Sleepy Hollow

FOX, Mondays 9/8 Central

Sep 16, 2013 By Dan Lucas Issue #47 - September/October 2013 - MGMT

It's hard to know where to begin when it comes to the stupidity of Sleepy Hollow, a "modern spin" on Washington Irving's legend starring British thespian Tom Mison as a time-travelling Ichabod Crane and relative newcomer Nicole Beharie as his sidekick. The dialogue certainly sticks out, and there are any number of choice cuts that sadly don't sound any better in context: "Turn around slowly and put your hands on your... OH MY GOD!"

There are also a number of incredibly bizarre decisions from the creative team. The way Abbie instinctively trusts Ichabod, the murder suspect who thinks he's a Time Lord. Or the way the Headless Horseman has a machine gun.

Perhaps most bizarre of all is the premise: a bizarre plot arc about Crane being an assassin sent on a mission by George Washington to stop some occultists resurrecting the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse (the Headless Horseman is Death, by the way).

This could be a watershed moment in TV's long and inglorious history of idiocy, a drama that unintentionally almost matches Arrested Development for laughs. Nonetheless, when Crane talks about a duo being "brought together for a seven year period," there is a strong whiff of renewals. (www.fox.com/sleepy-hollow)

Author rating: 2/10

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Average reader rating: 7/10