Watson

“Watson” has all the hallmarks of a CBS procedural. The network has a taste and a talent for a kind of light serious entertainment in which a likable cast of sometimes difficult characters solve a problem in an hour, while other, darker events percolate underneath.

As a free-standing medical mystery series, it has promise. There is quite a bit of nonsense at the outset. .... But for all the tortured setup, the cases addressed by Watson and his team of upstart fellows at the freshly minted Holmes Institute are off the charts, so to speak.

While Chestnut is more than up to the task, a jumbled pilot and forced Sherlock lore make for an unsteady opening.

“Watson” is somewhat lackluster as a Sherlock Holmes remix. It’s a predictable problem when you remove Holmes from the equation.

It’s an OK show. It’s a regular show. It epitomizes what you think of when you think of generic network television. This isn’t to say it doesn’t have its charms, Chestnut chief among them. It’s predictable, comfortable, not particularly challenging. .... It’s not going to make you forget the brilliant “Sherlock” or anything, but it’s enjoyable.

While Watson does suffer from how its ensemble is written — partly as a consequence of the narrative being set in the middle of some of these characters' arcs — Morris Chestnut is both a brilliant Dr. Watson and a solid lead. Both he and Aytes’ Dr. Morstan prove to be the most well-written and intriguing characters within the cast.

Watson should be more fun than it is. Still, it has bright spots that are significantly more entertaining than the average entry in this tired genre, largely thanks to star Morris Chestnut’s infectious level of joy and curiosity.

The medical case in the premiere is pretty dense and sometimes hard to follow but future episodes are more streamlined. Still, it’s not a show you can multitask through and completely grasp what is going on in the medical cases.

Their cases are generally compelling, though mystery fans will likely be far more fixated by the ongoing threat from archvillain Moriarty. .... If only Sherlock was still around. [10 Feb - 2 Mar 2025, p.4]

The show has some decent humor, too, courtesy of a sketchy biohacker friend of Watson. But it’s unlikely that Watson will achieve the success of House. That said, if it takes some more risks as the season goes on, it could at least provide some engaging comfort TV.

The one thing it is certain of is that it means to be a show you turn to because it’s satisfying to watch a smart, noble man solve puzzles and save the day, not because you’re expecting any gritty resemblance to the real world. Such escapism can have its pleasures. But it usually works better when the world we’re escaping to feels more consistently interesting than the one we’re leaving.

Chestnut has considerable screen charisma, but he can’t overcome the weak scripts. “The game’s afoot. We have a new case. Who wants to amaze us with their insights?” he says to his team, and it’s strangely perfunctory and underwhelming. As Sherlock would say: “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself.”

I expected formulaic episodes, attractive doctors in scrubs and lab coats and plenty of ridiculous medical terms. I did not expect to be so bored. I did not expect to be so befuddled, either. "Watson" wins the award for the most tedious series of the year that I also can't stop thinking about due to its sheer oddity.

Watson jams Holmesian mythology, quirky doctors, and complex medical mysteries into stories that can’t really handle all three at once, and it shows in how none of it feels well thought-out.