Sleepy Hollow S02E03 – “Root of All Evil”

October 9, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Next week we’ll see him reading Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

Sleepy Hollow “Root of All Evil”
Written by Melissa Blake and Donald Todd
Directed by Jeffrey Hunt

I can finally buy cold medicine for that guy with the bad teeth outside of Walgreens!

Money sucks, unless you got money, then it’s awesome. But what if it was cursed money? Money that made you go crazy? Like what happens to everyone who wins the Lotto? What if the cursed money was part of Judas’ 30 pieces of silver? And what if that made this episode have the same transferring evil gimmick as last season’s Fallen-inspired episode? Well, then you get an okay episode that could be better.

For starters we still have a dearth of Captain Frank Irving, who the heroes are prevented from visiting at the psych ward by his lawyer – Horseman of War Henry Parrish. He does make a small appearance once Ichabod figures out a trick to be able to see him, but it is only a brief bit where Ichabod dumps a bunch of info on him and then immediately leaves. Hopefully there will be more Irving next week.

What Sleepy Hollow has fallen in love with is following Henry Parrish around. John Noble is awesome, but his character is going to become tiresome if he continues to be the focus of every week’s evil conspiracy. Not only is Parrish inciting cursed actions in the community, he has whatever deal he’s doing with Frank Irving going on, and he’s gone full Beetlejuice and is making a miniature model of the town of Sleep Hollow. He’s living in the house from “Sanctuary” where he was born, because there is a very loose plot string of him still having some humanity left in him and reconnecting with his parents dangling around. Will it become the string that unravels his sweater, leaving him naked and lying on the floor? Or are they just filling time until the next Horseman arrives?

Speaking of Horsemen, the focus on Henry Parrish has given the other Horseman, the Headless Horseman aka Abraham, very little to do except be snotty to Katrina each week. Which is sort of sad, Headless Horseman is now suffering from Darth Vader Syndrome, where Darth Vader was cool until we met Anakin and his whines about sand. Headless Horseman was cool when he was only in a few episodes, didn’t speak, and just shot at everyone. Now all he does is complain.

Tom Sawyer is a lying jerk, this isn’t fun at all!

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S02E02 – “The Kindred”

October 2, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Headless Horseman, He-Man, I’ll defeat them all!

Sleepy Hollow “The Kindred”
Written by Mark Goffman and Albert Kim
Directed by Paul Edwards

When horses get LASIK!

Sleepy Hollow both returns to bringing us monsters while continuing the Apocalypse storyline and tying up some of the loose ends that still dangled after the season premiere. We get introductions to new characters and begin the plot lines that will take us through the rest of the year.

The most important thing that happens in this episode is the monster, which seems not to be the case, but it is. The monster, called The Kindred, is created from parts of dead soldiers from the Revolutionary War. It was originally build by Ben Franklin (Timothy Busfield reprises the role, though with clothes this time!) but never finished. Abbie and Ichabod manage to finish the monster using the head of the Headless Horseman. The Kindred is said to be the match of the Horsemen of Death, and is seen fighting the Headless Horseman to a standstill. But as there are two Horsemen of the Apocalypse running around, the Kindred is outmatched, though Abbie helps a bit during the fight. What is interesting is the Kindred also helps Abbie, and seems to know the plan of the heroes, and most importantly, does not die at the end of the episode. In fact, the Kindred escapes into the unknown, so there is a random unknown monster running around.

This show put 2/3rds of its black characters in jail in this episode!

The Kindred is important for several reasons. His origin as the result of a Frankenstein creation of dead body parts parallels Sleepy Hollow being the creation of a bunch of goofy science fiction and fantasy tropes that somehow work together into making an awesome monster of crazy. The Kindred grins and hisses at his friends, and knows their plans, helping them achieving it will providing an equal to the might of the supernatural Horsemen. Thus, I’m predicting random Kindred appearances throughout the series when the plot dictates that the main characters have to overcome something that should kill them. It’s also important that this is the first monster who isn’t killed or defeated in some manner. He escapes on his own terms after accomplishing his goals. Perhaps the writers realized that killing off all their monsters of the week was bad, because you can’t use them again. It shows how the monsters have grown to be a bigger part of Sleepy Hollow and are becoming entrenched in the mythology of the series.

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S02E01 – “This Is War”

September 25, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Hey, bring that sword a bit closer, I got some s’mores to make!

Sleepy Hollow “This Is War”
Written by Mark Goffman
Directed by Ken Olin

I’m hunting vampires now?

Sleepy Hollow is back! Huzzah and all that Ren Faire stuff! When last we left Ichabod, Abbie, Captain Irving, Katrina, Jenny, and the rest of the crew, we had a whole bajillion cliffhangers and bad endings for everyone involved. In fact, there are so many lingering plot threads that the season premiere doesn’t even resolve them all! But it resolves some, and does so with both guns blasting away, ramping up the crazy yet again.

Sleepy Hollow was by far my favorite new show of last year, and I’m going to continue the weekly recap/reviews, because I like them and I like the show. That’s pretty much why we do anything here at TarsTarkas.NET. I’m just going to assume you know who all the major characters are by now, as this is season 2, and there is a whole season of things to refresh your mind on if you need a recharge. As so much stuff happened, this will be more recappy than I hope to do for the season. But be aware that things start off crazy and then get nuts, so it’s all awesome and Sleepy Hollow is still going strong!

Last time, Ichabod and Katrina’s unknown son Jeremy Crane was revealed to be still alive and really occasional helper character, Sin-Eater Henry Parrish. Also, Parrish is evil and is the Second Horseman of the Apocalypse, War. And he trapped Ichabod in a coffin and buried him underground. Abbie is trapped in Purgatory, which you can’t leave unless someone takes your place. She stayed because they saved Ichabod’s wife, Katrina, who is now given to the Headless Horseman as a prize. Jenny Mills was last seen unmoving and bloody under a car wreck, fate unknown. And Captain Irving had confessed to murder to protect his daughter (who was possessed at the time) because the dumbest police detectives in the world were going to build a case that a tiny girl in a wheelchair somehow snapped the neck of a full grown man based on her DNA being on the body. Basically, there is doom and gloom for everyone, especially since Henry Parrish opens the Second Seal and brings the End of Days that much closer to happening.

Now we know why he’s on the 100 dollar bill, wowza!

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E13 – “Bad Blood”

January 22, 2014ByTars Tarkas

You’re a shotgun bang! What’s up with that thang? I wanna know how does it hang?

Sleepy Hollow “Bad Blood”
Written by Alex Kurtzman and Mark Goffman
Directed by Ken Olin

We’ve been kicked out of better planes of the afterlife than this!

Hey, ho! This is IT! The epic last part of the Season 1 Finale of Sleepy Hollow, the show that became one of the best shows on television despite (or because!) of how ridiculous it is! It’s sharply written, with a fantastic cast that constantly brings their A game. It’s got a rich mythology while still has the freedom to disregard or retcon things that don’t quite work. It expands from it’s Biblical influences to become a broader narrative. It is incredibly diverse, with many well written black characters who aren’t just thrown in to add a bit of color to the cast. Sleepy Hollow brings together many great ingredients into an incredible stew of deliciousness. So make sure you grab yourself a bowl, because it’s going to be a long long wait until fall!

When last we left Sleepy Hollow (in what was the first part of a two-part episode combined together despite not originally being written that way), Ichabod and Abbie had just retrieved a map to Purgatory from the secret crypt of Zombie George Washington, and then burned the map to keep Moloch from getting it. Ichabod then drew the map again from memory, because he can do that. Captain Irving was arrested while protecting his daughter from crimes she committed while being demon-possessed, and Katrina didn’t appear except via flashbacks (as usual!)

I’m going to cut things off here, and there will be SPOILERS below the fold, because there always is anyway, but these are season ending spoilers of all the cool things that happen, so be warned if you haven’t bingewatched these episodes from your DVR!

Yep, we’re going to use another “I lost my head over Sleepy Hollow” joke!

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E11 – “The Vessel”

January 14, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Turn around, bright eyes!

Sleepy Hollow “The Vessel”
Story by Mark Goffman and David McMillan
Teleplay by Melissa Blake
Directed by Romeo Tirone

Jenny Mills could win the war of apocalypse and still have time for breakfast!

Sleepy Hollow returns (finally!) for the first episode of 2014, and the last lone hour episode before the two-hour season finale next week! We continue the story straight out of Fallen, with a demon jumping between bodies and threatening Captain Irving and his daughter, Macey (Amandla Stenberg). Then things get horror movie crazy, but not before some cute character moments and Jenny Mills, kicking butt.

The Vessel asks what would you do to protect the people you love, especially if there was a crazy demon chasing after them? It becomes a recurring theme through the episode, as Captain Irving goes to extraordinary lengths to protect his daughter Macey, who is specifically threatened by the body-jumping demon, Ancitif(an actual demon) There is new revelations about Jenny Mills, who was also a possession target for the demon (as hinted in her first appearance), as we discover that she often would commit crimes in order to be incarcerated so she wouldn’t hurt Abbie while possessed. It’s an extreme form of sisterly love, one Abbie wasn’t even aware of (as Jennifer correctly deduced that Abbie wouldn’t have believed her, anyway.) But once Ichabod tells her, the healing process between the sisters is swiffened.

Pleased to meet you, don’t you know my name?

One thing Sleepy Hollow has been doing a lot of is using familiar cinema scenes in order to set the tone for certain characters and events. This episode has a glaringly obvious example as parts copy Fallen and parts copy The Exorcist (and related knockoffs!) An argument could be made that producers Orci and Kurtzman have a history of stealing iconic scenes in films to use for their own, most glaringly when used in Star Trek Into Darkness. The difference between the STID use and things happening in Sleepy Hollow, is STID was a transparent attempt to use nostalgia to make up for lack of actual characterization/plot/everything that is essential in telling a story. In Sleepy Hollow, things like Jenny’s introduction being a copy of Sarah Conner in Terminator 2 is a shortcut to let the audience know she’s a complete badass. Jenny’s arc then goes in its own direction, with her character’s tone already established. In Vessel, when things switch over to The Exorcist, an effort is made to make the result play out differently, even subverting an iconic effect.

I actually like when the show references films, because it’s not relying on them to provide the entertainment. The entertainment comes from Ichabod struggling to fit in with modern society. It comes from Abbie coming to grips with her destiny and making amends with her sister. It comes from Captain Irving dealing with his family issues while also holding back the apocalypse in what he thought would be a stress-free assignment. It comes from crazy demon scares and monsters that have their own agendas despite being part of a greater war. It comes from Ichabod’s struggle to save his wife while dealing with everything he knew about her being a lie (and discovering he had a son he never knew!) Sleepy Hollow provides all this, and more. It’s consistently diverse, not filled with token minorities, but characters who are rich and developed. The makeup of the cast of Sleepy Hollow reflects modern America, and it does so without pomp and circumstance, it just IS. And it’s great. I’m still amazed Sleepy Hollow became my favorite new show of the season, and amazed at how it just blows Agents of Shield away.

Kissy-kissy!

Captain Irving’s paranoia from last week results in one of the possessed threateners being questioned at a lie detector, where he professes to have no idea what is going on. Another witness shows up, who is the current host of Ancitif. Thus, the demon is now jumping around the police station, and calls Irving on his phone to demand the George Washington Bible, or Macey’s gonna get it!

He’s seen Carrie Underwood’s The Sound of Music, and he’ll never be the same!

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E09 – “Sanctuary”

November 26, 2013ByTars Tarkas

Ichabod Crane IS Paul Bunyan, this fall on Fox!

Sleepy Hollow “Sanctuary”
Written by Damian Kindler and Chitra Elizabeth Sampath
Directed by Liz Friedlander

Bad Swamp Thing! NO!

Sleepy Hollow becomes Creepy Hollow with this haunted house entry, featuring handheld camera scares that resemble a found footage movie. A huge chunk of the episode takes place with characters trapped in a haunted house and menaced by a monster Scarecrow, but as this is Sleepy Hollow, we also get some awesome character moments, introduced to some more supporting cast members who will definitely be around for episodes to come, and even throw a new mystery twist on top of the already sky high pile.

Some of the coolest X-Files episodes were the monster episodes. The creatures were unique and diverse, and it helped break up the conspiracy mythology of the show turning everything too depressing. Sleepy Hollow has improved on that format, with the monster episodes that are tied into overall story arcs, without the story development becoming the focus or a distraction. The monster here not only menaces today, but has its origins in Ichabod’s time, and even reveals a connection to Abbie.

We fought a revolution and I can’t even get fresh fries???

Outside of the plot, Sleepy Hollow did more of what it is becoming known for, having multiple minority characters who have distinct personalities and aren’t just tools for the main character to use. Abbie and Ichabod are dual main characters, and Abbie’s sister Jenny is the cool tough breakout role that makes me long for Lyndie Greenwood’s name in the opening credits. Orlando Jones has gone from the “skeptic boss” archetype to a fully functional leader who has to deal with the Biblical Apocalypse happening in his town and trying to keep it under wraps so people don’t panic and so no one carts everyone off to the nut house.

Now, Jill Marie Jones and Amandla Stenberg (Rue from The Hunger Games!) join the cast, Jill Marie Jones as Captain Frank Irving’s ex-wife Cynthia Irving, and Stenberg as his daughter Macey. Macey is in a wheel chair due to something vaguely hinted at (but it is implied that Frank is to blame for not being there), and Cynthia is worried that Frank has practically stopped visiting his daughter, and is threatening taking full custody. Frank is not happy to have this happening on top of everything else, though Macey seems less than broken up about the current situation when talking with Jenny.

Corn? Corn? Corn?

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