances. It’s good to know that, even in the face of accusations of wrongdoing, Captain Gregson and Detective Bell are firmly in Sherlock’s corner, prepared to defend his character and do all they can to ensure that all the facts are presented and he isn’t thrown under the bus. Fortunately, he’s a pretty smart guy and would never be so stupid as to actually commit a crime and get caught.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 15 “When Your Number’s Up” (B)

I always find it interesting when this show, or any crime show for that matter, shows a murder happening where we clearly see the killer before the investigation even begins. In this case, said killer was portrayed by Alicia Witt, who’s turning into TV guest star royalty recently after showing up on “Justified” and “House of Lies” in recurring roles and taking on challenging and layered parts that demonstrate strong talent. It wasn’t initially clear what she was doing, killing random people and leaving money with them, and gradually understanding more of the insurance schemes that she was trying to unveil was an interesting process, particularly because her own circumstances were not at all what they seemed to be. Another familiar face was Maria Dizzia, who portrays Polly on “Orange is the New Black,” as her sister, who nearly got herself taken out and valued by her murderous sibling. The case was certainly creative, but it didn’t present an eventual clarity that I found to be satisfying or thought-provoking. Instead, the episode ended with a personal development, one that’s just the latest in a long tradition of indecision on Watson’s part about where she’s going to live. Sherlock buying her place was a big statement, and separating spaces in the loft – and scaring Sherlock in the process by nailing a door shut – was a clever and probably effective solution to needing to ensure that they could be close enough to work side-by-side but have some crucial separation that would allow them both, but mostly Watson, some peace.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 14 “The Female of the Species” (B)

I think I neglected to mention in my review last week anything about Andrew apparently being poisoned. I was very surprised to learn that it wasn’t just an ill-fated attempt on his life, but instead an actual assassination that led to his death just as Watson was breaking up with him. I like that Watson knew right away that it was Gina Gershon’s Elana March who was responsible for hiring someone to try to kill Watson, which inadvertently ended up killing Andrew, but, once again, all that intrigue was rushed through in just one episode. I am much more enticed, however, by why this particular plotline is closed since it was Moriarty who, taking an interest in Watson’s life, took Elana out to make sure that she could control the endgame with Watson and by extension Sherlock. I’m eager to see her return, especially since that’s not something I was expecting at all. It was fun to see Sherlock try to team up with Detective Bell, who he refused to call by his first name, while he was off, presenting yet another guest who woke up to a startling alarm after falling asleep on his couch. It does seem strange that this show continues to opt for excessively ambitious and dramatic plotlines like the resurrection of an extinct species by a thieving zebra breeder. Sherlock’s English pronunciation of “zebras” was thoroughly irritating, adding to the unnecessary fanciness this particular plotline entailed. What happened to good old-fashioned creative murders of humans by humans?

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 13 “Hemlock” (B+)

And just like that, Kitty is gone and we’re back to the same dynamic we used to have on this show. I grew to be fond of Kitty but don’t feel that she is vital to the relationships on and effectiveness of the show, and so while I think she didn’t get a particularly fitting goodbye and could well be due for a return soon, I have no problem with getting back to how things used to be. That proved to be especially helpful for the particular personal development of the week, which was Watson having the unexpected impromptu opportunity to meet Andrew’s father. To her and his credit, she did very well, and it should have cemented what could have been a mature and healthy relationship. Instead, it showed Watson that this isn’t what she wants, a conclusion Sherlock helped her get to. It’s a shame since she could have used a positive relationship in her life, but this will at least enable her to get back to what she actually wants to do after a pharmaceutical diversion and attempt at being domesticated. This latest case did require plenty of attention from both of them, as trying to figure out killed a debt collector produced an unusually large slate of suspects, and I was most interested by the change of heart that it was revealed that the victim underwent, opting to forgive all debts so that he could have a less weighty profession on his conscience and do something to fulfill his life.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 12 “The One That Got Away” (B-)

This show is just about as inconsistent lately as anything else I’ve ever seen, and it’s a shame given how strong it might have been given a bit more time to develop this particular plotline. The flashbacks to Sherlock tracking Kitty down in London and introducing himself felt like they came from a very distant point in the past instead of just a few months ago, mainly because Sherlock was definitely not himself. Kitty, on the other hand, didn’t seem all that bent out of shape, distressed most when she had to deal with not being able to enter Sherlock’s flat because she hadn’t brought a rubber band along to be able to pick the lock. Sherlock clearly knew Kitty well enough by the present time to discern that she had broken in and taken Del hostage, intent on torturing him so that he could feel the pain she felt. Again, I think this would have been far more compelling had it been given more time to fester, as even Sherlock had an entire season before Moriarty showed up to unravel him and Kitty got less than half a season to complete her full arc. Watson also jumped to presuming full-fledged guilt on Del’s part immediately without much in the way of proof, and, even more unbelievably, Gregson and Bell backed them up and supported their suspicions. Let’s hope that moving past this and Sherlock and Kitty getting their therapeutic moment together will be a boon for the show in the long run as it can now head in a new direction.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 11 “The Illustrious Client” (B-)

Well, this all moved a bit fast. At the end of last week’s episode was the reveal that Kitty’s abductor had come to New York, and now the victims of that kidnapper and murderer have been freed, but it turns out that someone else was the man who took Kitty, and he’s in New York too! I’m fully behind the casting of Stuart Townsend, who I thought was great on ABC’s very short-lived “Night Stalker,” as that very man, but I would think that we could have gotten to know him for a while as Watson’s new employer before Kitty pegged him by his voice form a phone call and news clip. Interestingly, his situation reminds me of Jonny Lee Miller’s character in the fifth season of “Dexter,” where he was a public figure secretly engaging in brutal depravity. I think this show is more than capable of sustaining itself without overambitious arcs, though the season one plotline with Irene and Moriarty paid off monumentally. Kitty transformed in a big way in this hour, stopping by a witness’ home to intimidate her and do enough damage to get her plush consulting gig with the NYPD suspended. I’m sure that Sherlock and Watson will advocate on her behalf, but things are not looking good, and the timing is especially bad considering the news about Kitty’s real abductor being in New York and on the loose. I don’t think this will last too long, but I hope that it will play out slightly more smoothly than I found this hour.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 10 “Seed Money” (B)

This show really is aiming high in terms of its plotlines, and I’m not sure that it needs to reach for such a specific intellectual level each episode since it used to be more than capable of being enthralling and involving in its own right. Finding an eighty-year-old couple dead in a room apparently of natural causes led to quite a windy and unexpected place involving coded sales, growhouses, bees, and accidental deaths, which all seemed a bit too complicated for its own good. It’s most worthwhile to see how Sherlock and Watson work together, balancing each other out as they each dropped some major bombshells – Watson announcing that she’s folding her private detective business and starting a job at an insurance company, and Sherlock believing that he’s ready to promote his protégé to full-fledged partner. Kitty definitely earned that by helping out someone at her group with her daughter’s well-intentioned but destructive search for her rapist father, which Kitty deduced rather quickly and easily and managed to keep from getting out of hand. Her promotion may have to wait considering the crime scene Sherlock found himself at in the episode’s closing scene, which suggests that, like Moriarty, a British detective’s nemesis isn’t content to leave their former prey alone in New York. On the guest star front, Katie Finneran, underrated star of such short-lived shows as “Wonderfalls” and “The Inside” who recently appeared on the lamentable “The Michael J. Fox Show,” was well-cast as a high-powered woman Sherlock initially suspected who Watson was ultimately able to prove to be guilty.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 9 “The Eternity Injection” (B+)

This episode’s title is a clever one, referencing the effects of this time-diluting drug that feels like it might be a better fit for a science fiction show that a straight police drama like this. Seeing one of the perpetrators lost in his own mind while on the drug at the end of the episode emphasized just how dangerous something like that can be, and why someone trying to test the drug would want to be sure that no word got out about it until its unknown consequences could be quantified. Of course, that led to a number of murders along the way and the involvement of Watson and by extension Sherlock, who didn’t have too much trouble tracking down those involved and helping to bring those not too far gone to justice. There were two worthwhile tie-ins to that case that made this episode stand out as one of this show’s more enticing installments of late. The first was a continuation of Sherlock’s struggle with his meetings after discovering that things he said had been published online by someone attempting to help others with his words. His conversation with Watson about the banality of staying sober was powerful and probably the most honest communication the two have had in a while, and that’s coming from a man who never emphasizes politeness over directness. The second was the talking car alarm that Sherlock had to beat, which was both irritating and highly entertaining as he worked methodically to deduce a way to outsmart it.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 8 “End of Watch” (B-)

I’m really going back and forth on this show week to week. It’s never all that bad, but this episode was a rather slow moving and unengaging hour, focusing too much on a side of Sherlock that we don’t often see that doesn’t seem to jive with the rest of who he is as a person. Sherlock’s one sincere vice is his struggle with drug addiction, and it’s been a difficult process for him to talk about that. It doesn’t seem entirely plausible that someone would pay close enough attention to every word he said to write a blog with frequent posts directly quoting him, and the way that it played out didn’t speak to me. It is nice to see that Kitty has her mentor’s back and that she’s ready to go after him and force him to take down the blog but for the resistance of Sherlock, determined to take care of a private matter himself. The plot of this episode seems particularly poorly-timed with the tragic events that unfolded in New York City yesterday, though this seems almost simple in comparison to the complexity of the race issues at play in real life. The use of the murders as a diversion, and especially the second shooting following the revelation of the first victim’s addiction-driven activities, makes their deaths seem trivial, and I suspect that, had this episode aired today or yesterday rather than late last week, CBS would have opted to pull it for fear of truly terrible associations.

What I’m Watching: Elementary

Elementary: Season 3, Episode 7 “The Adventure of the Nutmeg Concoction” (B+)

After a concerningly uninteresting episode last week that made me reconsider whether I should be watching this show on a weekly basis, this hour did well by providing an intriguing and immensely watchable plot: the hunt for a criminal who kills people and leaves a distinct trace of nutmeg at the scene. Deducing that it was in fact a cleaner who connected all the victims rather than a killer made things even more enticing, and then to learn that the cleaner himself was cleaned by an apprentice whose criminal father was concerned that his secrets would be spilled was interesting indeed. Though there’s some unnecessary back-and-forth about who does what and who wants to be there, the new trio of Sherlock, Watson, and Kitty actually works pretty well. Sherlock, to his credit, is giving Kitty appropriate commendation for the things she does right, allowing her to play her music at full volume during normal quiet hours after it was her observation that led to a major breakthrough in the case. Her response – to play a much calmer, more Sherlock-friendly musical choice – was sweet. Sherlock butting into Watson’s romantic life is nothing new, but this episode allowed him to portray her in a negative light, stirring up understandable resentment from her and a decent defense in the end after Christian Camargo’s doctor hired Watson to find out who stole his ID and then asked her out. The shot of her preparing dinner alone in the apartment wasn’t optimistic, but at least she’s not letting Sherlock take over her life too much.