Forever vs. Sleepy Hollow
So, I'm behind on my shows, as sometimes (read: usually) happens. I am never first on the bandwagon. I decided to fix part of that this evening. I headed over to Hulu and watched the pilots of Selfie, Forever and Sleepy Hollow. So, spoilers, everyone.
Selfie is what it is, (John Cho, why you in two of these?) and since I am predisposed to enjoy Karen Gilliam and John Cho, I'll tune it in to see if the show finds its feet.
Forever and Sleepy Hollow form funny companion pieces, which I think will prove the reason one is unlikely to survive, and the other has proved a success. Why? Because while Forever isn't bad, it's certainly regressive.
Side by side:
Forever opens up with the death of a hot blonde cellist by the hands of the antagonist.
Sleepy Hollow opens up with the death of a crusty old white sheriff by the hands of the antagonist.
Our white male protagonist raises from the dead in Forever.
Our white male protagonist raises from the dead in Sleepy Hollow.
In Forever we meet our female protagonist, a white lady cop who is escaping a tryst.
In Sleepy Hollow meet our female protagonist a black lady deputy who is talking to her boss.
Forever's WMP is keeping a secret and lying to everyone.
Sleepy Hollow's WMP is telling the truth to everyone.
In Forever, WLC suspects WMP of crime, he logics out of her silly suspicions to hide his undying.
In Sleepy Hollow BLS accepts WMP story, with caveats.
In Forever, the WMP is world weary and knows everything about everyone.
In Sleepy Hollow, the WMP is out of time and knows nothing.
In Forever, the WMP has a blonde wife in his past whom he has outlived, who probably died tragically.
In Sleepy Hollow, the WMP has a redhead wife in his past whom he has outlived, who probably died tragically.
WLC investigates and gets nowhere until WMP comes to help her out, hold her hand and guide her to the answer, though why he was with her, don't even know.
BLS investigates and locates a cache of info in the Sheriff's office. She takes him out of holding recognizing him as a source and works with him.
Forever's WMP tells WLC what her story is.
Sleep Hollow's WMP asks BLS what her story is.
Forever and Sleepy Hollow then open up a larger set of events in play.
The WMP in Forever then knows exactly what the Bad Guy in question will do, and goes to thwart him, which he does singlehandedly, with WLC getting shot in the process and damseled.
The BLS and WMP in Sleepy Hollow come together, each with their own resources to thwart the Bad Guy, both acting bravely.
Forever ends with WLC inexplicably asking the WMP she found creepy to work with her full time.
Sleepy Hollow ends with outside forces, those of circumstance and possibly destiny, asking the BLS and the WMP to work together.
In Forever our axillary characters are; an older Jewish male, a young white male, and, on the fringes, a mid-aged black female and mid-aged white male.
In Sleepy Hollow our axillary characters are; a young Asian male, a mid-aged black male.
Both involve conversations with our white male protagonists pointing how, despite their historical milieus, they are totes against slavery.
Both involve a speshul dude who has been rendered magical for Important Reasons.
Both involve a race to stop something.
Forever is treading that cliched old ground 'I gotta lie to my girlfriend for REASONS' which Clark Kent has been singing for a century. While in this certain story, yeah, there are valid reasons, the fact is, it's so tired you wonder why they bother. Yet again, it's another cat and mouse game between men who have the manpain of living fo-eeevaaaah. Didn't we already do this with Highlander? With his one friend he raised from a baby and collecting shit from all those years? It's all so trite, and it doesn't bother to save itself by being interesting or quirky. It's a police procedural stitched onto a fantasy show, which you can do, but it's a tenuous balance of making things interesting enough to keep the fantasy folks engaged, and not too weird for the Law&Order folks. Forever errs on the side of being 75% Dr. Henry Morgan, but filming his undying bits like a police procedural.
Now, I think Ioan Gruffud is adorable, and his charm floats some of my objections to this character, but with his charming British accent and horrifically pointed scarves, he's so obviously Sherlock lite it was awkward to watch. However, he is perfectly pleasant, except the show refuses to acknowledge how fucking ANNOYING and INVASIVE his behavior is, as BBC's Sherlock does.
For example, the way they open this show is for Dr. Morgan to sit down next to a blond, greet her in her native language, identify her job and her event for the day. Since this is TV land, she's charmed, and invites him out, making it all the more tragic that she dies pointlessly a few seconds later. If this were real life, she'd call him a creeper and move seats. Because he is. An unpleasant creeper who loves to boast about all he knows, apparently.
Don't quit Bones, Joel David Moore.
I know I watched this, but I honestly can't fathom what happened for forty five minutes, except Ioan crawling out of assorted bodies of water, being an articulate snot to Jo and having flashbacks. The weird thing about the flashbacks is that, while Henry is reading O INSPIRTATIONAL VOICEOVER, they are so much just about him, and his feelings and his position and his actions, when the overall tone suggests he's experiencing awe for the people living, the events and nauanes of human experience. Forever thinks its being inspirational about human nature, but honestly, it can't stop obsessing about this one dude's tragedy about not being able to die. Louis, anyone?
Then there's Forever's WLC Alana de la Garza (And you may quibble my calling her white, but technically she's half Mexican, half Irish, and, well, despite her ethnic name, I'd say she looks pretty white.) seems to exist for no other reason than to be a potential love interest. Her competency at her job is dwarfed by the intellect of her male co-star's character, who must have all the answers at all times. She's given hints of alcoholism, and of course the solution to the inequality of manpain is that her husband has just died. See! Manpain cancels itself out! Honestly the chemistry is DOA and I still don't know why she'd spend time with Henry. She's a bland copy of Kate Beckett, and never rises above just being a good-looking fake cop. I've kind of given Stana Katic shit, but where she's weak in some acting points, there is a steel believability inside her that does lend credibility that she could kick your ass. As if to underline Alana's inherently unbelievable turn as a detective her make up becomes a plot point, we get to see her fumbling after Henry while he tells her everything she needs to know, and her being caught by Henry calling her a creeper. She fails to apprehend a fleeing suspect, gets her ass handed to her in the interrogation room and then she gets shot so Henry can save her. Coupled with the cellist at the beginning this show is another one that doesn't understand what women are annoyed about regarding their representation on television.
Oh, and, unless I'm wrong? If the Chief Medical Examiner got called in for questioning for suspected homicide, mightent he get some scolding from upper management, if not suspended until the case was solved? I don't think a suspect should be gathering evidence for what could be his own CASE. If you're going to be a Police Prodecural, you might want to know the rules.
I suppose that's the failing of Forever. It hits every tidy by-the-numbers tick in the box without realizing when you get that list you should throw it the fuck out. You can look at the pilot and know what's going to happen, more or less. There becomes no reason to watch it, and the lame-ass errors it does make become all the more evident because there is nothing else to pay attention to.
Sleepy Hollow, by contrast, took the list, eyeballed it, tossed it out and opened it's chest and flung the toys every which way. Oo biblical references? Fish out of water? Spooky backstory? Modern conspiracies? Historical conspiracies? Historical occult? Demons? Two characters slain? Witches? Good and Evil? At the end of the episode there's a shamble of ideas, but you know what? I'm down. I'm in it. I'm way more interested in this mess than anything Forever did all neatly.
And I can't help but think that's also because Sleepy Hollow wrote characters. There isn't a refrigerated woman to start this journey, and I'm fascinated to see where Abby and Ichabod go, hopefully over the next seven years. I liked them as friens, and I didn't feel them shoved together. There's an elegance to the writing here, though it is certainly brisk. I dare say it was even a little rushed, there is so much thrown out, and yet, I'm not confused, as I could so easily be.
But, again, it's Abb and Ichabod who will bring me back, rather than a well written plot. Both are fully realized characters, and the show spent the time to give them some great bonding moments, like with the Starbucks, when it could have spent them in a lot of other plot or man-pain places, and I appreciated that.