The whole family loved the first season of Sleepy Hollow. A creepy supernatural police procedural, combined with fish-out-of-water humor and some clever world-building, it was on our regular watch list.
We struggled a bit with the second season, though, as the menacing-from-the-shadows became far too in-the-face, supporting characters got batted around like badminton birdies, and the show-runners couldn't decide how many near-apocalypses they could fit into a single season (answer: 3, more or less, each one rushed more than the last). It was so all over the place (clever one week, sappy the next) that we only just finished the last ep on the DVR last night. (It made for more coherent and less scary fare than the GOP Debate.)
Apparently we weren't the only ones struggling with the show last season, as ratings dipped and a new show-runner has been brought on board for the third season. The resulting change in course means supporting characters being jettisoned, including poor Capt. Irving (wasted in S.2), Katrina (well, yeah), Henry (awww), and now, it appears, the Headless Horseman himself — all this to create a "less dense mythology that will make the adventure series more accessible for new viewers."
Um …
Yeah, you can easily get way too in the weeds as far as world-building goes, but that just means you need strong story-telling that weaves that mythology into good plots, not making the mythology itself the purpose behind it all. And if you're starting a third season, then looking for a big influx of new viewers seems … a bit quixotic.
Oh, and a two episode cross-over with the Fox series Bones? That seems … really a bad sign.
I assume they'll need to revamp the main titles next season (since the Crane/Katrina thang is kaput). That'll be a shame, too.
Sleep Hollow is still on the DVR, because maybe I'll be really surprised. But our TV-watching schedule is busy enough that I don't have a problem with kicking it to the curb if it goes downhill — or maybe, even, if it simply stays at the same level.
Sleepy Hollow drops Headless Horseman for Season 3 as part of creative shake-up
After a breakout freshman season, Sleepy Hollow hit the creative skids in year two, and the ratings took a dip. The producers are trying to right the ship in Season 3, and they’ve decided to drop a component that’s been there since the show’s conception.
While not as strong in the second season, I enjoyed it and the end of the season was a good payoff.
+Stan Pedzick I liked the setting, but the whole Katrina soap opera was … well, I never much liked the character anyways (played way too often as deus ex machina for either info or magic, when she wasn't being a romance novel heroine).
It was really only the last half the season that, I felt, went off the rails, with major threats suddenly rushed to the fore and then summarily dispatched. If there was a road map for the season, someone should have given it a look-over or three before it was approved.
That said, there was a lot I enjoyed, which is part of the frustration here.
head cut horse, interesting, new theme.
The Bones crossover could bring in new viewers. It's a very popular series, although I've been considering dropping it for the last season or so.
Loved the first season, and really thought the 2nd started off great…just really over-the-top funny/weird/awesome (Franklinstein? Come on! That’s comedy gold.). But it got too serious and the whole turning Katrina bad thing was awful…not to mention the total waste of both Irving and Jenny. I think the Bones cross-over had super silly potential with a season 1 Sleepy Hollow…I’m not so sure a season 2 version would have been very good. I like both shows (though God knows why, since Bones has repeated the same story over-and-over for like the last four years). I hope they pull it off.
+Scott Randel Yeah, I can see that.
Wiow, it's been running for 11 seasons now (or this will be its 11th season).