The character Detective Bell is a brilliant policeman with deductive powers of his own. This is a nod to Dr. Joseph Bell, a Scottish physician and professor, acquaintance of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the real-life model for Sherlock Holmes.
In Joan's Chelsea apartment there is an artwork above her bed. This is a silkscreen done by Lucy Liu herself.
Throughout the show, Sherlock is shown to keep and study bees as a hobby. In the original short story "His Last Bow", Sherlock Holmes has retired to the Sussex Downs to keep bees.
Creator Robert Doherty said that one of his motivations for a female Dr. Watson was to show that men and women can "work and live together and not end up romantically entangled."
Before creating the show, Robert Doherty studied psychological assessments of Sherlock Holmes written by real doctors over the years.