Latest Posts by xenapuff - Page 2

Post Mortem on Sleepy Hollow

Everyone is saying that the show had great potential, and that they screwed it up. But I haven’t seen anyone articulate what that potential was. Why was so resonant in season one? At this particular time, and in this particular climate?

I read the phrase “the chemistry between the two leads” and frankly that’s not enough for me. It’s not enough to explain what I saw in the show and why I am so mad. I deeply believe that the value of the fantasy/horror genre is how it lets us symbolically consider big issues of morality in ways that are fun.

American, this beautiful mess of a country, has a ton of moral thinking to do about race and history. Sleepy Hollow more than any show in decades, was perfectly set up to play with, and around, and through that tension. That was it’s potential. That is what we lost.

I’ve read some great things on Sleepy Hollow, the finale, and the death of Abbie Mills. These articles have all been explicit that the choice to kill and sideline Abbie was typical, uncreative, racist (consciously or not), and BAD FOR THE SHOW. Here are my favs:

http://blackgirlnerds.com/how-sleepy-hollow-single-handedly-destroyed-their-own-show/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

http://www.thevisibilityproject.com/2015/05/05/i-want-great-things-for-nicole-beharie-sleepy-hollow-isnt-one-of-them/

http://bibliodaze.com/2016/04/abbiemillsdeservesbetter-how-fox-ruined-sleepy-hollow/

Now let’s talk about the big issues.

America has always been two things. A place for enlightened ideals about the equality of man, and the bloody driving heart of chattel slavery. Those are both huge. They are also utterly irreconcilable. Even as this country led the Age of Revolution that brought down kings throughout Europe, we built the North Atlantic Slave Trade. That deadly triangle put millions of people into bloodline based suffering that was harsher than any caste system in Europe at the time.

If you study American history at all, slavery is three quarters of it. The struggle for racial inclusion and equity is the rest. More than class, more than ideas, more than geography, race is the single focal point that encompasses all of American history. There is no part of this country that wasn’t molded, or counter-molded, without the presence of it. From the very beginning we argued about it. We didn’t stop arguing. We went to war over it. Then we had a second proxy cold war about it during the civil rights movement. We are still arguing about it today with Black Lives Matter.

This is the biggest question of Good vs. Evil in our country. It’s so big, and so devastating, that millions of Americans still have trouble fully admitting that slavery was evil. That it did not have any upside for the salves. There are also millions of people who see the sacrifice that ending racism demands, and flip the fuck out. They do not want to deal with that.

Doesn’t that sound like a kind of unending apocalypse? A biblical level moral threat? And historically a few people have always fought and given witness in order to redeem the rest of us from that evil we would rather ignore, or let fester, or maybe join/sell-out-too in order to maintain our privilege. The metaphor works for me.

I should probably take a moment to give my personal P.O.V. I’m white. I’m a lawyer. I am into the American mythology. I really, deeply, believe that a nation of laws is better than a nation of men. I have in actively carried around a pocket constitution, and a pocket declaration of independance. I have read the federalist papers. I have read more than one biography of John Adams. I am a patriot. I know enough about the history of patriots to understand that the best ones were all critics of their societies.

There was a moment in season one that was painfully familiar. Ichabod is singing the praises of Thomas Jefferson, and sneering at the political foe that accused him of sleeping with his slaves. That was me, in my younger and more innocent days. Irving and Abby give each other a good long side-eye and then enlighten him. That was also me. And Crane, bless him, learned better. I remember watching that scene and thinking “I can’t believe Fox, Fox!, is letting them get away with that.” See, I also live in the South. Where you still aren’t often allowed to talk about that stuff. Where discussing actually, provable, documented history, like it’s actual documented provable history, will get you hissed at. Then they’ll call you ungodly. (Look it just popped up again!  http://www.vox.com/2016/4/8/11389556/thomas-jefferson-sally-hemings-book )

Is it any wonder that Sleepy Hollow was such a tempest in a teapot?

I haven’t talked about Abbie yet. Sorry. I needed to set the stage. I needed to be able to say that the chemistry that existed between Abbie and Ichabod existed because she was black and accomplished and he was white and ignorant. The desire to smoosh them together, to make them work as partners, was more than a desire to see an attractive man with an attractive woman, it was a desire to reconcile the entire American experiment.

Think back to the images in their first meeting. Ichabod, an 18th century man, locked in a cage because he cannot understand the modern world. He’s idealistic, he’s educated, he’s utterly incompetent at modern reality, he cannot understand why he’s not in charge, why all the cretins around him treat him like he’s crazy and refuse to follow his orders. I’m pretty sure I just restated the analysis of trump voters. 

Maybe just this one: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/i-was-pastor-trump-supporters-heres-why-thousands-are-flocking-his-rallies. 

Or this one: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/03/how_donald_trump_happened_racism_against_barack_obama.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top

Or this one: http://www.salon.com/2016/03/14/the_payback_candidate_trumps_campaign_is_for_conservatives_seeking_revenge_on_everyone_they_think_disrespects_them/

So there is Ichabod waiting in his cage, and then Abbie shows up. A black woman. Not in a cage. Her freedom specifically addressed when Ichabod said the word “emancipated.”  She was someone he still saw in terms of slavery, but she was the one that literally held the keys to the modern world in her hand. (Of course, to screw with that, they shot it from his POV, so she looks like the one behind bars.)

Ichabod has to listen to her, he has to defer, before things start getting better for him. What is more real than that? Ichabod might have been the every-man (for a certain type of every-man) but Abbie was the arbiter, the judge, the leader. She was the character that decides what part of all that 18th century knowledge still matters, and what parts need to be chucked, like yesterday. And in season one at least, she judged from a place that was informed by her own personal morality and experiences. She was not all good and self-sacrificing. The unfairness she had experienced as a child, affected her. The central question was if she was going to reject Ichabod, and through him, symbolically at least, this whole American experiment.

Does any of that description make you uncomfortable? I hope so. Because that discomfort is what made the show so tense and riveting. Good horror works on our unconscious taboos. It materializes them, makes them literal, and once they are literal we are confronted with their grotesquerie. America, as a society, has rejected and oppressed black people from the beginning. The three fifths compromise is still in all those pocket constitutions.  But America, as a society, is also slowly, painfully, waking up to the fact that rejecting black people is unsustainable. It locks us out of the future. It ties us to evil. A not so secret demon that demands constant blood sacrifices. (Literally. Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Jonathan Ferrell, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose and Freddie Gray.) And whose hunger for destruction spills over and threatens everyone.

That’s what Sleepy Hollow had to work with. That’s what they stumbled into, and frankly I don’t think they could handle it. As a writer, I know that you can land in something topical accidentally. And I think that first round of folks just wrote what they thought was scary, a white man who is forced into depending on black people because he doesn’t understand the modern world. I don’t think they examined, in themselves, why those particular dynamics were so scary.

If you are white, like most of the Sleepy Hollow production team, and unconscious about that shit, you will inevitable try and move yourself to a more comfortable place. The process even has a name. It’s called white fragility.

So, when Sleepy Hollow did well, and production got crunched and probably even more unconscious, the production team moved themselves into stories that were more comfortable. Abbie’s power as arbiter and judge was sidelined. She was relied upon as a character who rejected nothing, who only sacrificed.  What little discussion of the founding fathers flaws there had been was dropped. After that first episode, nothing was said about the civil war. Nothing was said about the bulk of American history. Almost nothing was said about slavery even when Abbie went back in time.

And things could have been said. During the run of Sleepy Hollow we’ve had 12 Years a Slave, and Hamilton, and the new Birth of a Nation, and Underground. This isn’t just social justice plotting, it’s a thriving market. It’s also rich in all the tropes of horror. It’s everything you could need for a million different horror movies. Imagine how differently Season 2 could have played if Abraham or Henry approached Abbie at any point with this kind of offer:

Moloch is here, in America, in the 21st century because slavery brought him here. Ichabod’s great friends couldn’t fight him, because their sins were his fuel. So you could keep trying to help your partner’s romantic life, or you could let the whole thing burn. Let this America end. It’s cardinal sin is irredeemable. Let something new take its place. Join us, and you can even build it to your tastes.

Isn’t that tempting? If your white, isn’t that terrifying? Isn’t it real, despite all the layers of monsters and demons?  And isn’t it fun? And kampy, and hopeful too? Because nobody wants to listen to a lecture about this stuff head on. We want to all get together and slay the demon that lives on racism, and then make the improbable couple kiss. We want to love all of it. We want it to work out, history and the present to reconcile and make each other better.  

Instead, we got monsters from Sumeria and ancient Greece.

Now with Abbie Mills dead, the chance for reconciliation is gone. That’s the potential that we lost.  Even when the show was at it’s worst, the mere presence of her dark skin was an indictment, a tension, a placeholder for the failings of the founding fathers. They got it wrong about her, about black people, so maybe none of their magical advice would work. At the very least it would all have to be updated. Abbie Mills as a black witness wasn’t just important because there aren’t enough women of color on TV. She was important because with this particular plot scenario information from the past must be both always necessary and always dubious. Abbie Mills, merely by existing in the frame with Ichabod crane, telegraphed that the founding fathers could have some major, and important, blind-spots.

It seems even that was intolerable.

So, History won. It didn’t compromise, it didn’t change. It didn’t admit it’s faults. It didn’t fall in love with Now. Ichabod did not offer up a part of his immortal soul to satisfy Pandora’s Box. He didn’t share the burden with Abbie. Then, to add insult, that cowardice was explained away as destiny. That’s not fun. That’s not challenging or exciting. It’s just bleak. It reduces rather than expands the story. The only thing I want to see now is Jenny Mills engaged in the long form assassination of Ichabod Crane.

And while this is just about character’s in a story, we all know, that it’s also something real. White people preferring to see black people lose everything then give up anything of themselves. That it’s something real that happens all the time. That it happened behind the scenes to Orlando Jones and then Nicole Baheri, when they were stripped of air-time and meaningful on screen stories and work.

Some of us might still be able to learn from the mistakes of history, but not Sleepy Hollow. It’s doomed.

Lol remember that Sumerian tablet they started the season with? With Ichabbie as the Destroyers? Remember how nothing ever came of that at all? Remember how they made a whole big deal out of that rune thing bonding Ichabbie together and Abbie being connected to it? Remember all the dozens of things they set up that never went anywhere, in this season alone? Remember???

Showrunner killing off a minority character: Oh yes, I am aware of the trope, it's such a terrible thing how minorities are treated, but on Our show, it's not playing into that trope. We had to stay true to our vision, and it happened because of story reasons, so while we know it's a problem, our show is different.

Me: *looks into the camera like I am on The Office*

For sure, Sophie was gonna be the new witness. So sad because I liked her but now... Yuck. And that's also why we never knew who she actually was or what her purpose was.

If they made Jenny the next witness possibly because it would make more sense rather than replacing the character, I think the show could have a chance. I’m sure the writers could come up with some bullshit about how sisters are entwined through the apocalypse and bloodlines and shit. They pulled off Abbies death quick and clumsily, I’m sure they could do this. THEN maybe, I would continue to watch the show. Cause Jennys cool, and I wouldn’t mind her taking the lead. It would make sense, because the two people they loved most, are gone. Otherwise, not a chance

This is the one that’s bad and the only one that will contribute directly to my dropping a show from my viewing rotation. Per THR, Nicole Beharie’s Abbie sacrificed herself in the third season finale largely because Beharie wanted out of the yet-to-be-renewed Fox drama. But if Beharie wanted out, it was largely because in the long gap between the first and second seasons, the writers lost track of how to handle the core of the show, which was the Abbie/Ichabod relationship. And I put the names in that order for a reason. To me, it was Abbie’s show. Ichabod was the wacky and lovable time-traveler. The various robots and Kyle Reese are not the stars of the Terminator franchise. Sarah Connor is. Abbie was Sarah Connor, she was the character grounded in the real world whose life was turned upside down by the discovery that these supernatural forces, forces Ichabod always knew all about, were real. Sleepy Hollow was Abbie’s story and the decision to give up her life and her soul to stop this season’s apocalyptic event shouldn’t have been required of her…

Why Did So Many Female Characters Die on TV Last Week?

I really like this point about Terminator being Sarah Connor’s story in the same way Sleepy Hollow is Abbie Mills’. It’s disheartening that the Sleepy Hollow writers themselves were among the people that didn’t understand this.

(via geejayeff)

I just noticed that Nicole RTed this article. Honestly, as hurt as I am by Abbie’s death, I am SO proud of Nicole for standing up for herself and her craft. She really deserves so much better than what the TPTB of SH gave her and it’s so inspiring to me that she was willing to give up what- from the outside may have seemed like a secure job- because she was able to recognize her own worth. Go Nicole!

He still couldn’t quite believe it was real.

His partner. His soulmate. His wife.

The evening breeze had picked up a chill, and he saw the goose pimples raise on her bare arms. She pressed further into his side and hummed, seeking his warmth.

“So,” she finally began, her voice low. “Ready to head inside, Mr. Mills?”

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!!

So this is it. The trending time is 3hrs. Why such a long trend?

Abbie’s death and our disappointment deserve a much longer time.

this is also a protest against Abbie’s treatment, not a memorial

this treatment is systemic and there are media projects featuring black female leads coming down the pipe, everyone needs to know that they can no longer do this easily and quietly

Why deserves instead of deserved?

 Abbie Mills Deserves Better is a classic tag for this fandom. Under the Abbie Mills Deserves Better tag we did so much. Forced a course correction in S2,got characters and storylines that were dragging the show down booted, and even got a show runner replaced.

In hindsight we understand it was already too little, too late, but its a powerful tag for us and we’re sticking with it. 

The trending period is three hours. The goal is to disrupt the tags and make as much noise as possible for as long as possible. We want to force them to deal with us just like we did before. 

I know some of you are depressed. You gave your all and no longer see a point, but there is point. Our Abbie deserves this, we deserve to do it for her. She was unique in all American television and now she’s gone. We cannot allow her to go quietly or peacefully into the night. We cannot allow them to say what they did was meaningful or right when we know it was wrong. 

To quote Zora Neale Hurston, “If you are silent about your pain, they will kill you and say you liked.” That is what they are trying to say about Abbie right now. 

We must have the final word, we must shout the truth for all to hear, Abbie Mills Deserves Better! 

We’re also inviting other fandoms and ships to participate with us. 

100:

I love the fact that some of you have reached out to us, and are asking about what happened and in turn I took a moment to read up a bit on the recent death of the character Lexa. We definitely have something in common both of our groups were promised representation, both shows used our needs and our interests to string us along and in the end the promises were betrayed in an all too familiar pattern. 

Your hours long twitter trend was amazing and we’d appreciate your help with the trend.

WestAllen,Olitz,Richonne and fam:

There is a lot of overlap. I watch The Flash, I’m still a Scandal viewer, I watched Merlin, some of you ship  Richonne, some of you watched True Blood, Doctor Who, some of you watched Person of Interest. 

We’ve all felt and experienced this before, its all too familiar and while Abbie was unique she had something very important in common with Martha Jones, Nyota Uhura, Queen Guinevere, Joselyn Carter, Michonne and too many others to name right now. I hope whether you watched Sleepy Hollow or not we can count on you show up and help us trend just like you know you can count on us, because this is for Abbie and all of you and all of us.  Let’s send Abbie Mills out with a bang not a whimper.

To the Fandoms Helping Out:

We want to keep this event Abbie Mills specific. We are joining together to combat systemic discrimination in the media. However due to Abbie Mills’ unique place in television we want to make sure to keep this event focused on Abbie herself. 

Please remember when speaking of the discrimination that Abbie faces, speak directly to her blackness, while Abbie is woman of color she faced discrimination specific to that blackness. In 3 seasons of television:

Abbie Mills was not kissed and had no onscreen romance

Abbie sacrificed herself thrice for the world, her partner Ichabod never did

 she was repeatedly sidelined and displaced while white women were pushed into her place (said women were then horribly written besides)

Sleepy Hollow itself was originally promoted as diverse show making their treatment of the black actors and characters on this show that much more egregious

the “don’t need no man trope” which is specific to black women was applied to her by the writers room: “Abbie loved Ichabod, but Ichabod was in love with Abbie.”

Abbie also faced colorism from her own fandom as some viewers repeatedly called for her to be replaced by her light-skinned, acceptably curly haired sister

originally Abbie was supposed to die mid-season, that’s right as far as the writer’s of Sleepy Hollow were concerned this co-lead, only black woman leading a genre show, arguably fan favorite’s death didn’t even warrant a season finale

her final words to her partner were that “her purpose was to carry him forward and she had nothing more to do”, in an interview with one of the writers they said: “she had served her purpose”

she existed solely for the benefit of a man

while she started strong Abbie was diminished in every way as her S1 love interests were written out apropos of nothing to make room for story line’s that centered the conflict around her white male partner (now I like Ichabod, but their storylines needed to be equally important)

all POC supporting cast were either killed off or slowly disappeared from the show: John Cho, Orlando Jones, Jill-Marie Jones, Amandla Stenberg,Nicholas Gonzalez. 

Nicole Beharie herself was not invited to the season 2 DVD commentary, she recently had to ask the Sleepy Hollow fox twitter account to follow her, she was told that no one wanted to see her at conventions without Tom Mison

Essentially they hired an amazing Julliard trained actress and diminished her and the character she played in every conceivable way. The simple human wastage is disgusting, the constant slights are an outrage, and the blend of racism and sexism she endured us beyond the pale. And all of it is specific to her blackness so remember that when we work this trending event. 

She is not simply a WOC, but a black woman. The strong woman who doesn’t need a man trope is specific to her blackness, being a pack mule whose feelings are not considered is specific to her blackness, being considered disposable is specific to her blackness and being only considered for her usefulness to her white co-workers is specific to her blackness.

show writers: who are you?

fanfic writers: i'm you but stronger

“I recently went to Comic-Con in London, I was invited without the white male counterpart of my cast. And it was packed. They knew it was just gonna be me. So that shook me. I went back to the green room and I was like… I’ve always been told, and I believed, that this doesn’t work without him.” (x)

Same

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

Still fucking pissed over the death and mistreatment of Abbie Mills tbh

The Death of Hope and the Murderers Who Killed It

As a person who watched this show consistently for the past 3 years, I can say that the biggest draw to this show was the equality in the partnership. As much as the Sleepy Hollow story is about Ichabod Crane, this show didn’t take place in his time period. It took place in hers. She was the touch stone. She was the audience’s point of reference. The human in the inhuman. The natural in the supernatural. They made her into a support beam when she was the foundation. Everyone loved the chemistry between the 2 characters and to have that constantly being thrown aside in season 2 and 3 was rude and oblivious. Sleepy Hollow had one of the largest minority supporting cast of any show right now, especially in the Sci first genre. Abbie was supposed to be a main character, the witness wife to Ichabod’s witness husband, but they treated her like a side chick. And on top of that, they played with us, the viewers, the fan base, so disgustingly.

They took all, that was sacred in this show burned it with Greek fire, had it dipped in acid, and fed it took Moloch’s minions. They went back on the biggest point of the serie’s mythos. It was the point that was hammered home every season. It was the reason the show was what it was. Every episode, every moment, every action was held to this idea. It was the reason Ichabod was saved in the first place. If it was not Abigail Mills he would fail. It was her presence, her existance, her partnership with him that made everything possible. She is not an interchangeable character. Yes, the witnesses support each other mutually, but the way things played out made Abbie’s character a stepping stool in HIS journey, rather than than a partner.

Sleepy Hollow writers made Ichabod into that kid in a project that gets all the credit for simply doing the easy half. They made him a coward. And on top of all that, after ship baiting all season, they couldn’t even be bothered to have him admit his feelings. Not even once. They tried top capitalise on us without giving us anything. They exploited the fan base and the fan base is very upset. They exploited Abbie and the fan base is livid. But because they exploited Nichole, there is no words for the hurt and rage the fan base currently feels.

At this point, it doesn’t matter who they bring in for the possible season 4. No one trusts them anymore. There is no fan base anymore. And a lot of people feel that even if they continue and bring in this relation of Abbie, she’s simply going to be an “appropriately white” relative. It will be the lightest of light skinned black girls. And who’s to say that they won’t just disregard their own timeline and mythos again and simp,y find some white girl who is going to be again distant relation? No matter who she is, she won’t have the same chemistry. She won’t be Abbie.

While I don’t particularly like this analogy, Ichabod is the brain and Abbie is the heart. As much as each one is important, the brain simply can’t survive without its heart. Abigail Mills stood for so much in an industry and genre the doesn’t love the Abigail Mills and Nichole Beharies of the world.

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.

Denial-Acceptance

So here’s the thing. Right now everyone’s fix-it fics, though they are lovely and beautifully written and heartfelt, are making me cry, because I do NOT accept any ending for Abbie (or Sleepy Hollow in general) that does not involve her LIVING and PREVAILING and getting to live a long and satisfying life. Damn it, Abbie should at least have what Buffy had at the end of Season 7–which for all the flaws of the last few seasons ended with its heroine smiling into a wide-open future.

Abbie lives. I refuse to believe anything else. Season 3 didn’t happen because 20-20 hindsight I can see it was nothing but setting up an ending I do not and will not accept. 

So who’s with me on the USS Denial? Point me to the fics, old and new, that show what SHOULD’VE happened. Help me come to a peaceful place of denial.

I will start the ball rolling with a link to a short piece I did over the winter that I fully admit is tooth-rotting fluff. I’m posting it because it’s chronologically the last thing I wrote for Ichabbie–a sort of epilogue to my Trust & Love set approximately 7 years from now:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5242025/chapters/12728489

Anyone? Anyone? Help?

Great review

Perfect summation of the betrayal @sleepyhollowfox orchestrated in season 3.

Ichabod and Abbie confess that they’re in love with each other, get married, move to California, and open up a bookstore specializing in rare & antique finds. They’re happy. Season 3 never happens. The end.

some random: how long are you going to be bitter about sleepy hollow?

me:

Nicole Beharie’s random tweets & instagram postings from the past months tells a story. 

orlando jones is a gift, at least

the reason this one feels different is because abbie had one trait that none of the others had. she was the hero of the story.

even if you don’t think there’s a vile strain of homophobia running through the industry at the moment, whether or not you believe women of color are woefully underrepresented on tv, no matter what your feelings about about misogyny as a motivator for people’s actions, you cannot deny a crap load of women have died on tv lately.

but abbie’s different, because she was the hero of the story and the story ends when the hero dies.

and for a show to kill its hero and go on without her, what they’re really telling people is she was never really the hero. it literally doesn’t matter why they did it. it just does. not. matter. because they’ve told us now that in the story they’re telling, abbie was so unimportant that they could do without her.

fuck you, sleepy hollow.

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

Fuck the Text

I’m probably going to post more about this tomorrow when my brain is functioning and not awash in cortisol, I think (maybe), but:

FUCK THE TEXT.

These stories? They aren’t theirs.

These stories are ours.

Canon matters, of course. What is mainstream and sanctioned and given money and airtime matters. And it deserves criticism. A lot of it.

But it isn’t the story. Canon–the text (of a novel, a TV series, a movie, a play, a comic series, etc.)–is just one version of a story. There are infinite others. There are better and worse versions, but this isn’t church doctrine. There’s no “right” version that’s going to get you into heaven and gain the favor of God, and what we get handed in the text–stories told by other people–has no special value as to its rightness.

Its impact is a different matter. We all, as fans, don’t get to film and broadcast and make money off of our versions of Abbie Mills or Sleepy Hollow. We don’t get to fix shitty, oppressive media representation. We don’t get to broadcast a better, truer, more just, more progressive narrative.

But we don’t have to accept what we’re given in terms of the stories themselves. We don’t have to accept the dry, gray, cold meatloaf we’ve been served for dinner is the best dinner possible. Or the only dinner possible. We don’t have to accept what others tell us–try to force us–to accept about stories.

Including what the “right” or “true” story is.

FUCK THE TEXT.

The End of Sleepy Hollow, or, How to Kill a Show

“Our job was to carry you forward” 

… That is quite possibly the biggest load of horseshit in this entire episode.

Lots of spoilers and discussion under the cut:

Keep reading

Abbie Mills being killed on Sleepy Hollow just goes to show me the writers, producers, and showrunners of Sleepy Hollow were never truly invested or interested in her character. They never expected this amazing black female character, played by a very talented black woman, would resonate with so many people. They never expected Abbie to have the fanbase she had, or to become as popular as she is. 

It says to me all the praise they got in season one for the shows diversity was really all talk. That once Abbie got too popular, they pushed Katrina out to the forefront hoping desperately fans and viewers would latch on to her like they did Abbie. Because they didn’t see Abbie as special, unique, and important. 

I stopped watching the show mid-way through s2, but Abbie was always the reason I wanted to watch. She was the heart of the show in the early seasons. She was the cornerstone of what made the show work. 

I’m not sure if Nicole wanted to leave the show (given that the showrunners seemed clueless as what to do with the character and utterly unwilling to pursue the obvious Ichabbie romance), or if this was a showrunners only decision. Either way, it’s a sad loss for television. I only hope Nicole can find better work and better roles where she can really shine as an actress. She deserved so much better than what she was given on Sleepy Hollow. And fans deserved better from the showrunners. Abbie Mills deserved better. 

Eulogy

I loved you, show.

I have never felt closer to a character than to Abbie Mills.

The color of our skin was different, but I felt her in my soul. She was beautiful. She was strong. She was weak. She was kind. She was closed. She was everything I hoped to be and feared to be. 

There is no show without her.

I wish Nicole nothing but the best. I pray this was her decision and she moves on to other things.

I am grateful for what the show gave me. A chance to write things I think are lovely. That I am proud of. A chance to meet people I know are wonderful.

I’m crying over a TV show. I wish I were not.

I believed in this show. And I can never be bitter for what it gave me.

But I can and will be angry about the racist, awful, pointless, casual way it tossed aside a character who will never die for me.

Abbie Mills is alive. She is happy. And she is with the person her soul was made for.

What happens to Sleepy Hollow is immaterial. I will not watch.

I hopelessly hoped. I believed. I rooted.

And this.

Good luck, Nicole. You do deserve better.

But Abbie Mills also deserved better. 

Sleepy Hollow

Yeah, spoilers. This is a hate letter. 

I’m almost 47 years old. And this is the first time in my history with television  that a single episode of something has made me regret ever watching a show to start with. I regret the time I spent on Sleepy Hollow. Because they just erased everything I loved about it with a single swipe. 

The Witnesses were the heart. How they were always there for each other. They came as a PAIR. You cannot kill one. That undermines every moment that one saved, supported or protected the other. All those “destinies entwined, we found each other, I do what you do, we will always be certain” moments have been undermined by her death. They’ve killed the beating heart of it, the bond that we’ve all been there for. 

If Nicole wanted out, they should have thought about the whole point of the show and either let them both live and ended it, or killed them both and ended it, or even killed them both and moved one with two new witnesses. ANY of that would have been better than killing one and leaving one alive, because that’s not what we’ve been here for over the last 3 years. 

The Witnesses, together, are the show. They’re a matched pair, a set, for better or worse. By killing Abbie and leaving Ichabod to carry on, they’ve stabbed the heart of the show and made every wonderful partnership moment meaningless. 

I am in awe that I cared more about the integrity of the show and the characters than the writers. But that’s fixed now, because I regret ever watching it. That is how much the death of Abbie Mills has soured me on the entire universe. I don’t even want to read fanfic. I am forever ruined on this show and its world. I never thought they could manage that, but god damn, they did. 

Goodbye Sleepy Hollow. And fuck you. (ANd if you’re renewed, and the new witness is white, I hope you all drop your genitals into a blender bye)

A Broken-Hearted Ex-Fan

Abbie Mills being killed on Sleepy Hollow just goes to show me the writers, producers, and showrunners of Sleepy Hollow were never truly invested or interested in her character. They never expected this amazing black female character, played by a very talented black woman, would resonate with so many people. They never expected Abbie to have the fanbase she had, or to become as popular as she is. 

It says to me all the praise they got in season one for the shows diversity was really all talk. That once Abbie got too popular, they pushed Katrina out to the forefront hoping desperately fans and viewers would latch on to her like they did Abbie. Because they didn’t see Abbie as special, unique, and important. 

I stopped watching the show mid-way through s2, but Abbie was always the reason I wanted to watch. She was the heart of the show in the early seasons. She was the cornerstone of what made the show work. 

I’m not sure if Nicole wanted to leave the show (given that the showrunners seemed clueless as what to do with the character and utterly unwilling to pursue the obvious Ichabbie romance), or if this was a showrunners only decision. Either way, it’s a sad loss for television. I only hope Nicole can find better work and better roles where she can really shine as an actress. She deserved so much better than what she was given on Sleepy Hollow. And fans deserved better from the showrunners. Abbie Mills deserved better.