nessaniel

I just watched the first episode of "Sleepy Hollow", the new magic-mystery-train wreck of a show Fox decided to spring on us this fall.

The following will contain spoilers for the whole pilot so proceed with care.

Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) gets killed in 1781 by courtesy of the Headless Horseman - who has been headless for all of two seconds thanks to Icky but that doesn't stop him from giving Crane a boob window of death.
He 'dies' and wakes up almost 250 years in the future, right when young police woman Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) witnesses her colleague and father figure getting beheaded by the ... oh you know who.
Well, what a lucky coincidence.
Crane is picked up by the local police force, but Abbie believes he might be more than a crazy British guy and they try to solve the mystery of the skull-missing rider who turns out to be one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Huh. Whodda thunk it.

The series is ... adorable. I have no other word for it.

They took the silly concept of a man with no head killing people - and ran with it! Like full front against the fourth wall, repeatedly pounding their head against it.
In the pilot alone we have
- glowing axes swung by men without heads ("Put your hands behind your... what the hell?" - "Can he even hear us? I mean he has no ears?")
- General Washington probably being a witch
- Crane's crazy-ass red headed dead wife also being a witch
- ominous symbolism with white trees
- actual demons with actual horns speaking in actual tongues (probably Latin)
- children getting visions of said demons
- John Cho being killed in the funniest way since Castiel exploded on screen
- red glowy horse eyes of evil and doom
- a priest mastering witch craft and doing fancy chain kung fu (I am not making this up)

Oh my God, I was laughing my ass of all the way through the episode. It was very rushed and had lots of plot holes and the whole "YES MAGIC IS REAL AND SO IS THE HORSEMAN WITH HIS ORC HEAD!"-angle isn't really doing it for me (and let's not talk of some of the really trashy and campy camera work xD) - but the characters! Oh my God, the characters are soooooo great! Ichabod is crazy, pouty, has a stiff upper lip if there ever was one and is basically every social justice warrior white girl ever ("I'll have you know that I was a supporter of the abolition of slavery!" he says to the black police woman who is trying to be friendly to him) but he's also very likable in the ways he tries to explore the future.
Abbie is wonderful. She is fierce, ambitious, headstrong, determined and takes none of Crane's bullshit - she doesn't treat him like an idiot either and grabs the opportunity to actually find out what craziness plagues her town which he provides. Their banter is amusing, quick-witted and they make for a great team.

I'll probably stay with the show, it's a fun ride so far and Ichabod is easy on the eyes (and Abbie looks downright lickable in her dress uniform xD). Fans of "Grimm" and "Once upon a time" should find it enjoyable (basically the same premise of mixing supernatural elements with police work), and if you wanna see a dude with no head on a horse crazily fixated on a posh English traitor - go for it. ;D