Like most pilots, the episode is not without its stumbles. She’s both quick to address the inherent absurdity of certain plot elements while never acting as though she’s in any way above the material. Recently seen as Jackie Robinson’s supportive wife in this year’s 42 and as one of Michael Fassbender’s paramours in the 2011 sex addiction drama Shame, Beharie’s grounded performance not only instigates a great rapport with Mison but also gives the ensuing insanity a real sense of heart, providing an excellent anchor for the audience. The true VIP of this pilot, however, is Nicole Beharie as Abbie.

Joining him are the likes of Star Trek alum John Cho as Abbie’s police colleague and a surprisingly subdued performance from funnyman Orlando Jones as police captain Frank Irving (no doubt, a nod to the source material’s author). That being said, he’s not averse to including several playful touches, as in one scene where the audience experiences the POV of a decapitated head as it tumbles off the body.Īs the perplexed Crane, Mison is a charming presence, dispensing a dry wit with relative ease. Much of the humor emerges from Crane’s fish-out-of-water status, including his amusing intro to Abbie where, unfamiliar with modern customs, he asks if she’s been “emancipated” from enslavement as well as a later scene where he spots several Starbucks in a row and asks, completely straight-faced, “is there a law?”įor his part, Wiseman gives the pilot the sleek look and tight pacing of one of his studio productions. Despite the multitude of names attached to it, the script boasts a taut, calculated feel, with the writing deftly balancing the seriousness innate to its apocalyptic premise with the comedic antics of a buddy-cop action-thriller. This crazy concept comes courtesy of Canadian writer Phillip Iscove, who developed the script with power screenwriting team Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci ( Fringe, the rebooted Star Trek series) and pilot director Len Wiseman (he of Underworld fame). Together, the two team up and unearth the town’s hidden past and how those dark secrets affect not only Sleepy Hollow but the fate of the world itself.

Though Crane is branded a madman by the rest of the Sleepy Hollow police force, Abbie does not completely dismiss his tales of time travel and the supernatural. The man-out-of-time soon crosses path with Abbie Mills, an African-American police lieutenant who has just witnessed the beheading of Sleepy Hollow sheriff August Corbin (Clancy Brown) by the same (albeit, now Headless) Horseman that Crane faced in battle. Abandon all hope, ye literary purists who enter here. Disoriented, he stumbles out into the open and onto a paved road where he is almost mowed down by several vehicles.Ĭue The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and welcome to the wild and crazy world of Sleepy Hollow. Both men collapse, and we abruptly cut to the modern day where Crane-still in his 18th century attire-emerges from some funky-looking mud in a cave. The intuitive Crane manages to successfully lob off the soldier’s head but not before being left with a seemingly lethal chest wound. Soldier Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison, looking significantly more GQ than the traditionally nebbish Crane of past adaptations) finds himself facing off against a masked, Red Coat-wearin’ Horseman who seems completely immune to gunfire. The pilot opens on a Revolutionary War battlefield. With that in mind, count me among those grinning like a 13-year-old boy who just discovered Die Hard. Your response to this one image-whether it be an amused smile or a exasperated eye roll-will serve as a proverbial litmus test for how you’ll likely respond to Fox’s revisionist take on the famed Washington Irving short story. The Headless Horseman, having yielded a broad ax for a good portion of the episode, raids a gun cabinet and re-emerges armed to the teeth with an assortment of firearms, including a machine-gun that he brandishes in his hand like The Terminator. There is a defining moment in the latter half of the Sleepy Hollow pilot.

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