taste_is_sweet | Wash n' Wear; Rock n' Roll; Scratch n' Sniff; Gag n' Puke

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Current Location: Downwind

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Wash n' Wear; Rock n' Roll; Scratch n' Sniff; Gag n' Puke

Sleepy Hollow, Ladies and Gentlemen: a recent debut on the ~~pit of voles~~ Fox network with the winning premise that mixes The X-Files with Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and CSI. Ichabod Crane, instead of being a dick, is a warrior-scholar who was BFFs with George Washington, as well as resurrected over 200 years after he croaked while putting the 'Headless' in 'Headless Horseman'. Two requisitely beautiful heroes banter and angst a lot and together they solve crime.

But, there is one major aspect of it (leaving aside the general crazyness) that bugs the hell out of me, and I'm not the only one.

**He's trying to breathe, not getting a blow job.**

Ichabod never changes his clothes. The same clothes he was buried in.

**"The mildew and rot remind me of happier times."**

Now, the show's writers and producers are obviously aware of this. Entertainment Weekly even quotes the Executive Producer as saying that "It’s like his security blanket... He can never feel comfortable in our world. The minute he gets comfortable, the show is over." (Because jeans and a fresh shirt = instant acclimatization.)

On the costume-design blog Hello, Tailor, the blogger says:

The show needs to keep him in the 18th century costume for more than a couple of episodes, purely to remind the audience that he’s from the 18th century. It’s a visual cue.

Which makes me glad the SH producers didn't also make The Avengers.

**Who the hell are these guys?**

Do I buy that? Well, sort-of. I mean, yeah: anyone newly tuning-in will need a bigger clue that Ichabod pulled a ~~Captain America~~ Lazarus than a ponytail and sexy accent. But how many people will start watching the show without knowing what it's about? And sure, while I can buy both that Ichabod is used to wearing the same stuff for weeks on end as well as that he's clinging to the security of his outfit, this is an outfit that he was buried in. In an underground cave, which he then dug himself out of after 200 years. Now, I don't know about you, but I might forgo a bit of familiarity to not smell like a swamp.

It's gotten to the point where Ichabod's outfit is distracting attention from the plot, and I can only imagine how much Lieutenant Abby Mills wants to stand downwind of him. Maybe in a future episode the fungus doubtlessly growing behind his lapels will help repel a demon. Because that outfit's gotta be repelling everyone else.

( All screencaps from Screencapped.Net.)

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Hey, in the first episode where we see Ichabod in his motel room he is attempting to clean his shirt.

... No, I've got nothing. *g*

But I still love this silly show.

Right! I'd forgotten that tiny detail, actually. Though I've been assuming that he washes it in the sink every night.

That's a great icon of Ichabod, BTW. He looks very handsome and angsty. And reasonably clean.

Well, in the same motel scene we also saw him use the shower. *g*

Textiles that have been buried in the ground for hundreds of years survive very well and hey, magical "death" here, perhaps it protected his clothing as well. :D

Sure. Heh. Maybe he was buried so far down it was really cold and preserved everything perfectly. :D

Well, it is supposed to be New York state, right? *g*

I was saying this all through THE SECOND EP OMG ICHIE JUST GET OUT OF YOUR BURIAL GARB ALREADY. (ALSO, THE BAD WIG, BURRRRRRRN IT.) Reason eleventy why I didn't want to watch the show after that, but due to peer pressure made it through ep 3 only to roll my eyes some more. I keep being reassured that Teen Wolf is still much much worse; since I only lasted 8 minutes by the skin of my teeth of that pilot I am not reassured.

Also, Abby, she who proclaims far and wide that she was supposed to be off to Quantico, yet her major assets are... puppy eyes? o.O Tell me some more how capable you are, dear, just please don't show it, that'd ruin your whole "capable woman" characterization dontcha know. *rolls eyes*

She's so beautiful, though. I love looking at her.

But, otherwise, I totally hear you. I feel badly about SH, because I know I should love the show--it passes the Bechdel test, the Bechdel Racial test and even the Mako Mori test (a female character with her own story arc that's not about supporting the guy's story arc). And I loved X-Files and BtVS and enjoy CSI.

But I don't love the show, at all. I also gave up PDQ on it, and Ichabod's outfit was one of the reasons. The other was that it was both annoyingly scary and annoyingly boring, and maybe it's because I'm no longer in my 20s, but Monster of the Week shows don't interest me anymore.

I really think they're going to start losing audience members if they don't get him into new clothes soon. It's just ridiculous.

Frankly I'm relieved to find a silly show that does interest me (I prefer to have at least one silly show to watch at any given time) but sadly it's been many moons since I was in my 20s. *g*

It's always bizarre to me what sucks me in and what doesn't given my total lack of interest in Teen Wolf, SPN, H50, SHIELD and a million other highly popular shows.

Oh, H50! My husband and I gave up on that show at the beginning of season three because it got so damn ridiculous that it was impossible to suspend our disbelief anymore. The leads are gorgeous, but that's the only thing I miss about it. ;)

I've also never watched TW or SPN. The former appeared to be too teenage, and the latter too frightening and too CW. However, I love the heck out of Arrow, which is on the same network as SPN. Go figure.

So, what show(s) do you enjoy, if you don't mind me asking? I do enjoy MAoShield, but not quite as much as I was hoping to.

Ah, MG and I gave up H50 halfway through episode 2 of season one. :D As I've always found Alex to be extremely attractive it was a sad thing.

I desperately want to quit Arrow and if the fandom wrote any significant amount of Oliver Queen/John Diggle fic for me I could see it becoming my first "read only" fandom. *g* I decided to give up SHIELD because I was in danger of hate watching it, several of my mates love it and I don't want to be *that* person on their flists.

Right now I regularly watch Person of Interest (not as good this season but I live in hope), Haven and Sleepy Hollow. I'm in the process of giving up watching Castle, Criminal Minds and Bones because I just don't enjoy them the way I used to and realized I'm watching them out of nostalgia. I haven't decided if I'm even going to give the new season of White Collar a chance. The other thing we tend to watch are British mystery series like Morse, Lewis, Bletchley Circle (Bechdel test passed and circled) and Luther.

MG is most interested in Sci-Fi shows and I watch very little that's not buddy cop and/or mystery. Neither one of us enjoys watching drama series. If you look at our interests you can easily see why we're hoping Almost Human will be good when it starts in early November.

I was actually thinking of dropping MaoS after episode 2, because it was so disappointing. But ep 3 rocked, and ep 4 was okay. Besides, I'm predisposed to like it, because of Coulson. :)

I love Arrow! I never thought I would--I only watched it because, hey! Canada! And John Barrowman--but it's really grown on me. I love the drama and the angst (and Manu Bennett), and that the female characters are really, really cool. I just wish they weren't all white except for Diggle.

I need a Felicity Smoak icon. :)

Anyway, if we ever get together, we can watch mysteries. That's totally cool. ;)

See, with me it's the drama in Arrow that puts me off, all the baby sister and Laurel stuff, I'm just there for the archer vigilantism and there's not enough of that for me. I do love Felicity and Diggle and as said crave some Oliver/Digg but there's too little of it for me.

If you like mysteries, have you seen The Bletchley Circle?

That miniseries looks awesome, snagging it now! (I haven't even watched it and already I'm pining for the second season to be released; only 3 eps in s1, why so stingy, ITV?) Whitechapel recently finished rolling out its s4 and I loved it; still very horror-y at times, but all the characters are awesome and I ♥ them and how they interact. I'm still ticked off The Hour didn't get an s3, and that was ages ago, but hopefully these shows will keep on truckin' for a bit longer.

It is, I hope you enjoy it. Apart from being really well written and acted it is about a group of women who waited decades to be properly recognized for their part in one of the most vital parts of WWII.

It's become my new show to point to when people throw around the "slashers hate female characters" nonsense. In my case, I love certain genres and don't care for others and unfortunately the ones I don't enjoy tend to be the ones that feature large female casts like Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. I love mysteries, buddy cop shows and in a more limited way action/adventure/spy sort of stuff and when there are lead female characters in my type of show they tend to be ridiculous. Dangerous CIA spies who burst in to tears every five minutes? Who run around in 4" heels? Who are too busy agonizing over having no love life to pay attention during briefings? Do. Not. Want. Yes, Abby gets some points from me just for being sensibly dressed for the job she does.

Give me a show like Bletchley Circle that's a great mystery with female leads and I'll watch it forever. Really, I cannot recommend this show enough and despite it being shown on PBS most Americans appear to have missed it.

Since the eps were only 45 min each I actually managed to watch the whole season today :) and I really liked it, can't wait for the next one to be out.

I've always been a fan of Foyle's War and similar shows; I keep thinking Sam and the gals would have a blast together. :D

I'm with you on the hating on cliched "powerful female" characters who are afraid to break a nail; my favest scene in an action flick ever is probably Helen Mirren stepping out of her heels into (combat?) boots before she goes off to do her heroics with firearms. *bug thumbs up there*

And I love everything about Call the Midwife, pretty much, and I don't usually like all-female casts, babies, or baby-having related things, but I love that show and would not change a thing about it.

It's beautifully filmed as well as really well acted. Rachel Stirling (Millie) is Diana Rigg's daughter.

As you might have guessed from my icon I'm a huge fan of Mirren's character in Red... well of Mirren in general actually.

I liked her both in Poirot and Miss Marple, she always has a memorable character and plays her very well. :)

That's a great icon, definitely.

That does look neat! I'll tell my husband about it, thanks. :)

It's weird about Arrow--normally I completely agree with you on disliking shows all about the drama rather than the premise. I also tend to avoid 'women-oriented' shows because of that very thing, how it's all soap opera. But in Arrow, I actually like it almost as much as the vigilante parts. I think that for me it's just well-enough written that all the plot threads feel worth following.

Different strokes for different folks, eh? As the rentboy said to the copper...

I have to be really entertained to be able to ignore big plot outrages in writing like last night's FEMA thing.

However, if really entertained I will happily handwave almost anything shamelessly. :D

Oh dear, yes. That ridiculous FEMA thing. Apparently the biggest problem in Sterling City is that the cops are so incredibly incompetent that they can't figure out that maybe they should give an armed escort to the poor drivers of the trucks. Not to mention that how FEMA even found drivers after a week of driving = certain death is way beyond me. That enormous, gaping plot hole was a little hard to ignore. At least the show isn't normally like that.

FEMA is a federal agency so the place would have been swarming with the FBI and/or the military after the *first* hijacking.

Erm... I can actually offer lots of similar examples of gaping plot holes in Arrow but I'm going to resist because, as said before, you're enjoying it and I'm not.

The Professionals has a HUGE list of downright silly things -- my favourite is the van that goes through a wooden fence on level ground at about 15mph only to erupt in to flames *g* -- but I love it anyway.

when you're enjoying something enough to handwave it a good mate doesn't go out of their way to point out the show's problems. For instance, my not going on a rant about SHIELD's presentation of Malta when half my flist are in love with the show.

...Hopefully I did notice the other plot holes (etc.) you're kindly not mentioning. :) And I also appreciate your restraint.

That exploding van must've been hilarious. I've seen plenty of things like that too. :) Probably mostly on Arrow. :D

You are killing me here. Oh dear, there goes the slash potential. :D

:D My pleasure.

There's no one to slash him with, actually, unless you were thinking of Orlando Jones' character. He's not bad (he was gorgeous when he was younger), but Captain Frank Irving is no John Diggle, if you know what I mean. ;)

Otherwise, I'd ship him and Abby all the way. They are so pretty together.

Maybe he'll discover some Renfaire apparel shop and start showing up in what he thinks is high fashion...

LOL I was thinking the same thing!

...in one of the first couple of eps, they do show Ichabod washing his clothes in the hotel sink. And yes, I realize that's not enough to wash the swamp and burial stank off it, but hey...at least they made an attempt. And in this week's ep a bottle of detergent was front and center.

That being said...yes! Please! Get him some new clothes. I'm sure they could even replicate his look with clothes that are new. Or almost new. Certainly newer than the ones he's wearing.

We're smart people. We understand he's from another time. Can we move on and at least have a clean shirt?

:) Another commenter reminded me that he cleaned his shirt at least in the pilot episode, and it's cool that they're showing that he's still cleaning it. But seriously, he needs new clothes, and we really are smart enough to know that it won't mean he's magically adjusted to the modern world.

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Wash n' Wear; Rock n' Roll; Scratch n' Sniff; Gag n' Puke

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