~ by Rebecca Fisher

Introduction:

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when this show was pitched to network executives. It’s almost impossible to come up with a more outlandish premise: taking The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving,  a spooky short-story about a nebbish school-teacher called Ichabod Crane who may or may not have been killed by a headless horseman, and conjecturing that said teacher was a British spy in the Revolutionary War, that the Headless Horseman was one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and that the forces of evil are going to use the town of Sleepy Hollow as their battleground in the seven years of tribulation that lead up to the end of the world.
I mean, it doesn’t get any weirder than that.
Yet for some reason, I wasn’t remotely surprised that the show became so popular. Various media outlets called it “the surprise hit of 2013”, though I knew from the moment I saw the first trailer that it would pick up a cult following. Perhaps it was the actors, perhaps it was the genre, or maybe there was just something about the premise that sounded crazy enough to work.

Premise:

It’s 1781 and America is in the midst of its Revolutionary War against the British. Ichabod Crane is a spy and field officer for the Americans, having thrown his lot in with them on moral grounds. Yet it’s on the battlefield that he meets his end, beheading a Hessian mercenary moments after he’s been delivered a fatal wound. It’s there that the two of them apparently die together in the mud.

Ichabod faces the masked Hessian in battle

Yet Ichabod Crane awakes, centuries later, in modern-day Sleepy Hollow, bewildered and disoriented. There he crosses paths with Lieutenant Abbie Mills, a young police officer whose friend and mentor has just been found beheaded on the job. Banding together, the two of them manage to find a way to (temporarily) banish the Headless Horseman running amok through the town.
Their purpose seems clear enough: under Abbie’s guidance Ichabod will contribute his wide array of occult knowledge and first-hand experiences of the Revolutionary War (the effects of which still resonate in contemporary Sleepy Hollow) to her investigations – something that comes in handy when supernatural phenomena begins to pop up all over Sleepy Hollow. More than that, Ichabod insists that two of them are actually the Two Witnesses as prophesised in the Book of Revelation, destined to stand against evil and prevent the end of the world.

Story:

In a nutshell, the weekly episodes of Sleepy Hollow can be described as a mix of the paranormal activity of The X-Files, the conspiracy theories of National Treasure, the buddy detective pairing of Elementary, and the creepy monsters of Supernatural. It carefully treads the line between genuine scares and tongue-in-cheek humour, and even has a good dose of American history thrown in for good measure.

From left: Captain Frank Irving, Katrina Crane, Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills

As it turns out, Ichabod’s life was preserved by the actions of his wife Katrina van Tassel, a Quaker nurse and secret witch who was part of a coven that protected Sleepy Hollow from evil forces. It was her spell that put Ichabod into his centuries-long slumber (perhaps a nod to Washington Irving’s other famous short-story, Rip Van Winkle) and now she’s trapped in Purgatory as a result, awaiting rescue.

Because Sleepy Hollow was created by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, contributors to Fringe and Alias (among other things), you can expect a fair amount of foreshadowing and continuity in regards to its story-arc. Though most episodes are standalone stories with a one-shot villain, there are seeds sown throughout the length of its first season to indicate that there’s a long-term plan in store.

The limited amount of episodes (thirteen as opposed to the usual twenty-two) means that the story can move along at a swift pace without the need for endless filler episodes, and it’s packed full of dry comedy, not-too-gory deaths, and tons of intrigue and suspense. The show is also to be lauded for its commitment to diversity when it comes to race and gender, with a wide range of characters from varying backgrounds. As a final touch, the show is beautifully shot, capturing the New England atmosphere of the township, complete with autumnal trees and mist-shrouded lakes.

Abbie introduces Ichabod to baseball and the art of heckling the umpire

However, be warned: if you’re a fan of Washington Irving’s original short-story, you’ll find nothing familiar here but the names.

Characters:

Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie have sublime chemistry as Ichabod and Abbie, putting their friendship alongside other beloved fictional partnerships such as Mulder/Scully, Kirk/Spock, Sherlock/Watson and Xena/Gabrielle. As Ichabod struggles to come to terms with 21st technology, Abbie has her own demons to contend with. As a teenage girl she was witness to a strange incidence in the forest: the appearance of four white trees, a horned monster, and a voice that said: “come and see…” It was at that point she blacked out, only to awaken several days later when a search party found her in the forest.

Abbie and her sister Jenny

She’s still haunted by the event, especially since her sister Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) was with her at the time. But although Abbie lied about what happened in order to avoid getting into further trouble, Jenny stuck to her story and was consequently admitted to a mental institution. The sisters are now estranged, though Abbie has to call upon Jenny’s training and know-how in the face of escalating paranormal occurrences throughout Sleepy Hollow.
Then there’s Abbie’s boss, Captain Frank Irving (Orlando Jones), who gives the duo free rein even as he grows increasingly suspicious of what’s really going on, and Luke Morales (Nicholas Gonzalez), Abbie’s ex-boyfriend who gets increasingly suspicious of Ichabod and his ways.  And keep your eyes out for veteran character-actors Clancy Brown, John Noble and John Cho, all of which have important recurring roles as participants in the good-versus-evil conflict.

Conclusion:

And so the board is set, pitting our two heroes against a range of ghouls, witches, demons and other monsters. Sleepy Hollow has fun playing around with American history, Biblical lore and even old dark fairytales, all of which permeate the storylines and give our heroes the edge they need to fight back against evil.

Yes, the Headless Horseman is carrying a machine gun. Filming this scene is probably the reason why they made the show in the first place.

It’s hard to really pinpoint any singular reason behind its success, suffice to say that Sleepy Hollow simply hit the jackpot when it came to cast chemistry, fish-out-of-water comedy regarding Ichabod trying to cope with modern life, and a premise that’s so outlandish that it somehow loops back around to working perfectly.

Next Time: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

I’ve already written about Xena Warrior Princess, one of the great feminist icons of the 90s. Now it’s time to tackle the other one: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show born out of Joss Whedon’s subversive idea that the blonde teenager strolling into a dark alley by herself after dark might well prove to be a match for any monsters that could be lurking there.

 

About The Reviewer:

Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com and her LiveJournal blog.

To read Rebecca’s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:

Big Worlds On Small Screens