Submitted By @captainamuricasass

https://www.youtube.com/embed/G-wVaQwrOU0

Emergency from “Dawn’s Early Light”

New Motivator: Just know that anything you write will never be as bad as the Sleepy Hollow Season 3 finale.

More thoughts

I posted this at Project Fox in the hopes that maybe they’d listen. I know. Crazy, right?

But I needed to do it for myself.

Interested to know all your thoughts, too. :)

I have thought about this a lot and I wanted to post an opinion here in the hopes that maybe someone at Fox would actually listen. Perhaps a futile hope, but one I wanted to attempt.

A lot of people are upset about the treatment of Nicole Beharie and the character, Abbie Mills, and how she represented a viewpoint of a severely underrepresented population in American TV. And I am fully sympathetic to that viewpoint, even if I can’t fully understand it, being a Caucasian woman myself.

I don’t want to address that here. What I want to do is to address the problem with the writing and direction of the show.

I’ve got 20+ years of experience in writing, in a myriad of forms. And I understand that television writing is a group effort with a lot of creative control over a script being out of the hands of any individual writer. Raven Metzner intimated as much himself in one of his interviews.

However, there needs to be someone at the helm with whom the buck stops–who has a definitive, overarching view of the overall narrative and where the story is headed.

And that, right there, is what the problem is with Sleepy Hollow.

The original fans of the show tuned in due to its crazy premise of a time traveling Ichabod Crane fighting monsters, in particular, the famous Headless Horseman, with the modern day police officer, Abigail Mills.

The second season tampered with what made it successful. It stymied the action by coming to dead halts in the narrative. Emotional problems for the Crane family became the focus of the story. So the fans who came for the romp with monsters and who weren’t interested in emotional drama left.

And what you were left with were either (1) fans of emotional drama who liked Katrina and the romance with Ichabod or (2) people who came for the relationship between Ichabod and Abbie–whether they wanted them together romantically or not.

These fans were your base.

And season 3’s removal of Katrina, Henry and Frank Irving took a lot of those characters’ fans with them. So you’re left with people who have stuck with the show only for Ichabod and Abbie.

Season 3 didn’t bring back the comic book boys because the mythology was suddenly changed. The Headless Horseman was captured. The definition of witnessing was retconned. The history of Ichabod Crane was retconned and ruined by having him have romps with Betsy Ross during the time period where he should have been in love with Katrina. Those creative choices made certain that the fans who watched the show for those reasons had no reason to return.

Season 3 had basically nothing happen. Interesting characters and mythology would be introduced, only to be destroyed in the next episode. The villains provided no real menace and lurked around doing nothing. The week to week episodes came off as if they reflected arguments in the writing room where one writer would attempt to push a certain aspect of the show forward–an Ichabbie moment, or a well written history moment or a particularly fleshed out B plot–and then, the next week, the next writer would gleefully stomp on what the previous writer had attempted to do.

It came off as incredibly disjointed and unprofessional. And it seemed as if it was an adage of too many cooks spoil the soup.

The only reason people remained is because of the talented ability of Nicole Beharie and Tom Mison to elevate the material and to find moments that rang true for the characters and kept the fans on the edge of quitting staying.

So to kill off Abbie Mills completely demolishes what is left of the show. The relationship of the two characters is the binding of the story. Without that binding, the book falls apart. It cannot survive.

The failure of the writing staff to understand that is what has killed the show. Whatever backstage arguments there were, and believe me, we know there were, are irrelevant to that fact.

A fourth season for Sleepy Hollow reincarnated as a historical X-Files would have to find a completely new audience.

The genre audience is small–and well networked. And no sane fan who reads the history of Sleepy Hollow and what terrible things they did to the mythology, the characters, the actors and the fans is going to touch the new season with a ten foot pole.

And the remaining fanbase died when Abbie did.

It is time for the creative people on Sleepy Hollow and the financial people at Fox to acknowledge the mistake, let the actors and crew free to find other work and cancel the show.

It is not saveable.

Walking Dead and Richonne got me looking at Sleepy Hollow and Ichabbie like…

What we waiting on???

If you voted for Trump tonight, make sure to explain to your gay, trans, female, black, Latina/o, and Muslim friends why they don’t matter to you.

“So I’ve been trying to get it made since then.”

Sleepy Hollow

Season 1: In this show, Ichabod Crane and Abigail Mills are chosen to be witnesses. These witnesses will fight together to stop the horseman and the end of days but only with the help each other. This show will follow their journeys and battles together.

Fans: Awesome this so interesting! and Tom and Nicole have amazing chemistry! This is gonna be amazing!

Season 2: The end of days is coming but neither witness can do anything about it until Crane fixes his issues with his wife Katrina (who is now incredibly important to the story) and his 50 year old son.

Fans: But what about Abbie and Team Witness?

Season 2: Whose Abbie?

Season 3: The witnesses dont have to just be Crane and Abbie, it can be anyone in their bloodline

Fans: Uuuhhh no. its supposed to be Crane and Abbie thats what you said.

Season 3: Well now we are saying this

Season 3: Also Abbie is no longer needed as a witness

Fans: What?

Season 3: So we are gonna kill her

Fans: WHAT?!

Season 3: What? her only job was to help Crane fufill his destiny

Fans: SINCE WHEN?!

Season 3: Since now!

Fans: WHY?!

Season 3: BECAUSE ! SAID SO THATS WHY!!

I love their… completely platonic relationship…

Raise your hand if you want Sleepy Hollow to be cancelled after that train wreck of a season finale