TV’s latest medical drama (we are awash this year!) is Watson, an intriguing idea, on paper at least, that blends the character of Sherlock Holmes’ right hand man, Dr. John Watson, with a collection of weekly medical mysteries that only someone with the good doctor’s keen eye and sharp intellect can solve.
The show is from Craig Sweeney, and stars Morris Chestnut (Rosewood, The Resident) in the starring role.
It’s the kind of audacious genre-blend of an idea that might just work as long as all the pieces fall precisely into place against a strongly distinct backdrop. BBC’s modern-day take, Sherlock, springs to mind, as does CBS’ Elementary, which was also from Craig Sweeney.
The problem is Watson is neither sufficiently coherent in tone, nor unique in execution, to carry the weight of its own premise.
The show opens some months following the death of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes. We don’t get to actually meet Holmes, but an opening flashback shows us his final moments — struggling on the edge of the Reichenbach Falls with his arch nemesis James Moriarty, before plunging to his death in the watery depths below. Watson (Morris Chestnut) attempts to save his friend, but loses him anyway, gaining a traumatic brain injury in the process that hampers his medical cases going forward and takes chunks of his memory with it.

To boot, we learn from Holmes’ former aide, Shinwell (Ritchie Coster), that Moriarty survived the fall, and is out there somewhere probably plotting something dastardly.
On the up side, Holmes was minted, and has left John a sizeable sum of money in his will, with the intention his former partner in crime-solving should return to medicine in the event of his death.
John has done just that, kitting himself out in the best lab slash quaint Oxford university-style library that Holmes’ money can buy. Watson has also hired a team of enthusiastic and brilliant young doctors who are there to jump up from their lab stools and shout things as Watson strides purposefully by, like “We’re seriously going to need a new centrifuge if you want us to log this many genomes!”
“It’s the best lab in the country!” Watson reminds Dr. Lubbock (Inga Schlingmann) and the audience, breezily. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” (As logging genomes requires a database and not a centrifuge, we sure hope she figures it out too.)

Watson’s crew also includes Doctors Stephens (with an extra ‘S’ on the end) Croft and Dr. Adam Croft, twin chalk-and-cheese brothers, who are both played by Peter Mark Kandall. Then there’s Dr. Ingrid (Eve Harlow) who has her eye on Watson’s gradually worsening brain condition and isn’t afraid to call him out on it. Even Watson’s ex-wife Mary (Rochelle Aytes), also a doctor, puts in an appearance. Mary’s job is recommend cases of the week that no one else can solve, and to remind John that he let a good thing slip away.
We soon learn that Watson has chosen this specific team, not only for their brilliance, but also as scientific and social experiments in their own right. (Umm…. ok?)
When not helping to solve medical mysteries, the twins provide Watson with ongoing ‘nature or nurture’ study opportunities. Lubbock, born in a poor village in China, was adopted into a wealthy Texan family and Watson wants to “see how that turns out.” (Honestly we’re not sure what the show is trying to say with this one?), and team leader Ingrid has an anti-social personality disorder that she is struggling to hide. Watson tells her that by sticking around she can help him better understand people like Moriarty.

With the team introduced, Watson takes on his first case of the week, a pregnant woman suffering from hallucinations and insomnia. The patient’s symptoms indicate a fatal disease, yet her genetic profile suggests otherwise. The game is afoot!
However, as the team gets to work and Mary hovers, tut-tutting at Watson’s unorthodox methods, and reminding him that they are never ever getting back together, the show begins to veer from its lane, at turns morphing into a heart warming medical drama (See FOX’s Doc), then a brash Dr. House-style medical investigation, then towards the end, an out-and-out thriller, as Moriarty reappears, played with an inexplicable casting choice here by Randall Park (Fresh Off the Boat, Wandavision), and forcing Shinwell to hand over some biological “samples” that can only spell trouble in future episodes.
Ultimately, Watson feels like a promising premise bogged down by uneven execution. The show’s attempts to juggle medical drama, psychological thriller, and character-driven mystery result in a tonal mishmash that struggles to land any one element convincingly, despite Morris Chestnut’s presence and strong on screen charisma.
Despite flashes of intrigue, the opening case lacks the intellectual spark one might expect from Watson’s legacy, and the supporting characters, while diverse, feel underdeveloped and gimmicky.
Without a stronger identity or sharper storytelling, Watson risks becoming just another forgettable entry in an already overcrowded genre landscape—hardly the legacy Sherlock Holmes would have envisioned for his once-brilliant partner.
Watson airs Sundays (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS.