Yes, I remember someone saying that Elementary is more of a police procedural that happens to have Holmes and Watson in it... I did watch it for a few weeks, but then skipped one and found I didn't miss it, as I had a lot on at the time, so I never got back into it. But various friends tell me it's much better than Sherlock because the characters and relationships are more subtle, and it's more moral, and so on, whereas I'm with Sherlock for the sheer fun of the ride - I always think of that moment in the first episode, which is still the best, where John is riding with Sherlock in a taxi for the first time and being blinded by Sherlock's deductions, and he turns away and laughs because he's probably a bit embarrassed that he's having so much fun.

It must be difficult to keep away from formulae in a format demanding so many episodes, but they may manage it; I remember that House initially seemed to follow a very rigid formula (down to House always getting the final insight that enabled him to crack the case from something that happened in the clinic thing Cuddy made him do), but eventually it built a world where it could break away from the formula and do its own unexpected thing.