Fox jumps on the fairy tale band wagon with its version of Sleepy Hollow. This incarnation of the Headless Horseman brings the tale to the modern day putting a witchy spin on the original story. Taking cues from Grimm and Once Upon a Time, Sleepy Hollow set out to prove that fairy tales and legends are not just for kids.
“Sleepy Hollow” begins in the American Revolution where Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horse first come face to face. Crane beheads his enemy but finds himself mortally wounded. When he awakes, Crane finds himself in a cave. Confused and unsettled, he adventures out into the world and comes face to face with cars. It seems he has woken hundreds of years later in the present. But he is not the only one that has arisen. The Headless Horseman is wreaking havoc in Sleepy Hallow. Crane teams up with a young police officer who frees him from a mental institution in order to keep the Horseman from reuniting with the skull.
Sleepy Hollow stands out for two reasons. The first is the new twist on an old tale. The plot is not just a modern take on a classic story. The twist is that Crane and the Headless horsemen are controlled by magic and Biblical prophecy. Crane’s wife is part of a coven of “good” witches who fight for balance in the world against the evil side of magic. She casts a spell on Crane keeping him alive allowing him to awaken only when the Horseman comes back. But the Horseman isn’t control by magic. Instead, he is Death, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. So Crane is not just fighting a foe, he is fighting for the sake of the world.
The second is the casting. Tom Mison as Crane is a casting 
masterpiece. He plays the character with genuine fervor. One minute Mison is mastering one like quips, the next he is fighting against magical and non-magical beings alike. His portrayal makes Crane seem real. No longer is Crane a scared school teacher; he is trained fighter who is coming face to face with magic. What we learn, he learns. While the character is not on the good side of Crane, it’s good to see Orlando Jones again. It’s interesting to see him take on drama when his most memorial moments are the hilarious miss adventures from Evolution. He works well opposite Nicole Beharie who seems too fresh for her part as the police cadet traumatize by demons, but she has the potential to grow in this role.
In fact, the whole show has potential. It captures you with an old tale with a fresh spin and a protagonist that you truly feel for. It will be interested to see if the show can live up to its potential. We shall see tonight.
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