Sleepy Hollow S01E06 – “The Sin Eater”

November 5, 2013ByTars Tarkas

One ring to rule them all, Colonial scum!

Sleepy Hollow “The Sin Eater”
Directed by Ken Olin
Story by Aaron Rahsaan Thomas
Teleplay by Alex Kurtzman & Mark Goffman

Just call me “Library Book” because I’m only checked out of here every few episodes!

Sleepy Hollow has been absent from the airwaves the past few weeks, giving us some time to digest what has been going on. Also to forget a lot of little stuff, were we a more casual viewer. Luckily for the casuals, “The Sin Eater” opens with a brief recap of the prior five episodes, telling us what we need to know to get up to speed.

Demon…or Phantom of the Opera cosplayer???

The theme for “The Sin Eater” is about letting go what you did in the past. You see it both literally with what Ichabod goes through, and demonstratively with Abbie rebuilding her relationship with her sister Jennifer, who Abbie abandoned to a life of mental institutions. Abbie reveals that Ichabod is more than just a working partner for her, he’s someone who helped her find a purpose in life. As Abbie has drifted through life finding people who matter, only to have them taken away, she cannot bear to watch Ichabod be taken as well. It also is rocket fuel for Abbie/Ichabod romance speculations, despite Ichabod’s wife Katrina featuring more heavily in this episode than any prior.

“The Sin Eater” also set up some mythology for the next few episodes, thanks to the appearance of the Freemasons and the hinted return of the Headless Horseman (though this is the second episode in a row where he has “returned” without returning yet!) But the ending feels like the next episode will take place immediately afterwards, with much of the same guest stars popping up, so hopefully things continue to be crazytown and well written.

Have I told you about the advantages of a Time-Share?

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E05 – “John Doe”

October 15, 2013ByTars Tarkas

Not so sleepy anymore…

Sleepy Hollow “John Doe”
Directed by Ernest Dickerson
Written by Melissa Blake

This flower is my baby!

It’s Sleepy Hollow time again! After last week topped everything so far, this week’s Sleepy Hollow pulls back while switching gears to do a mysterious disease episode. There is also exploration of more colonial American myths (at this rate they’re going to run out of actual historical stuff to revise by season 2!) and let’s use know that the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse aren’t just sitting around eating pizza. Okay, maybe Famine. That guy’s a jerk!

There are some mysteries hinted at that should pay off later, and Captain Irving and Detective Morales both have moments beyond scenes to remind people they exist. Even Ichabod’s wife shows up again, having barely appeared in the last two episodes (and she even comments on that fact!) The main problem with “John Doe” is it is following a stronger episode, so I’m just being more picky. Will Morales’ partner turn out to be evil? He seems way to nice to not be secretly evil. Also has anyone seen John Cho? Or smelled John Cho? Because he should be pretty rank by now and easy to track down. I’m sure he’ll appear again before too long.

Nobody told me I would be in this episode!

The focus on a different Horseman means we might just have episodes dealing with each one of them trying things as the series progresses. Maybe even the Horsemen will grow some brains and team up. Will the War guy have Sleepy Hollow be invaded by foreign powers? Was Red Dawn set in the Sleepy Hollow universe? A mystery to contemplate…

A mystery kid in old timey clothes peeps on a mystery girl in the woods. The girl is collecting flowers and wants to play with the boy once she sees him, running off and daring him to catch her. He does so, but soon she vanishes and is replaced by an armored dude on horseback. The design is familiar because we’ve seen him before, during the shot of all four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Blood Moon. Though we don’t find out right away, this guy is Pestilence and he’s not very nice.

Pestilence chases the kid to the highway, at which point the horseman and his horse vanish into dust. Mystery Kid is confused by the highway and cars, and his old timey dress indicates that he might be a time traveler like Ichabod.

Food in the future is weird!

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E04 – “The Lesser Key of Solomon”

October 8, 2013ByTars Tarkas

My precious!

Sleepy Hollow “The Lesser Key of Solomon”
Written by Damian Kindler
Directed by Paul Edwards

Marion, don’t look at it. Shut your eyes, Marion. Don’t look at it!

This was my favorite episode yet of Sleepy Hollow, it had a well-written reconnection of two family members that both loved each other but had very different goals and lives. There was also a conspiracy of evil Germans, historical WTFs, a mystery, police doing actual police work, crazy demonic stuff, and plenty of cute little scenes. If Sleepy Hollow keeps this quality up, it will be an amazing show.

Since last week, Sleepy Hollow has been renewed for a second season, which means there will be at least one more year of me staying up late at night on Mondays furiously typing notes as my family begs for attention and I scream “NO!” Yes, the title of the series is true, I will be sleepy and will be hollow from lack of interaction with loved ones. Kidding! Like most of my writing, it’s all done after everyone else is fast asleep thanks to the power of being an insomniac.

We’re totally doing this for Liberty and not because smashing stuff is fun!

Sleepy Hollow has taught us that the only Hessians we should ever trust are the Hessians with no Aggression as seen in the Bugs Bunny cartoons. There being a conspiracy cult of Hessians are great, because it allows Sleepy Hollow to have creepy German villains without making them cliched Nazis.

Beam me up, Scotty!

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E03 – “For the Triumph of Evil…”

October 1, 2013ByTars Tarkas

Why can’t the horse be headless too?

Sleepy Hollow “For the Triumph of Evil…”
Story by Phillip Iscove
Teleplay by Jose Molina
Directed by John F. Showalter

I hate it when I get dirt in my contacts…

“For the Triumph of Evil…” expands the universe of Sleepy Hollow while still giving a mostly contained story. Side characters and back stories are introduced and expanded, and a creepy nightmare villain haunts Abbie Mills. We get more of Abbie’s sister Jenny, who has been in and out of mental institutions thanks to the encounter both girls had as children. Abbie’s lies over the experience literally come back to haunt her.

Overall, this episode was sufficiently creepy, with a dream villain who did disturbing stuff while looking like he stepped out of a Guillermo del Toro film. Ichabod is starting to get some good lines while still getting his required culture shock of the episode. Did I mention people had their eyes turned into exploding sand??? Because that was some freakasaurus rex material right there! Don’t worry, Abbie and Ichabod teaming up with an American Indian used car salesman to go all Dream Warrior on the Sandman is like a low rent Inception.

Just when you think I’m going full Sarah Conner, I’m only in one scene!

The largest strengths is on Abbie’s regret over betraying her sister all those years ago, of covering up that she saw a blurry demon in the woods and letting Jenny be taken away by the men in white suits. Abbie lets slip that they were foster kids that finally had a good home, and it is not hard to realize that after all Abbie went through, she did not want to risk losing her new family, even if it meant losing her sister.

Now, is this a cool thing to do? Heck no, it’s downright terrible. At the very least she should have told her sister to deny deny deny. Or maybe said something like being groggy when they woke up so maybe they were seeing things and Jenny isn’t crazy. Though Jenny gets hauled away very quickly by creepy guys, almost like they were waiting for any excuse to throw a kid in an asylum. The repeated shots of Jenny pleading with her sister to agree with her statement was harrowing, and having that as a memory of a loved one pleading with you would be disturbing. It being on repeat thanks to a dream revenge monster is a nightmare I’m glad I don’t have to live with. Because I betrayed all my siblings while I was in a separate room. Ha ha, suckers! No nightmares for Tars!

From the writers who created those racist Transformers, huh?

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E02 – “Blood Moon”

September 24, 2013ByTars Tarkas

Sleepy Hollow “Blood Moon”
Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Mark Goffman
Directed by Ken Olin

The worst charity car wash.

Sleepy Hollow returns with another episode that brings the WTF, while still having a few hokey and cheesy parts. The important thing is the level of good to bad is at least equal to the pilot, and arguably better.

We see Sheriff Corbin’s funeral, and find out that Sleepy Hollow has a radio station that plays Sinatra’s Witchcraft at opportune times. But beyond all that, this is the first time we see the snazzy opening credits, which is largely people standing in the dark woods while spooky things happen.

I don’t like this new gritty Pez reboot

The Headless Horseman barely appears, outside of a dream sequence in the beginning. He rides with the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse, including a guy with a demonic helmet who is instantly the one rider I care about. Ichabod is dreaming they are after him, then is saved by his wife who gives him a warning about the army of evil people who will do evil stuff to pave the way for the really evil people.

Forget the Headless Horseman, I want to know about the Gremlin Darth Vader Horseman!

InTelevision Reviews

Sleepy Hollow S01E01 – “Pilot”

September 18, 2013ByTars Tarkas

If there is one show in the fall 2013 season I am excited for, it is Sleepy Hollow. Sorry, Agent Coulson. Sleepy Hollow hooked me because of the ridiculous image in the trailer of the Headless Horseman with a machine gun. It holds the promise that things will be crazy, and I love crazy shows. Sleepy Hollow follows the story of Ichabod Crane, who was a spy for George Washington that hunted down a demonic British soldier, lopped off his head, was badly injured, and then awoke 250 years later. And so did the now headless demonic soldier, who once again is riding around on a horse lopping off heads. The mystery of what the heck is going on is our hook, while Ichabod’s adjustments to modern day and teaming up with police Lt. Abbie Mills is the meat.

It’s me, Benedict Arnold! Oh, wait..

Sure, fish out of water, supernatural stuff, all has promise. But, this is from Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci’s production company, which means it could either be really good, or be really really really really bad, depending on how much writing they did. Thanks to an interview, it appears the part of the show I like the least is their brainchild. (And if Bob Orci wants to appear in the comments and hurl nasty language at me, he’s welcome to do so until his handlers yank him off the internet again!) But besides that, overall the premier episode – imaginatively entitled “Pilot” – was enough to keep me coming back. And I was looking for an excuse to follow a show for a season…

Let’s work together, two heads are better than none!

Overall, I liked it, but there were some things that were icky and some things that I hope are just pilot jitters. The whole Book of Revelations things is pretty boring and done to death. Here’s hoping the mythology goes beyond just quoting a Bible verse each week. The hint of George Washington as a demonic fighter and reuse of the eye of the pyramid imagery hints to maybe some sort of National Treasure conspiracy things happening. Maybe even a Founding Father or two will pop up in Sleepy Hollow to battle evil. And also to handle slavery much worse than Ichabod did. Here is hoping Sleepy Hollow becomes a mix of X-Files and police procedurals that isn’t afraid to be weird.

Best. Show. Ever.

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