According to Entertainment Weekly, Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow” premiere scored 10 million viewers, lobbing off the competition that it had on Monday night.
It received a 3.4 rating among adults aged 18-49, which is 127 percent better than Fox’s premiere of “Mob Doctor” in the same slot last fall. Additionally, “Sleepy Hollow” is Fox’s highest-rated fall drama premiere since “24,” which debuted in 2001, and with good reason.
Not only does this new show loosely bring Washington Irving’s story to life, but they also dip into the realms of witchcraft — and even the Bible — to develop this show even further.
The show particularly favors the realms of war, conquest (pestilence), famine and death, the four horsemen mentioned in Revelation 6. Death, however, is the main star of the show.
The pilot episode starts off with a war scene in Hudson Valley, N.Y. in 1781, right in the middle of the Revolutionary War. The audience meets Ichabod Crane, portrayed by actor Tom Mison, as he gets killed while cutting off the head of a mysterious masked man.
Just when one thinks that this is the end of Crane, he rises from the earth — alive once again — but definitely not in the same time or place that he thinks. Unfortunately, the headless man that Crane killed has also been resurrected.
After being arrested as a suspect for beheading an officer and being deemed insane by detectives because of his odd story, Crane is set to transfer to an asylum.
However, Officer Abbie Mills, the partner of said beheaded officer, refuses to give in to orders just yet. Officer Mills realizes that Crane knows a lot more about the real culprit than anyone else and asks him to take her to the cave he came from, hoping to find answers.
What they find is a Bible that was buried with Crane. The Bible was bookmarked to Revelation 6 where the fourth horseman, Death, is mentioned. Things start to click for Ichabod but not for Officer Mills.
The plot thickens as Crane gets a visit from an old flame who tells him how to stop the headless horseman. He is also told of the dangers that will occur if he doesn’t.
Meanwhile, Officer Mills digs into the files of her recently deceased partner and finds out more than she wanted: Crane was somehow right.
After illegally getting Crane out of the asylum, the two work together to retrieve a skull, avoid being murdered by the headless man before sunrise and to tell the tale in hopes of protecting Sleepy Hollow, as well as the world the two witnesses mentioned in the Bible.
So far, the pilot has strongly hinted that “Sleepy Hollow” will be a show that will last a long time, gather a big audience and keep everyone on the edge of their couches as we watch Crane and Officer Mills try to save the world. With a marvelous mix of suspense, drama, horror, sass and even comedy, it’s difficult to not like the show.
If you don’t believe me, check it out yourself — the pilot is free on Hulu. The show airs every Monday at 9 p.m. on Fox.
