Sleepy Hollow…I actually liked the beginning to this (admittedly) preposterous show. It deals with Ichabod Crane falling asleep as a Revolutionary War Hero and being woken up in 2013 Sleepy Hollow while trying to outfox the Headless Horseman (actually one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse) who’s started dropping headless bodies all over this surprisingly populated village. [A sign for Sleepy Hollow says the population is 144,000 which seems a bit much for a village.] The great Nicole Behari (she’s like a Kerry Washington with talent) plays his reluctant partner, and she’s always a welcome presence. Sure, the mumbo-jumbo mythology of the show will tie itself in knots before too long, but I enjoyed the spooky, Pan’s Labyrinth-esque visuals glimpsed at the very end and in the previews. This looks like a creepier, more atmospheric version of Grimm, and that can’t be a bad thing. Plus, the two leads do have real chemistry should they decide to spin them in a romantic direction (this is from the same creators as Fringe, and I have to admit that I never really felt the heat between Peter and Olivia, despite rooting for them as a couple). Grade for pilot: B+
Under the Dome…On the flip side of the quality scale is this increasingly frustrating and underwhelming show about, you guessed it, a giant dome trapping a town underneath it. I haven’t actually read Stephen King’s source novel, but I read a plot summary, and I think it’s safe to call it much better than this tedious, slow-witted series. This is the kind of hour where everything is spelled out twice and underlined, such as a mini-dome losing its shell, and then a goofy teenager saying “It’s shell fell off!” I guess for the blind people at home who can’t see the screen.
A chief problem of Under the Dome is that you wind up rooting for the bad guy (Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris) since all of the heroes and actors playing them seem transported from a soap opera. I’ve never thought Mike Vogel—–who plays protagonist Dale “Barbie”—–was the next Daniel Day-Lewis, but he’s downright pitiful here, a significant issue since he and “Big Jim” are supposed to be matching wits for control of the town. In most of their scenes, Norris acts circles around him, and Vogel looks vaguely bored while spouting self-righteous dialogue which could all basically boil down to “you’re a big meanie Big Jim!”
Tonight’s episode is a really big disappointment since we were promised answers (in the CBS previews, as well as the fact that this started out only being a limited series with a definitive end date) but received none. It’s hinted at that the Dome has an otherworldly origin (as in the book) but only hinted at. There’s no closure, a lot of questions, and the frustrating realization that there will be another season of stretched-out mythology smothered in idiotic character dynamics. Grade for season finale: C-…Grade for Season: C