S01.E01: Pilot

[formerlyfreedom]

After being resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time, Ichabod Crane finds himself in modern-day Sleepy Hollow, where he quickly realizes that evil has awoken with him. When Sheriff August Corbin is killed by the infamous Headless Horseman, Ichabod forms an unlikely bond with Detective Abbie Mills, a young cop who has her own childhood supernatural experiences. Together, the two embark on a mission to stop evil and uncover mysteries dating back to the founding of our country. Captain Frank Irving hesitates to believe Ichabod's tales of supernatural evil. But when Ichabod's former wife, Katrina, provides clues about impending evil, they all begin to realize that this town is anything but sleepy.

 

And so it begins!

 

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Thanks, and enjoy!

[HalcyonDays]

Okay, I guess I'll start, simply because I've rewatched the Pilot numerous times, it's that good. I should preface though that I didn't even know that this show was premiering, had not seen any previews for it, and had no idea what it was about. Hubby said "Hey, there a new show starting, it looks interesting, we should watch." I was like, okay, not expecting much.

 

All it took was the opening battle scene. One WORD of dialogue (Crane's name), awesome fighting, a Headless Horseman and Crane chopping off his head with a sword and I'm like "OMG - I AM IN." Just blew me away. Then the amazingly done resurrection scene and I was like. "I love this!". That was all it took to hook me into this show. Just those few minutes.

 

I loved the introduction of Abbie, with her and Corbin in the diner. Again, just a simple short scene, nothing special, but set up so much and you could SEE the close father-daughter type relationship right away. Just amazingly done and I was even more hooked.

 

There is a lot to write about the pilot and I don't want to make this post too long, so I'll just quickly overview them (because I could write pages), but you could see the chemistry between Crane/Abbie right away (I'm not talking romantic). They bounce off each other so well. The scenes in the jail cell, and when Abbie is taking him to the police car, I love the snark from Crane and the irritation from Abbie. The little bits of humour and the small bits of wonder from Crane - they didn't go overboard with it, just highlighted it, which was smart. The nice sweet scene between them when Abbie tells Crane about her sister when they are in Tarrytown. A nice little bonding scene.

 

The final scene is where I went "Holy Cow - these two have amazing chemistry!" They both walk out into the street, look at each other and BOOM! The Ichabbie shipdom was born. Because for me, that was the moment it cemented itself. That was also the moment where I was like - I HAVE to watch this show each week.

 

And the final scene with the demon in the mirror - freaked me out that I actually jumped. Very scary. Well done, show.

 

Critcisms: Lighting continuity. Because they are filming in Wilmington and outside, they obviously couldn't control the sunrise, so you can see huge diferences in lighting because of the time it took to film. One shot, Abbie and Brooks are in the dark. Next shot at the same time, it's bright outside. Next shot, it's dark again. Very noticable especially in the standoff with Headless, but noticable elsewhere too in the show.

 

The fact that Abbie is going to stay in Sleepy Hollow after some weird dressed semi-crazy British guy tells her it is her destiny. Unless it was one of those religious experiences where a voice told her to, any sane, logical person would hightail it out of SH. There was nothing of evidence - to me - that really flat out confirmed that they were to be partnered as Witnesses and the Apocalypse was to unleash. I mean really. Quantico and Career or Crazy Brit and Demons. Which would you pick?

Edited June 25, 2014 by HalcyonDays

[frenchtoast]

I remember seeing advertisements for this show and thinking it was downright ridiculous. But I tuned in because I thought that about some other shows that I loved (Chuck being a prime example) so I gave it a try. And, in entirely general terms, this is a hugely successful pilot. Despite having to dump a whole lot of exposition, characters and set up the future stories, it does it with such panache and fun, but with enough seriousness to want me to watch the rest of the series.

 

But what really caught me and made me say, out loud, "Oh, show. That was...oh show." Was when the horse riding sign was sliced and it changed the sign to a headless horseman. I just loved that in such a serious scene they had enough sense to throw in that little visual joke. It was then that I knew I was along for the ride.

Edited June 27, 2014 by frenchtoast