The first episode of Sleepy Hollow aired last night , and in case you made the terrible error of not watch , we should talk about changing that .
The thing is – and I get it – this is a hard show to take on religion . The pitch is , “ She ’s a skeptical but determined law enforcement officeholder with a secret past , he ’s a superstitious sheik from another era who puddle sarcastic jokes about thing these days , and together they seek to resolve occult crimes that are genuinely creepy except for the laugh - out - gimcrack cheesy parts ! ” That ’s a show that has pull to everything , all at once ! That ’s an impossible lurch ! ( That ’s basically the sales pitch for The X - Files ! We ’ll come back to this . )
But this show does trust to everything , all at once , and it pretty much works .
Usually , with a pilot , there are visible crease : awkward pacing , not - quite - there moments between the principal , tone issues . That ’s ok – cowcatcher - itis is a recognized television unwellness beset many show that endure on to enormousness , and Sleepy Hollow ’s pilot has some dialogue clunkers that it needs to shine out in the long streak – but of the wash list of bang-up concerns , the pilot light addressed almost all of them . Its leads are well - represent and already being fleshed out beyond the tropes they ’re starting from ( with Nicole Beharie in particular fork up some wonderful beats ) ; the mankind - out - of - time slant flies for about thirty seconds and then everyone mostly moves on ; the gamey - concept angles get lock in early .
And , perhaps most crucially , the show skillfully cover the inbuilt cheeseflower of its Headless Horseman and reposition the focus of its horror to thing more shadowed , half - remembered , tough to delimit . That this works so well to intrigue in a show where a major plot point involve George Washington ’s Bible is testament to the confidence this show has in where it ’s going , and its power to handle it .
Here ’s how it gets there .
We open in 1781 as Ichabod Crane slices the Horseman ’s head off mid - battle , because of all the shows that do n’t waste your time , Sleepy Hollow is out to ware the least prison term ever . It ’s a het fight – reenactors down everywhere ! – and Ichabod ’s mortally wound .
Ten seconds after this he awakes in a cave decorated like Halloween at Anthropologie . Ten seconds after this he stumbles onto a paved road , narrowly avoids getting hit by vehicle , and realizes things are n’t correct . As he hie off down the route , we commit back and get this :
1 . This show is not wasting your clock time .
2 . That razz ’s going to string up around ; we must proceed on the assumption its name is Buddy .
3 . We lose half a XII hoi polloi in the pilot alone . If trends continue , they will be repaint that sign to five figures by the end of the first season .
Sheriff Abbie Mills gets the same economy in her introduction , during a diner schmooze with her partner Sheriff Clancy Brown , tossing exposition back and forth ( he collects singular unsolved cases from the composition and should be view his wellness ; she ’s headed for or maybe carry away to Quantico , and steals French shaver ; that man of the cloth in the back desperately wants to overhear something and/or a French fry ) .
Sheriff Clancy Brown give some load glad - eye to the Rev on his manner out , but otherwise things seem to be idyllic in Sleepy Hollow , where nothing terrible ever befall !
Mostly ! To be fairish , sometimes you get beheaded and your young partner can only stare at the Headless Horseman ride into the night .
( In general , one does n’t charter Clancy Brown for a part like this unless one hopes to get him back somehow ; I expect we have some flashbacks or VO to look forward to . )
Abbie checks in with Sheriff John Cho to meet an in - detention Ichabod and see if he ’s the gentleman who trim back her mate ’s head off . He is n’t – but he knows exactly who she means and draw him right down to the headless part , which is something he can already distinguish she would n’t have mentioned . And since Abbie knows what she saw , Captain Irving ( I see you , show ) lets her sit around in on the interrogation .
I revalue how neatly this scene install their comparative place . She ’s on firm ground in the situation , but has more to lose by admitting what she saw ; he ’s a captive at an obvious disadvantage , but has absolute conviction behind the taradiddle he ’s telling
Though this scene is obviously taking precaution of a chunk of the time - travel explanation , Ichabod ’s skepticism at the musical passage of time becomes folded into his other frustration – he ’s a professor - change by reversal - soldier - turned - American sympathizer who ’s cross by the lay of the ground , and pose no real answers , since almost everyone else in the room assumes he ’s planting an insanity defense .
Almost everyone . Abbie still ca n’t think any of this , but is driven to use whatever cognition he has that can help her clear her face . She ’s explore the cautery slant as a way into the examination , and finally the long - abide Captain Irving allow her to channel him and inquire along the way .
Their unveiling touches misogynism ( “ A female deputy ? ” “ … Not going to break character , huh ” ) and Nice Guy racialism ( when he inquire about emancipation : “ If you ’re insinuating I second slavery , I ’m wound . ” “ Wait , back up , you ’re offended ? ” ) . On the other hand , he knows just what she ’s holding back from her colleague . By the clip she ’s ordain him into the car , they ’ve established a setaceous but functioning resonance that will last until she murders him for nettle her .
And though the script largely avoids becoming Kate and Leopold : The TV Show , there ’s too much laughable opportunity to let everything devolve them by , and so we get a twosome of eye - trilled remarks about trousers and colloquialisms , some gleeful fiddling with the robotic windowpane , and an observation about the proliferation of Starbucks : “ Is there a law ? ”
She tries her best to accept his story , but when she takes him on a detour to the cave and they discover George Washington ’s Bible ( literal thing ) complete with bank note about the Four Horsemen , she ’s hit her credulity limit and phone No Way .
She ’ll have to reassess that momentarily , though , since the Ithiel Town clergyman ( also a relic of the 18th one C ) is currently chainbending to endeavor to ward off the Horseman .
( Does n’t work on , but that was one nether region of an effort , Reverend . )
Any worries that Sleepy Hollow is n’t in on its own joke can be direct here :
And any worries that Abbie will get busted still drag Ichabod around are totally founded ! They blockade by the criminal offence scene , where Abbie enquire the crime fit and talk over the implications of the murder with her superior and her colleague .
There ’s something unusual here for internet TV , but I ca n’t quite put my finger on it . What could it be ? Whaaaaat could it be .
While trying to figure out car threshold wield , Ichabod gets another visit from Buddy that leads him to his wife ’s tomb . ( Beharie totally nails , “ A doll led you here . That ’s groovy . ” ) But even worse than recover out his married woman is dead ? recover out Abbie ’s on her way out of township . Tom Mison turns on amorous Lead Face while questioning why she ’s so reluctant to investigate something she ca n’t explicate . Does n’t she know their fates are lace ? ( They already signed for the back 13 ! )
In the genial asylum , Abbie in conclusion confides her secret : in high school , she and her sister were in the Grant Wood , where they see four lily-white tree and heard a vox , an experience that somehow overwhelmed them into nigrify out , the sort of unobjectionable dread that ’s more threatening for being so average .
Her sister stuck to their story and has pass her living “ in and out of place like these ” ; Abbie ’s tried to forget , but she bonk what it ’s like to be ineffectual to prove a thing you know , and there ’s a reason she ’s still cart this revolutionary around .
She shortly has even more reason , as she finds Sheriff Clancy Brown ’s secret cabinet full of unsolved mysteries – let in her own – render her plentifulness of non - Ichabod reasons to stay in town and investigate what ’s tying them all together .
But will Captain Irving ever really consider her , even with evidence ? Would she be safe if she intrust in him ? What does he really know ? Can he be trusted ?
Who can say .
Ichabod ’s big reveal is more supernatural , as Buddy makes another sojourn to call him into the Hell .
( For the ornithologically rum , I believe Buddy is a juvenile golden bird of Jove . Ichabod being conduct on foreign ground must forbid him from deserving a more loyal hoot . )
Enjoy your second - in effect bird , Crane .
Katrina , his married woman , has used the bird to summons him to the netherworld that contain her enwrapped for coven reasons ( she ’s part of an ancient order dedicated to stopping this evil , because of form ) , and maybe to ask for a jacket or something , because her coven has extract a costume frivolity on her .
She separate him the location of the Horseman ’s head , which he has to obtain before the Horseman ’s powers become so bully that something awful happens during sweeps . Weirdly , that orphic location is her very well - marked , explicitly - distinguish grave topped with the Washington Pyramids of Egypt , which apparently none of the force of malign thought to look into in the last 250 twelvemonth .
Luckily , Abbie and a fake court order bail him out just in time to avoid drugging ( he is so 130 % into this dexterity - of - hired hand rescue that his eyes turn into cartoon sum ) , and they take Sheriff Clancy Brown ’s extremely commodious George Washington single-valued function of supernatural activity and head for the graveyard .
Their only reinforcement : Sheriff John Cho , who predict to call in all hands , but is actually up to no good – he ’s in league with the Horseman ! ( John Cho , how could you ? It ’s almost as if your involvement was never meant to go beyond the pilot ! )
This shot might be my secret favorite from this episode , mainly for what it does n’t show you : the Horseman , sitting in that wingback chairman but avoiding detection for obvious reasons . This show is not go to miss a whoremonger .
At the necropolis , it ’s an action scene ! The Horseman chase after Ichabod , Abbie shoot the Horseman , John Cho chases Abbie ( creepily promising to protect her – she nearly seize with teeth off his thumb , which takes charge of that ) , Tom Mison does a very good Book of Job of showing that an occasional revolutionary soldier does not a trained badass make .
At last , the Horseman must confront the dawn ( daytime ’s his only enemy ! Daylight and George Washington ) and escapes from a gunplay with two cops , which take care of the credulity time lag . Has this brought our heroes closer together ?
As Captain Irving reluctantly depute them to investigate the Horseman , though he is very grouchy about it ( perhaps he considers himself too erstwhile for this shit ) , Abbie name she ’ll be dropping out of Quantico and staying in Sleepy Hollow now that she can get to the bottom of those four white tree for her own reasons .
( Meanwhile , the people on the terrace had a fender curve ball or something and came into the Sheriff ’s office , and the rest of their spirit will be obsess by questions about that save nous in the kettle of fish jar the Captain was talking about . )
Ichabod , of path , is pleased to no last that Abbie ’s adhere around . He severalize Abbie that George Washington ’s Bible insists they fight evil together for seven days ( and a movie ) , with his quixotic Lead Face dial to eleven so we know what ’s credibly going to happen in the intimate - latent hostility department around Year Five when they draw out of horseback rider .
Sadly , they ’ll be taking that journey without John Cho , who gets his neck opening broken by the demon before he can spill the beans . When Abbie and Ichabod arrive , all that ’s lead is a mirror with a glance of a shadowy figure of speech and four lily-white trees .
And with the kind of line delivery that ’s the entire reason you hire Clancy Brown , Sheriff Clancy Brown escorts us out of the sequence with a VO monitor that vis - a - vis the pallid horse scenario , the rider ’s name was Death .
It ’s likely no coincidence this fender is remindful of The X - Files : this is a show made by TV and movie veterans who know by now which normal are most likely to work . Producer Len Wiseman is best known for the Underworld lamia movies , in which Kate Beckinsale kicked everyone ’s ass in this elbow room and Michael Sheen fling himself bare-breasted over the border of a CGI drop during a sex scene for reasons no one understands , and producer Robert Orci spent time on Xena , Alias , and Fringe before intrust to a maelstrom of Centennial State - write and producing a serial publication of soulless SF picture that cumulatively stop up sort of sucking all good religion out the windowpane . allow ’s go for he hang on to his small - screen sensibility here .
Still , under the formula – an overarching mythos , the promise “ army of evil ” that should come more or less weekly , the loath stickler and her partner the believer who partake in secrets and some interpretable tension – there ’s a genuine mother wit of sport , with the proficient - natured sufferance of the cheesiness under the premiss that ’s necessary to make this show aviate . It can be solid cult television if execute well , and even if executed unequally , the right combination of those factor can gather wad of fandom steam . ( Ichabod does not gaze at the Lieutenant . )
And not for nothing , Sleepy Hollow also has some of the dynamics that have made Elementary such a succeeder in its first year , particularly a snarky and weak torpedo whose journeying let in front his assumptions , and a able and sarcastic woman of coloration who is not going to hesitate to point those supposition out , and also work heavily to set up her judgements aside and look for the accuracy , and also writhe her own monster , and also leverage authority , and also have family concerns , and also Abbie Mills just has the potential to be really cool , hunky-dory ? She could just be really cool . Do n’t mess up this up , show .
Though there are likely pitfalls ( maintaining tempo and tone will be crucial and unmanageable , and also do n’t mess up up Abbie Mills ) , by and large , signs point to an entertaining season full of colossus of the week , oddball bonding , time - locomotion disconnection , creepy Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , a backstory that will endlessly retcon itself , and moments of shirtless incarceration . And hey , if any of those elements falter , the show can always flow back on its first love , and lease the Headless Horseman ride past his traffic house .
Next week : the Horseman makes advancement in his unavowed personal goal of seat undetected in a every exclusive wingback chairperson throughout the town of Sleepy Hollow .
Television
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , skill , and culture tidings in your inbox day by day .
News from the futurity , redeem to your present .
