"Sleepy Hollow" (2013)
18 May 2014
I don't know if the idea for this show came from Tim Burton's excellent "Sleepy Hollow (1999)" - But it appears that the Theme Music for this show does homage Danny Elfman's also-excellent score for that film.
That's about all "Sleepy Hollow" has to do with "Sleepy Hollow" - other than Washington Irving's original horror story that used to scare the Bejesus out of me when I was a kid.
But this take on that story: Although it has all of the original elements, it also brings that story 250 years into the Future and some very clever gimmicks were concocted by Showrunners Kurtzman. Alex and Orci, Roberto to allow the Revolutionary War story to run concurrently with present day events in Sleepy Hollow. And the North Carolina locations used for this show are a welcome change from the usual Vancouver "X-Files" locations used for Fringe, Almost Human and of course The X Files.
This story is a rich combination of historical perspective, modern science and science fiction, and what I choose to call "Religious Fiction" - As some people consider Religion as Fiction in the first place, there are those who are religious that consider their own canon only as "truth" and all texts outside of that canon as false or fictitious. Also are mentions of Freemasonry and Witchcraft, which could also fall into the Religious Fiction category, except that I could never really figure out what goes on any Masonic Lodge.
Then there are various ghouls and entities mainly related to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and our two main characters have something to do with the "Two Witnesses" mentioned in Revelations.
What I find refreshing is that Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) would normally be reading manuscripts at Oxford and Abby Mills (Nicole Beharie) might be listening to Notorious or some other rapper, yet those Cultural Barriers are never crossed, they are never considered barriers. In this show, people are people and nothing else- And Abby's relationship to Ichabod is not unrealistic at all. In the 60's, there was an uproar over Captain Kirk scandalously kissing Lt. Uhura in Star Trek. And although Crane and Mills are not romantically connected they are as intimate as any couple that is. It's why this show is great, because that intimacy is shown in every episode, it is what propels the story forward, it is how the characters resolve the issues they are confronted with.
These are two people that have a snowball effect on those around them, as the snowball rolls, it gets larger and larger. At first capturing Abby's Boss Captain Frank Irving (Orlando "7 up" Jones), then Abby's Sister Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) and eventually "The Sin Eater" (The great John Noble) and finally Irving's wife and kid.
I actually started watching this because of John Noble's involvement- I was so impressed I went back and watched all of the episodes in order.
I have stopped at the season finale- I love how this story connects all characters, nobody is involved who is not intrinsically connected by blood or time or Spiritual aspects. Even the Headless Horseman in this story is closely connected to Crane somehow.
In the background, some character named Moloch is pulling strings and causing bad things to happen. When he is shown (usually in Mirrors) it has a high creep factor, along with all of the other Daemons, Walking Gunny sacks, Tree Daemons, and Spirits that can body-jump. One by One they come after Crane, and one by one he kicks their Arses. But there is one more showdown between Crane and The Horseman coming up, who will win?
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