The Age of Discovery

TL;DR version: If you're not already watching Elementary on CBS, you should probably start. Because feminism. Also, stuff about Star Trek: Into Darkness.

I've been wanting to write something about the display of women's bodies. Most recently, this has come up for me in media when we saw Star Trek: Into Darkness. As you know from the trailer, there is a cheesecake shot of Dr. Carol Marcus in her underwear, and you probably know that J.J. Abrams (director) and Damon Lindelof (writer) have taken some heat over it. (There's some great coverage of the issue -- no pun intended -- on The Mary Sue.) I also recently watched the season finale of Elementary, the CBS series about Sherlock Holmes. Up until then, I had preferred Sherlock, the BBC series. But Elementary is now the superior show, and I will try to tell you why without spoilers.

I will probably spoil Sherlock for you if you haven't already seen the 2012 episode, "A Scandal in Belgravia." I will try not to spoil Star Trek: Into Darkness. [ETA: Now, with a cut tag that actually works! Sticking to HTML mode editor from now on!]