GOTHAM – My rating: 8.5/10

The acting is a little funky but Gotham turned out to be a very good series.  The story starts with the killing of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Wayne.  Master Bruce Wayne is still a young child played by David Mazouz (known for the series Touch) who is way ahead of his years.  His role is minimal right now but we all know that he becomes Batman with his trusted butler Alfred Pennyworth played by Sean Pertwee who is raising him, at his side.  Gotham is a complete mess.  Crime and bribery everywhere, cheating, stealing, murder, you name it, Gotham has it.  The police aren’t very effective because most of the cops are on the take along with most government officials.  A new recruit and rookie detective named James Gordon played by Ben McKenzie seems to be one of the few straight cops left.  He has vowed to find the Wayne’s murderer. Police Captain Sarah Essen, played by Zabryna Guevara seems to be on the straight and narrow but I’m not sure at this point.   Jada Pinket-Smith stars as a corrupt night club owner named Fish Mooney, who favors women over men.  There are 2 major crime families fighting for territory and James’ partner Harvey Bullock played by Donal Logue is far from 100% legit.  The show is very good and action packed.  There’s one other character named Oswald Cobblepot, played by Robin Lord Taylor, who I’m sure is going to corrupt things even more in the future and probably the most dangerous of all.  He’a work in progress.  The acting is a little premature — it will most likely get better with age.  Future villains include The penguin, the Riddler, Cat Woman, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Scare Crow, Hugo Strange, Havey Dent, Mr. Freeze and Victor Zsasz.  Gotham airs on FOX and is a very good series, worth seeing.

SLEEPY HOLLOW – My Rating: 8.5/10

I didn’t except this new series called Sleepy Hollow to be about how the legend came to be or what it takes in these modern times to deal with such things as headless horsemen, demons, the Masons, Ichabod Crane and two beautiful young African American sisters who are all so pulled into the legend they don’t live for anything else.  Originally, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was derived from a  short story by American author Washington Irving.  It consisted of 34 essays and short stories entitled “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent” and was first published in the year 1820.

Each week the essays are torn down from book form into episodes depicting this famous novel’s stories that make up this popular folktale.  The twist and turns are pretty interesting and Ichabod Crane, played by Tom Mison, who was resurrected after 250 years, has joined forces with Lt. Abbie Mills played by Nicole Beharie to continue the good fight between good and evil.  This is a complicated series since it’s mainly based on some scripture and fictional documentation which is presented on a weekly basis.  The original story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarrytown, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow, which is renowned for its ghosts and the haunting atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants and visitors. The most infamous spectre in the Hollow is the Headless Horseman, said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during “some nameless battle” of the American Revolutionary War, and who “rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head”.

Since Sleep Hollow is fiction, this modern time version has been embellished and “Hollywooded” to the max.  I tried not to like it at first but soon became addicted.  Season 2 is due to begin in the fall of 2014, and I for one, cannot wait.  Sleepy Hollow currently airs on FOX TV.