Sleepy Hollow 1.08 Review: Selling Your Soul for Vengeance

For all those that have yet to watch Monday night’s episode of Sleepy Hollow, entitled ‘Necromancer’, now would be a good time to go and do that before reading ahead. This is not a spoiler free blog. THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

This week’s episode was more of what I was looking for: continuity, strong character development, and no focus on the delusional romantic chemistry between Ichabod and Abby. Now we know who the Horseman is, and while it might’ve been better if they kept Death as this eternal Horseman, it does make a lot of sense concerning who they went with. And this will certainly make things more interesting as the apocalyptic battle moves forward.

Can I just say how much I love the Captain? The pilot episode made it out to be like he might be some villain type character, but I’m quite happy that that’s not the way they’ve chosen to go. The actor does a phenomenally hilarious job in his role; I’m just completely surprised this is the first time I’ve seen this guy around. He’s fantastic!

There are a few other things that need to be commented on. First, Abby’s sister looks so much better with her hair down because it’s not completely flattened down. Every time it’s up, it makes her face look dramatically sharp. Also, how did no one think about what if the power got cut off? That was the first thing I questioned when I started the episode, so how could they not think of it. Also, it was pretty obvious Abraham was Death as soon as Ichabod left him and didn’t see for certain that he had been killed.

Overall, this is definitely the way I prefer this series going. This was a much stronger episode than in weeks before. I really loved the way all the good guys were able to come together this episode in a cohesive unit. If they keep things up this way, I will definitely get excited over a second season.

My rating: 7.5 out of 10

Best Lines:

“Seriously?” – the Captain states, regarding Brooks’ unrequited feelings for Abby.

“Nope! Apologies, it’s this way.” – Ichabod remarks, after leading Abby and Brooks in the wrong direction.

“Check your math, Adolph.” – the Captain tells the Hessian.

Okay, apologies for not posting this after the review of Almost Human, but I didn’t feel like watching this last night. Here it is, even though my Internet is currently down, so I don’t know when this will exactly be up…

Sleepy Hollow 1.06 Review: Sometimes We Need to Forgive Ourselves

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.