The Best Gender Flips Of The Decade Come From The Same Hit Series

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 29 seconds ago

Whenever a director or a producer decides to turn a classically male character into a woman for a modern retelling, it’s usually pushed back by fans of the original. Turning Starbuck from a man played by Dirk Benedict to a woman played by a then mostly unknown Katee Sackhoff was a huge risk that paid off big for Battlestar Galacticabut when Elementary announced Watson would go from John to Joan, the outcry could be heard from space. Not only did Lucy Liu absolutely kill it as Joan Watson, but the series held back one of its other twists: Natalie Dormer, fresh from playing Anne Boleyn on The Tudorswould be Holmes’ love interest, Irene Adler, and in a move that turns Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s subtext to text, Moriarty.

A New Take On A Classic

In the classic detective stories, Moriarty is Holmes’ evil nemesis, as smart and as cunning as the Detective, but devoted to using his intellect for crime. Elementary with Johnny Lee Miller, than mostly known for playing Zero_Cool in Hackerssubverts expectations with the revelation that Irene and Moriarty (given the first name here of Jamie) are one and the same. Dormer and Miller’s chemistry was palpable from the very first flashback scene of them together while she’s pretending to be Irene, and it keeps going, though it’s mostly one-sided.

A twist to the twist is that Moriarty purposely took advantage of their gender roles to seduce Holmes, make him fall in love with her, and use that information to remain one step ahead of him as she builds her criminal empire. Elementary plays it coy with the two communicating mostly via letter, which works for both the narrative, and Dormer’s career exploding thanks to Game of Thrones a few years after her first appearance on the series. If Hollywood is going to change a character, this is how to do it right.

Elementary’s Joan Watson Is The Best Version Yet

Lucy Liu won fans over through her interpretation of Watson from the very first set of episodes. As Sherlock’s sober companion, Joan struggles with helping him solve cases and battle his addictions at the same time, during the entire seven season run. Sherlock can’t change and grow during that time due to the Doyle estate’s licensing agreements, but Joan was instead able to go from disgraced doctor and sober companion, to a brilliant analytical detective in her own right. Often, it can feel like she’s the real main character of the series, which isn’t a bad thing, for a show with 154 44-minute long episodes it helps to fluctuate between two leads.

Both Liu and Dormer excelled at their gender flipped characters. One would be impressive enough, but for Elementary to pull off both while making it work to enhance the story and not merely as stunt casting, is just showing off. For characters who have been adapted over and over again, even as rodents and gnomes, the CBS procedural tried something different and for once, it worked.

Elementary is available to stream on Paramount+.