The television series Sleepy Hollow is very loosely based on a short story written by American author Washington Irving. First published in 1820, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is the tale of Ichabod Crane - a school teacher who unsuccessfully competes with Abraham Van Brunt for the hand of Katrina, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. On the night of his rejection by the girl, he is chased by a headless horseman, and is never seen again. This leaves Abraham (who it is later implied was the horseman) to marry Katrina.
The story has been adapted to the screen many times, but with the very little success. By far the best being director Tim Burton's 1999 version - Sleepy Hollow, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
That being said, I was looking forward to seeing what direction this show would take after first reading about it a few months ago. I wasn't expecting too much, but I've always been a sucker for a new sci-fi or supernatural show.
As is the case with most screen adaptations of Irving's story, the only resemblance to the original is that it is based in the fictional town of Sleepy Hollow,and that some of the characters share the same names. As I said earlier, very loosely based.
Without giving too much away, Crane and the Horseman rise from their separate graves at the same time some 250 years after they killed each other in battle. The Horseman (as is pretty standard) is after his head, and it is up to Crane to stop him. The kicker in this, is that the Horseman is actually one of the biblical Horsemen (Death), and if he gets his head back, it will somehow trigger the beginning of the apocalypse.
Naturally, immediately after his resurrection, the Horseman starts beheading people and Crane is arrested on suspicion of the murders. After his arrest, he meets Officer Abbie Mills (who witnessed the Horseman kill her partner), and realising that Crane is important, goes against her superior's orders and teams up with him to stop the Horseman.
After just watching the pilot, I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. While perhaps a little far-fetched, the premise of the story is interesting, and open to many possibilities further down the track. The production values were high. The script seemed pretty solid and the acting and interaction between the actors was surprisingly good considering it is just the first episode. Tom Mison in particular did an excellent job as Ichabod Crane.
Sleepy Hollow definitely shows lots of promise, and if you're a fan of shows like Supernatural, Grimm, Once Upon a Time and the like, I highly recommend you give it a try.
