Sweet Dreams, Sleepy Hollow S1e3

Sweet Dreams:

So originally I was going to treat this blog as a place for recaps, but more and more, friends and other bloggers have encouraged me to take a more subjective approach to my blogs as most people that are coming across them will have likely seen the episode I’m reviewing, so in a step further in that direction, here’s my (late) review of last week’s Sleepy Hollow (review of ep 4 to be up tomorrow).

Sleepy Hollow: S1e3 The Triumph of Evil

So this episode further cemented the monster-of-the-week format that several fans were expecting, and while in my last blog I wrote about the fact that I think they tried to offer too much exposition regarding the overall direction of the show (see blogs on episode 1 and episode 2) but I always give a show some latitude when it’s getting it’s start and so did FOX apparently as they already greenlit a second season.

My gut reaction to this past week’s episode is I appreciate how they balanced political correctness, history, and humor when it came to the native American aspect, much in the same way that I think they handled the fact that Ichabod was understandably surprised by black (am I allowed to say black on my own blog?) woman in a position of authority.  Anyway the point being, Ichabod’s experience as a man out of time is still tons of fun, even if it feels like his presence at this point is to be a walking encyclopedia.

What I felt like wasn’t handled well though was the skin shown… now don’t get me wrong I’m not squeamish about violence or nudity, if it serves a purpose in a show, however I feel like Sleepy Hollow was just going for the “flesh factor” when Ichabod and Abbie had to be stung by the scorpions to be able to control what occurred as they were dreaming, ( I know most people are just complaining that scorpion venom can’t help someone control their dreams, and it’s illogical and all… but it’s a supernatural show, I can suspend disbelief for scorpion venom= dream control) anyway, the point it, showing the skin was pointless, they could have just rolled up their shirts and still been stung on the belly button.

I also appreciated the scare factor of the monster, The Sandman, and how they presented him/it, and the concept of guilt and how the theme of the episode pushed forward the need for action, and transparency from the characters, but again it makes me wonder, are they doing too much too soon? At first I thought so, and I might have liked it if the sandman stuck around for a couple of episodes, maybe that makes me seem a bit merciless in regards to minor characters dying (thought the direction towards death could be something that was intensified over time), but that sandy eye thing, was pretty creepy,I definitely jumped when it happened (and I LOVE that the show brings the *jump* factor… in ways that American Horror Story sadly did not last season). But hey if they can keep coming up with new takes on creepy monsters then hey bring them on!

I guess my main complaint is things seem too easy for Abbie and Ichabod to keep solving things, I kept thinking back to other shows with a Supernatural element… like Supernatural, and Buffy before it. But then I remembered Buffy always had Giles, and what Giles didn’t know Willow could research, and she’d get help from Spike too as needed. And when we look at Sam and Dean (who if they watched this show would probably get in the impala, and handle everything in Sleepy Hollow… without turning it into a crater… the way Sunnydale ended up) they always had their father’s journal to refer to for anything they weren’t already experienced in, and later would go to, if not travel with Bobby.

I think again I ponder the balance that they’re trying to strike between the story arc and the weekly episodes, maybe I’m expecting too much. And as I’ve said in the previous two posts, just watching Ichabod adapt (to even red bull) is entertaining, and it will keep me watching the show, but will that wear thin after a while? I mean he can only be astonished by various foods, and confused by buttons for so long, especially because he’s written as an intelligent character (his dialogue alone is still a big reason while I’m watching).

The story arc I am primarily interested in though is between Abbie and her sister, because while a show can certainly begin with a concept in mind, if it doesn’t have quality characters and somewhere to take them developmentally then you don’t really have a quality show. And to that end it also makes me wonder what others are looking for this show, considering Den of Geek’s reviewer that posted the review for ep 3 referred to the episode as filler, which I actually disagree with. I think the only filler in this ep was spending any times on Abbie’s ex and the pranks he pulls.

You see Abbie’s sister, isn’t just on the run, which will definitely create conflict and a short story arc, she’s a true believer like Ichabod with no reservations, and while that can produce quality conflict between her and Abbie, in 3 episodes we’ve already gotten Abbie to believe in herself and begin (through that belief) trusting her now missing sister, so when she finds her there will be little conflict left, unless Abbie backtracks again, which would just feel like a poor direction to take the character in. Granted they will have their trust issues based on what we learned this episode, but it was character development and information worth learning.

Now by the end of the episode, by having Captain Irving more on board and by making Crane and Mills a more official team, it did two things, one it eliminated the story arc going in most directions for Mills and Crane to keep what they investigate and the way they investigate things as secretive, and two, it also opened things up perhaps (if you know they save the world) to begin moving out of Sleepy Hollow as time goes on. Fringe ended up not staying in the same region… heck it didn’t even stay in the same universe.

So I look forward to seeing this show develop as it can, I just hope the writers don’t write themselves into a box by running through monsters too quickly and too easily before the apocalypse has to be fought and is over with.

Thanks for reading, on to ep 4! 🙂

Sleepy Hollow, “Some Latitude” S1e2

Hi Readers,

So this past week we got the second episode of the new show Sleepy Hollow, and in an effort to offer more of a review than a recap, you’ll get a bit more of my opinion than a simple retelling. So, on to the episode!

We open with Crane running in the woods from all four horsemen, now I like that the horsemen will be different, and each one being unique, but in general I feel like this show is going too big too soon, and I’ll address that further, by the end of the review. Any way Crane is dreaming, and just before the horsemen can get him he’s pulled into an underground tunnel, where Katrina is waiting with some vital information about how before the horsemen there will be an “army of evil [that] will make way for them”. Now I actually like the concept of this dream reality, and since the next episode will, based on the monster-of-the-week, likely center on it, I’m happy to explore it, but I feel like Katrina will become too convenient over time.

Mills is having a rough morning, as two officers who had corroborated her story last week recanted, and there’s the issue now of how exactly Dunn snapped his neck. Footage of the cell he was in shows him getting up, and running head first at the mirror… which I’m pretty sure would only cause a concussion, and maybe require a trip or two to the chiropractor… but this is a show where supernatural events take place, and I honestly expected them to look at the recording of the CCTV and just see it go all fuzzy, and being unable to prove what exactly happened to Dunn. Captain Irving will be leaving for a bit, so he’ll be giving Mills “some latitude”, but warns her not to “embarrass” him (that’s a bit how I felt about the show at the end of this episode, but I’m getting ahead of myself).

During this conversation , they addressed Ichabod and the fact that while Irving certainly believes that Ichabod fully believes that he’s a man out of time, that he couldn’t be, because that would be crazy. All of this was inter-spaced with scenes of Ichabod following the instructions on labels for various things in the hotel room he’s being kept in. I love watching him learn new things, it adds humor to the show, and supports it’s premise, that Ichabod, while being very intelligent, and having a unique source of information, is finding himself in a world he doesn’t understand, in a way complimentary to Mills. Speaking of Mills, when she goes to pick up Ichabod, it’s like they’re back at square one. While I understand her doubts, Ichabod is frustrated at her backtracking when he tries to explain his dream, and she just doesn’t buy it. What she did buy though, was a a bag of doughnut holes for Ichabod, something he initially refuses, and then is astounded by how delicious they are. I enjoyed that in this scene. What I didn’t like about this scene though (and apologies for this tangent) is how Crane and Mills seemed like they may become this generation’s Mulder and Scully, in that Crane like Mulder went into everything already accepting things Scully considered impossible. Here’s where the Scully and Mulder comparison starts to breakdown though. In X-Files, which was mostly a case-of-the-week show, it made sense that even if on some episodes Scully would give in to Mulder’s theories, each week brought something new for them to debate. However when it came to certain story arcs, while Scully was always a true skeptic,  at a certain point, she’d go along with what was happening, and she wouldn’t backtrack unless there was some new evidence to support her skepticism. With Mills, there’s nothing to support this new skepticism, because even though Sleepy Hollow is going with this monster-of-the-week format, like Buffy and Supernatural have before it, they’re already establishing a serialized story arc.

Which brings us to the next scene with them in the car and Mills is skeptical of not only Katrina having been a witch, but that she was able to hide it from Ichabod. What Mills believes even less, is that in addition to trying to save her own life by keeping her witchcraft secret, but that Katrina (according to Ichabod’s assumptions) was also doing it because she was helping to protect Sleepy Hollow, and again the fate of the world. Now  it reminds me of this interview with Damon Lindelof, Lindelof (whether you love him or hate him) points out that these days saving a town, or even the state of California, isn’t enough anymore. And while he was talking about films, I think the same thing applies to TV. You see in Buffy, for the longest time, she was just protecting Sunnydale and its residents, and in Supernatural, there were hints at a bigger picture, but mostly until about season 4, it was just Sam and Dean going on “hunting trips”. Saving the world came later, not first, and so I’ll say again, I think Sleepy Hollow is getting too deep with the mythology too quickly, because after they save the world… what’s next?

Anyway, back to the episode. The demon isn’t done with Dunn, and revives him in the morgue and gives him instructions, and causes him to choke up a pendant of some sort.  Now I’m fine with Dunn sticking around, and I could even argue that the demon only killed him to keep him out of suspicion as he did the dirty work, but two things about Dunn felt a tad ridiculous. And one was this awful scene with Dunn’s snapped neck… it was just poorly done, I don’t even know why they over did it.  I also dislike the fact that (just like in season 8 of Dexter) NO ONE seems to notice that Dunn took a police car.  What, do cops no longer keep tabs on their vehicles?!?!?!

What I did  like about this episode though was the scare factor.  The “monster” this week was a witch who’s revitalization from a walking charred corpse hinged on the consumption of the ashes of the ancestors of those who burned her at the stake.

There were definitely a couple of times that I jumped in these scenes with the charred witch, and I love that about semi-scary shows like this.

But the fact that when she was whole again she magically had a skimpy corset and skirt felt silly.  I get that this is FOX, not HBO, and she has to have clothes on, but then the skeleton that Dunn dug up for her, should have had clothes with it or something. Also, in these tunnels under the police station, I think they’re great, and I’m fine if they were boarded up and undiscovered, but that concept is lost when said “secret” tunnels have metal walkways and railings. Finally, when they blow up the gun powder down there,  (that again would have been discovered if the tunnels were maintained)destroying the witch, you really think that no one at the police station heard that? Who am I kidding, the cops don’t notice missing cars, so I guess they won’t notice an explosion below their building.

I do think that getting more personal information on Mills was nice, regarding her relationship with Corbin. And I like that out of that relationship, we get him as her “guide” if you will. I didn’t really care for her dating history in the episode, but what I also like is the chance to see her sister, who we’ll likely see more and more of. The fact that her sister fully trusts her senses, even though it keeps her in a mental asylum, I think will bring an interesting balance to the show.

 

So overall I’m still very much into the show. I’m really enjoying Crane adapting to this new life, and it balances the fun with the fright! It, like most shows with a supernatural element requires a suspension of disbelief, and I can give it that, but certain plot holes like Dunn stealing the car, the maintained tunnels, and the witches clothes do take me out of it.  So it’ll get “some latitude”, I just hope it doesn’t embarrass me in the long run.

Thanks for reading, feel free to leave comments below.

Along for the Ride! Sleepy Hollow!

Hi Readers,

So as I mentioned in my blog about pilots I saw at SDCC, Sleepy Hollow was one that I was VERY much looking forward to. Now that it’s out and I’ve watched it again, I’ve a few thoughts to put down, spoiler warning, from here on out!

The episode opens in Hudson Valley, New York, in 1781. It’s the Revolutionary War and we meet Ichabod Crane (played by Tom Mison), who in this reimagining of the classic tale, is not some timid school teacher.  He’s a soldier, a medic, can take a slice to the chest, and still have enough adrenaline left to behead his attacker! His attacker… who is of course the Headless Horseman!

Next we see him emerging from a grave in a cave, amongst some creepy looking jars. Now,don’t get me wrong the show is called Sleepy Hollow, it automatically gets an automatic suspension of disbelief, but as he gets out of the cave it’s by stumbling and putting his hand on a rock that *conveniently* triggered an opening…  (emphasis on “conveniently”).

Anyway, he gets out and wanders through the woods for a bit, until he finds himself walking on a road, and nearly gets run over, twice, seeing a person emerge from a car, he’s immediately and realistically confused and scared.

Next we get to meet out other main character, Abbie Mills (played by Nicole Beharie), sitting and having pie with her superior officer, Corbin as he mentions all the unsolved cases (something he says she should know about) in the area, and laments that she’ll be leaving soon to go to Quantico.

Yeah… I wouldn’t let small children watch this show

They head out on a call (related to some spooked horses, which illuminates why Mills is moving on to bigger and brighter things) they get there and things get messy. The horses are spooked due to, you guessed it, the headless horseman, not only did he behead the farmer, but he’s in the barn that Corbin goes to investigate, and ends up beheaded, which Abbie is there to see.

She calls it in, and one of the officers on his way stops when Crane runs out into the street and (for what feels like no reason whatsoever) arrests him, when Abbie is asked to identify him, she says Crane isn’t the guy because the guy “was wearing a military uniform like a red coat” and Crane interjects asking if the man carried a “broadaxe”, and mentions a couple other identifying features, prompting Mills to ask when was the last time he saw him, with Crane replying “When I cut off his head”

Ichabod is not amused.
Screenshot (and others below) from http://www.kissthemgoodbye.net

After the commercial we get a tense yet delightful scene of Ichabod getting a polygraph test. He passes with flying colors, and it’s quite amusing as he describes how he came to be serving under General Washington, and fighting the (now headless) horseman, and being treated by his wife, before dying. He’s told at the end, when he demands to know where he is, with the detective telling him “The question isn’t where you are, but when. The good news is you won the war, the bad news is it was 250 years ago, Welcome to the 21st Century Mr. Crane”, as he slides a one dollar bill across the table.

The plan is to send him to a psyche unit, but Mills wants to interrogate him, which Captain Frank Irving, (played by Orlando Jones) won’t allow, but he will allow her to transport him to the psyche ward.

This, understandably is her face when he mentions that she must have been emancipated.

We then get a lovely exchange between Mills and Crane regarding the fact that she’s a lieutenant and a female, and black, which though he finds surprising, he mentions that he’d been an abolitionist, she agrees to play along.

He has a special kind of snarkiness that makes what could have been awkward or somewhat flat dialogue, considering much of it is exposition, really enjoyable. Like when he’s told that he’s being transported to a psyche ward and he replies “This day continues to bear gifts”. We also watch the car ride where he’s amazed by powered windows, and seems a bit overwhelmed by the number of Starbucks locations. (Now I’ll digress for a sentence, but so far, even as I look forward to The Winter Soldier in 2014, I think Ichabod Crane may be my new favorite man out of time, over Steve Rogers). Even though he questions when it became “acceptable for women to wear trousers”.

Mills disobeying orders, asks Crane if he could show her the cave he says he came from, and he obliges, there finding among other things, a bible with a passage in Revelations marked “and there before me was a white horse… and his name was death” (Now this is Rev 6:2-8, the white horse, the bow and death are mentioned, but they skip a couple of bits… but hey the devil is in the details, right?). Ichabod is already certain that *the* horseman, must be one of the *four* horseman of the apocalypse, which Abbie doesn’t believe but the show wastes no time in confirming the “religious/prophetic” (which I say with quotes since they’re taking poetic license) storyline, as next we see the horseman kill the local priest, who won’t give up where something is hidden.

When Mills goes to investigate (with Crane still in tow), Captain Irving reprimands her for disobeying orders, and won’t accept that Crane may have answers they need, with one of Abbie’s fellow officers, Andy Dunn  (played by John Cho) telling her to just drop it.

This was my favorite, of many great lines Mison delivered!

Crane who did not stay in the car followed a hawk to a specific grave.  When Abbie catches up to him, frustrated that he did not stay, he reminds her that he’s regarded as “‘insane’ and therefore impervious to simple commands” (LOVE the dialogue in this show, Mison delievers these lines with just the right amount of sarcasm).

The grave though was Katrina’s (Crane’s wife), who was apparently burned for being a witch.

Crane at this point cannot understand why Mills won’t accept what’s going on, and she mentions that she can’t believe it and even if she did she’d be “alone again trying to explain something she didn’t understand”. Crane picks up on the “alone” and questions it, but Mills won’t give anything up, even though he tells her that she’s “been doubting her own perceptions from some time”

Ummm even his temporary jail cell was a step up from that cave… just saying

When they get to the asylum Crane regards it as “a measurable step up from the cave”. There he and Mills connect, and she opens up, saying that when she was younger she was walking home in the woods with her sister and blacked out after seeing four white trees that hadn’t been there, and a voice and a person or a “thing”. And everyone thought they were crazy, and after a while her sister believed it, (which Crane refers to as “battling demons”) and had spent her life “in and out of places like this”, and that she can relate to Crane because everyone thinks he’s crazy.

Now, here’s the best screenshot I could find, from the very creepy scene we got as Mills told her story:

The creepiness isn’t so much in what we see, but what we think we *almost* see. Now this blog is not the place for theological arguments, or demonology, but since the show addresses demonic activity… a lot, I think it’s worth stating that if you can definitively know if something is real or not, it makes it less scary in a way, but if you’re not sure, and therefore cannot trust yourself (as Abbie cannot), then it adds a degree of fear, and I have known people like Abbie, who have dealt with this sort of thing. What this show at least does is acknowledge, even on a fictional level, that if demons/witchcraft etc. exist, then people should have human, and relateable reactions to them, and I think they’ve done a great job of showing that with Abbie.

Ok…. back into the recap, where was I???

Ah, so, the next morning Abbie’s in Corbin’s office, because she found a key of his that didn’t fit anywhere, until he finds that it fits in a filing cabinet, which has a tape recorder, and files on occultism, witch covens (specifically two, representing good and evil) and tons of unsolved cases, which she suspects to all be connected. One of these cases is of Abbie and her sister, that they saw a demonic figure and four white trees, which a local farmer had also seen before, and supposedly those trees are tied to the four horseman, being raised. Corbin had (as per the tape recorder) wanted to tell Abbie, but had never felt that he knew who to trust, and felt like he was getting close.

Captain Irving catches Abbie, just as she’s putting everything up, and reminds her to go home, and let everyone else there do their jobs. My theory at this point is simply that he *may* be involved in a coven, but I’m thinking he’s on the good side.

When Crane wakes up int he asylum… or rather “dreams up” the bird is there, and Katrina is there, in the mirror, speaking to him, she’s apparently been trying to reach him (through the bird), she tells him that her grave is not where she’s buried but is rather the location of the horseman’s head.  She apparently has been a part of a secret order protecting Sleepy Hollow, and that when Crane died, because of where he fell his blood mixed with the horseman’s, so that’s why he was raised when the horseman was. By now Crane is also in the woods with her (because it’s a dream), as she starts giving vital information. Such as: “Three more will follow and then it will begin [and] light is his weakness… the answers are in Washington’s bible… [he is] the first witness” all of this is cut short though as she tries to give him information, because by now she’s shouting at him to “WAKE UP!”, and something demonic is rising from the brush.He abruptly awakes to orderlies trying to strap him down, but Abbie arrives just in time to get him out.

Though she kind of bent… well broke all the rules doing it… But that’s ok, because everything gets really action packed from here!

As the sun goes down we see the horseman rise from the river (which I assume will be important, since he could have just hidden in a cave…). Abbie and Ichabod are on the way to the church to get the head from Katrina’s grave.  Abbie calls Dunn to have him send support to the church… but Dunn makes a stop along the way… at his apartment, where his gun safe has been opened, and the horseman is there waiting for him.  Dunn tells the horseman (wondering at this point how he hears anything… but not really caring) where to find his head.

So, when Abbie and Ichabod get to the church, so do the Horseman and Dunn.  While Ichabod is trying to avoid getting killed, Abbie asks Dunn where backup is.  Dunn tells her he doesn’t know, knocks her out while she isn’t looking, and as he tries to get her in the back seat of his squad car, she bites him (quite effectively to get away). Finally, Ichabod gets the head, and  backup arrives. The officers who arrived try shooting at the horseman to no avail, and just as they are about to be his next victims, the sun begins to come up, and the horseman rides off into the sunrise.

That morning back at the station, given Dunn’s actions, the head, and the fact that 2 other officers corroborated the fact that they saw a man with NO head, Captain Irving is much more prepared to let Abbie take the lead on the investigation into Corbin’s death, and is much more willing to have Ichabod (who he refers to as “Captain America”… a reference he doesn’t get), help. This is good considering two things, the first is that Katrina had told Ichabod that he was the first witness (and Revelation speaks of 2… though again they’re taking TONS of poetic license), and Ichabod believes the second is Mills.  The second good thing is  Dunn is willing to confess, but only to them.

What’s not so good is just before Mills and Crane get to Dunn’s cell the demon gets there first… and let’s just say that he wasn’t pleased with Dunn’s performance. Crane and Mills get into the cell and see Dunn, just as the demon is walking away, into the woods through the mirror.

As they watch it leave we get one of the creepiest moments of the show, that definitely brings the “JUMP” factor… I remember people screaming during the pilot at SDCC! But I won’t spoil it here, you’ll have to see it for yourself, if you haven’t yet.

 

So there you go, the pilot of Sleepy Hollow, it was SO MUCH FUN! I cannot wait until next Monday.  Also and maybe this is premature, but since Star Trek had “trekkies” and Fringe had “Observers” as their fanbases… I’m pretty certain Sleepy Hollow fans may adopt the nickname “Witnesses”… but it’s just a theory.

As always feel free to comment below, and thanks for reading!