![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Sleepy Hollow, Season 1
Jan. 23rd, 2014 08:24 amHaving had the chance to watch the finale now, some thoughts about this show's first season that aren't about Hessians. First of all, something nobody told me when advertising the show to me but which I spotted at once when reading the opening credits was that it was created by that enterprising duo, Orci & Kurtzman, whom I started to notice as scriptwriters for J.J. Abrams in Alias, who also contributed scripts to Lost and Fringe and who did, of course, write the scripts for both Star Trek Reboot outings at the cinema. With this in mind, it was easy to guess what the virtues and flaws of Sleepy Hollow might be.
It's highly entertaining, fast-paced, and stands by its crack. This is a show where a character can ask "Father of the Nation George Washington or Zombie George Washington?" and it's both a serious question and an intentional quip. The partnership that develops between its leads is lovely to watch, all the more so because the female partner isn't treated in anyway as subordinate to the male one by the narrative, and she has other important relationships in her life, notably the one with her sister. Both powerful friendships and messed up family reationships are what I expect from Orci & Kurtzman & their fellow Abrams-schooled scribes, and they delivered. Which is also why I'm totally on board with ( a finale spoiler. )
On the downside, while partnerships and messed up family relationships are usually their forte, romances rarely are. (Says she whose opinion on Sydney/Vaughn and Olivia/Peter went from toleration to dislike depending on the season.) Nothing to dislike so far on Sleepy Hollow, it's just that while the show keeps mentioning Morales is Abbie's ex, he's an incredibly bland character, there is no sense as to what might have drawn her to him in the first place or of any lingering emotional connection, and thus both his and Brooks' fixation on Abbie comes across as more Because Why Not than being believable or a valuable part of her backstory. And poor Katrina through the season is saddled with being the Exposition Witch, delivering warnings and backstory to Ichabod, helping to convert him to the Rebel's cause in the past and giving him someone to rescue in the present, but not as a character in her own righ. Mind you, this could change; it's nothing that's not fixable if you give her scenes that aren't about providing backstory to Ichabod or being a damsel, and I really DON'T want the show to kill off the character because that would smack of taking the easy way out (not to mention it would make me suspect we're headed for an Ichabod/Abbie romance, and I appreciate their platonic partnership - and am burned by Fringe, so badly burned, because I had originally liked Olivia's relationship with Peter Bishop before it turned romantic).
Much in the way of logic is also not something you want from an O & K plotted tale. I mean, never mind the operetta Germans, I may have missed something but I'm not clear as to why Moloch & Co. were ever invested in the victory of the Loyalists/the British Army. Not that I'm against the idea of the British Empire being supported and ruled by demons! (Though it's a tad unfair to Mr. Pitt and "Farmer" George III., about whom Byron memorably wrote I grant his household abstinence; I grant/His neutral virtues, which most monarchs want/I know he was a constant consort; own/He was a decent sire, and middling lord./All this is much, and most upon a throne;/As temperance, if at Apicius' board,/Is more than at an anchorite's supper shown./I grant him all the kindest can accord;/And this was well for him, but not for those/Millions who found him what Oppression chose..) I just think that any self respecting demon would soon realise the empire with a future to support is the American one. Also, when our heroes went through the requiste old books and came across a depiction of Moloch, it suspiciously resembled a William Blake painting, despite the book in question being supposedly medieval. (Though it wouldn't suprise me to learn William Blake was a time traveler. Would totally explain his claim to have chatted with the Prophet Ezekiel!) (Incidentally, wasn't Blake pro American and French Revolution?) As is most show's want when having a character from Olden Times (= any time predating the 20th century), Ichabod Crane manages to have magically escaped any bias of his time of origin. He was anti slavery and has no problem working with a woman; he was best buddies with the Indians and is shocked to learn of their post American Revolution fate. (Because clearly, all that land grabbing by settlers only started after the Brits were gone.) The only time the show addresses the fact that maybe not all of the American Revolution was about Truth And Justice For Everyone a bit is when Ichabod, Abbie and Frank Irving have that chat about Jefferson, which was all very well but Jefferson was hardly the only Founding Father or American Revolutionary who owned slaves. But hey - history is also not something one expects out of a O & K produced how. (I do hope for a Rambaldi tie-in one day, though. The red ball must turn up SOMEWHERE!)
In conclusion: charming and entertaining tv. I look forward to the next season and more partnership and convoluted family relationship goodness. I also expect that come s3 at the latest, fannish disgruntlement will start, but who knows? The pattern could always change. As Abbie pointed out to Ichabod, there is always another way.
It's highly entertaining, fast-paced, and stands by its crack. This is a show where a character can ask "Father of the Nation George Washington or Zombie George Washington?" and it's both a serious question and an intentional quip. The partnership that develops between its leads is lovely to watch, all the more so because the female partner isn't treated in anyway as subordinate to the male one by the narrative, and she has other important relationships in her life, notably the one with her sister. Both powerful friendships and messed up family reationships are what I expect from Orci & Kurtzman & their fellow Abrams-schooled scribes, and they delivered. Which is also why I'm totally on board with ( a finale spoiler. )
On the downside, while partnerships and messed up family relationships are usually their forte, romances rarely are. (Says she whose opinion on Sydney/Vaughn and Olivia/Peter went from toleration to dislike depending on the season.) Nothing to dislike so far on Sleepy Hollow, it's just that while the show keeps mentioning Morales is Abbie's ex, he's an incredibly bland character, there is no sense as to what might have drawn her to him in the first place or of any lingering emotional connection, and thus both his and Brooks' fixation on Abbie comes across as more Because Why Not than being believable or a valuable part of her backstory. And poor Katrina through the season is saddled with being the Exposition Witch, delivering warnings and backstory to Ichabod, helping to convert him to the Rebel's cause in the past and giving him someone to rescue in the present, but not as a character in her own righ. Mind you, this could change; it's nothing that's not fixable if you give her scenes that aren't about providing backstory to Ichabod or being a damsel, and I really DON'T want the show to kill off the character because that would smack of taking the easy way out (not to mention it would make me suspect we're headed for an Ichabod/Abbie romance, and I appreciate their platonic partnership - and am burned by Fringe, so badly burned, because I had originally liked Olivia's relationship with Peter Bishop before it turned romantic).
Much in the way of logic is also not something you want from an O & K plotted tale. I mean, never mind the operetta Germans, I may have missed something but I'm not clear as to why Moloch & Co. were ever invested in the victory of the Loyalists/the British Army. Not that I'm against the idea of the British Empire being supported and ruled by demons! (Though it's a tad unfair to Mr. Pitt and "Farmer" George III., about whom Byron memorably wrote I grant his household abstinence; I grant/His neutral virtues, which most monarchs want/I know he was a constant consort; own/He was a decent sire, and middling lord./All this is much, and most upon a throne;/As temperance, if at Apicius' board,/Is more than at an anchorite's supper shown./I grant him all the kindest can accord;/And this was well for him, but not for those/Millions who found him what Oppression chose..) I just think that any self respecting demon would soon realise the empire with a future to support is the American one. Also, when our heroes went through the requiste old books and came across a depiction of Moloch, it suspiciously resembled a William Blake painting, despite the book in question being supposedly medieval. (Though it wouldn't suprise me to learn William Blake was a time traveler. Would totally explain his claim to have chatted with the Prophet Ezekiel!) (Incidentally, wasn't Blake pro American and French Revolution?) As is most show's want when having a character from Olden Times (= any time predating the 20th century), Ichabod Crane manages to have magically escaped any bias of his time of origin. He was anti slavery and has no problem working with a woman; he was best buddies with the Indians and is shocked to learn of their post American Revolution fate. (Because clearly, all that land grabbing by settlers only started after the Brits were gone.) The only time the show addresses the fact that maybe not all of the American Revolution was about Truth And Justice For Everyone a bit is when Ichabod, Abbie and Frank Irving have that chat about Jefferson, which was all very well but Jefferson was hardly the only Founding Father or American Revolutionary who owned slaves. But hey - history is also not something one expects out of a O & K produced how. (I do hope for a Rambaldi tie-in one day, though. The red ball must turn up SOMEWHERE!)
In conclusion: charming and entertaining tv. I look forward to the next season and more partnership and convoluted family relationship goodness. I also expect that come s3 at the latest, fannish disgruntlement will start, but who knows? The pattern could always change. As Abbie pointed out to Ichabod, there is always another way.
