Episode Title: “Pilot”
Story by: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman & Phillip Iscove & Len Wiseman
Teleplay by: Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Phillip Iscove
Director: Len Wiseman
Early in “Sleepy Hollow,” the great Clancy Brown comes onscreen as Sheriff August Corbin and I briefly had hope that he’d be sticking around. Then Brown’s name appeared under the guest star credits; which predictably meant that his character wouldn’t make it through the first episode.
Hell, Sheriff August doesn’t even make it out of the first act! That’s a shame, as Brown could have given “Sleepy Hollow”the right mix of gravitas and a slight comic touch.
Although the few comedic moments in “Sleepy Hollow” work really well when Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) reacts to the present with surprise and wonder. Eventually those jokes will get old and if “Sleepy Hollow” sticks around for a few seasons then even Ichabod will become adjusted to the present. So, enjoy that while you can.
As much as I’ll miss Brown in this show, the leads are not the problem. Mison is entertaining as Ichabod and Nicole Beharie holds her own as Abbie Mills, the one cop who gives Ichabod the benefit of the doubt. Their dynamic isn’t fully formed, but it could work. It would have worked here if several important moments of their working relationship weren’t simply glossed over.
From this point on, there are full spoilers for the first episode of “Sleepy Hollow,” so skip this review if you haven’t seen it or else the Headless Horseman will shoot firecrackers out of his gun.
The first scene throws us back to the Revolutionary War in 1781, as action hero Ichabod Crane fights the British and the infamous Hessian soldier, whom Ichabod decapitates before collapsing, (dying?) and awakening in a cave hundreds of years later.
At the same time, we find Abbie and August sharing some surrogate father/daughter banter before answering a call that leaves August decapitated by the Headless Horseman.
For a show called “Sleepy Hollow,” it seems like an odd choice to present a world in which there was no Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. Comparing this Ichabod to his cinematic, literary and animated counterparts could have been really funny. But everyone acts like they’ve never heard of Ichabod Crane or the Headless Horseman.
The one nod to the original author is the police captain, Frank Irving (Orlando Jones); who is surprisingly no fun at all. Jones is largely known as a comedic actor and it’s an odd thing to see him play against that type. But Captain Irving isn’t that interesting and he seems like he could have been lifted out of any other cop drama.
Because Ichabod confirms her account of the Headless Horseman, Abbie becomes convinced that she needs to get her answers from him. And here’s where things go wrong in the story. There’s never a moment where Ichabod earns Abbie’s trust. We see her taking Ichabod away from the station with handcuffs in front of his body (a rookie mistake that shouldn’t have been made by someone going to Quantico for FBI training) and when we next see Ichabod and Abbie in the cave, his handcuffs are off! That’s a huge gamble for Abbie to take, considering that she thought that Ichabod was insane at the time. All the more reason not to let him run around unrestrained. Then why is it just accepted that Abbie unchained Ichabod?
Call me crazy, but if you’re going to put these two characters together as partners then we need to see that partnership being formed. That kind of bond can’t be there from the beginning for no reason other than it’s convenient for Abbie to immediately trust Ichabod and let him roam around the cave freely. That’s lazy writing. Later in the episode, Abbie suddenly starts sharing her painful backstory with Ichabod… just because the script needed her to get that out there even though there was no buildup or even an emotional rapport between Ichabod and Abbie.
Another moment that felt unearned was when Abbie came back for Ichabod after dumping him in the insane asylum. We see Ichabod about to experience the wonder of our modern medicine when Abbie shows up out of nowhere to get him out. Again, that moves the plot along but it feels like we’re missing a few steps. When we can’t even see Abbie or Ichabod making important decisions like that they feel more like chess pieces than characters.
That’s unfortunate, because Abbie and Ichabod demonstrate some great comic potential when they play off each other. But it’s almost as if the writers were afraid that if the script was too funny then the audience couldn’t take it seriously. But when the Headless Horseman is packing heavy artillery and fighting a telekinetic and immortal priest then that ship has already sailed.
At least an excuse is found to keep Brown around for voiceovers as Abbie discovers that August was investigating the paranormal aspects of Sleepy Hollow for years. So, Clancy Brown as an aging small town Sheriff digging into the supernatural? That’s the show I wanted! But it’s through August’s tapes that another layer of exposition is unraveled and we learn that there are two covens of witches in Sleepy Hollow. One good and one EVIL.
Oh yeah, and Ichabod’s dead wife Katrina Crane (Katia Winter) was a good witch whose spirit is trapped in the Black Lodge… or something out of “Twin Peaks.” Apparently the Headless Horseman is Death of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Katrina buried Ichabod in the cave to keep the Headless Horseman from awakening.
Added to the mix is Officer Andy Dunn (John Cho), the charisma-free friend of Abbie who turns out to be a secret follower of the Horseman. Andy was an incredibly flat and boring character. I know that John Cho can do better than this. But apparently a team of four writers couldn’t be bothered with giving Andy an actual personality.
The final showdown with the gun-totting Headless Horseman has its fun moments, but then it stops abruptly. Amazingly, two of the other cops back Abbie’s story about a Headless Horseman. But that still doesn’t justify Captain Irving’s complete 180 on Ichabod, whom he suddenly trusts to team with Abbie on Andy’s interrogation.
Except something gets to Andy first and it’s the one truly intriguing monster of the episode. We can’t quite see what it is, but it’s scarier when our imagination has to fill in the gap. It may be the demon-like creature that Abbie and her sister encountered when they were children. Speaking of which, why did the writers bring up Abbie’s sister so many times and then not introduce her? That felt like an odd choice.
On the whole, “Sleepy Hollow” is never actually bad, but it’s not good enough to fully recommend either. There’s a lot of room for improvement and I think it has potential. But when Ichabod claims that he and Abbie will have to fight evil in Sleepy Hollow for at least seven years… that seems like the producers are being overly optimistic.
Give us a show worth following and maybe that prediction will come true.
