‘Elementary’ season 5 wishlist: A debate over Natalie Dormer’s Moriarty

Typically wish these show wishlists we go into a variety of different subjects, but when it comes to “Elementary,” we’re going to shake things up in looking ahead to season 5. After all, we know the show is really great at what it does, and with that there’s really only one question we have moving into the new season: What are we going to do with Moriarty?

During the season 4 finale, the show did a really good job of looping in her organization; that way, they could talk about the character without actually showing her. Natalie Dormer has not appeared onscreen in the role in two years, and we’re starting to get ready to proclaim that the “Game of Thrones” actress being cast in the role was a mistake. Is Dormer tremendous? Absolutely, and maybe that’s part of the problem. The show cast a major up-and-coming star in arguably its most important recurring role. When she’s not playing Margaery, she’s doing other movies. We know they want to have her back, but they haven’t been able to make it work.

With that, what should the show do? There’s a case to be made for recasting the role, and either saying nothing about it or maybe claiming that she escaped and underwent surgery to mask her identity to keep operating in the shadows. We certainly think that there’s a way that the show can make things work there story-wise. If they were able to come up with the idea for the final episodes of season 4, we feel convinced that they could find a way to make the story work in season 5 with a new actor in the role.

If Rob Doherty and the producers have a plan to get Dormer back for several season 5 episodes (we know they want to), then negate what we just said. The issue here is that without this character, much of the damage has been done to the show from the perspective of Holmes fans. Yes, there are other notable Sherlock adversaries, and given that this show has a procedural format you can only use her so much anyway. Even still, this to us is a show that should be having her turn up several episodes a season since she holds such a place in this Sherlock’s heart. Jonny Lee Miller is never better than working in this story, and we’ve been deprived of that for too long.

If the hope is to get people talking about “Elementary” once more, they have to find a way to resolve this issue.

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