Keep Calm and Don't Lose Your Head

About two weeks ago, my sister and I had the opportunity to attend an advanced screening of the pilot for the new fall show Sleepy Hollow. I found out about it through a tv website that I visit regularly, and jumped at the chance since it is one of the shows I've been interested in.

For those of you not familiar with the show, here is the official synopsis from the press release. “From co-creators/executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the "Star Trek" and "Transformers" franchises, "Fringe") comes the adventure thriller SLEEPY HOLLOW. In this modern-day retelling of Washington Irving's classic, ICHABOD CRANE (Tom Mison, "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen") is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to find that the world is on the brink of destruction and that he is humanity's last hope, forcing him to team up with a contemporary police officer (Nicole Beharie, "Shame," "American Violet") to unravel a mystery that dates back to the founding fathers.”

When we got to the theater where they were having the screening, we got vouchers for a free popcorn and soda/water. We decided not to use them, though, because the lines were pretty long and it was going to start in about 20 or so minutes. This theater had the unique feature that you could pick your seat when you got your ticket. As convenient as this may seem, it was a little annoying for us because by the time we were able to pick our seats enough people had come in ahead of us to take all the “good” seats, meaning that we were stuck down in the front section even though when we got to the theater there were still non-reclining seats available. Ah, well, that's life. From our vantage point the picture was a little distorted, but it wasn't so bad as to be completely distracting.

Before they showed the pilot, they showed two featurettes. The first was about the director, which I had previously seen online, and the second was about filming the period bits of the pilot. Apparently, they filmed the entire battle section of the pilot in one day, which is really impressive considering all that they had to do. Also, Tom Mison's mom always likes it whenever he does period stuff. It's the first question she asks him when she hears he has a new project, so he was glad to make her happy with Sleepy Hollow.

I don't want to give away too much of the episode, so I'm going to try and just give some overall impressions about it below.

While it does start in the Revolutionary War-era, it moved rather quickly to our time period. I had thought that there would be more story set-up at the beginning than there was, but I understand why they decided to do it that way. They did a very good job of setting up the plot – such as why Ichabod is here now and what he needs to do. Nicole Beharie's character (Lieutenant Abbie Mills) is given good set-up as well, giving her an important part to contribute to the plot, and not necessarily just Ichabod's modern/female sidekick. Near the end of the episode, she has to make an important decision pertaining to her future with the department. I had forgotten that John Cho had been cast in the pilot, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him. His character takes an interesting twist that I didn't really see coming. Ichabod didn't really flip out over it suddenly being 250 years later from when he last knew it to be, but it is dealt with (sometimes a little humorously). However, it is entirely likely that he's internalizing it some (due to all that's going on) and it may be dealt with more down the road.

There were some good “from another time” jokes, as well as the no-head thing for the Headless Horseman. I really liked one of the effects used when the Headless Horseman beheaded a person. It was very unique and kinda cool. They utilized the flashbacks well, and I think that it's something they will use going forward. I did have few nit-picky issues with some law-enforcement things that happened, but that's mostly because I have the experiences to know they wouldn't do that in real life. (I know, I know, suspension of disbelief...)

Overall, Megan and I really enjoyed the pilot. It was something we had already been looking forward to, and this already cemented it. We will definitely be watching it when the show premieres.

Before I go, I will leave you with one last tidbit – someone uses a shotgun and AR-15 to spectacular effect.
Don't forget to tune in to the pilot of Sleepy Hollow on FOX Monday, September 16^th 10pm Eastern/9pm Central after Bones!

Just Go with It

This past weekend, my sister and I continued our tradition of going to the Renaissance Fair on its last weekend. This time we also took my friend Melissa, and it was her first time attending. I even managed to convince her to dress up with me, since I have enough bellydance costuming to dress at least two people. It's always fun to have someone dress up with me when I go, since I feel like that's half the fun of going. It's also a lot of fun to see what other people wear (especially on Steampunk Weekend!), and I make sure to let someone know if I really like their outfit. When we were there this last time, I even got a couple of compliments, which definitely helped make my day.

It's a lot of fun to just walk around and take in the atmosphere of the fair, interacting with the cast members. Not long after we got there, we came across two of the men playing bigger-sized Jenga, having women pick which block they'd take out and then using their sword to do so. We usually go with a list of things to do/see in mind, but we also take advantage of random things like that if we just happen upon them.

We had a list of shows that we wanted to see/wanted Melissa to see, and we got to see a number of them. The top ones were Gypsy Geoff (a sort of clown/comedy/juggling act), Adam Crack (a whip show), Moonie (another clown/comedy act, except he communicates by whistling – it's awesome), Bluebeard (a comedy act), and the jousts. We saw all of them except Bluebeard, since we decided to watch a glass-blowing demonstration instead. I will usually give tips to my favorite acts, since that's how they make a lot of their money, and I enjoy seeing them every year so much. I gave Moonie a bigger tip than usual, since he was especially hilarious and had me doubled over in laughter at least twice. Before one of the jousts, we stopped by the Vegetable Justice area (a guy taunts/insults you and you try to hit him with tomatoes). It was pretty amusing for a little while, but after a bit it got kind of grating. He had some really good jokes, but maybe I'm just the sort of person who doesn't like to see others insulted.

This year, we managed to catch all three jousts. We don't always catch them every year, because sometimes the storylines are pretty similar. It was different this year, though, and they added a new knight - Sir Gareth, Prince of Idlewilde. Though, our favorite knight is Sir Maxmillian and we always sit in his section and cheer for him when we can. He's one of the “bad guys”, but he knows just how awesome his is, mouths off to the other knights all the time, and poses on his horse. He calls his supporters “naughty little monkeys” and Megan refers to him as the rockstar of the group, which I kind of agree with. The final joust is a joust to the death and it was amazing, with me on the edge of my seat during the fight. They even got the squires involved in fight at the end! For a second it looked like Max had won (he'd killed the last of the knights), but then one of the squires killed him and won!

While we're at the fair, we also kind of like to go with the flow and sometimes stumble across fun stuff. In this manner, we randomly stopped by the military camp and watch some of the shows that they had. The barber surgeon show was really good, with him talked about all that he did, and did a good job of involving the audience. I got points from him because I knew some of the answers to his questions. The other one we saw was on medieval armor and weaponry such a swords (obviously), pikes, and muskets. I really liked the shows because they did a really good job of balancing comedy with real information. You walk away feeling entertained, but also think, “Huh. I learned some really cool stuff.”

All in all, it was a really great day and I had so much fun. I can't wait for next season and might have to go three times in order to see everything that I want to!