donutsweeper | Sleepy Hollow and TV thoughts

Overall Sleepy Hollow was the only thing I was really interested in out of the new shows this season and the pilot aired last night. Non-spoilery review is I liked it. Considering the legend it's borrowing from (which I'm assuming everyone knows, if not I guess I'll be mentioning vague character spoilers) it's not very violent (although it does show a little, like how the Headless Horseman becomes headless, but in an almost bloodless, pg-13 kind of way.) I think the show has a lot of potential, the writers obviously have a mythology and long game in mind instead of just running with the basic set up of a story idea like some shows do. There's also Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) who is a) gorgeous and b) a decent enough actor to sell the fish-out-of-water/character-out-of-their-time trope (which is a favorite of mine) and the other lead, Nicole Beharie as Lt. Abbie Mills and she's a kick-ass WOC who does the saving instead of needing to be saved and has her own story arc that winds up being tied to other main character as opposed to her just being pulled in his wake, so I approve. The other main character is Abbie's new boss at the police department and he's played by Orlando Jones which makes this show really unusual in it's 1 white guy and 2 POCs.

Anyway, the pilot was a bit of an info dump, as pilots tend to be, but the plot was interesting, effects were decent enough and it set things up nicely so I'll be tuning in next week.

The pilot is currently free on itunes in HD and SD. Free is good! Go check it out.

Other than Sleepy Hollow I may watch the pilot for Agents of SHIELD, but I honestly doubt the show is for me. The ads I've seen leave me underwhelmed, I really don't have a ton of interest in the MCU character who's in it and it stars an actress I utterly loathe whose made me dislike/despise every character she's ever played. So... not a good sign.

There are a few other pilots I might check out for laughs, some of the period and scifi ones and Eoin Macken's (Gwaine from Merlin) but that doesn't premiere until January.

Returning shows wise... *sigh* I'm suffering through the tail end of Covert Affairs currently and never wound up turning WH13 on when the new season began this summer. Upcoming though? (Check out handy dandy grid to US fall season here)

Mondays will have Sleepy Hollow, that's probably it. Tuesdays, Supernatural (if I remember that it's airing then) and Person of Interest (also a move which I'll need to remember). I gave up on NCIS and NCIS:LA last season and am better off without them I think. Wednesdays has Arrow, I may check out Tomorrow People for the laughs though. Thursdays, Elementary, White Collar and Covert Affairs (two moved show *ugh*, not sure I'll keep watching them though). On Fridays I'll watch the first episode or two of Hawaii Five-0 but mostly just to laugh at how horrible it's become. Grimm is on at the same time and kid likes it so when it premieres (not until late Oct) I'll be watching that instead. Fridays also has Haven, a show everyone in my house watches and likes.

Eventually Teen Wolf will return and I will probably also watch Hannibal when it comes back as well, but that depends.

So, that's TV for me. I tend to forget to write up episode review posts and instead chatting with people on theirs but I'll try to be better about that this year.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Oooh, just finishing it, and it's very good so far. Although I wonder how the headless guy got so much help from his side when the 'good' side wasn't so much with the help.
I like the two main leads. Not to happy with the head of police-before he made the evil face- (although why there was a police head and a sherrif?).
Like the evil pink eyed horse. lol Poor thing.
Lots of good mythology.
I like that he has a wife, so there hopefully won't be a lot of UST.
Adore how the demons move.
Looking forward to more, carefully.

Trying to figure out the structure of the police department has been hurting my head. I assume it is that Sleepy Hollow is an incorporated village which is within a town (Mount Pleasant in this case) within a county (Westchester) within the state of NY so... The Captain might be in charge of all of Mount Pleasant so nominally in charge of all the sheriffs of the incorporated villages within his township. Or he could be from the county. Hard to say. Either way, NY is WEIRD in the way it's set up.

I really appreciate the wife for that aspect too. I want Abbie and Crane to be good buddies but not romantically linked.

I assume the 'good side' is still out there- moreso than just the now dead priest, with luck they'll be seen some soon?

That horse was CREEPY. I like the use of animals. The bird that leads Ichabod around, the creepy horse, the animals released when Ichabod awoke....

Here's hoping the writers keep the tone and things go well.

haven!

ahem.

i'm not totally sold on agents of shield either, altho to be fair i've only seen the one promo that came out months ago. (i think it was the first one.) it doesn't sound like something i desperately want, altho i'll watch the pilot because everyone is all a-squee and i'm curious. who's the actress you hate?

i'm kind of impressed that all the characters on sleepy hollow who were killed (and stayed dead...) were white folks, and now all the law enforcement of rank is black folks. usually it's the other way around.

very excited for the return of elementary!

Is it Friday and time for a new Haven yet? :)

I love the diversity on Sleepy Hollow. It's something that definitely needs to be encouraged.

re: SHIELD it's Ming Na, she was hideous in SGU and the movie Push and when she returned to ER... she just tries to play the strong female but it always comes out as uber-bitch.

Hey, I just found out about this today, and I know it is relevant to your interests. Did you know they are making a movie version of Into the Woods? With, like, a pretty awesome cast (http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt2180411/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? Because they are.

Yes! I did. I'm a little confused by the casting (the wolf and the prince being played by separate people for example) but I'm still excited because it's an awesome musical. I think I've seen it performed 6 different times or something like that.

I think it makes sense to have two different actors if you have the budget for it. I saw a local university production of it, and I think they were played by two different actors. Also I wouldn't want Johnny Depp as the prince or Chris Pine as the wolf.

I actually think it will work quite well on screen, unlike some musicals. It's very brisk and snappy, so I think it'll keep the pace going. The music in it is some of my favourite of anywhere. I just hope the actors can pull it off. I've never heard Emily Blunt sing, and it's a bit of a demanding part. But I know Anna Kendrick has the pipes for Cinderella.

Traditionally, and on Broadway, there was only one because of the whole juxtaposition aspect to it. Princes aren't perfect, wolves outright evil.

It *should* work. A lot of plays/musicals transfer to film well, it depends how they go about it.

Yeah, I understand that they're supposed to be contrasted, and that both the Wolf and Prince are sort of predators. I just think that for a movie, if you can get two famous actors to draw a crowd, instead of just one, you'd do it from a money making standpoint.

I don't see a Narrator listed, now that I'm thinking about Double Roles. You can't get rid of him. One of my favourite things is when the characters decided they don't need the narrator any more. It's so clever.

Hmm, not sure how you'd have a narrator in a movie, but it does work so well on the stage. It's possible the casting is not finalized yet or something.

Well, the original production did have it looked sort of like a book coming to life on stage, right? With the pages turning as part of the sets? Or was that London? Somewhere did that. I guess you could do a similar thing for a movie. It's a lot of music to rearranged if they don't have him, though.

That must have been London.

Yeah, he's in a LOT of the songs come to think of it. I bet they'll figure out a way to work him in.

I have a book that lists musicals for community productions and how many people they'll need, pros and cons, helpful hints, etc. I remember them mentioned that somewhere had a book that opened up and the sets came out of it and the pages turned to the different sets.

This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeKF1eYuC78) is from a TV show performance of the Original London Cast, so I don't know if it's the set they used onstage or built for purpose, but you can see it's more of an illustration.

Edited 2013-09-20 00:49 (UTC)

Oh neat. The Broadway version wasn't quite like that

but then again, all sets look slightly fake.

I do love that Little Red. She's so good. The Wolf costume always freaked me out a little, though. I've seen the DVD version, but I know you saw the original cast live.

They did a revival in London recently that you can pay to stream at Digital Theatre (http://www.digitaltheatre.com/), if you're interested. I haven't done it myself, but I do have the Tennant/Tate Much Ado About Nothing, so I can verify the site is legit.

She was AMAZING, the whole cast was (not surprising I guess since it was Broadway). The DVD version is practically exactly how I remember i, if anything it's a little better because it's a little closer.

I watched the promo for it, very odd costume choices. And interesting way of setting up the set

It looks a little steampunk, that version. I like when productions mix things up a bit. The production I saw at the University had Little Red wearing a little jacket made out of the Wolf's fur during Act II, and carried a big knife and wore riding boots. And Jack kissed her before the line of 'and a pet!'. :-D

I've seen her wearing a coat or stole or something from the wolf too, it's a nice touch.

Sleepy Hollow and TV thoughts

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