This show has everything I should love. It's pretty much a fantasy series, set in the 21st century. It has sword fights and mythical love stories, evil demons that walk the earth, magical spells, mysteries stemming from our storied Revolutionary past, all with religious tie-ins and a plot to SAVE THE WORLD. Its also full of pretty decent special effects, awesome costuming, and gorgeous sets - which actually might be where I start getting a bit thrown. About half the series looks like a gothic set piece, complete with hidden tunnels under the city, a police warehouse that looks more like an Enlightenment laboratory, and secret masonic cells meant to imprison Death himself. And that's in contemporary Sleepy Hollow, not the 1770s. It just feels strange. The verisimilitude is off... It doesn't have to be realistic - shows like Supernatural or Grimm pull off the same thing just fine, perhaps because they embrace the hokeyness inherent in such combinations of weird and ordinary - when appropriate, of course. But there's just something about the tone, the incongruity of Sleepy Hollow that makes me pause. I can't equate the police precinct with the warehouse, which is supposedly part of the same building complex. I can't come to terms with a town I can't even imagine as a holistic thing - is it a small town or a city? How does a supposedly small village have such a big SWAT team? And why are there so few actual people in the city? (Look at the population sign in the first episode - there's no way a town with so few people would have a police department that big). In a fantasy show like this one, I shouldn't have to think about these kinds of things. I should take the world as it is and not worry about silly little issues like realism or whether they follow their own rules all the time. Hell, I loved LOST and that made no sense at all. But Sleepy Hollow, because it takes itself so seriously is so many strange ways, makes me start to wonder.
I'm going to keep giving the show some time to find it's way, however. There is a great leading man, with all the looks, charm, wit, and intelligence a lit prof could hope for. Tom Mison, who plays Ichabod, is especially fun when he has to deal with new world realities - after all, he is a 18th century history professor and army officer who has somehow been pulled into the 21st century. The scene in episode 8, "Necromancer," where he learns how to fist bump is pretty great. And his tirade on taxes in one of the earlier episodes is particularly amusing. Plus, unlike so many British stars on TV today, he gets to keep his English accent. So we're all good on that front.
The other leading characters don't always fare as well, thought there are some casting choices I really like. Nicole Beharie, who plays Abbie Mills, Crane's partner, does a great job with her character. She is especially good when fighting the bad guys, dealing with emotional issues, or teasing Crane. John Cho is one of my favorite parts of the show - he plays an undead cop who has a thing for Abbie, but has to work for the evil demons instead. Lots of fun anguish in that role. But the rest of the characters don't really have any resonance. And I think that's mostly because of the tone created by the show. They have to play things so seriously - and when I say seriously, I don't mean Batman seriously (all scowls and squinty eyes and deep, menacing voices). I mean they have to play it straight - the world is going to end and they are the soldiers meant to stop it. That's it. And that would be fine... if we had some sort of stakes in this world or with these characters. Do I care about Crane? Yes, but mostly because he's hot and British. Do I care about Abbie? Maybe - I don't know her well enough yet. Do I care about the others? Nope, not one iota. I don't even care about the world they are trying to save. It's all too clinical, too black and white - they jumped into the deep end way too quickly and I don't really care if they drown.
That, I think, is what distances this show from something like Supernatural or FlashForward or Fringe (one of my favorite shows of all time). In FlashForward they had to save the world and there was a giant revelation/problem/unexplained occurance in the very first episode. But we didn't get all the info about saving the world in the very first episode. We didn't spend time creating a giant backstory right away. The mythology came second to the characters (though that might be why Flashforward was cancelled - they spent a bit too much time on characters and not enough on plot). Perhaps if we didn't have to have such a long intro at the beginning of each episode of Sleepy Hollow I might be more willing to love it. That much mythology for a show that's only 9 episodes in? I just don't know... But for right now, I'll still keep watching, if only to see Ichabod Crane try to figure out how to leave a message on a cell phone.
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