I am a fan of many shows. Two currently on my radar are Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, a delightful cartoon about a blended family where the older sister is always trying to chase down her inventive younger brothers, and ABC’s Elementary, a remake of Sherlock Holmes with a female Watson (played by Lucy Lui). I’ve pondered about the villain debate lately, a subject that came up when a P&F episode hit me wrong. Then I saw the latest episode of Elementary, M., and the two shows converged into this post.
P&F has 2 story arcs. Story A consists of Phineas and Ferb building some fantastic device while older sister Candace tries to get them in trouble with the parents. Story B features animal secret agents, the star of which is Perry the Platypus, the boys’ pet, fighting the evil Dr. Doofenschmirtz and preventing the Doofenschmirtz from conquering the tri-state area. (Allow me to repeat: Tri-State Area. This is a kids’ show, after all.)
One thing I like about P&F is the musical numbers found in every show, and the energy the voice actors bring to their parts. The story lines, though simplistic, fit with the stated goal of “this is a kids’ show.” Disney’s not aiming for my age bracket, which I get. What I dislike, though, is when Story B gets into morally ambiguous territory. Platypus kicking evil human butt? That’s fantastically amusing.
Then I saw the episode where Doofenschmirtz hasn’t actually done anything wrong yet (no brainwashing schemes, no building ‘inators’ to conquer the tri-state area). He goes shopping with his daughter and Major Monogram (Perry’s handler & boss) sends Perry to stop Doof before Anything Bad Happens.
Again, let me repeat: Doof went shopping. He had money. He was paying for his purchases. Granted, he planned to use that stuff to build a device to do something evil, but the evil had not yet happened.
The whole episode, both story lines, were built around a humongous warehouse store chase scene. It was hilariously funny and fun. But I found myself annoyed that the episode was teaching children that it’s okay to beat up the bad guy before he was bad. And this is not the only episode in which Perry beats up Doof for doing nothing.
Yes, it’s a kids’ show. It isn’t meant for my age group. But what is this type of story telling the kids? Forget that Doof is incompetent. Forget that he has 9 different excuses for hating whatever it is he wants to destroy this week. Forget that he has tried and failed to conquer even the city of Danville. The character never gets rewarded for doing anything right (like paying for his groceries instead of stealing them). No wonder he’s a villain! I’d probably be one too if a platypus came around and bullied me every day, regardless of my activities! Tell me, who’s the real bad guy here? The animal hero or the sad-sack villain?
Then we come to Elementary. Since this episode just aired this week, I’m going to hide the rest of the discussion behind the cut (SPOILER ALERT). But let me say, the other villain of this debate is the exact opposite of Doof, and far more dangerous.
SPOILERS
The running theme of Elementary is that Dr. Joan Watson, former surgeon, is now a sober companion and was hired by Holmes' father to monitor him for the 6 (or 16) weeks after Holmes leaves drug rehab. He lives in New York now, BTW. She lives with Holmes, makes sure he doesn't get back into using, even does random drug testing. He's not allowed to go more than 2 hours without contact with her. Holmes hates this arrangement but Joan has become "useful" to him and he bonds with her against his better judgement. She's a great assistant during his cases. As Season 1 wraps up, Joan's time is coming to an end. Holmes has denial issues, but as he and she are getting used to parting ways, we get to the episode titled "M."
M., in case you haven't guessed it, stands for Moriarty (the original Holmes' greatest nemesis). M. is a serial killer, responsible for 37 deaths back in London. Holmes was helping the police track him down when M. murdered Holmes' girlfriend Irene, which sent Holmes down the hard-core drug use path. Holmes became useless, couldn't help the police at all, then ended up in rehab.
In this episode, Holmes gets a shock when a man is murdered in his apartment using the same exact m.o. as M. used back in London. The thought is that M. followed Holmes to New York. Holmes gets the drop on the murderer only to find out that the guy he's been chasing is a hired assassin, working for none other than the real M. (a.k.a. Moriarty). The assassin insists he never killed Irene (Hmm, methinks Irene isn't really dead, but I digress) and he thinks M. set him up to get caught by Holmes.
Confused yet?
Moriarty is obviously a bad guy. He hires people to kill for him, he's jerking Holmes around like a puppet on a string. He's cold, calculating, and dangerous in all the ways Doofenschmirtz isn't. If Perry chose to kick his butt, I would have no complaints. But Perry isn't here, Holmes is. And Sherlock Holmes is freaking out, fighting to not have a meltdown because the guy responsible for killing Irene is unknown, still out of his reach, and taunting him from a distance. Holmes has no idea how to deal with this and I immediately got the visual of him wanting to reach for his syringe. So did Watson, though. I saw it in her eyes. When Holmes leaves the room, she promptly calls his father, asking for an extension of her sober companion contract because she's worried about Holmes. (And also because she kinda likes this detective stuff, so this is a good excuse for her to continue working with Holmes).
The last few minutes roll around. Holmes and Watson are back home with Holmes asleep on the couch. Watson's phone rings with a text message. The message from daddy says something like "got your message. No need to extend your contract. Pack up and get out." The message header is From: M. Holmes, To: J. Watson.
My first thought was S**T. Who better than daddy to muck about with his son's head?
Think about this for a second. They've changed so much else about the show, why not have Dad be Moriarty? Of course, if that's the case, I still have to answer the question of why Dad would hire Joan to take care of Sherlock. After listening to a series of Doctor Who audioplays during work ("Survive and Protect," "Black and White," and "Gods and Monsters"), the answer hit me. Moriarty is (and always has been, even in Doyle's original stories) about the game. Sherlock gives him a challenge. A stoned, out-of-control Sherlock has no capacity for playing the game. So of course daddy would send Sherlock right off to rehab, get him dried out, hire a sober companion to make sure that the cure stuck, then start playing the game again as soon as all reports came back clear and a-okay.
And you know what, I'm both stunned and impressed. It takes spunk to write this kind of story, and to pull off the villain so well. Understand that Moriarty / Dad has never ONCE shown up on the screen. What we know of him comes from Watson's comments about email and text interactions, and from a few choice remarks made by Sherlock himself when daddy promised to come visit and then failed to show. Before the main bad guy even takes the stage, the writers have the audience on the edge of their seats waiting in breathless anticipation for the other shoe to drop.
Damn. I can only hope someday that my writing does the same exact thing to at least one reader. Because, damn, that's good writing and excellent acting.
END OF SPOILERS
Up until this episode, I was ready to pan this show and not go on to Season 2. It was cutesy and okay, but I didn’t really feel it. Then this happened and I am officially addicted.
So here we have a tale of two bad guys. One who is a good villain and one who is a bad villain. Granted, the bad villain is good for a kids’ show, but I really don’t like how Doof is treated by the writers sometimes. Doof is a fun character: a divorcee with a rebellious teenage daughter that he can’t connect with and no respect for his world domination plans. The poor guy simply can’t get his life together.
On the other hand, we have M., who is without a doubt one of the best villains ever written. No one bullies this guy, no one had better try. And he definitely knows what he’s doing, how to do it, and how not to get caught.
I really would like to see Perry take on M. Perry would probably end up on the dinner menu, but it would be nice to see Perry actually go after a real bad guy instead of just a lonely, depressed, insecure guy who’s trying to get a little bit of approbation.
