A Lenda de Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) is a devoted soldier for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. It's a fight not only against the British but a fight against pure evil. His battle against the headless horseman sends them both into the present. He partners with local cop Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) in Sleepy Hollow to fight evil apparitions. Her sister Jenny Mills (Lyndie Greenwood) is an unscrupulous antiquities dealer. Frank Irving (Orlando Jones) is the police captain. Ichabod's love Katrina Crane (Katia Winter) is a witch. Henry Parrish (John Noble) has a devastating relationship to Ichabod. The fourth season gets a reboot in Washington, D.C. Abbie is gone as Ichabod and Jenny joins a new group to battle tycoon Malcolm Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies).

This show starts strong. Mison has some fun as a fish out of water. Beharie has a fun platonic chemistry with him. The plot gets more and more convoluted. By season three, the twists and turns have tied the show in knots. The constant injection of new characters left the show in a muddle. The reboot in season four actually works for me. I like the new group and I like Jeremy Davies as the new villain. It regains some stability and good momentum. However, it didn't regain the lost audience.

The television series Sleepy Hollow is very loosely based on a short story written by American author Washington Irving. First published in 1820, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is the tale of Ichabod Crane - a school teacher who unsuccessfully competes with Abraham Van Brunt for the hand of Katrina, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. On the night of his rejection by the girl, he is chased by a headless horseman, and is never seen again. This leaves Abraham (who it is later implied was the horseman) to marry Katrina.

The story has been adapted to the screen many times, but with the very little success. By far the best being director Tim Burton's 1999 version - Sleepy Hollow, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.

That being said, I was looking forward to seeing what direction this show would take after first reading about it a few months ago. I wasn't expecting too much, but I've always been a sucker for a new sci-fi or supernatural show.

As is the case with most screen adaptations of Irving's story, the only resemblance to the original is that it is based in the fictional town of Sleepy Hollow,and that some of the characters share the same names. As I said earlier, very loosely based.

Without giving too much away, Crane and the Horseman rise from their separate graves at the same time some 250 years after they killed each other in battle. The Horseman (as is pretty standard) is after his head, and it is up to Crane to stop him. The kicker in this, is that the Horseman is actually one of the biblical Horsemen (Death), and if he gets his head back, it will somehow trigger the beginning of the apocalypse.

Naturally, immediately after his resurrection, the Horseman starts beheading people and Crane is arrested on suspicion of the murders. After his arrest, he meets Officer Abbie Mills (who witnessed the Horseman kill her partner), and realising that Crane is important, goes against her superior's orders and teams up with him to stop the Horseman.

After just watching the pilot, I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. While perhaps a little far-fetched, the premise of the story is interesting, and open to many possibilities further down the track. The production values were high. The script seemed pretty solid and the acting and interaction between the actors was surprisingly good considering it is just the first episode. Tom Mison in particular did an excellent job as Ichabod Crane.

Sleepy Hollow definitely shows lots of promise, and if you're a fan of shows like Supernatural, Grimm, Once Upon a Time and the like, I highly recommend you give it a try.

The first season is great but I've never seen a show go off the rails so quickly.

Its witty , funny, fast paced and the action scenes are quite impressive and it does share the same pace and chemistry as the Tim Burton movie. It seems to be going the way of the X files complete with their own version of Deputy director Skinner ( Orlando Jones) and a plot leaning toward a conspiracy that not only threatens the town of Sleepy Hollow but the entire world. The problem with this series may lie with the limitations it seems to be setting on itself by drawing a lot of reference to the Bible. Is there going to be a connection to the Illuminati? There is a lot material that could be explored and the two main characters in Officer Abbie and Ichabad Crane seem to have a lot of questions surrounding them which is a good thing because it gives us the rest of the season to explore. Now with the way the horseman's appetite for heads is going it is safe to say that everyone except the two main characters are going to be expendable (yet another parallel to X files). I for one would like to see how far this series can go.

I know my captions needs to be clarified. Here goes, the first couple of seasons were great, but changing of characters, losing major characters and crazy plots...killed this TV show!