'Sleepy Hollow' Series Premiere Makes Leaps and Bounds To Get The Story Out

Sleepy Hollow isn't a bad tale, but some serious leaps of faith are made while this Fringe/Grimm feel-alike gets its story moving along.

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I had been hearing about the Sleepy Hollow series premiere via TV ads (like you) for quite some time but did not really pay attention to them.  But I did plan on catching it whenever I had the time.

And the other day I finally did have the time.

The story goes like this:

Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) faces off against the supernatural entity known as death on the battlefield way back in the day when muskets were the top tech item.  Death cuts him open, but he beheads the guy.  This was in 1871.

To save his life, his wife puts a spell on him that connects him to the headless horseman, putting him to sleep for a few hundred years until someone raises the headless guy, and thus, due to his mystical connection, so too, does Ichabod rise.

He crawls out of his cave, almost gets hit by cars, stumbles into being a murder suspect and arrested.

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There, that is the basic opening to the series.  From there, we have some interesting facets of story that come together, but at times, the story has some seriously weak links to move it along.

And that's what I find distracting about this new series from Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci... the guys behind such hits as Now You See Me, Star Trek (Abrams) movies, People Like Us, Transformers movies, and on TV, Hawaii Five-0, Fringe, Xena Warrior Princess and Hercules The Legendary Journeys.

These guys obviously know how to put out things we like watching.

Which is why I'm confused even farther with the odd leaps of faith Sleepy Hollow took in it's series premiere episode.

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Ichabod, while explaining himself, seemingly is taken seriously by the officer, Abbie Mills (Nichole Beharie), in charge of transporting him to the insane asylum.

That's it.  One week away from transferring to a life altering, primo career, and she throws it all away as she some how starts believing the nut case she's taking to the cuckoo's nest.

Sure, she took this huge leap of faith in believing 'Bod.  But I didn't feel like he presented enough compelling information to convince her to make this leap.

And then burrowing from The Asylum, the headless guy who is looking for his hidden skull, picks up and starts using guns.  (I say borrowed because in one horrible movie The Asylum made, they had Thor using an Uzi instead of his hammer.)

AND there are people all over the town of Sleepy Hollow that are secret society members who believe in this headless guy, who are there to help him achieve his goal of claiming his skull.

So there's mystical (and more to come, since he's one of the Four Horsemen), there's conspiratorial and mysterious.

With a logic gap here and there.

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But we the fans, want to see if this show is all that we hope it to be.  I say that because once you get past a few glaring leaps of story-telling faith, you do have a well written story that is easy and compelling to follow.

And being that the series premiere was the highest rated drama premiere in over 6 years for FOX, well, we definitely tuned in.

But like all TV shows... everyone tunes in for the premieres and the finales, and the numbers tend to sag during the season.  And depending on the show, that sag in numbers either continues its downward slide or turns into a smile when folks start tuning in to the ending episodes of a season.

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With all that being said, it was fun.  Mison and Beharie deliver their roles like seasoned vets who are already comfortable in their roles and make the show a decent attempt at stealing viewers from Grimm.  (Well, that's how I'm seeing it at the moment.)

And to be honest, as far as I am concerned, I'll give Sleepy Hollow a few episodes to convince me to stay.  At the moment, I am leaning towards sticking around to see how it goes.

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