Sleepy Hollow
How do we make Sleepy Hollow even more like The X Files? Why, Abby was bound for Quantico! Of course! I thought I’d mention that because I’m having fun comparing these things to shows I know and love.
This episode was actually quite an improvement over the first. It looks like there will be a new “let’s stop the apocalypse” mission to accomplish every week, and this week was stopping a witch from regaining a body to wreak havoc across the Hollow.
Crane is definitely a smart man–he’s catching on quickly to the 21st century. Complaining about the taxes, learning the vernacular of the times. I mean, he was sort of a savant detective back in the original story anyway, so it makes sense he would be able to fit in and make it work anywhere, and any time.
Memes: something they win, sometimes they’re really terrible.
John Cho died, but the Horseman has reanimated him to help him bring about the apocalypse. I’m still feeling the vibe of tableaux and messengers from Dexter with this line of plot, but it’s working to tell the story on the show, so I can make note of it, but I can’t really complain about them ripping anything off. Cho makes quite a convincing dead man, and he’s actually a little scary (random train of thought: “Bones says to Sulu: Remind me never to piss you off!”), so that works too.
One thing that’s kind of cool is that Crane and some of these dead/interworldly people speak different languages like Greek and Latin. You can’t do apocalypse without discussing the prophesies in an ancient language.
The thing that’s kind of silly is that the subtitles they put up. They’re in this weird font that’s a little hard to read if you’re not paying attention (or if you’re near-sighted like I am). No idea why they thought the ancient languages would be more ominous or convincing if the subtitles were in this weird archaic-looking font, but seriously, it’s not necessary. Hear me, Fox? Put it in Helvetica!
Anyway, since I don’t think Mom is going to stick, I may tune in for the second half of Sleepy Hollow on Monday nights after 2 Broke Girls. It has some potential. Plus apocalypses remind me of Buffy/Angel, so that’s just a bonus.
The Blacklist
I really expected to like this show better than Hostages. Wrong again. The director’s an ass (in this episode anyway), they WAY underutilized Spader, they paraded the tech instead of the actors (Spader’s not the only one they underutilized), and they managed to rip off Silence of the Lambs for the millionth time. Way to go, NBC! You already made Hannibal, did you really have to use the same playbook for Blacklist?
Spader plays Raymond Reddington, a man on the FBI’s 10 most wanted, who wanders into headquarters one morning knowing he’ll be identified and surrounded by armed men in under 3 minutes. Once in custody, in a Hulk-like glass container (remember? Ant, boot. Avengers!), Spader requests to speak with Agent Keen, a woman just starting her first shift at the FBI that very day. Coincidence? I think not.
This is Elizabeth Keen: wannabe show-stealer.
Keen is married to a nice guy, they’re planning to adopt a child, and she’s quite pretty. Not particularly extraordinary, as far as we can tell, but Reddington must have seen something in her to request her participation in his case.
The story is that Reddington wants to help the FBI catch some of the most wanted criminals in the world, whether they’re on the wanted list or not, and use Keen to help him do it. These people are on his “blacklist”, hence the name.
I say they ripped off Silence of the Lambs: Spader meets Keen face to face, his cage removed, but he’s still handcuffed and restrained. He asks for a quid pro quo, without saying those words. It’s the exact same thing, except Reddington isn’t a psychotic cannibalistic serial killer. He’s just a psychotic world-class criminal.
It was pretty cool to see Harry Lennix (Echo’s original handler in Dollhouse) on TV again. I couldn’t place the name, but I knew the voice. It’s pretty distinctive. But like I said, they completely underutilized their actors in this show. Except for Keen, who is possibly the worst actor on the show–she got tons of screentime and lines. Not to say she’s a terrible actor–I’ve seen worse. But when you have James Spader, when you’re promoting the show on his merits, you don’t put some unknown chick up for 60 percent of the scenes instead.
Here’s Lennix: recognize him? #whedony #dollhouse
I’m not sure I want to keep watching this. The premise alone, catching “blacklist” criminals, hasn’t convinced me, and the fact that Keen seems to be more of a main character than Spader, or Lennix, makes me angry. She’s not interesting. I’m not rooting for her. I like her husband, but that’s not enough. We’ll see if week two is any better, but if not, away it goes.
Dads
Yeah, that’s it. I’m not watching this show. I wanted to like it, but you make Giovanni Ribisi into a jester and we’re not friends anymore. The man is funny as hell, but he does not belong on a sitcom. His comedic talents fit better in a different type of show. Something more subtle. Ironic. Seth Green does great on a sitcom, but this one just isn’t very good.
The jokes don’t land most of the time, and having a “pot-off” with your sixty-something fathers doesn’t count as comedy. Sorry, Fox. You lose.
I wonder if it gets confusing having an “Andre”
and an “Andy” on set, with both as main characters…
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
This one on the other hand is still totally funny! I really hope it stays on Hulu so I can stick with it.
In this episode, there’s a tagger going around drawing penises on cop cars and Det. Peralta (Samberg) has a plan to catch him in the act. Captain Holt (Braugher) is still trying to get Jake to adhere to a higher level of protocol, but Jake’s trying to remain true to himself while doing the minimum requirements.
Peralta takes his time putting together the paperwork on the tagger once they catch him, being annoyingly thorough thinking it will convince Holt that such amount of detail is a waste of time. However, his thoroughness shows that the tagger is the son of a bigwig in the department, and Peralta realizes that he has to let the kid go if he wants to have a career for the next thirty or so years.
Holt, however, doesn’t play departmental politics. He says it’s up to Jake if he wants to book the kid or let him go. Though the kid’s father tries to throw his weight around when Jake finally decides to send the kid up, Holt comes to Jake’s defense. He’s been an openly gay police officer for thirty years. Threats don’t faze him.
Like I said last week: teamwork. This show has the serious, let’s-work-together thing going, but it still sticks all the jokes and comedy.
Up Next:
Apparently USA Today loves The Blacklist. Which raises the question why USA Today hasn’t called to hire me to review television series instead. “Fall’s best new drama,” they said. My ass. Agents of SHIELD is fall’s best new drama if anything is. They got the best ratings for a drama since 2009. Anyway, on to the schedule ahead!
Recaps of Wednesday night’s premieres, Back in the Game (spoiler: it was AWESOME!) and Nashville, plus the Friday night premiere of Five-0 are up next.
Sunday night, Revenge returns and the series premiere of Betrayal follows. Check your listings!
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