The Marci Rating System

Sleepy Hollow, I don’t get you. You play all cute and clever, and then BAM out of nowhere it’s cliffhanger time! (Also, that season ending really puts a crimp in my threesome fic plans for February…)

BUT on the other hand, there were some pretty awesome lines and character stuff in there too. It’s too bad we couldn’t just HAVE NICE THINGS, but I get that it’s a tv show and once it was renewed for a second season, that inevitably meant they were going to have to leave some apocalyptic tension in the works.

And since the ending was kind of, well, horrible, here’s a list of some of the totally awesome parts to remember.

*emoticons!
*cell phone trading!
*zombie George Washington!
*National Treasure shoutout! (come on, that’s what everyone was thinking during the Mason crypt thingy scene, right?)
*hand holding!
*fist bump!
*hugging! (so much hugging!)

And then some questions, because cliffhanger.

*How is Jenny so awesome for wearing her seatbelt? Way to go, Jenny!
*How is it that Sleepy Hollow has a better grasp on crime and consequences than Sherlock?
*WHY CAN’T WE HAVE NICE THINGS, SLEEPY HOLLOW?

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Sleepy Hollow (the one with the golem, which Abbie apparently heard about at Sunday school, but I helpfully learned about from fanfic)

*bickering about language #1: Scrooge, Christmas trees, & eggnog

*”You strangled me!” “He means thank you.”

*guest star: Henry! (‘hey, so you don’t have much family, and we don’t either, so we could maybe hang out together’ I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS ACTUALLY WORKED)

*bickering about language #2: sex, dating, & crossword puzzles

*Captain Irving and Macey being adorable (“You’re getting hot chocolate, not a puppy.”)

*bickering about language #3: waiting by the car (I guess at least Crane didn’t have an ax this time?)

*”Ah! What hellish form of torment is this?” “Funhouse mirrors.” “When did irony become a national pastime?”

*the Christmas stocking

Really, the key takeaway from this episode was ‘why wasn’t Katrina better at arts and crafts?’ Seriously, she couldn’t have knitted the kid a kitten or something?

Other thoughts: I’m totally willing to go the ‘Jeremy’s not dead’ route. That was the whole point of the crossword misdirection conversation, right?

Quip-Off Tally For The Week:
Neither episode was particularly light-hearted, but Sleepy Hollow did have the benefit of including more Christmas, which I liked. Plus, Sleepy Hollow took two extremely creepy concepts (circuses, dolls coming to life) and made them not very scary, while Almost Human took a not not too scary concept (cloning) and made it super creepy. Sleepy Hollow comes out the winner for the week in my book.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Monday night brought two new eps (Almost Human and Sleepy Hollow) that I didn’t watch right away, since clearly Dancing With The Stars took up all my early-in-the-week viewing energy. (It was the finale!)

Both shows have essentially the same premise: Cop with troubled past suddenly gets an unusual partner. Together, they fight crime and trade quips while battling a *mysterious* larger danger.

And so: a quip-off. Let the quippiest episode reign supreme!

1. Car bickering vs. MacDonalds bickering

2. Stair climbing phone answering vs. “not to be an alarmist” haunted house team-up

3. Stair climbing ice fishing story vs. who goes first down the creepy staircase debate

4. Bubble gum brain surgery vs. stolen gun return

5. Elevator heart to heart vs. baby heart to heart

6. Busting in to the rescue vs. busting out the flares

7. Noodles invite vs. Thanksgiving dinner invite

8. Name calling vs. drinking rum together

Sleepy Hollow gets a few bonus points because more people were involved in the sass-fest (Jenny, Captain Irving, Macy), but overall winner for the week is Almost Human!

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

“Last I heard, he was dead.”
“Rules on that status have gotten a little bendy.”
“He’s… unhappily resurrected.”
-Captain Irving / Abbie / Crane

*The FIST BUMP. I heart it.

*Jenny: “That’s why I wasn’t worried.”

*Captain Irving’s recurring ‘you have *got* to be kidding me’ face is A+ awesome.

*One word: GENERATORS.

*Can you even imagine the reports Captain Irving is writing at this point? ‘Posted a bunch of officers to guard entrances to secret tunnels. Because reasons.’

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Um, I liked it? I mean, I’ll definitely watch the second episode. But it was very full of plot. (And shooting.)

Here’s the thing, when it comes to tv, I’ve been watching two shows recently. Dancing With the Stars (zero plot, everyone actually can be a winner in terms of the PR boost) and — somewhat reluctantly — Sleepy Hollow. (There’s a plot, but it’s not exactly worrisome, right? Seven episodes, seven wins. And so far it’s getting less scary, not more scary, which is perfect. It’s less ‘horrible apocalypse that destroys everything you love’ and more ‘how to handle the 21st century while occasionally fighting supernatural bad guys.’)

And with movies, mostly I watch stuff I’ve already seen. (Just rewatched ‘Meet the Robinsons.’ Much better the second time through!)

Basically, I don’t love being surprised. Or in suspense. Or worried. So even though I thought Almost Human was a good show, I’m not sure I’ll like it. (Then again, I was way more negative than that about Sleepy Hollow, and here we are.)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

Just finished my re-watch of Iron Man Armored Adventures (for fic writing purposes).

[I love how people switch back and forth between code names and first names. I love how Gene falls back into teamwork so easily with Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey. I love how excited Nick Fury is about an alien invasion. And I love that after Gene tries to take over the world, gets blown up on an alien ship, and disappears with ten rings powerful enough to destroy a planet, everyone's just all 'hey, that's cool, he probably wants to do his own thing for a while, no problem.']

“Man, am I ever tired of hearing ‘I rule this’ or ‘I’m all powerful.’ Blah, blah, blah.”

-Tony

“I hope they’re the good guys, ‘cause a glue arrow ain’t gonna take care of this one.”

-Hawkeye

“What a great way to spend my 18th birthday.”

“Don’t say I never got you anything.”

“Can I return it?”

-Tony, Gene

“Eat molten plasma, alien scum! I’ve always wanted to say that.”

-Pepper

“If there’s one thing I love to break, it’s giant robots.”

-Hulk

“Okay, that was stupid. But it looked awesome, right?”

-Tony

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I read this Avengers fic the other day:

Groundwater, by legete

And in the fic, Darcy gets stuck down a well and makes a Lassie reference. (“They already stuck me in Utica, and that was before I went all Little Timmy on them.”)

And then I was reading this Teen Wolf fic:

Divided We Stand, by KouriArashi

Another Lassie reference! (“Do you know, Timmy never actually fell down a well?”)

Naturally I had to check this out. According to google, Timmy never fell down a well. The only character to ever fall down a well, in all 19 seasons, was Lassie. (Season 17, the episode “For The Love of Lassie” — it was a two-parter, and she was totally rescued, no worries.)

So there it is. Good to know.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

This seems to be one of those things lots of people are doing — sharing their opinions about the current new shows — so I figured, why not?

*Dancing With the Stars
The absolute best show to get work done while watching. I liked the celebraquarium better than the glitter pit, but it’s probably good that they don’t have to climb all those stairs. Also, the High School Musical and Glee audience members are 100% great.

*Agents of SHIELD
I want to like it? (I mean, not really — what do I need another hour taken out of my week for? But I’m already in the fandom, so it’s convenient, at least.) I want it to be good, definitely. Love the universe, find the characters uninspiring. Didn’t end up watching episode 2.

*Sleepy Hollow
Only watched episode 1 because it was available as a free itunes download and my tumblr dash was full of it. Then — startlingly — kind of wanted to watch more. Hulu provided me with eps 2 and 3 last night, and now I can say officially that the story is simultaneously too scary and too dull to stick it out. But I really like the characters.

SO WHAT I REALLY WANT IS FOR THE SLEEPY HOLLOW CHARACTERS TO BE IN THE STORY OF AGENTS OF SHIELD. BASICALLY. AND MAYBE TOSS IN SOME MUSICAL NUMBERS, JUST FOR FUN.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

I started re-watching Iron Man Armored Adventures season 2 last night, in preparation for continuing my August fic. I vaguely remembered that season 2 was the season with lots of screaming, but I hadn’t remembered quite how early it started. Does Tony seriously find a way to scream in agony inside the armor *every episode*? (There must be a way to fix that, right?)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

The best thing about re-watching Iron Man: Armored Adventures is paying more attention to the background explanations for things. For instance, this A+ plan shows up in episode 2:

Zheng, who has one of the Mandarin’s rings, plots to steal a second ring from Obadiah Stane (who’s currently wearing it). He somehow takes control of a train / sabotages the train tracks (this bit is unclear) so that the train will crash into the Stark International tower.

That’s it. That’s the plan. How he was going to get from “devastating train crash” to “stealing a ring off a man’s hand” is never explained.

What makes it EVEN BETTER is that one episode later, Zheng’s poor planning skills have landed him in a dungeon, and the person who took his ring just walks up to Stane, roughs up his bodyguards, and demands he hands over the second ring. Which he does.

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.