Elementary (TV Series) Once You've Ruled Out God (2018) User Reviews

Entertaining, but Science and Linguistics lacking

[fverdoes · 7/10 · 27 June 2018]

All in all an entertaining episode.

We get to see Watson deal with her relationship with her father, a frustrated Sherlock struggle with his affliction, and get treated to a couple of plot twists. What really made an impression is the searing rage Captain Gregson seems hardly able to contain while making an arrest, displaying the most emotion he ever did throughout the series.

However, as a Dutch science teacher, there were 2 things that annoyed me while watching the episode.

1. While Plutonium-238 does emit Alpha particles on decay, Alpha particles are really hard to detect. Because they are so big compared to Beta particles, they are unable to travel more that a couple of centimeters through air. Seriously, 4 or 5 centimeters of air is enough to stop all Alpha particles. A piece of tape on the camera of your phone stops all the Alpha particles dead in their tracks. Even the outer layer of skin stops most Alpha particles, making Alpha radiation the least dangerous type of radiation. 2 minutes of internet research shows that the app Watson uses actually DOES exist, but only registers Beta radiation.

2. The 'Euros' depicted in this episode do not speak Dutch. Not even close. They say something that vaguely sounds like German, but is actually not. I know, it's really, really hard to hear us 'Euros' from across the Ocean, but for God's sake, hire someone who actually speaks the language before passing some unintelligible mix of Germanic and Slavic languages off as Dutch.

Hire Some 'Euros'

[Eva-Joan · 6/10 · 17 May 2021]

I have to say, as far as Elementary episodes go, this is not the most interesting case for me. I like the somewhat more subtle cases, which there are less and less of.

What is most notabel about this episode however is that they completely messed up in the language department. The actors playing the 'Euros' that planned a diamond heist are obviously American judging by their inflection and obvious mumbling so that words are mostly not really discernible. This to cover up for the fact that they do not know what they're saying and in what language. The accent that they chose for this occasion is German, and this is also what the subtitles say, but the words are not German or at least most of them aren't and the sentence structure is Dutch. Trust me, I'm Dutch.

In an earlier episode there was a brief communication between Sherlock and a man from Brussel (which is Belgium, and yes, some of their population speak a form of Dutch called "Vlaams" or Flemish in English) for which they found an actor who nailed the Belgian accent in English for a entire conversation. So it is possible to find good actors, even for tv-series.

For English speaking people these might feel like small details but it is in fact the difference between three separate countries, two of which might speak a language in which they can understand one another without having to learn a new language but German is not one of those two. German and Dutch get mixed up very often in tv and film however different the languages are in syntax and inflection, which is a shame because it's as easy as hiring someone from one of these countries to act in those scenes. I don't think actors from the Netherlands would have a more expensive rate then American ones. So my hope for future episodes; hire some 'Euros', it might give some more depth to the characters and episodes and honor the Sherlock Holmes legacy and his eyes, nose and ears for details.

Euros? Really?

[jackie-613-971127 · 8/10 · 12 May 2018]

Good episode but I do so wish American screenwriters would put some effort in depicting a realistic Europe. Talking about "Euros" is borderline ridiculous - but I may buy into the fact that American nationalists might use that word to talk about people and not the currency. But having these "Euros" converse in German and then saying they are Dutch is just plain stupid! The Dutch people speak ... Dutch which is an altogether different language than German! FYI, in Western Europe, there are about 25 different national languages and just because they sound alike doesn't mean they are the same...