No one likes admitting they were wrong. I am no different. Back in May, I predicted that Sleepy Hollow had a 50/50 shot of being the first of Fox’ new series offerings to get cancelled this season. Not only is that not happening, but it’s also the first series on ANY network to get a second season pickup. How is this possible?
After the initial ratings of Sleepy Hollow’s first episode, I was blown away. How could it be Fox’ highest rated series premiere in like five years? From the trailer it looked like a complicated mess of time travel, National Treasure, Sleepy Hollow (the actual story), cheese, and bullshit. So I took the bait and watched the first episode. It was everything I thought it would be minus the bullshit part. It’s just a fun, dumb show and it is fully cognizant of what it is. It has a blockbuster pedigree coming from writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci (the Transformers movies, the Star Trek movies, Lost, Fringe), so they seem to really have a handle on what masses of people like.
The show plays like a mystery-adventure of the week in that the time displaced Ichabod Crane, and his partner, officer Abbie Mills investigate weird paranormal ghost,witch, and monster stories that have been prophecized by the Book of Revelations. Best yet, is that George Washington was using Ichabod Crane as a spy to track and kill the Hessian soldier who would become the famous Headless Horseman. Oh and by the way, the Headless Horseman is also one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Yup. This show is crazy. You can tell the writers probably snicker once or twice a week as they are making this shit up. Bonus points to them for showing the Headless Horseman, now in modern times, using an M-16 to blow away cops. Hilarious. Just hilarious.
Besides a ridiculous premise that, oddly enough is working, the cast is pretty great. The buddy cop pairing of an old-timey Englishman, and a black woman, is refreshing. It shouldn’t feel weird to see a black woman as the lead on a major network show, but it is. Scandal and Sleepy Hollow ftw. Another plus of the show, is that it apparently knows when enough is enough. Myth heavy shows struggle to air 22 episodes. Many end up collapsing on themselves over time, so Sleepy Hollow is taking the 13 episodes per season route. That will enable the writers to keep the story much tighter over the run. Cable has shown that we’re getting to the point where less is more. Next season of Sleepy Hollow will only have to worry about 13 episodes, bringing it’s total count to 26, instead of 44. Think about all the throwaway episodes we wont have to worry about now.
Fox took a huge gamble in airing Sleepy Hollow and after three weeks, it’s their highest rated show, scripted or otherwise. I don’t think it’s the smartest show on tv by any means, but now that Breaking Bad is over, it’s nice to have a show to watch that doesn’t require all of my brain or any of my emotions. As far as network tv is concerned you can do so much worse than this. I encourage you to give the show a shot. If you liked Fringe, but wish it didn’t take itself so seriously, or if you want to watch an entertaining hour of tv that does not weight on your conscience, give it a go. It’s on Monday nights at 9:00 on Fox, so unless you’re into the Monday Night Football or Dancing With The Stars matchup, it’s your best bet.
About Russ Stevens
Russ Stevens is an editor and writer at Rookerville and a guidance counselor at Nyack HS. He mostly writes about either loving or hating things. In his spare time, he performs Improv comedy with his troupe Priest and The Beekeeper and is a co-producer of their monthly variety show Pig Pile. He loves all the New York sports teams that are historically bad, and he hates lateness more than anything in the world.