Elementary: The Fifth Season

Jonny Lee Miller is Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu is his partner Dr. Joan Watson in the "other" modern Holmes series, this one set in New York City, where Holmes has settled after fleeing the dysfunction of his family in London and recovering from a heroin addiction. Watson has by now become an equal in her partnership with Holmes and she takes on a protégé, a former convict named Shinwell Johnson (Nelsan Ellis), who goes undercover in a violent street gang in an act of redemption for past crimes. Virginia Madsen guest stars in two episodes as the recently-divorced Captain Gregson's girlfriend and Ophelia Lovibond returns with life-changing news as Kitty Winter, Sherlock's former protége. In many ways this is a more conventional series than the flamboyant British show starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the "high-functioning sociopath" detective. But if Miller's Holmes is more subdued and less arrogant than Cumberbatch's, he is also more human and vulnerable and continues to evolve in his relationships with colleagues, although the series never forgets the shadow of addiction and emotional scars hanging over him. This fifth season follows a familiar routine that is broken only in the surprises of the final episodes, but the mysteries remain engaging (and often quite clever) and the characters continue to be the show's main draw. Compiling all 24 episodes from the 2016-17 fifth season, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)