Elementary season 5: On Nelsan Ellis’ exit, season 6 chances
When Ellis first debuted as new series regular Shinwell earlier this season, we drew the parallel between him and Morland Holmes, an excellent season-long character who would come in and shake up the foundation of the show. The surprise this time around is seeing how Shinwell exited the show — with him being brutally killed off. With his background in prison and his history with Joan, our hope was that he would be a redemptive story rather than one steeped in tragedy; yet, that wasn’t the case. Shinwell died trying to destroy the SBK from within, and judging from what executive producer Rob Doherty tells TVLine, it seems likely that someone within the gang determined that he was a double-agent at some point before killing him off:
“Shinwell was, in fact, killed by a member of SBK. It’s someone we’ve seen before during the season. We will identify the individual who killed Shinwell in the second-to-last episode. But that’s not really enough. SBK is, ultimately, the sum of its parts. Finding the person who killed Shinwell is really just taking away one small part of a much larger group. Shinwell has always had his sights on the real shot-callers in the group, and so must Sherlock and Joan when they [set out to] complete his mission in the finale… Actually bringing down the group is a much trickier proposition [than just arresting Shinwell’s killer].”
Can we take a second now to acknowledge that Ellis is one of the best TV actors working at this point? First, you had True Blood; now, you have this.
Your season 5 ratings report
Last night’s new episode drew a 0.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which was up a good 20% from the prior week in such a measure. It wasn’t too far behind Shades of Blue in terms of overall performance on the night.
Is this going to be enough to save the show? Elementary remains firmly on the bubble, and we don’t think that CBS is all that happy with the live ratings that it’s receiving. Yet, they’re also wise enough to know that this show is about much more than live+same day ratings. It’s popular overseas, and it performs well in syndication. Given that they own the show, there is still a chance for a future here.
What’s next
If you haven’t seen a preview for the next new episode of Elementary just yet, you can do so by heading over to the link here right now. (Photo: CBS.)