In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, John Watson was a man of utmost integrity, Holmes's closest friend, confidant, and the narrator of his stories. Over time, this character, like that of the fictional detective himself, has undergone various reboots and reinventions.
John Watson was most recently reimagined in the BBC detective drama, Sherlock, in which the character was played by actor Martin Freeman, as well as in the CBS drama, Elementary where Joan Watson was played by veteran actress Lucy Liu. Let us look at a few reasons why Liu made a better Watson and a few others as to why Freeman excelled.
Liu: Joan Had More Agency
Lucy Liu's Watson was not a mere prop meant to emphasize the detective's phenomenal observational and deductive powers. Although she started out as somewhat flummoxed by Holmes' skills, she caught on very soon and began training as a detective herself under Holmes' guidance.
Liu's Watson became an excellent detective herself and actively engaged in investigations along with Holmes. She was not an outsider to Holmes' process and had the agency to conduct investigations solely by herself, without depending on the police or Holmes himself.
Freeman: He Represented The Common Man
Freeman's Watson was more of a loyal ally and friend than an active partner is Holmes' investigations. He took an interest in the cases out of curiosity and thrill but did not possess the same set of deductive skills.
However, the fact that even after years John was still often overwhelmed by Holmes' methods, brought the character closer to the ordinary viewer. Sherlock Holmes and his extraordinary methods of deduction are meant to flabbergast the man on the street, and, with this Watson acting as the medium, a connection between the common man and the great detective.
Liu: Her Watson Was More Daring
Joan Watson, being a detective herself, was quite as daring as Sherlock himself during the course of investigations.
Watson would get involved with dangerous criminals and knowingly put herself at risk. Even when she got abducted by the French mercenary group Le Mileu in the episode "Paint It Black," she kept her head and managed to stay on top of her game. She was able to take care of herself as a result of the training she had received from Holmes and did not always need saving by the menfolk.
Freeman: John Was Closer To The Canon
Conan Doyle's Watson kept a low profile, but he was loyal to Holmes and was probably his only true friend in the world.
In Sherlock, Watson was loyal to a fault and would go to any extent to help Holmes, both personally and while investigating cases. He kept Holmes grounded, accepted his jibes, acted as his conscience, and was also his sole immediate connection to the real, commonplace world around him.
Liu: Joan Was An Equal Partner
Despite assigning her characters agency, the showrunners of Elementary might have relegated Joan to the background to better dramatize Holmes' skills. However, fortunately, they chose to create a character who was not an assistant to Holmes, but his partner, someone who was, at every step, his equal.
Joan conducted investigations of her own with aplomb and was also involved in any subterfuge, unlike in Sherlock, where Watson was left in the dark by Holmes during his disappearance and presumed death after the season two finale. In Elementary, Watson was very much aware of the truth, having herself helped him fake his death in the first place.
Freeman: John Was Naturally Witty
One of the primary features of the BBC drama was its razor-sharp humor. The superbly written script and dialogues contributed heavily towards that.
John played a crucial role in channeling the humor that made the show so popular, as much of the wit arose from his remarks regarding Sherlock's deductions, his constant exasperation with his difficult flatmate, and his ultimate resignation. Freeman did a beautiful job of conveying the natural wit that was part and parcel of his and Holmes' relationship.
Liu: Watson Never Became A Romantic Trope
It would have been easy to fall into a trope and make Joan Watson romantically involved with Miller's Holmes. However, the series steers clear of the romantic trope, keeping the relationship between the detectives fresh.
Liu's Watson does not get fitted into the stereotype, becoming a doe-eyed damsel in love. Although she clearly loves Holmes and vice versa, there is no sexual or physical attraction involved until the very end.
Freeman: John Watson Epitomized Male Bonding
Watson's character allowed the viewer the fluidity to reimagine the relationship between Holmes and Watson in myriad ways.
In Sherlock, Holmes' sexuality was kept ambiguous. He was never shown to be in a concrete relationship with anybody, and his equation with Irene Adler was never clearly addressed. This allows for interpretations and reinterpretations of the relationship between him and Watson, despite the latter being married. John Watson epitomized the best mate a man could get, his and Sherlock's bond becoming an embodiment of male bonding for popular modern television.
Liu: Joan Embodied Empowerment In Every Sense
The series Elementary had a lot going for it as far as diversity was concerned. Not only did it cast strong female actors in pivotal roles, but also had ethnically and racially diverse actors in important roles.
Joan Watson was not only a woman, but one who was of Asian American descent. Although a far cry from the canon, her character embodied in every way the gaping holes in Conan Doyle's original work that had a significant lack of interesting female characters.
Freeman: John Was A Hero In His Own Right
Even though Freeman's Watson wasn't quite an expert at detection like Liu's, he was never shown to be a sidekick per se. Watson was shown to be in his element as his medic, as depicted in the episode "The Sign Of Three" in which Watson took complete charge of the situation when a grenadier nearly died in the shower, issuing orders to Sherlock himself who was, in fact, entirely at a loss.
John's confidence in his own area of expertise made him a truly deserving ally of the famed sleuth. He also had his own heroic moments—he was, after all, ex-military—and even breached the law to save Sherlock's life in the very first episode of the series.