What I'm Watching: Sleepy Hollow
Fall is here! In all ways except it, y'know, actually technically *being* Autumn. But that means the new season of fall shows begins, and oh, what a way to kick it off!
I literally just got done watching the series premiere of Sleepy Hollow, arguably the show I have been anticipating most since I first heard about it.
And to be blunt, it did NOT disappoint.
The general plot revolves around the familiar elements, with Ichabod Crane encountering the Headless Horseman (Before he lost his head, in this version), and making the first half of that name a most accurate description.
We immediately cut from the Horseman's beheading to modern times, where Crane awakens in a crypt in a cave, and stumbles around until he finds the plot.
Meanwhile, the Headless Horseman himself has too arisen, seeking his missing head, as he is wont to do in most versions of the story.
This gives us a pretty solid setup of a mystery of who this creature is, why Ichabod and he are in the present day, and VERY easy humour with Crane's culture shock, as well as the 'Odd Couple' style humour of his style with the leiutenant he runs into immediately upon arriving in our time. Not to mention that since this ties back to the Revolutionary War, and there's a secret history to explore, there's even MORE of a tapestry to peel back and explore.
The mythology expands with one of those twists that is SO bloody obvious, I can't believe it hasn't been done before now; making the Headless Horsemen one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This expands things hugely, and hving his arrival being a harbinger of his brethren, but first their return must be prepare by more demonic forces make the show able to not make it JUST about the Horseman, but about the town and the weird shit about to descend on it.
All of this pretty much can be summed up by saying they came up with great ideas to give the series legs. The mystery, the monsters, already lots of potential with that, the character interactions...all the elements are here.
My biggest disappointment at using such great actors as John Cho and Clancy Brown, and wasting them before the pilot is done. I would have lvoed to have their presences around for a longer term, especially Brown whom I have loved since his role as the Kurgan in the original Highlander movie.
The pilot did everything it needed to do, set up a long term plot (And teased a seven year plot at that), with lots of avenues they can go down so clearly shown. I have rarely seen a show jump out of the gate with so many ideas they can work with so soon. The vision here is clear, and that is a plus. I don't know how much they know about where the show is going, but it sure seems like they have some solid ideas.
A few things happened seemingly for plot convenience sake, and that bugs me just a little. The pilot probably could have used some extra time to flesh things out just a little more. Hopefully there's an extended version or deleted scenes that will do the trick somewhere down the line. But a few storytelling shortcuts can almost be forgiven in a pilot, so I don't hold that against it too much.
I was looking forward to this all summer long, and I am definitely on board. I can't wait to see how this new show's mythology expands from here, and look forward to the adventures of Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills.
