the absolute best thing about elementary, besides the entirety of it, is sherlock's humanity.
he is not an arrogant asshole. he is not a "all of you shall bow before me." does he have moments where he acts superior and puts people down? yes. but it's never a fundamental part of his being. he is clever and skilled, yes, but it is not his personality. he isn't just excused to be an asshole. it's not just "oh that's sherlock, the complete dickhead." sherlock season 1 and sherlock season 7 are hardly the same person.
he admits his mistakes, hell, he fucking apologizes for them. he changes to be kind to people. his asshole arrogance is portrayed as a defense mechanism because he's so lonely. he learns to be kind. he learns to love and he learns to be polite for the sake of it. he hates marriage, hates it, absolutely hates it, but he buys an expensive glass of champagne for a man proposing to his girlfriend, people he doesn't know, without even hesitating. he comforts survivors of assault and does his best in being non-threatening whenever there's someone who is in a delicate state of mind. he helps a girl who lied to him (to put it mildly) chose a new name and identity, to move on. he helps a victim of assult get revenge. he is willing to frame a murderer to stop him from killing others. he solves murders because he thinks it's unfathomable not to.
he dates an autistic woman, and I'm not saying this in the "oh wow look he should be praised!" sort of way, i mean, he changes how he acts in order to make her more comfortable, he buys her a limited gift, he does things he isn't comfortable doing, like clearly stating his feelings, in order to make her feel better. he reassures her when she needs it.
sherlock cares. he so fundamentally cares, about people he doesn't know, about people he does. he threatens to kill his own brother if joan is even mildly hurt. he beats a man who hurt his friend, alfredo. he breaks the law in order to help friends of friends. he tries so hard to understand normal convention.
it isn't like the majority of sherlock's I've seen and read about. he deeply truly cares, he wants to be a part of functioning society, he helps because he can't imagine not doing it. he tries to express his care and concern for people and fails sometimes because he can't communicate with them.
it's kind of stated that he's possibly autistic and it fits in with his actions. his antisocial behavior isn't because he's a dick and thinks he's better than everyone, it's because there are so few he can express himself to, no matter how hard he tries.
he names a bee after watson. he calls her extraordinary and makes an effort to be kind to her.
he hates humanity, or he tries to, at least, but he loves people. he's tried to fit in, to be someone people could be friends with, and got rejected, and now that he's older, he's trying to help people from the outside, trying to connect with people in a different way. he's a tragic character in that sense, but it's shown, it's quite literally basically stated over and over, sherlock needs people.
he's desperate with it, really. he wants to talk to people but the majority don't understand or aren't willing to listen, so he finds shelter in other outcasts. he doesn't hate the people who don't understand him. he tries so hard to communicate with people.
and to sum this all up, here are some of the quotes im talking about.
S: It has its costs. W: What does? Learning to see the puzzle in everything. They're everywhere. Once you start looking, it's impossible to stop. It just so happens that people, with all the deceits and illusions that inform everything they do, tend to be the most facinating puzzles of all. Of course, they don't always appreciate being seen as such. Seems like a lonely way to live. As I said. Has its costs.
a friend of sherlock's: You can't expect Sherlock Holmes to relate to you the way another person might. The moment you do, he'll migrate out of your life, and you'll be the poorer for it.
W: I texted you. You didn't have to come. S: As I explained the other day, there's nothing more hazardous to my health than boredom. Besides, I thought it might be nice to meet the ex. W: I'm pretty sure he's not going to show. S: And here you sit. W: I'll give him ten more minutes. If there's someplace else you have to be... S: Not tonight, Watson. Not tonight.
Sherlock, after joan thanks him for making her family understand her job as a sober companion: I simply told them what they wanted to hear. They're nice people, your family, but they are, at their core, conventional. You make an effort to appear conventional, but I know, Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the humdrum routine of ordinary life. Your family will never understand this, so I gave them some words that they would understand.
S: Realizing that you were in physical danger was difficult for me. If anything ever happened to you, I'm not sure I could forgive myself. W: Okay, this is not how you express concern for someone that you want to keep safe. Quite right, so I've reached out to a handful of martial artists who reside in the city, each one of them an expert in his or her fighting style. My hope is some combination of them will agree to train you.
these are all just from the first season.
and a few more, my personal favorites.
Misanthropy was so easy, Watson. Elegant. I miss it sometimes.
I was dying, and no one could see it but you.
S: You could have killed Agent Mattoo. And from your perspective, it would have been the expedient thing. Moriarty: And yet, to you, it would have been repugnant. Tell me, is that how you learned to be one of them? By learning to care how your actions seemed in the eyes of another? S: I'm not sure I am one of them.
W: You're not the same person I met a year and a half ago. You're- S: Good to you? Yeah. For the most part. I consider you to be exceptional. So I make an exceptional effort to accommodate you.
