Asia Martin recaps the pilot before it’s re-airing tonight on FOX.
Ichabod Crane rises from 250 years of death in a cave with his flesh and clothes fully intact and then partners with a police officer to stop the headless horseman from leading the apocalypse. No, this is not the Sleepy Hollow we have been accustomed to for a few centuries. Fox’s Sleepy Hollow has infused itself with CBS’ Elementary and The Bible’s “Revelations” and came up with a plot that not even Washington Irving, the man who created Legend of Sleepy Hollow, could see coming.
Ichabod Crane, played by Tom Mison, slayed the headless horseman, a British soldier in the Revolutionary War, who turns out to also be one the four horsemen who brings forth the apocalypse as told in Revelations. The headless horseman rises from the dead in search of his head to finish out his mission and summons Ichabod Crane back to life as well. A series of unsolved murders occur in Sleepy Hollow, including one of a Clint Eastwood look-alike priest with powers, that has the local police department searching for concrete answers. Cue Lieutenant Abby Mills, the first person to witness the headless horseman in action and Ichabod Crane’s new partner.
As crazy as the plot seems, the pilot was not disappointing. The main stars,Tom Mison (One Day) and Nicole Beharie (42) aren’t well known actors, but they have great chemistry on camera and they deliver the concept of the past meeting the present to in a comical and light-hearted manner. Ichabod Crane asked Lieutenant Mills if she was emancipated before stating that he was offended that she thought he was for slavery.
Orlando Jones (MadTV, The Replacements) plays the police department’s chief who made it through the pilot unlike John Cho (Harold & Kumar, Star Trek) who plays Andy, Mills co-worker and secret admirer. With a black woman as lead, and interracial relations being hot for TV, I assumed that Mison or Cho was an indicator that there would be an interracial relationship ensuing. But at the end we learn that Andy was a traitor to humanity and Crane has a wife that might be rising from the dead too.
Director Len Wiseman, who helmed Live Free or Die Hard and Underworld, has a good show on his hands. I can foresee Sleepy Hollow having a hardcore following like most shows that involve humans with super powers. I give credit to the writers for making the show easy to follow, despite its non-traditional approach to a legendary tale.
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