Started
watching the show Sleepy Hollow at
the beginning of January; we’re some months behind the USA where I know the
season finale already took place in December. I love the show; it works for me,
thanks to the superb acting of Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane, Nicole Beharie as
Abbie Mills and Orlando Jones as Frank Irving. I grew up in Tarrytown NY, the
sister town to Sleepy Hollow (which was formerly called North Tarrytown); The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written by
Washington Irving was required reading in high school. Most inhabitants of both
towns are familiar with the story of the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane.
The TV show bears little resemblance to the original story, but it’s a
cleverly-written supernatural show that works. Tonight’s episode, Sanctuary, was especially good; we now
know that Katrina, Ichabod’s wife, gave birth to a son in a house that was a
sanctuary for former slaves as well as a haven against supernatural evil
forces. The baby’s birth breaks the protective spell surrounding the house and
the evil forces invade the house. It is implied that many of the inhabitants
were killed. In the present time it is an abandoned haunted house—haunted by
good and evil ghosts, and ‘guarded’ by the ‘tree monster’ that was sent by the
demon Moloch to destroy the original inhabitants of the house. The tree monster
is awakened to life when a descendant of the original family who owned the
house overtakes it and decides to renovate it and live there. Every now and
then when I watch this show, I am (briefly) reminded of The X-Files, another favorite show of mine, because the wonderful
chemistry between the two main characters Ichabod and Abbie in Sleepy Hollow reminds me of the
chemistry between The X-Files’ Dana Scully
(played by Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (played by David Duchovny).
Still
watching The Walking Dead (and it
still gets under my skin—as in, it’s still pretty creepy after four seasons
in). It’s not so much that I’ve grown attached to any particular character; it
wouldn’t make much sense to do that, given that the show is not averse to
killing off major as well as minor characters. Again, the actors (thanks to the
writers) do a very credible job of showing us what it might be like to live in
an apocalyptic world peopled by zombies. But the show also realistically
depicts what it might be like to have to deal with other survivors who might
not be the nicest people (the Governor and his lackeys). It is one of those rare
shows where the group dynamics provide much of the reason for my watching it. I
like the interplay between the characters, their different strengths and weaknesses,
the way they depend on each other, and the way they face their fears, as well
as watching them deal with the ‘walkers’, because that’s what the show is
really about—dealing with the living dead that are always lurking about. It’s
not so much the shuffling and the way they move and look that are unnerving,
but rather the way they sound—you can hear them coming (growling) long before
they actually appear. I suppose in one way this should be advantageous, as it
gives the characters time to get away or to prepare for confrontation. On the
other hand……..
