Anyone that has yet to watch
yesterday’s episode of Sleepy Hollow,
titled ‘The Sin Eater’, then I suggest that now would be a good time to do so
before reading ahead. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! Proceed at your own discretion.
For a series with only thirteen
episodes in a season and thus cannot throw away episodes, this one sure felt
like a filler to me. Sure, it introduced the character Henry Parrish and his
ability to eat sins, and it dissolved the connection between Death and Ichabod,
but otherwise there wasn’t an overall movement to the episode. And besides, it
seemed a bit early to cut the connection between Death and Ichabod, but that
could just be my opinion.
I was really disappointed with
this week’s episode. Other than the flashbacks that showed how Ichabod came to
fight under General Washington, there wasn’t much I liked about this episode. To
me it felt kind of blah, like not much thought went into it. I knew after the
pilot episode going into this series that each episode would basically be
resolved by the end, but that’s not helping it to blend together very well, and
it’s beginning to cause me to lose interest, which is sad because I absolutely
adore Tom Mison.
The writing isn’t completely
working with this series. Other than my belief that the individual episodes
aren’t quite stringing together well enough, the idea that Ichabod could be as
cheery as he is sometimes when his wife is held captive in some sort of
purgatory astounds me. Perhaps following a miserable Brit would be less than
fun, but I’d like to at least see him trying to find a way to her, or subtle
hints that add up each episode. Also, it’s my fear that if she is ever rescued,
all that means is that her soul is set free to go to heaven, or wherever, and
that this series will move forward with a relationship between Ichabod and
Abby. And let me tell you, they have no sexual chemistry with each other, at
all. Until recently I didn’t even consider them a possibility, until websites
like TVLine gave a refresher on how couples were doing and all I could say was
no. Every time I look at them with those subtle looks in this episode, the
romantic chemistry felt forced and wrong. They’re partners, they work well as
friends, they fit together as sibling-like characters, but they don’t have any
romantic chemistry together. And this is not me in denial, I just don’t see any
form of spark.
While I was looking forward to the
introduction of Henry Parrish, after missing the actor since the conclusion of Fringe, there wasn’t much the intrigued
me about him other than the sadness I got from his situation. The man looked
miserable, all secluded with his plants, and I felt for him, but I didn’t see
much he could add to this series. Besides, it felt like this sin Ichabod felt
he had clung to was just randomly thrown in to bring this guy in. No mention of
it before, but suddenly it’s there. Like I said, I’m growing quite disappointed
in this series. And I loved Fringe,
so I can’t understand why the creators of that series could seem to make a mess
of this one. At least on Fringe there
were little hints to be had that strung the episodes together, but I’m not
getting that here. But again, that’s more to do with the writing – which I seem
to be running back to – then anything to do with Henry Parrish.
All in all, these actors envelope
their characters well enough, although I do find Abby’s expressions are over
exaggerated, but the writing doesn’t seem to match to their abilities. Basically
what I’m saying is that the acting is good, but the writing just isn’t up to
par. Maybe I’m expecting too much of these creators, maybe it’s like with Fringe where the first season was a bit
slower than the rest. If that’s the case, I will try to give them the benefit
of the doubt and wait to see how season two goes before I fully commit to
letting go of this show. I mean, I love the gothic style to it, but the police
part is less than interesting.
My rating: 6 out of 10.
Best Lines:
“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority agrees.”
– Katrina wisely states.
“The love of power is the demon of all men.” – Arthur
Bernard says to Ichabod.
Okay, just one more show to catch up on with a review.
Before I do that for The Blacklist,
though, I have to go run over to Shoppers, so check back in about an hour.
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