Bones 11.5 meets Sleepy Hollow 3.5: Time Travel

Catching up with the Bones-Sleepy Hollow cross-over show that was on around Halloween, about two months ago.  One might wonder what the two shows could possibly have in common, given that Bones is about hard forensic science and Sleepy Hollow is ghostly fantasy.

Well, Booth from Bones and Abbie from Sleepy Hollow are both FBI agents - and unorthodox, when need be - so there's that.  And, as Booth points out to James, Booth does have an usual first name, Seeley, which gives him something in common with Icabod.

But there was something even more intriguing running through the two hours.  The reality of Sleepy Hollow is that Icabod Crane has indeed time traveled from his origins in the American Revolutionary War to our present day.   Since time travel, as far as we know, is impossible - see my Tricky Business of Time Travel for more of why I think this is the case - Bones is confronted with an intractable paradox when confronted with irrefutable forensic evidence that Icabod has come from the past.

Drawing on Sherlock Holmes, she correctly says that when you remove everything that's impossible, whatever remains is likely the truth, however highly improbably that might seem.  In a crucial scene in the first hour, Bones is left with two highly improbable possibilities: (1) Icabod in 2015 had an ancestor in the 18th century with identical handwriting (something which she rightly says has never been seen before) and time travel (which we all know has so far never been seen, at least in no way that's been reliably recorded).

Since Sleepy Hollow is fantasy in many more ways than just time travel, Icabod's time travel is not so surprising in that universe or series.   But the world of Bones has, till now, been our world, including even the possibility of UFOs some seasons ago (unlike time travel, there's nothing paradoxical or explosive of logic in space travel by aliens).

But what about time travel?  Will its possible admission into the world of Bones result in its playing a role in some future Bones scenario?  Probably not, but good for Bones for even opening that door a little.

See also Bones Back for Season 11: Aubrey and 'Audrey' ... Bones 11.2: Back in Place

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer ...Bones 10.14: meets La Parure ... Bones 10.15: Cards in Hand ...Bones 10.16: Hodgins' Money ... Bones 10.17-18: Bullies and Capital Punishment ... Bones 10.19: Do You Buy Booth's Gambling Addiction? ...Bones 10.20: Intimations of a New Jeffersonian ... Bones 10.21: Ten Years Isn't Enough ... Bones Season 10 Finale: Rehearsals for Retirement?

And see also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

And see also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

See also Sleepy Hollow Debuts: Sleepers, Dollar Bills, and Witches and Sleepy Hollow 1.2: Patriotic Gothic Horror

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the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Turn Premiere: Good Historical Drama in Revolutionary New York

Hey, the first episode of Turn on Sunday night on AMC was quite good.   Here's what I most liked about it -

It's fun and interesting to see a series set in our Revolutionary War era.  You don't often see a drama series in this time period - in fact, I can't really think of any (I don't think of Sleepy Hollow historical drama) - and even movies set in this era are few and far between.   But it's certainly a crucially important era in American, British, and for that matter world history.   

There have been superb docu-dramas set in the Revolutionary War and a little beyond - like the John Adams series, and the Adams Chronicles before it - but docu-dramas are something very different from historical dramas, like Rome, Vikings, The Tudors, and Black Sails.   Turn, based on its debut episode, looks like it has good chance to join those winning shows.

There's excellent character development in Turn, even at this early point in the narrative.  Abe Woodhull is a suitably conflicted, messily recruited spy.  And his personal life is no less complex - he's married and a father, but also loves another woman.  Anna at very least is Abe's first love, but she may well be his true love.  Abe also has problems with his father, who is his champion but in some ways his worst enemy, being thoroughly loyal to the British in all matters other than his son, at least as far as we can tell (I say this because of the great twist in Zorro in which the father joins the son in opposing the military.) And Abe's friends are an appealing combination of people who in their own ways offer a variety of opposition to the British.  This includes Anna, who married Abe's best or least very good friend.  We'll likely soon meet some friends, though - or at least one - who are not only British sympathizers but the British spy.

The British are mostly villains, though there may be lurking in their leadership someone with a little more understanding of the way history is beginning to turn.  Captain Simcoe epitomizes the attitude of even some of the British officers, restrained by the thinest veneer of gentlemanly conduct from rape, and not all from savagely beating a colonist who crosses them in any way.  It's especially shocking and instructive to see the Brits treating American colonists the way we later treated conquered people like Native Americans.

And a particular plus for me is the location of the show - New York City and its environs, especially Long Island, with sojourns to New Jersey and Connecticut.   I'm looking forward to more.

 
a little earlier history in ... The Plot to Save Socrates

Sleepy Hollow 1.2: Patriotic Gothic Horror

Sleepy Hollow clocked in a good second episode earlier this week, and clearly emerged as an example modern gothic horror, with a patriotic flair.

No vampires are yet apparent in Sleepy Hollow, but there are witches - good and bad - and other beasts of the night likely out for no good.  People come back from the dead - or, at least, Officer Dunn does, and that's both good (I was aggravated to see John Cho limited to just one episode) and bad (the reanimated Dunn is working for the evil forces.

There may be some hope that Katrina will come back from the departed, too, and could create some romantic tension between Icabod and Abbie, especially if Katrina takes her time to return to the living, and leaves Icabod and Abbie to their relationship which is still nascent in many ways.

The time traveler's plight continue to be one of the mainsprings of humor - and, for me, one of the main appeals - of the show, and Icabod plays that part perfectly.  In episode two, we find him patriotically complaining about what to him are insanely high taxes - actually, I feel that way, too, and as far I know, I'm not a time traveler - as well as being fascinated by electric lights, discarding a gun that Abbie gives him after he fires a single shot because he thinks it needs reloading, and putting up post-it notes to remind him about how modern things work.

And there's new blood in the wings - Abbie's sister, whose life has thus far been ruined because she's sure she's been in contact with spirits from another world - looks like she's about to get out of the institution that's confined her.   Good to see in this series that takes place just a little up the road from where I live, and not too far from where I think - at least about time travel - either.

See also Sleepy Hollow Debuts: Sleepers, Dollar Bills, and Witches





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Sleepy Hollow Debut: Sleepers, Dollar Bills, and Witches

A pretty good debut of Sleepy Hollow on Fox last Monday, with a story that in effect combines two Washington Irvington characters, the sleeper Rip Van Winkle and the headless-horseman-fighting Icabod Crane.  There's a time-jumping from the Revolutionary War to present - via witches' spells - clever depictions of a man from the past suddenly appearing in our day and age, good locale, and some good action as well.

If anything partaking of time travel, including just deep sleep for centuries, is a big plus in my book, anything partaking of witches usually is not.  I'm also no fan of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and death personified - which would be the headless horseman in this series - but the time jump and my proximity to the town of Sleepy Hollow in the real world are tipping the balance, at least for now.

Icabod's sudden immersion in our current world is handled well.  A dollar bill with Washington's picture - George not Irving - goes a long way to convince him he's here.   His reactions to women wearing trousers, African-Americans working for the police - he was against slavery even in his own time, he tells us - get the story off to a nice start.   So does Abbie his partner,  who has a hint of chemistry with Icabod.

Judging by the first episode, this looks to be a series in which major characters will be dropping like flies - an approach to television first introduced back in the 1980s in the short-lived V series (sequel to the several mini-series).   Three major characters were dispatched by the headless horseman, at the beginning, the middle, and the end of this first hour.   We'll see whether this will be a hallmark of the series or just a clearing of the deck for the first episode.

The shots of the Hudson and the Tappanzee Bridge are good.   The bridge in reality is scheduled to be torn down and replaced.  It will be interesting to see how Sleepy Hollow handles that - assuming it lasts that long, which I at this point sorta hope it does.





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Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love

I'd forgotten how infuriating the end of Bones season 8 was before the summer, but I remembered as soon as tonight's excellent episode of the new season of Bones - 9.1 - began.  Pelant told Booth that he'd kill Bones if they married.  Booth took the point and called it off, until he could hunt Pelant down.

That decision didn't make much sense to me then, and makes just maybe a little more sense to me now, but still not all that much.  To the answer of why can't Booth just tell Bones what's going on - in some place free of any telecom or digital equipment, like any beach not close to a home - we learn that Booth is afraid that Bones is not that good an actress, and would sooner or later reveal to the peeping Pelant her happiness.  But as we see in the coming attractions, Bones is a pretty good actress actually, doing effective undercover for a few years now.

Angela of course is furious at Booth, and thinks - as Bones at first does - that Booth is having some sort of affair.   That would explain why he's out so many nights, when we know he's been hunting without success for Pelant.

Cam has the best advice.  When Bones tells her that she and Booth may be falling out of love, Cam points out that both are miserable, which certainly means that they're both still in love.  Cam's advice is the turning point, and gets Bones to accept as a matter of faith that Booth still loves her and does want to marry her, and will as soon he takes care of whatever the problem is.

But, given what Booth said earlier about worrying about Bones revealing too much to Pelant with her relative happiness, this still doesn't solve much of the problem Pelant is presenting.  Bones will no doubt seem happier now that she's realized that she and Booth are still ok - won't Pelant see that?

I don't quite believe that Pelant has the ubiquity of spying devices that Booth worries he has, either. But I'm glad that Cam's wise advice about the misery of love has brought them back together emotionally.

And kudos for one of the best meta-lines on a television show in a long time, when Hodgins says he wishes he had "Sleepy Hollow on the DVR".  Actually, it's on Fox right now, right after Bones, but I'm not watching it because I'm writing this review.  But, hey, there's always On Demand.

See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution

        

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