What the Hell is Going on with Sleepy Hollow? Vote Here
There is an enlightening article in Entertainment Weekly in which Fox TV chairman and CEO Dana Walden shares her answers on how to fix our beloved show. I did not find her answers comforting and then had to sip a ginger ale to quell the resulting nausea. I may follow up with a Tylenol because the whole thing is giving me a headache. I need to hear from Sleepy Heads about what’s to blame for the dismal ratings. We’ve written about what we think needs to be fixed on Sleepy Hollow. Cast your vote below.
Elaine is the chief editor of TV Recappers' Delight. She's an experienced entertainment reporter, reviewer, editor, blogger, columnist and Bon Vivant.
You should have included whitewashing in that poll.
Between focus on both Hawley and Katrina and really that entire storyline of Crane Drama while dropping dangling storylines with Macey, Irving, Cynthia, Jenny, Luke (what happened to him?) and heck even Reyes, who they introduced but never developed!! With very few exceptions, the ENTIRE SEASON focus on white storylines.
This wouldn’t be a problem, if they hadn’t completely dropped the ones for characters of color, because at least the audience could tune in for Irving’s relationship with Macey, if Hawley didn’t work. Or they could tune in for Jenny and Abbie’s development, if Katrina didn’t work. But as it was. The season focused most of their energy on white storylines and very obviously dropped the ones for characters of color.
All of those storylines for white people they focused on both old and new, ALL flopped hard. Joe Corbin could have scored and well as Caroline, but they were mishandled. And I weep at the waste of an immense talent like John Noble.
I don’t understand why they chose not let audiences know what happened to Macey after her possession, or we never saw a family visit or Ichabbie try to break Irving out? Why did we never find out what happened to Luke? Actually, I think I know the answer to those questions and it makes me sick.
That “wider audience” they were trying to get? They thought wouldn’t care unless the faces on the screen were white, quality of the stories be damned.
I can’t argue with any of this. The show was a surprise hit with fans and garnered praise from the critics. No idea why any sane staff would tamper with that. Just wait until “Empire’s” Cookie is recast with Jennifer Aniston.
So true! I’ve been keeping tabs on what characters are “taking up too much time” and it’s always Katrina or other white characters. Of course, if we kill off Katrina or otherwise maker her incapable of being a wife or team member, they’re willing to let the other white characters stay. I happen to adore the tender love story between Crane and his wife. It’s so rare to see love portrayed with this devotion on modern shows. However, I do agree that Katrina is getting the short end of the stick here. The faction that demands her removal, also demands that she be more proactive, which is impossible since they also demand she be removed. No wonder the writers (whom I hope are doing their best) are confused. I agree Crane/Abbie have chemistry and make great partners, but Crane has just as much chemistry (when time allots) with Katrina. The supporting characters should remain as such. Irving’s divorce left me really cold. Why? Which prompts another question. Why are writers having so much trouble getting Katrina and Crane back to being a couple? Just do it. Most of us enjoy them and look forward to the team being complete.
Oh, and I do have a problem with an actor on the show directing these nasty women as to how to make life on twitter miserable for the rest of us. How is that helping anyone?
Hi Sandra,
Even though, I’m critical of Katrina, I’m glad you’re here to offer another view. I think Katrina is woefully underdeveloped and was set up for failure. In the first season, her purpose was to be rescued. Now that she’s out of Purgatory, we haven’t seen this powerful witch we were promised. The writers have presented her as a liar and fickle on top of it. I have no idea why they came up with the dalliance with Abraham. Don’t Ichatrina fans find that annoying? I think that Team Katrina should be shaking their fists at the writers (or meddling execs) too. Even though Team Ichabbie and Team Ichatrina are at odds, we are united in hoping the show gets a third season.
I think a large group would like to think this is true. However, watching the show, I don’t see anything but Crane and black faces. I know it was advertised as a diverse show. And I expected that characters would be black and white. I never expected that it would need to be a completely black show in order for this group to invest. They have zeroed in on poor Katia as the reason for their discontent, because she is the only white female on the show and they think that the main character (Crane) should be available for their hero, (Abbie). I fell like the old lady on the tv commercial saying, “That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works”. The vision was to have Crane and his wife as part of the team and frankly, I’d like to see that become a reality. Why are we so stalled on this? Distain on one character based on her color is not diversity, it’s entitlement and I’m seeing it pushed down the throats of some very nice guys who just want to tell the story. Abbie is our POV, the Cranes and their family are a main part of the story and I got that from season one. If the color of Crane’s wife bothers you, then maybe BET is where you belong.
Sandra, “I don’t see anything but Crane and black faces” sounds pretty racist to me.
I spoke about characters of color and named them, talked about who they are and their story proportions. Same with white characters and actors like John Noble.
The phrasing “black faces” indicates that you don’t see individual characters, but a sea of blackness, which repulses you. I mentioned both Luke and Reyes by name, who are both Hispanic characters, not black, hence characters of color.
I don’t know about about this faction you’re talking about, but I’m guessing from your distaste with black faces and your mention of BET that they are probably black.
This vision you talk about doesn’t seem to be the writers vision. The writing this season has dismantled Crane’s marriage and made Katrina out to be untrust-worthy in a variety of ways. From siding with the Horseman to covering up the death of Crane’s betrothed, nothing the writers have done indicates that they meant to adhere to this vision you have of Katrina and Ichabod.
You know, I had heard that Katrina fans were pretty racist, but I doubted it until I read your reply.
Wow. I’m just stunned that people like you exist. You are really giving the very few fans of the Katrina character a bad name.
Right, Lady J, because your “white-washing” comment wasn’t racially charged at all. Until all sides of the race war cease with the hypocrisy, it’s always going to be pot meet kettle. While I do not agree with Sandra’s comment, I will uphold her right to voice her opinion, same as everyone else here. The show hinted and then painted in broad strokes, a husband-wife team and how that vibe would play between the developing relationship between the messengers. Then, in a drawn-out painful season, they undermined all of the groundwork they established in season 1, made Catriona the ‘fall guy’, and are now trying to re-create the show. I can understand why some fans are upset.
That aside, in my humble opinion, the show has hit a slump and will continue to slide. The producers took a popular myth, decided to put a diverse spin on it, then added a slew of history on top of that. It’s a formula similar to ABC’s ‘Forever’, which drew me in and kept me entertained, the same with season 1 of ‘Sleepy Hollow’. Now, I’m limping along with the rest and hoping the show can recover. The idea isn’t the problem. The writing, while at times clichéd, isn’t the over-whelming problem either. It’s the repeated formula of a show that induces intellect. Unfortunately, the majority of American television watchers wish to be mindlessly entertained and loathe anything that makes them think. The show is becoming more high brow and while someone like myself immensely enjoys that, it turns the average viewer off. Unfortunately, if it continues in that vein, while it will have a cult following among like-minded individuals, it will go the same route as all the other shows that have previously followed that formula.
Sandra, you had the nerve to claim reverse racism as the reason why the majority of fans dislike the character of Katrina when you’re the biggest racist trolling fansites to spew your hatred of Abbie/Nicole and black people (especially women) in general. Everything about your comment above typifies your bigoted, myopic and entitled view on race. I find it hard to believe you actually watch the show if you believe there was ever a time Ichabod was the lone white character on the show. Even in season 1 when the show was diverse, there was Sheriff Corbin, Rev Knapp, Abraham van Brunt, Katrina, Devon Jones, the Masons, Henry Parish and a host of side characters, villains and those that appeared in the colonial flashbacks that were all white.
This show was advertised as a ‘diverse show’ in the first season (which it lived up to), so it isn’t unreasonable for fans to have expected this to carry over into season 2. This didn’t happen hence the uproar. Plus the use of harmful tropes such as ‘the black best friend/sidekick,’ ‘the mammy,’ and the ‘strong independent black woman,’ that the show did a good job of straying away from in its inception. It wouldn’t have been so glaring if characters that fans care about and were invested in were given equal screen time, character development and their stories told instead of being pushed aside for these new characters. Added to that was their boring storylines and the one-dimensionality.
When 98% of the people on television are white, why is it such a tall order to want representation and to see characters like oneself in genre shows when typically non-white people are woefully unrepresented on these shows? If Sleepy Hollow is indeed cancelled, you have many shows at your disposal to replace it with. That isn’t the case for black genre fans, which is why this show was unique and so special to us.
Lastly, to reduce this all to shipping is reductive and an obvious attempt to derail the conversation. Sleepy Hollow lost its way due to bad writing, lack of continuity and world building, upending the show’s mythology, introducing useless characters and not developing the existing ones, and most importantly deviating from a winning formula that worked: the two Witnesses [Abbie AND Ichabod] together stopping the apocalypse.
Have you lost your mind? This show was NOT about Crane’s love for his family, this show was about the witnesses fighting the apocalypse. They’ve zeroed in on poor Katrina because they put her in the center of the entire mythology trying to make her relevant. Face it the show worked with Beharie as the co lead. One damn show that isn’t centered around a white woman and this is what you get. white women who have had every incarnation of a heroine and one woman a black woman gets this opportunity and you have a fit. The show worked, without making Katrina the center, now they have and it sucks. Sorry people aren’t enamored with that character. Why should they be? Disdain for one character because of her color? God Katrina fans are truly disturbed.
I don’t generally respond to stupid racist remark but, let me take this on.. First the show was wildly diverse during the season 1 you had 5 white, 2 blacks, 1 bi-racial ,1 asian, and1 latino. and most of the people surrounding them was just as diverse. So i don’t get it when you says that Crane was surrounded by blacks… then we move on to season 2 where the diversity has been completely thrown out of the window.. yea in the credits you see 3 whites faces and 2 1/2 blacks but are you still saying there is more black faces there I don’t get that. Matter of fact they added on more white face to show Hawley who has more screen time then Jenny and Irving combine.. not to mention what about the white guy that played Ben Franklin,..ooo wait and how about the all the guest stars or was white.. I mean Abraham, Orion, Caroline, Benedict Arnold, and we can’t forget about poor dear Mary all white so you was saying that Crane is surrounded by what.. (white people) No one is zeroing in on poor Katia because she the only white female on the show or that for some reason in your little mind that she is getting in the way of Abbie being with Crane. Whether you know it or not most people stop caring about them being (Abbie&Ichabod) being together after the remarks was made that they would not be going down that road.. So don’t think it is the Ichabbie shippers who messed up this once brilliant show but, the writers inability to make the character Katrina likeable to some viewers. If it was their vision to make her to apart of the team then i must say the did it poorly because all they did was make her seem like she the worst witch since Aunt Clara or Aunt Esmerlda on Bewitched.
And if want romance and all that other stuff then i suggested you either to turn to one of the other TV stations on network or cable television better still why don’t you go watch the CW they have nothing but whites on it.
I don’t think Katrina is the problem and we don’t need to color count for a solution. Sleepy Hollow left its audience with whiplash at the start of season two–when season one ended with Abbie trapped in a pink Purgatory dollhouse, and season two kicked off with Abbie in a Purgatory cabin with Crane and no mention of the dollhouse whatsoever. Clearly the new show runners had their own direction in mind for the show and damn the original story arc that had already been set in motion; left those plans hanging and moved on as if season two were a different show. Problem is, season one was a better show than season two. The amazing chemistry and growing bond between the leads; their fight against evil (even as they discovered the extent of their roles in that fight); the history, mystery, action…all of this made for great fun entertaining television. And it has been thinned out and watered down this season. I’d like to see Sleepy Hollow return to playing off that easy chemistry and delving back into unravelling mysteries with a bit of action, ok a lot of action, thrown in. I mean, so what Moloch is gone? Who says that means the Apocalypse is averted? Seven years is seven years!
I just want this show to have the chance to live up to the promise of the first season.
As a Buffy/Whedon fanatic, I believe in the value of an Apocalypse. Buffy had to avert one just about every season. It doesn’t have to be the weekly focus, but I want some End of Days.
Even the most obtuse Katrina fan should see that her character has been botched this season! You have Katrina herself in S1 and S2 admitting to lies, going behind her husband’s back and dropping passive-aggressive manipulative comments (God that “Abraham used to give me quince tea” comment really grated!) Being the most unpowerful witch this side of the hemisphere. And wanting to redeem Henry and Abraham – at the expense of the Witnesses bond – is ridiculously naive for a woman who supposedly battled forces of evil for a long time. The Katrina problem has been at the heart of S2 droop in ratings; there are other issues as well, it’s not just her, but she’s a big part of it. I hope the writers are setting up Katrina for a big reveal at season finale, otherwise this is just a giant facepalm.
And Sandra, I’m black and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’re not black, possibly even white. You know, comments like these,
“I don’t see anything but Crane and black faces…I never expected that it would need to be a completely black show in order for this group to invest. They have zeroed in on poor Katia as the reason for their discontent, because she is the only white female…Distain on one character based on her color is not diversity, it’s entitlement and I’m seeing it pushed down the throats of some very nice guys who just want to tell the story…If the color of Crane’s wife bothers you, then maybe BET is where you belong.”
are so out of place and denigrating that this indicates maybe challenges on your end to see from others’ points of view.
You make it seem as if ppl who have issues with Katrina are all black, when some of the most ardent Ichabbie shippers are not black. Many, many, MANY TV critics, who are not black, have a problem with Katrina and her dead weight screen time. I get it, she’s your fav and you did admit that the writers haven’t stuck by her, but to write off other ppl’s opinions as disgruntled, mostly blacks who just want Abbie to get Katrina’s man is patronising, idiotic and completely out of touch with what MANY have identified as the drag for this season.
Sleepy Hollow’s 1st attracted a wide demographic because of, wait for it, diverse characters. Is it too much to ask that it continue in the second, while still expanding Katrina’s role in TeamApocalypse? Frankly, minor characters (of race and screen time) have not been handled well in Sleepy’s world, even from the halcyon days of S1. Remember Reverend Knapp? Luke? Macey and Cynthia? Heck, even Corbin? Remember waaaaayyyy back to the Pilot when Corbin and Knapp acknowledged each other in the diner? It would have been very interesting to have the Team discover their allegiance, writings, demon-defeating manuals….whatever…. or show flashbacks with them fighting evil. Joe Corbin’s introduction into the team would have been great; instead we get Hawley