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tardis_stowawaySleepy Hollow, I love you so very much, but we need to talk.
I will happily suspend my disbelief about the fact that Ichabod seems to have known every single Founding Father and been involved in about 90% of the significant events of the Revolutionary War prior to his big sleep. I don't usually mind the often overly convenient sources of exposition. I love your ridiculous plot elements like Franklinstein's Monster. (And thank you SO MUCH for actually making that pun.) The workings of the Sleepy Hollow justice system don't seem to bear much resemblance to what happens in the real world, but few tv shows with cops do. I see zero need to make an issue of it here.
But you have got to draw the line somewhere. And that somewhere is biogeography.
The thing is, I wouldn't mind so much if we hadn't already had this talk once. In the very first episode, you had an appearance by a Harris's Hawk, a species native to the southwestern US and Latin America, never anywhere near New York state. At least that bird had the excuse of being a mystical omen. This week in "Go Where I Send Thee" you had no such excuse.
When Ichabod and Abbie are wandering into the woods looking for the lost child, they come upon a swampy area where they find the bone flute and Ichabod nearly causes Abbie to walk into the swamp when he stupidly starts playing it. In that swampy area, there are lots of peculiar shin-high cone-shaped things sticking out of the ground.
Those are CYPRESS KNEES!
The bald cypress, the tree that grows these distinctive protuberances*, is found in floodplains and swampy areas across large swathes of the southeastern US, but definitely not in New York state. Now, I admit that I haven't lived in New York, and I certainly don't know every tree species that occurs there. It's possible that one of Sleepy Hollow's local trees produces similar knees. But I once lived in Pennsylvania, not that far off, and never saw anything like this even in wet habitats. Maybe somebody with superior botany knowledge will tell me that I'm talking out of my ass, but I don't think so. I feel confident that those are bald cypress.
Look, Sleepy Hollow, I know you film in Wilmington, NC. I can overlook the fact that the temperature in your supposed New York town never seems to drop below "mildly chilly." Maybe nothing interesting happens to Abbie and Ichabod while it's snowing, IDK. I don't try to free-frame every single tree to key out differences between similar species. But the knees of the cypress tree are really distinctive and really out of place! I know they are super cool looking, and I understand wanting them on film, but you just can't do this sort of thing. It totally distracted me from the plot about the demonic pied piper.
Other than that issue, you've been awesome this season. As long as you can keep your plant and animal ranges straight in the future (and avoid a repeat of the anachronistic Old English incident), I think you'll go far.
*It was once thought that cypress knees helped get the plant oxygen in water-logged soil, but that notion has been largely discredited. The best current guess is that they help buttress the tree for stability, but nobody seems entirely sure.
I will happily suspend my disbelief about the fact that Ichabod seems to have known every single Founding Father and been involved in about 90% of the significant events of the Revolutionary War prior to his big sleep. I don't usually mind the often overly convenient sources of exposition. I love your ridiculous plot elements like Franklinstein's Monster. (And thank you SO MUCH for actually making that pun.) The workings of the Sleepy Hollow justice system don't seem to bear much resemblance to what happens in the real world, but few tv shows with cops do. I see zero need to make an issue of it here.
But you have got to draw the line somewhere. And that somewhere is biogeography.
The thing is, I wouldn't mind so much if we hadn't already had this talk once. In the very first episode, you had an appearance by a Harris's Hawk, a species native to the southwestern US and Latin America, never anywhere near New York state. At least that bird had the excuse of being a mystical omen. This week in "Go Where I Send Thee" you had no such excuse.
When Ichabod and Abbie are wandering into the woods looking for the lost child, they come upon a swampy area where they find the bone flute and Ichabod nearly causes Abbie to walk into the swamp when he stupidly starts playing it. In that swampy area, there are lots of peculiar shin-high cone-shaped things sticking out of the ground.
Those are CYPRESS KNEES!
The bald cypress, the tree that grows these distinctive protuberances*, is found in floodplains and swampy areas across large swathes of the southeastern US, but definitely not in New York state. Now, I admit that I haven't lived in New York, and I certainly don't know every tree species that occurs there. It's possible that one of Sleepy Hollow's local trees produces similar knees. But I once lived in Pennsylvania, not that far off, and never saw anything like this even in wet habitats. Maybe somebody with superior botany knowledge will tell me that I'm talking out of my ass, but I don't think so. I feel confident that those are bald cypress.
Look, Sleepy Hollow, I know you film in Wilmington, NC. I can overlook the fact that the temperature in your supposed New York town never seems to drop below "mildly chilly." Maybe nothing interesting happens to Abbie and Ichabod while it's snowing, IDK. I don't try to free-frame every single tree to key out differences between similar species. But the knees of the cypress tree are really distinctive and really out of place! I know they are super cool looking, and I understand wanting them on film, but you just can't do this sort of thing. It totally distracted me from the plot about the demonic pied piper.
Other than that issue, you've been awesome this season. As long as you can keep your plant and animal ranges straight in the future (and avoid a repeat of the anachronistic Old English incident), I think you'll go far.
*It was once thought that cypress knees helped get the plant oxygen in water-logged soil, but that notion has been largely discredited. The best current guess is that they help buttress the tree for stability, but nobody seems entirely sure.
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(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-16 04:55 am (UTC)I can't say its *impossible* for scorpions to live in upstate ny but I was raised there, and I never saw one in nature until I moved to the southwest. The whole nonsensical thing made me jump. Then I let it pass as stupid and fake.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-16 07:15 am (UTC)If it's not clear from my entry, I'm not actually annoyed! Ludicrous disconnect from reality is part of this show's charm. I just enjoy a good rant from time to time.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-16 06:54 am (UTC)There are some flaws with the series but overall I have really enjoyed it.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-16 01:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-17 12:57 am (UTC)Thanks for the confirmation! I would have been ENORMOUSLY surprised if there was anything resembling bald cypress near the real Sleepy Hollow, but I definitely appreciate knowing for sure.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-17 12:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-17 01:11 am (UTC)Also, thanks for the confirmation that there's not some Yankee tree with similar knees that I just didn't know about!