Melissa Blake

Last weekend during the Fox executive session at the Television Critics Association press tour, Fox chairman and CEO Dana Waldron talked at length about their plans for the spring, which included thoughts on the direction of Sleepy Hollow. Waldron held off on announcing a season three renewal (even after handing them out to Empire, Gotham, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine), but said they were “hopeful” and there were ongoing conversations with the creative team. Citing a “high level of difficulty” in balancing the show’s characterization and mythology, she said that the show was “a little overly serialized” and promised that there would be a shift to “something that feels a bit more episodic in nature… it’s all about calibrating the show, not making dramatic changes.”

It’s fairly obvious that to the Sleepy Hollow writers, the entire American Revolution is a bucket of plot hooks, which is why it’s surprising it’s taken them a season and change to find a reason to use Benedict Arnold. One of the war’s most notorious figures—as Fat Tony’s henchmen would say, the same Benedict Arnold who plotted to surrender West Point to the hated British—he’s a persona that even someone with a surface knowledge of American history could identify. And given Sleepy Hollow’s keen interest in the ideas of loyalty and betrayal, he’s a prime candidate to fit into the show’s narrative and prompt questions about whose side someone is on.

Sleepy Hollow, Season 1: Episode 11 – “Vessel” Written by Mark Goffman, David McMillan, and Melissa Blake Directed by Romeo Tirone Airs Mondays at 9 PM EST on Fox – After a winter hiatus, Sleepy Hollow returns with one of its most complete episodes of its first season. “Vessel” takes all of the elements which make Sleepy Hollow a …

Sleepy Hollow, Season 1, Episode 5: “John Doe″ Written by  Melissa Blake Directed by Ernest Dickerson Airs Mondays at 9:00 PM ET on Fox In another wacky episode of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) and Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) meet a young boy, who runs through the woods and faints. He is wearing antiquated clothes, …