TV Series Review: Sleepy Hollow
Chris Kneipp reviews the 2013 TV series, Sleepy Hollow.
Something dark is rising in Sleepy Hollow and it’s going to keep you glued to your TV screen. This paranormal/police series from the Fox network has just finished its first season run and the second season is slated for release later this year. While perhaps not for everyone, I thought it was a wonderful retelling of the old story, though it has more in common with a series like Supernatural than it does with the original tale by Washington Irvine.
The show tells the tale of Ichabod Crane (played by Tom Mison), a soldier in the American Civil War. The first episode opens on the battlefield, where Ichabod shoots an axe-wielding mercenary who shakes off the bullet and keeps coming. Our hero is mortally wounded, but manages to behead his killer before dying. Now that could have been the shortest TV series of all time, but for the intervention of his wife Katrina (Katia Winter), a witch. Fast forward a few centuries and Ichabod awakens in a cave on the outskirts of the town Sleepy Hollow, New York, very much alive. As you can imagine, claiming you are from the 1700s is going to get you committed, but when a string of people are beheaded with an axe, one person believes him: Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie), a police lieutenant haunted by her own childhood supernatural experience. Together, Crane and Mills uncover a terrifying plot to bring about the end of the world.
The show’s creators do a great job mixing the drama with occasional light comedy, and the cast of characters, both good and evil, do a great job bringing the story to life. I haven’t seen Tom Mison or Nicole Beharie in anything before, and if this is any indication of their talent then I’m looking forward to seeing them in other roles in the future. Mison plays the stiff but likable hero convincingly, though I do find myself wondering why he is always in the same clothes he was wearing when he crawled out of the cave (Eww!). Nicole Beharie also lends much to the success of the show and it’s nice to see a female lead who doesn’t need to dress in black leather and high heels to kick ass.
The supporting characters in Sleepy Hollow are well-played and it was interesting to see Orlando Jones (Mad TV) and John Cho (Harold and Kumar) step away from comedy and into dramatic roles. Lyndie Greenwood plays Abbie’s troubled sister Jenny and brings another great tough-girl character to life.
As all good series do, Sleepy Hollow’s season finale frustratingly ends with a killer cliff-hanger (no spoilers) and the show’s ratings suggest that there’ll be plenty of people glued to their TVs when season two comes out later this year. No release date has been announced, though Fox has confirmed they are shooting it now.
Guess we’ll all just have to be patient until then.
