DearEvette

Ha! Reading that Kurtzman quote is now so laughable. - “And now that the audience is invested in her" <--- since when has the audience ever been invested in her? Curious? Yes. Frustrated? Hell yes! But invested? - "fiery personality" <--- Fiery is not how I would described the personality that was displayed on the show. - "And the more we invest in her, the higher the stakes become." <--- Yeah by investing in her so much the stakes became really high for the show. Like cancellation threat high. And given that Aaron Biers pretty much admitted the Katrina arc was something they wanted to try out and did not catch on with the audience the way they wanted, I am not surprised that Orci/Kurtzman was part of it. But I still think Goffmann as showrunner bears a lot of the responsibility for the actual execution of it.

Count me in as one who liked that this episode seemed to slow down and take it's time. You simply can't sustain a break-neck pace week in/week out and have every other scene being high, high camp drama before the show and the characters all become cartoons. I like that the show stepped back and took the time to look at more of business aspect of Empire and let some of the interpersonal drama take a bit of a back seat. I also like that this episode seemed to focus on the women a bit more and let the men take a bit of a back seat. While I enjoy Cookie pwning Boo Boo, I do appreciate the deeper look we get at Annika. I can only imagine that being a debutante with a privileged background may have been somewhat of a sore point at times, what with the pre-occupation in the Hip Hop world for 'keeping it real.' And what is less real to an art form that takes it's pride from it's artists mostly being 'from the streets' that some bougie person like Annika who simply can't relate to them. While Lucious is now a rich man, he still has street cred and his kids gets a pass as well. An now here is Cookie, the ultimate representation of Hip-hop keeping-it-realdom in Annika's face. I like that Annika feels threatened by Cookie on a business level, not on a romance level. I also liked what we saw of Tianna. I had dismissed her as a little fuax-Rihanna stand in just for titillation purposes. But I liked them showing that she is focused on her career. I like that she recognized that Cookie is hungrier than Annika and would work harder for her. And I liked that she is not letting her involvement with Hakeem mess that up. In fact she is being smarter about her career than he is about his. And finally, I like the conversation between Cookie and Fatima. On one level you know Cookie was there kinda under false pretenses and playing a bit of a role. But on the other hand there was a great honesty in her conversation with Fatima about mothers raising sons. It was a really nice beat.

I think the 1.5 is the final same-day rating in the 18-49 demo for SH, not counting Live +3 or Live +7 DVR stuff. The first ratings that come out (last night was 1.4) are the fast nationals which only measure what is aired on that network in that time period across all affiliates. The final rating that comes out is after they adjust for such thing as affiliate pre-emptions, time overruns etc. so the final rating measures who actually watched that particular show. Certain things happen on certain affiliates that look like they inflate of depress ratings in the fast nationals until the adjustment is complete. We don't see the +3 and +7 for at least a week. And I don't know how twitter ratings come into play but I saw that for the first time in months that SH trended.

Ha! In that case she needs to fire her PR team. Because the first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club... er I mean, you don't cast blame ever. Either you reply with some perfectly bland 'Sleepy Hollow fans are the greatest and I love how much you support Katrina' or you pull an Orlando Jones, establish your cred as a member of the fandom and learn how to deliver your criticism via shade that sounds like comedy. But you don't respond this way which simultaneously sounds like a 'woe is me' and a 'I am doing the best I can.'

I think Henry had something to do with Frank's exoneration. Whatever is going on with him, having him on the run, locked up or constantly being hunted by the police most likely does not serve their purpose at this time. If they wanted him off the grid, they could have kept everyone believing he was still dead. But the fact that he showed up and walked into the police precinct means his being there in Sleepy Hollow and able to walk around freely is some part of the plan. One of the saddest things about S2 is that we've lost so much trust in the writers. If this season had kept on the S1 trajectory, I would have no problems believing 100% there is some long plan behind what we've seen of Frank's reappearance. If this were S1-like season, I would have no problem thinking that Frank's determination to move in with his estranged wife and his seeming eagerness to have Macy back is because of whatever they have up their sleeves. But with what has happened with S2, it is hard to speculate because nothing about this season has been clever so far or even hints at long term planning. I hope I am wrong an will be surprised. That said, I still really liked this episode.

Yeah I saw that tweet from her last night and was like... "Wha....?" I couldn't find who she was replying to. But it did set off a lot of replies to her affirming how awesome she is and how some fans are ruining the show and how people shouldn't hate on her. I get that it can't feel good that your character is not liked, but even on twitter which can get rather salty, I can't recall seeing anyone dissing her. The animus is almost 100% reserved for Katrina. And for the most part even the most disaffected fans have been really careful to maintain that distinction. Personally, I have no feeling good/bad or indifferent toward KW as a person. I do think she is a limited actress but that is a valid criticism/opinion for anyone in her profession. But like her other tweet she did before Deliverance, this feels kinda passive aggressive and it seems to show she doesn't know how to interact with critics. That said, I wonder if alluding to 'Katrina standing her own ground' is further confirmation that we are done with this wishy-washy shit and she is finally gonna be in open opposition with both Witnesses? If we have to keep her on then make her useful. And as an actual adversary for Ichabod & Abbie --especially one that he now knows either doesn't love him and/or doesn't value his love -- would be better than what we've had to suffer through.

Yeah, Cynthia's lipstick this ep was not great. I remember when we first met her last season and she was rocking a fab hat and a gorgeous shade of cinnamon red. With lucious lips like hers the right lipstick is a must. During the Kali conversation with Ichabod describing the arm positions, all I could think was they finally got an opportunity for Mison's hands to actually act! On purpose.

Forgot one thing.... when they crashed the Knox party, did Abbie make a beeline for the drinks tray and grab a drink and belt it down? I swear I saw that. LOL.

One the one hand you could figure that she is lying. On the other, it is Katrina after all. Her "magic" probably told her he was free. ha! But for real, that was a good creepy scene. I have to admit that even Katrina was nicely sinister esp. when she was asking about Frank about Henry and he way it was shot. I actually think she is playing them and plans on using Frank to get to Henry.

Oh, this was a good one. Definitely need a re-watch. - The book end Karaoke scenes. So cute. Abbie & Ichabod can both sing. And I love their song choices. Also, I love that they were hooting & hollering for each other - Abbie smiling, letting her hair down and seeming to have fun. The drinking joking foursome of Millsx2 plus Hawley & Ichabod. A lot of good stuff even before the opening credits - Ichabod's face when he sees Orion's sigil that he gave to Abbie. Mison telegraphed Ichabod's hurt so well that Abbie would depend on someone else. - Ichabod & Abbie stuck in a vault and talking out their issues. They sounded like a married couple. -Her hand on his shoulder as she explained why she didn't tell him about Orion. My feels had feels. - Abbie's pointy finger at Ichabod when they got out of the vault - Lots of Jenny Kicking ass!!! - Very tiny amount of Katrina - 'His Witch Wife' - Abbie's shade so cool, so crisp - Cynthia as a lawyer! And her uneasiness around Frank - Are we finally seeing the real shadiness of the Witch? - this ep was supposed to be about Hawley but it was drowning in Ichabbie.

Yes, i think Kerry's pregnancy contributed to her smaller role. But that is only a part of it, even with her back-burnered, the actual writing for Olivia in the terrible S3 was equally terrible. This to me is a Shonda Rhimes thing. She has a lead character but she seems to get bored with continuing to write for that character in the way that made viewers initially like that character. She did it with Meredith, Addison and Olivia. Meanwhile she will single out a supporting character that she will write for and allow their character's arc to eclipse the lead in some ways. She did this is Izzy, Charlotte, Mellie and Rowan. I don't agree completely. The biggest signifier in 70s Blaxploitation is that the setting was usually always in Urban Ghetto areas and was sereved to showcase the total and complete 'otherness' of black people from whites via living conditions, speech patterns, even sexuality. For those who believe it was exploitative in truth, then it's purpose was designed package black people for non-black gaze in a way that negatively reinforces black stereotypes. While I do agree that reality tv seems to work within this framework somewhat. It is important to note that the predominantly black reality shows aren't actually showing or doing anything differently than their white counter-parts. In fact the black women on the shows look, speak, act and live almost exactly the same as their white counterparts in the same shows. So in reality we aren't seeing anything really 'othered' in these shows except the black skin on the participants. I think a show like Empire that is set in a Hip Hop musical scene would easily draw a knee-jerk reaction to that, but I don't agree that it is inherently exploitative. If anything the show is a retread of almost every glossy night-time soap that has ever graced tv and with predominantly white casts. In fact I don't see any real difference in story content between Nashville -- set in the country music scene -- and in Empire. Distilled to their plot elements, Nashville (with mothers in prisons, abusive parents, drug abuse, alcoholism. closeted gay performers etc.) is as soapy as Empire. But Empire becomes the subject of a ton of think pieces, while Nashville is allowed to simply be. What disturbs me isn't so much that people are discussing race & representation wrt to Empire, but that its' artistic validity as a 'good' show is immediately suspect because it is predominantly cast with black characters and is set in Hip Hop. In some ways this is analogous to a lot of the reaction when Kerry Washington got nominated for her Emmy. Her validity as a viable nominee was almost immediately questioned. Her acting was scrutinized to a degree a lot of the other nominees weren't. She 'took' Tatiana Maslany's place. It was a given that all of her white co-nominees were legit, their validity wasn't questioned. Anything that could be considered contributing to a ratings success becomes trendy in TV. I will say though that Season 1 of Sleepy Hollow, Abbie was not written peripherally. As a matter of fact her family and her background was important and integral to the mythology of the show. Nicole Beharie was cast before Mison and all the actors who read for Ichabod had to chem test with her. And she was important because Sleepy Hollow is a genre show. It is unheard of a black woman to be the lead of a genre show on a major network. Genre shows that deal primarily with science fiction/fantasy elements that appeal to geek/nerd culture have a fandom that are not kind to women to begin with and even more not kind to WOC. Gina Torres who playe Zoe in Firefly & Danai Gurira who plays Michonne from Walking Dead are notable exceptions, but neither of these women are leads by any stretch of the imagination. Before Nicole Beharie, Salli Richardson who played Allison in Eureka was probably the closest thing to a black female lead in a SF show, but she definitely was not lead billed. And Allison was not popular with a large contingent of fans for awhile. But yeah, season 2 of Sleepy Hollow pushed Abbie in the background. But she has a HUGE fanbase even across genders/races and amongst tv critics and, it is rumored Fox loves her. That is rather groundbreaking in and of itself. A twitter campaign made the writers sit up and take notice so if the get a S3, that probably won't happen again.

IKR? I just can't with all the acclaim for Downton Abbey. It is a soap opera in period costume and British accents. But still a soap. I think that it helps that they only have to worry about acting. So no screenwriting or directing or cinematography etc. Just acting awards. In reality they probably had to make it about TV and Movies just to fill a two hour stretch. I am pleased by all the wins except William H. Macy, Kevin Spacey and Downton Abbey. I think Shameless could do without his character and not miss a beat. To add insult to injury, Emmy Rossum can't even get a nomination. Frances McDormand, otoh, killed as Olive Kittredge. I also would have given the statue to Matthew McCaunaghey over Spacey. i think his work in True Detective was much more nuanced. In truth, Matthew riveted me to the screen. Spacey...the character of Frank Underwood is more interesting that the portrayal of him, imo.

I did a re-watch trying to make sure to watch objectively. On first watch I was so pre-disposed to dislike the Katrina/Ichabod crime-solving partnership that I wondered if I was just allowing myself to be too negative. While I still think the special effects are the thing that really saved the A-plot, I as able to make some deeper observations about the episode. - The one scene where Katrina and Ichabod are looking at the other couple as they grab ass. The facial expressions on Ichabod's face vs. Katrina's face is very telling. He looks superior and a little cheeky. He's telling her something. Giving her some intel about this new time. Mison is selling it as usual. Winter, otoh, doesn't change expression. She should looked a little shocked, maybe. Metaphorically clutching her pearls? Nope. She looks like she is waiting for her line. - Did 18th century women wear 3 inch heels? Cuz girlfriend was wearing those pumps like a pro. - Abbie's marksmanship. I didn't notice it in first watch. but she put her bullets in the hanging man in the painting in a perfect cross: head, heart, groin, left arm, right arm. Such precision. - I will admit that the last conversation between Ichabod and Katrina where she says she misses her friend Abigail and then Ichabod gives the speech about them trying to make their way ..or whatever... I thought that was the realest the two seemed together since their argument on the Weeping Lady episode and the best acting Winter has done since that episode as well. It was a good scene. It felt authentic. Too bad it came so late. - Putting aside the chemistry problems between Katrina & Ichabod, I think this episode tried to do something they should have done much earlier in S2. It attempted to look at Katrina's own problems with adjusting to this time & some of her loneliness. I actually found myself feeling a little sympathy. It felt like Katrina wants to go back to the 1700s while Ichabod wants to stay here. For a moment there she felt a bit human and not just a walking trope. - From the time Irving appeared, Abbie went 100% guarded. The whole time Nicole's Beharie's body language, facial expression, speech patterns all felt 'closed.' It is like Abbie put herself & her emotions on lockdown, like she couldn't trust herself to even try to relax & believe Frank. The only time she seem at all relaxed was when she was talking to Crane on the phone. On first watch it felt like Abbie just felt off and I chalked it up to the oddness of the Ichabod & Abbie separation, but on second watch it felt more like a deliberate acting choice. If there hadn't already been so many MOTW episodes this season and and if I wasn't already completely over how much focus we've already had on Katrina, I might have like this more than I did. That said, I did like it a tick more on re-watch.

hu·bris ˈ(h)yo͞obrəs/ noun: hubris excessive pride or self-confidence. synonyms: arrogance, conceit, haughtiness, hauteur, pride, self-importance, egotism, pomposity, superciliousness, superiority; What I am mainly getting from all of this is that Goffman is a very bad showrunner with a writing room that feels like it is filled with just out of writing school amateurs and who because of all of the critical and fan-love from S1 they developed a sense of Hubris that they could do what they wanted in S2 an everyone would be on board with it no matter what. Even worse, when confronted with criticism & declining ratings, rather than reacting to it like professionals they should be they reacted to it with all the arrogance that Hubris gives them. Goffman's response was to continue to hard-sell his vision of Katrina, convinced that as long as he talked about her enough & showcased her enough, we'd all be converted (even against growing evidence that nobody cared about his vision or his boy boner with the character). The writers' response was to lash out, showing how immature they really are. I don't get the sense that there was some agenda to quietly rid the show of the black actors or really even to reduce Nicole's role. But I do get the sense that Goffman came in with an agenda for S2 and was writing for it rather than for their story. And in his arrogance he lost sight of the story, the characters, the actors and the audience. In Greek tragedy, the character Icarus whose own Hubris made him challenge the gods, got his wings nipped and he crashed and burned back to earth. We can only hope this is what happens to Goffmann.

I think it is hysterical that all we do is watch the show and we remember more details while these people write the show and can't. I'd almost say it was the fault of new writers but Goffman himself wrote the Golem episode and a S1 writer wrote this one. Yeah, I don't think they'll kill her either. But if they send her off with Abraham nobody can complain because it is book canon.

In the last episode, Ep. 13, the one with the painting, Abigail Adams congratulates Katrina on her pregnancy and mentions Ichabod will be so happy. But in the Golem episode, Katrina told Ichabod she didn't find out she was pregnant until after he was dead. A lot of people caught this and called it out as a lapse in continuity. I did too. But I am wondering if it really was deliberate. Given Tom Mison's recent interviews where he seems to be hinting that he finds out something rather big that affects the Crane marriage, and given that Katrina has lied to Crane before, I wonder if that is somehow related? Also the 'let's try to work it out' at the end of the Ep. 13 may just be setting Ichabod up for a fall. A girl can dream. I really want Ichabod to really see Katrina for the lying liar she is and not just see her through his nostalgia glasses.

Ha! You are so right. The absurdity of this show is such that I really didn't even question it.... Of course they know who Puma is? Don't err'body?

“I want to know who the hairy dingleberry had dinner with last night.” - Lucious

With last night's episode, I officially like them as a couple. I can't wait for what we learn next about them. Exhibition & Voyeurism? D/s (with him being the sub)? And yeah, I think it would be kind of interesting to see Rhonda and Cookie form a relationship that wasn't necessarily based around the Lyon struggle for power but as a recognition of one kinda of predator to another.

I don't know that we can look at Cookie's current mode of parenting as actual parenting, though. She missed the kids' formative years for the most part. These are now grown men who had already developed their own personalities in her absence. She was in prison on drug charges and was expected to be in there for at least 10 more years. She had no power to force anyone to do anything. She could insist, rail, threaten etc. but she couldn't really do anything. In the end, Lucious was the custodial parent. It was in his power and his alone to make sure the kids had some sort of relationship with their mother. In reality, what can Cookie do as a parent to these men? She can beat Hakeem with a broom all day, but in the end what would that really accomplish? Only Jamal is really receptive to her even on a person-to-person level, nevermind as a son to a mother. It is human nature to want to feel needed. In this case I think Cookie figures Hakeem and Dre don't need her as much as Jamal does. Maybe as the show goes on she'll realize that each of her other sons in their own way need her as well.

I am 100% TeamCookie, but you are right, I am liking seeing that Annika has some claws too. Although, pulling out Debutante cred as a threat is rather...lame. Her delivery was fab, but Cookie been in prison for 17 years. Has Annika not watched Oz? I know rich chicks can be underhanded and cut-throat but there is a whole other animal layer of survival and cunning in a prison. The knowledge that you dressed up for a Cotillion just doesn't inspire as much fear. But baby steps. I am still here for a more level playing field and long as Cookie triumphs the most. Also, Dre & Rhonda's marriage seems like it works. It feels like the show is side-stepping cliches with them. They feel like a a kinkier and scarier Ice-T and Coco. I loved all the cameos. Naomi Campbell strutting in in her gold shorts-jumpsuit just about had me singing a hymn. She is fab. I liked the Agent Carter scenes. That actress and Taraji had some fun chemistry,

Yeah, that isn't the writers that is whatever intern they have doing the FB page Whoever does the FB page is basically in love with Ichabod and must have gotten a memo to include more Abbie and this was the result. Sigh.

Came across a tweet from the Kurtzman/Orci productions twitter handle which says starting ep 15 they 'start a new storyline' that drives everything to the final. But they started making changes at tail end of ep.14 So there is some evidence that there was absolute response to backlash and ep. 14 is the earliest they were able to address it. Apparently with so much in the can already I can only guess how much work they had to do to re-conceive the last parts. And since they just wrapped production it seems likely there was some stuff happening right up to the end. I will say that that particular twitter account @abaiers is very responsive and respectful to the fans (the tweet was response to a fan inquiry). Huge contrast to that one writer who called fans 'haters' and who I saw was listed not only as a writer, but also an EP for the show in last night's episode.

This is TV show preservation. In The Sanctuary episode Ichabod finds a copy of 'Gulliver's Travels' siting right there on the rotting floor. Only thing is, that was Katrina's copy because it had an inscription so we conveniently learn that Katrina has been in that house. But the book, despite being basically exposed to air, sun, dirt, moisture etc. for 200 years was perfectly fine. So yeah. TV show preservation.

On some reflection I think I am going to try to re-watch this. I think I had mentioned before that I can't just relax and watch Sleepy Hollow anymore, I keep waiting to be disappointed. Now that I've gotten through it and know what to expect I think I can watch it now. I did like the painting stuff and would like to watch that more closely just to wallow in the creep factor. I will say, though, once again it bums me out that we get indications that Ichabod actually has a social life while Abbie is being portrayed as this joyless work horse. I mean we know that Ichabod has/had friends amongst the re-enactors and now we know he actually was buds with historical society guy. And he actually takes time out to go on a social date. Meanwhile there has been no indication that Abbie has any friends ... at all. She helps Ichabod get ready and it is strongly implied she took Katrina shopping (I thought I read somewhere there was a scene of that.... probably got cut), but she goes back to the office and works. Fine we don't need to see her doing jello shots and dancing on bars, but it would be nice to know she too has some interests. Hell, show her shooting at the range for shits and giggles if we want to keep her bad-ass cred intact. Or at least have her chilling at home with a big glass of wine while she is reading Grace's journals. But throw us a bone at least.