Posted in: Comics, TV | Tagged: comic con, pizza, san diego, sdcc, sleepy hollow

A Sleepy Hollow And A Free Pizza

Alex Wilson wrote;

During Comic Con a friend gave me a call, saying they were doing a screening of the new Fox network show Sleepy Hollow and he had extra wristbands to get me in. Seeing a network show early is great but the best part was they gave out free pizza. I can't tell you how excited I was to have food and better than that, free food. Free food meant I didn't have to send ridiculous amounts of money and could spend those ridiculous amounts at the convention. I thought, "Well, I saw the show. I suppose I should write something about it," so here is my review of the upcoming Fox network show Sleepy Hollow.

Everyone knows the tale of the headless horseman. There are many incarnations of the myth but in this one the horseman is Death, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The story holds more true to the American roots of the story, as the moniker of "Sleepy Hollow" is so heavily involved. In this incarnation, like many others, the headless horseman is an unnamed mercenary who fought for the British. Tom Mison plays Ichabod Crane and Nicole Beharie plays Abbie Mills, a local cop. Crane awakes presumably from death in modern ages. He died during the revolutionary war. The horseman is out looking for something (spoiler: it's his head) and only a few know where it is. The horseman is attempting to bring the other horsemen of the apocalypse to the earthy plane and bring about the end of days. The fate of the world now rests on the shoulders of Crane and Mills, along with the small town police force of Sleepy Hollow.

There are many interesting elements at play here. They have a large emphasis on witchcraft, alluding to witchcraft as the reason Crane is now alive in the modern era. During the Q and A after the screening the creative team said they plan to incorporate even more supernatural elements into the series. With the horsemen and talk of the end of days, religious elements are in heavy play. I find this to be a possible show ender. Heroes made this mistake and look where that show is now. The first season of Heroes had a great comic book feel. Then it switched to this mythology/religious tone and the show was down hill from there. Sleepy Hollow is already starting out with this religious tone in mind. From what I saw in the pilot there was a good balance between the more serious supernatural elements and the more whimsical.

Networks, over the past several years, have been capitalizing on these sorts of horror geek shows. I think everything started with True Blood. The gritty vampire drama was successful and this eventually lead to the formation of The Walking Dead on AMC and thus cable. Say what you want about TWD (I certainly have my opinions) but the show makes money and has huge merchandise presents. Sleepy Hollow is violent. There is a fair amount of decapitation and a more than fair amount of blood.

The series is well done. It isn't the most spectacular show I've ever seen but it's better than most of the crap networks but out. The story is engaging and has some twists and turns. I'll say the ending is super creepy but nothing more than that. The show also plays with some interesting camera angles.

The show may have many horror elements but the series is kept reasonably light. The series has a fair amount of comical relief; mostly it's Crane exploring this new world such as car windows going up and down.

The show will premier this September on Fox. If you enjoy supernatural elements then you might enjoy Sleepy Hollow. It's a show capitalizing on mythology and religion along with horror elements with a fun mixture of creepy and mild comedy.

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