Sleepy Hollow 1x01-1x02

[oyceter]

*points to icon* So it's not anime, but! There is a head in a jar!!!!

As I am sure everyone knows by now, this is the story of Ichabod Crane, who is transported into our time, along with the Headless Horseman. Lieutenant Abbie Mills has her plans upset when her mentor is killed by the Horseman, and though she isn't too sure about him, she partners up with Ichabod to figure out what's going on.

OMG people. I know everyone has said this, but this show is ridiculous! I am greatly enjoying the sheer over-the-top-ness, and so far, I appreciate that Abbie has been given just as much angst as Ichabod. They are not quite Mulder and Scully, though the show obviously has that in mind as a template, but there's room to grow. Also, I would appreciate it if they are not Mulder and Scully wrt the overwhelming nature of Mulder's angst and alien pregnancies and whatnot.

Spoilers have a head in a jar!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA OMG. It's not enough that there are the FOUR HORSEMEN and THE APOCALYPSE and BOOK OF REVELATIONS! No! The American Revolution is actually a battle to SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL! The British have literally allied themselves with evil witches! The amount of importance assigned to the American Revolution and therefore to the founding of the US itself is so bombastic and arrogant that all I can do is laugh. *wipes tears from eyes*

Poor John Cho, having to play the evil yet somewhat incompetent henchman.

And already, we have an evil naked lady! I'm guessing there's going to be a lot more of that as the show goes on, sigh.

Like everyone else, I am amused by Ichabod's fondness of donut holes. I'm not sure if I want more man-out-of-time hijinks or more man-out-of-time angst, since the show is clearly not going to be very consistent about anything, but given the two choices, I would much rather have the hijinks.

I am sure it is way too much to ask that the show refers to things such as Lord Dunmore's proclamation and the "Ethiopian" Regiment, since they are already doing the whole "all good historical Americans opposed slavery!" thing. Le sigh. Hopefully there will be some good fic about it.

Also, I lol'ed at Katrina's so-not-historical witchy trying-to-pretend-to-be-vaguely-historical clothes. And the gravestone. And the dire warnings. Hopefully she'll get unfridged later, since the actress seems to be a series regular?

I am glad there is a woman of color in the lead, and that there is another POC regular and a (fairly regular?) POC guest star, but of course one of them is outright evil, and the other is an obstruction at best and will probably be an antagonist part of the time. Also, given the number of POC, it's kind of sad only a few lines manage to pass the race version of the Bechdel test each episode.

And finally... Abbie! I am really glad they gave her meaningful personal reasons of her own to decline Quantico and stay in Sleepy Hollow. I was afraid it would be another "woman randomly abandons her important career decisions to help the white guy." Not super happy about the implied missing (presumably black) father in her life and how the white Sheriff Corbin fills that spot, but I do like the mentor/father-mentee/daughter relationship. And I just like that she has her own backstory about being believed or being thought crazy, and how that informs her own actions. Also, I am hoping that will prevent Ichabod-Abbie from doing the
"Mulder the believer is always right and Scully the skeptic is always wrong" dynamic.

And I was just watching this for fun, except they threw in the last few minutes of episode two, and now I might be invested! Because while I like Abbie, the Sarah-Connor-esque training while wrongfully stuck in a mental institution sister who is probably bitter and all kinds of unfriendly already has ALL MY LOVE. ♥♥♥♥♥ I hope she is a regular! I want push and pull sisterly dynamics! And demon hunting! And all sorts of training sequences!

Comments

[meganbmoore]

re: Jennifer: I think Lyndie Greenwood walked onset and said "Two years on Nikita and I didn't get a single fight scene. FIX IT. Also, I memorized this movie, can I do this scene?"



I have ridiculous love for it despite the ginormous plotholes and questionable mythology.

[oyceter]

I just saw she was in Nikita! I realize the borrowing from T2 is completely shameless, but since it is borrowing the things I love most about T2, I kind of don't care.

[meganbmoore]

I'm actually rewatching season 2 of Nikita right now and didn't realize who it was until I was looking at gifs on tumblr yesterday. But she looks and sounds completely different, body language and everything.

Of course, once I realized it, I sat down and started reminding myself that Nikita's last season is only 6 episodes and I think they finished filming already, so Greenwood being in Sleepy Hollow doesn't necessarily mean anything but that she finished filming Sonja's scenes and she already had Sleepy Hollow lined up. *fingers crossed*

[oyceter]

Haha, I haven't even finished S2 yet... just glad to know she continues to be a recurring character there!

[copracat]

Ah, Lyndie Greenwood.She's so one of my faves from Nikita but it still took me time to recognise her, all the while feeling incredibly happy because I knew she was someone I liked, if only I could place from where...

[skygiants]

I love Katrina's constant dire warnings. I hope every scene with her features Ichabod optimistically attempting to discuss their relationship while Katrina plot-infodumps at him at top speed. "So I'm hoping with all these revelations we can move forward into a place of emotional honesty and -" "THE HORSEMAN IS BURIED!! IN MY GRAVE!!! SEEK THE MACGUFFIN BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON AND THE SOUND OF THE COCK'S CROW!!!! and now no more for lack of time."

I have this problem where every time someone mentions George Washington on the show I burst out laughing.

I really, really hope that Abbie's sister becomes a regular and they team up and have sister demon-hunting shenanigans and all of their conversations pass both Bechdel-Bechdel and race-Bechdel and SISTERS.

I am also kind of hoping that John Cho's character will turn out to be the kind of snarky villain role that fandom gloms onto like chewing gum; those characters and fandom's adoration of them usually annoy the heck out of me, but it would be a pleasant change to see all that energy directed towards John Cho!

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, the whole "George Washington as mastermind of a secret war against the (British-allied) Forces of Evil and Apocalypse" bit is pretty hilarious--not to mention probably at least partially inspired by that "Abe Lincoln, Vampire Slayer" book/movie.

[oyceter]

Poor Ichabod! The apocalypse keeps getting in the way of his attempts to work out his relationship!

OMG every time the American Revolution and George Washington as the Bastion of Good against the APOCALYPSE comes up I nearly fall off the couch.

++ fandom glomming onto John Cho! That would be nice...

Also show! Need Mills sister team up right now! I want angst and sisterly reconciliation and prickliness and resentment at being abandoned and all the fun stuff!

[lea_hazel]

I have sister feelings.

[oyceter]

ME TOO OMG.

[quarter_to_five]

Yes! Sister stuff! And, speaking of, my sister and I got a good laugh out of Katrina's absurd clothes. I'm not sure about Ichabod on the angst/hijinks scale - It took me ages to figure out what made him so appealing, and it's that he's so chatty. Usually this kind of character - the good, heroic, male lead - is all like broody and quiet and stuff, but Ichabod just freaking likes to talk (he probably drove his students nuts.) He gossips and pries and goes on outraged rants and snarks and expositions and stuff, so thats fun, but at the same time that makes his quiet angsty moments all the richer. Hail variety, I guess.

[meganbmoore]

The dress appears to be inspired by the Beautiful Creatures movie. Not an exact duplicate, but similar enough that I won't believe costuming if they say they haven't watched it.

[oyceter]

Oh huh, that didn't really occur to me... maybe because of the Mulder connection? I figure the banter is part and parcel of the odd-couple team up.

[thingswithwings]

The American Revolution is actually a battle to SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL! The British have literally allied themselves with evil witches! The amount of importance assigned to the American Revolution and therefore to the founding of the US itself is so bombastic and arrogant that all I can do is laugh. *wipes tears from eyes*

ahahahahahaha YES, THANK YOU. I hadn't put it that way in my head quite yet and so I laughed and laughed at this paragraph. It's so over the top that I can't even be mad, really.

Also basically everything else you say is correct? Abbie and Man Out Of Time Hijinx and Sarah Connor Esque Sister (though I fear some serious ablism there) . . . but really this show is just adorable.

[oyceter]

It is so ridiculous!! It is like patriotism pumped to 11 and then some!

Oof, yes to the fears of ablism. I am also not anticipating how they explain the witches speaking Romani Greek >_<;;.

[quarter_to_five]

It's just too ridiculous and unabashedly silly to resent. It's like one of those Jane Austen Was A Vampire (or something) books - the whole point is that kind of steampunky juxtaposition of unrelated elements and themes and bits of history. A reality remix. "George Washington was masterminding a war against an evil witch coven of the apocalypse" fits nicely in there for me, and would work less well if it made any, you know, sense.

(That said, I feel like there is a political undercurrent here that could get interesting. Maybe not intentionally interesting on the part of the show, but interesting to prod at nevertheless. Ichabod isn't from some random past, he's from the freaking American Revolution, and he was both an ideologue and a traitor, (if I followed along right,) and there's something interesting about the ideals he's so fervently bringing into the present and how they work or don't work or how the perceptions of them have changed. They've already argued about taxes. Abbey has to stand there and say "I am a black, female police officer," and on one level it's a perfectly neutral statement, an explanation for the benefit of the time traveller, but at the same time, it's really not and she and the audience both know it. And the exchange with her ex about who fought in which war and why that is or isn't a thing to show off about was fascinating, again with that layer of everyone in the scene (and the audience) having a different amount of knowledge about who's actually saying what.

Er,/ramble. Only, politics!

[oyceter]

Yeah, that would be interesting, though like you said, I suspect it will mostly be unintentional ;). I really wish they would challenge the perception of the American Revolution as a bastion of Freedom but since George Washington is the great averter of the apocalypse, I am doubting this will happen.

[nelumbo_lutea]

its fox. i'm glad there's not a "the war in iraq is between good and evil here come the four horsemen" theme. *sighs heavily*

[oyceter]

So sad, and yet so true...

[seraphcelene]

Because while I like Abbie, the Sarah-Connor-esque training while wrongfully stuck in a mental institution sister who is probably bitter and all kinds of unfriendly already has ALL MY LOVE. ♥♥♥♥♥ I hope she is a regular! I want push and pull sisterly dynamics! And demon hunting! And all sorts of training sequences!

*Word!* That is what I am WAITING for.

[oyceter]

\o/! Hopefully next week!

[hebethen]

I watched ep3 because I wanted to see more of Jenny, but mostly I got a shitton of jump scares and man am I so over ~supernatural~ shows slathering on the jump scares and accompanying music like cream cheese on the bagel of a famished college student.

[oyceter]

Oh man, I'm sorry the horror aspects were too annoying!