"Elementary", New CBS Show.

The ads are compressed and then run at whatever the maximum level allowed by the FCC may be.

There was some legislation about this a couple of years ago, but it only seems to have brought the commercials down from "jump out of your seat loud" to "obnoxiously loud". http://www.fcc.gov/guides/program-background-noise-and-loud-commercials

 

There is one local channel here that is so "obnoxiously loud" that before I switch to it I have lowered the volume to the point that I can scarcely hear the program dialog. Cox cable does nothing here to "normalize" levels; the NBC station is so low level that the volume control must be set near its maximum, but the Fox station (owned by the very same company here in town) will blast you out of the room. There may well be these FCC rules on audio levels, but they mean nothing to the stations and cable, locally.

 

A few days ago, we were watching an episode of Elementary that I had on the DVR. Prior to this, I almost forgot how bad the audio is on this show. Although these numbers mean nothing to anyone else, we normally watch shows with a level of 30-32 on the audio system connected to our plasma. With Elementary, it has to be set to over 43 to even have a chance of hearing three quarters of what Jonny Lee Miller is saying. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that we're going to have to turn-on the captions this season if we want to follow all the dialogue.

 

Just cannot get into it

 

Anyone see the season's premiere on Thursday?

By the end of last season I thought Lucy Lui had grown into the role and her acting had improved. Now I am at a loss to understand why I thought that. She really is a bad actress. And the show runners thought it was a good idea to let her Watson character go all sulky and bitchy?! The character just comes across as cold and unlikable. What were they thinking?

 

Hmmm. . . I don't get that, that she's a bad actress or that she's all sulky and bitchy, cold and unlikable. I get she was mad and hurt at Holmes and I can understand that. She was being pretty "real" with clients and Gina Gershow (nice addition to the show!). I thought it was a good episode, showing us Joan has come into her own with NYPD and doesn't need Holmes. . . as much as he seems to need her. And I like that Holmes has a new acolyte and what that may entail. I'm in for another season.

 

My wife and I were discussing the same points after the show. We are in complete agreement with everything you said. Are you sure you weren't eavesdropping on our conversation? If we take steps to avoid the people in our lives who exhibit the personality traits that Watson is displaying, why would we want to experience that on a show we normally enjoy? Before, we were able to ignore her bad acting and enjoy the rest...now, I'm not so sure. Time will tell.

 

They've firmly avoided any possibility of Joan and Sherlock from having a romantic connection, so I guess they introduced this dramatic tension between them in its place.

 

I get your point.

I thought Liu's performance had improved over the course of the show [perhaps that was due to Miller, whom she shares most scenes], but in last week's episode her acting just generally was bad. I get the plot arc even though Watson's present behavior is not consistent with her established personality and behaviour. But behaving like a peevish child whose feelings are hurt ... ? I like the show and hope this works out well, eventually. I presume Kitty and this story arc will last the season.

 

I guess we'll just see it differently, I didn't see bad acting, and I thought her actions were consistent with her character. To me the underlying theme under the story arc with Joan and Sherlock is that they both need each other and are annoyed that they do. It's an odd thing that is completely complicated by the fact that they are man and woman. It causes them to be childish with each other, which is fun to watch at least for me. Adds a reality that the murder cases often don't have.

 

My general opinion on Liu as an actress are in line with this comment posted earlier in the thread from 2 years ago.

"Despite Lucy Liu (who in her portrayal has all of the charisma of death warmed over), I enjoyed last night's premiere - enough to tune in again."

 

Okay. I enjoy her more than you, and find she does have charisma and chops. We're all different. We'll just disagree.

 

Liked the lines(delivered by Jonny Lee Miller) about secrets, sharing and the need for anonymity in the latest episode.

I think that there's room for this latter-day interpretation.

 

Is this show still worth watching? I ran out of steam near the end of last season and haven't been back.

 

Johnny is worth watching in just about anything.

Kitty seems like a nice addition.

 

I just watched this episode on DVR. The sound is just ass! At one point the background music was more intelligible than the dialog. No kidding the music sounded 3db louder than the dialog! Those sound engineers should hand in their union cards.

 

I've read all the complaints about the sound, but hadn't noticed anything before last night. Changing over from another station (PBS) I noticed an immediate difference in clarity and dynamic range. The CBS sound seemed very squashed, with busy background noises competing with the dialog for attention.

But I don't have a hifi or home theater rig connected to my TV, just the built-in TV sound. So I'm not hearing the full broadcast sound bandwidth. Are those of you with consistent complaints about the sound of this show listening with TV speakers, or with a home theater or hifi?

 

I've watched with sound through my TV speakers and hi-fi. Not good either way at times.

 

This past episode was probably the worst I ever encountered. There was a scene, where for about fifteen seconds, I couldn't understand Sherlock, Kitty, or Joan. It's hard to understand how this continually happens- but it does.

 

That's tough to say since it hasn't gotten better since season 2, if that is what you are asking. I don't like the addition of Kitty, Sherlock's new assistant. I thought two detectives on the show overly split up cases, and it has only gotten worse with three detectives on each case. Miller is still giving a dynamite spin on the character, but nothing else is really working in my estimation. The program has devolved into another mindless CBS procedural.

The writers are utterly lost on what to do with Joan.

 

You got a point, well several. I like Kitty but I don't see how she really fits in. It feels too crowded. I wonder if she's there for a specific story they're going to introduce at some point or if she's going to be a regular going forward?

I still tune in every week and do enjoy the show but it feels somewhat lost.

 

I like the emphasis on Sherlock's journey/struggle with sobriety. I have real empathy for folks battling addiction. There's addiction in my past. It's a dark deep hole, that at its worst, you just can't imagine ever escaping. I think the portrayal of that has been very honest. I think it contributes to the depth of the character, and who knows... it might even help someone.

 

+1

I've been tobacco free for nearly nine years now. Not the same addiction, but an addiction just the same. I avoided drug addiction when I was young, too, I just walked away on my college graduation day.

 

Sorry to see Kitty go.. I was actually enjoying that pairing of Sherlock and Kitty with Watson as the outsider.