Sleepy Hollow: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Review

Sleepy no longer.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, September 11, 2014

There are few images as spooky in the entire annals of literature as that of the headless horseman who haunts Washington Irving's timeless tale of one Ichabod Crane. The image of a headless horseman actually predates Irving's account by at least a few centuries, with tales by such legendary writers as the Grimm Brothers utilizing it before Irving made it so unforgettable in. Irving's timeless tale has been adapted countless times for television and film, including entries as disparate as Walt Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow . This new television iteration takes one beat from Burton's approach by having the police involved with the mystery of the headless horseman, though in this case the setting is contemporary and both the horseman and Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) have mysteriously appeared in 21st century Sleepy Hollow, much to everyone's consternation. There's therefore a fish out of water (or timeframe) aspect to the series that provides some of its lighter weight material, while the spooky supernatural underpinning that helped to define Irving's original piece bubbles just beneath the surface, breaking through at regular intervals as if to "reassure" the various characters that there's something extremely mysterious going on in the quaint and picturesque New York village.It becomes evident rather quickly inthat the show's creative team is following in the well worn footsteps of such supernaturally themed shows as, something they themselves reference in one of the commentaries included on this new Blu- ray set. But there are important differences here, including the fact that neither of the two main characters is an avowed skeptic. While Crane may beof a believer due to his unexpected "resurrection" several centuries after his supposed demise during the Revolutionary War, the young policeman with whom he eventually is partnered, Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie), has her own convoluted backstory that makes her at least somewhat willing to concede that otherworldly events have been haunting her hometown of Sleepy Hollow since she herself was a child. That leaves some of the traditional "Scully-izing" pooh-poohing to such characters as Captain Frank Irving (Orlando Jones), Mills' superior and a man who initially at least is looking for tried and trueexplanations for what's been going on.has a fairly convoluted mythology built into its conceit, but it's one that show wastes little time in divulging and then slowly building upon.Okay, here we go. In this version Ichabod Crane is a black ops member of sorts for none other than George Washington, working on some super secret plans that may have an occult foundation. He is warned about a Hessian soldier who must be stopped at all costs, andturns out to be the headless horseman (who becomes headless courtesy of a well timed saber swipe by Crane himself). However, Crane is mortally wounded in the battle, and his wife Katrina (Katia Winter), who just happens to be a "good" witch, puts a spell on Ichabod, putting him in stasis. Unfortunately, Crane's blood has mixed with the horseman's, and so the two are now inextricably linked. Katrina and a well meaning priest throw the horseman's headless body in a nearby river, but centuries later, some hidden force reaches out and awakens the horseman, and the linked Ichabod in the process. Once Ichabod and Abbie attempt to figure out what's going on in the 21st century, a few well timed discoveries as well as some telepathic dreams from Katrina, who is trapped in some kind of magical dream world, let the pair know that the horseman is one ofhorsemenas in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalpyse. Got all that?. (One thing the show's writers didget is the correct name of the Biblical book from whichculls much of its mythology. It's the Book of Revelation. As in singular."revelations". )The series combines certain procedural elements with the creepier supernatural elements that defined such former shows as. But it's those very supernatural elements that both offerits most distinctive aspect while at the same time hobbling the series. How can that be? Takeas a salient case in point. Scully and Mulder trotted hither and yon chasing down all sorts of boogie men and other inexplicable phenomena. Here, in, everything is confined to one location, making the series an increasingly fragile construction of happenstance and spooky goings on in a quite limited geographical region. The fact that the show wants to make these happening global, if not downright cosmic, is distinctly at odds with everything being centered in one tiny village. Increasingly throughout the first season, the series repeatedly relies on a "monster of the week" that momentarily sidelines Ichabod and Abbie on their overall quest to quell the horseman and his siblings. In this regard,has some of the same claustrophobic issues that plague the somewhat similar Haven There are also some troubling signs that Crane's inability to cope with the modern world is going to providefodder for little humorous interstitials. A little of this gambit goes a long way, and it will be instructive to note how much the show depends on this technique going forward. In the meantime, there are some very interesting aspects to this show, despite some occasional missteps in the first season. The interplay between Mison and Beharie is quite enjoyable, and the show does have a great, Gothic atmosphere that serves the show very well. That said,has a very tricky tightrope to walk here, hoping that the mythological aspects of the show don't become so farfetched that the entire premise becomes unsupportable. The show's writers are going to have to have their heads screwed ontightly going forward.