Watson: Morris Chestnut Breaks Down CBS's New Medical Drama With a Sherlock Twist

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Watson Season 1 Episode 1, "Pilot." Read at your own risk!]

Over the course of his three-decade career, Morris Chestnut has developed a knack for playing high-achieving Black men. Since rising to fame as an ill-fated high-school running back in John Singleton's acclaimed 1991 coming-of-age film Boyz n the Hood, Chestnut has gone on to play doctors (Rosewood, Nurse Jackie, The Resident), lawyers (Reasonable Doubt, Goliath), star athletes (The Best Man franchise), FBI agents (The Enemy Within), and even a member of the elites at a Black enclave (Our Kind of People).

"I can't say I sought [those kinds of roles] out because, as actors, we want to work," Chestnut told TV Guide on a recent video call from New York City. "I have been offered roles that I didn't take for various reasons, but I've always loved these types of strong, intelligent characters that can be played by any color, any race — and just strong characters with integrity that are good role models. I've always been drawn to that, and I've just been very fortunate to be able to play a lot of them."

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Now, Chestnut gets to add another dynamic character to his résumé: Dr. John Watson, the confidant of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. But in Watson, the latest CBS procedural drama from Elementary executive producer Craig Sweeny, the gifted doctor takes center stage for the first time without being overshadowed by Holmes. In the early minutes of the pilot episode, Holmes supposedly dies after falling into a waterfall while investigating a case in Switzerland, much to the devastation of the closest friend he has ever had.

Chestnut admittedly didn't have much of a connection to past iterations of Sherlock Holmes prior to landing the coveted lead role. But after receiving an offer to play Watson in 2023, the actor recognized an invaluable opportunity to offer a new take on a dated formula.

"I knew that we had access to this iconic mythology, which is rich with stories and characters, but we can incorporate it into a modern-day storytelling with the show that is also taking on a challenge of combining genres," explained Chestnut. "We saw some of the cases inside the hospital, but we go outside the hospital to gather information as detectives. So we're doctors inside the hospital, we're detectives outside the hospital — we're doc-detectives. That was a unique twist to not just the mythology, but also to the traditional network television that I wanted to be a part of."

Given that Sweeny had worked on Elementary — which starred Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and reimagined Watson as a woman played by Lucy Liu — Chestnut said that, in addition to reading up and watching past versions of Holmes and Watson on his own time, he spoke at length with Sweeny about the mythology of the characters.

The creative team, which counts Chestnut as an executive producer, ultimately settled on a more contemporary approach to the character: Watson is a brilliant American geneticist who moved to London to help Holmes solve international mysteries, but his unwavering commitment to Holmes ultimately led to the end of his marriage to Mary Morstan (Rochelle Aytes), who has moved on in his absence with an unknown woman. Six months after Holmes' death, Watson, who is still feeling the effects of a traumatic brain injury, is the head of the Holmes Clinic in Pittsburgh, where he has assembled a brilliant team of younger doctors — Ingrid Derian (Eve Harlow), an aloof but highly skilled neurologist; Sasha Lubbock (Inga Schlingmann), a Chinese adoptee who was raised in Texas; and a pair of twin brothers named Stephens and Adam Croft (both played by Peter Mark Kendall) with vastly different personalities — to treat rare disorders. (Adding a little complication to Watson's workplace, Mary is the medical director of Watson's clinic.)

"[Watson] is actually based on a real-life geneticist who can look at people, and look at their genetics, their skin and their hair — every aspect of their person — and diagnose a genetic condition," Chestnut noted. "[The people around him] are experiments to him, but he does have a genuine interest in helping people and saving lives. He has great intentions, and that's who he is, at the root of the person that he was in the military.

"So he wants to help people and save lives, but then we have all of these other elements," Chestnut continued. "When the story opens up, he really has to rebuild his life. He made a very costly decision, going on that last trip with Sherlock, and now he's woken up with a medical condition, a broken home, and a loss of a friend. He has to rebuild all of that while he has suffered a traumatic brain injury, which, in and of itself, outside of people who may be betraying him, is a challenge in and of itself."

That betrayal only becomes more apparent at the end of the pilot. In the final scene, Shinwell Johnson (Ritchie Coster) — a former criminal turned fixer for Holmes and Watson who now serves as Watson's final connection to Holmes — is seen giving an equipment case filled with unknown samples to none other than James Moriarty (played by Randall Park).

"Watson is very curious as to why and the depth of the betrayal of Shinwell," Chestnut previewed of Watson's dynamic with "right-hand man" Shinwell. "What does it cost Watson, and how does it relate to his life? So all of those things will play a factor in what's happening with John Watson throughout the course of the episode and other characters. One thing about Craig is he's written some great, great characters who have their own stories to tell as well."

Chestnut credited Sweeney for his ingenious casting of Park as Moriarty because "Randall is the least likely person people would suspect to play this villainous character." (Shinwell himself says in the episode that he was expecting somebody… different.)

"I got kind of scared of Randall because Randall is such a great guy. But you'll see throughout some other episodes towards the end of the season, he has this crazy villainous twist and things that he does with this character," Chestnut recalled with a laugh. "They'll say, 'Cut!' And then we're talking about him running marathons and being this family guy. And then all of a sudden, it's 'Action!' and he's back to this villain. So he does a tremendous job with the character — and he's scary!"

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What can viewers expect, then, from the first time Watson and Moriarty intersect onscreen? "In the pilot, you see 'Always and Everywhere' [written] on Moriarty's shirt. Throughout the course of the season, we realize not just the nature, but we understand the depth of how true that statement is, how it's been affecting Watson and his team, and all of the characters on the show," Chestnut teased. "And that leads to a very interesting challenge for Watson in the end."

In Watson, Sweeny has chosen to reimagine one of the most iconic literary characters — who has almost exclusively been played by white actors for over a century — as a modern Black man. While he chose to sidestep a question about the significance of reinventing Watson as a non-white character, Chestnut acknowledged that the role continues his trend of wanting to shed light on the humanity of Black men who are still not often seen enough in positions of power and leadership. (Despite his leading role on Watson, Chestnut confirmed that he plans to "pop up here and there" as high-power defense attorney Corey Cash in the next season of Hulu's Reasonable Doubt, which is created by Raamla Mohamed and executive produced by Kerry Washington.)

"I do think in terms of the news sometimes and certain projections in the media, we're not always shown in the positive light, and we're not always shown in a helpful light," said Chestnut, who has built a vast body of work to become one of the most prominent Black actors of his generation. "I think in particular with the character of Watson, he's very smart, he's very intellectual, and he also wants to help people. I think that that image of itself is contrary to what, sometimes, the media or different types of media projects.

"I think there's always the adage of, 'The more things change, the more things stay the same.' People still mention to me some things about the movie Boyz n the Hood, [and how] some communities still go through the same [issues]," he added. "I think we just have to just keep trying, keep projecting unity, [and encourage] people to come together and not be divisive. That's the hope, that's the prayer, but we'll see what happens."

Watson will move to its regular time period, 9/8c on Sundays, on Feb. 16. Episodes will stream the next day on Paramount+.