We are now four weeks into the adventures of Ichabod Crane and Abbie Mills and fans of the show can rejoice as “Sleepy Hollow” has already been picked up for a second season! So breathe a sigh of relief fans, as this show doesn’t seem to be anywhere near the sights of FOX’s sometimes seemingly itchy cancellation trigger finger. However! Celebration aside, Jenny Mills is missing, and Abbie and Ichabod need to track her down – oh, and modern-day hessians are on their trail.
As if to prove to the audience that this won’t just be a monster-of-the-week type of show, we don’t necessarily get a big bad this week, but instead more of a chase. As we saw last week, Jenny Mills broke out of the psychiatric hospital and has disappeared. Abbie convinces the Captain to let her and Ichabod track down her sister, and he reluctantly obliges. Of course, Ichabod and Abbie manage to find Jenny in a secluded cabin, along with a lot more.
Abbie learns that Sheriff Corbin was actually taking care of both of the Mills sisters and actually had Jenny helping him track down artifiacts of mystical nature for him; and I must say, for an older guy in a small town, Sheriff Corbin had access to some pretty James Bond-ish hiding places. One such object hidden in Corbin’s cabin was a sextant-that-is-actually-a-projector which contains a map to a book known as “The Lesser Key of Solomon” which can be used to release 72 demons into the world. Crane and the Mills sisters aren’t the only one aware of this book, and a group of modern day hessians crash the party, leaving it up to our heroes to stop the demons from rising.
If you’re not watching “Sleepy Hollow”, then you’re missing out on one of the really good shows that made it to the airwaves amid a lot of shit this season.
My biggest concern about “Sleepy Hollow” was that it would fall into the monster-of-the-week rut, not that it can’t be a lot of fun, but it runs the risk of becoming stale. This week’s chase/manhunt episode allowed for some exposition of the bigger plot. We found out the Sheriff Corbin kept a lot of secrets from both of the Mills sisters, Ichabod instigated the Boston Tea Party as a diversion to obtain “The Lesser Key of Solomon” for General Washington, hessian gangsters have infultrated Sleepy Hollow, and we finally have a name for our awesomely creepy horned fellow: Moloch.
This week’s episode moved everything along nicely with, of course, the touches of horror and awesome wit which are becoming this shows fantastic trademark. The chemistry between Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie just grows from week to week as Crane adapts slowly but surely to the modern day and Mills begins to settle in to her extraordinary role as one of the Witnesses. The addition of Lyndie Greenwood as Jenny Mills is really well played, and I’m guessing we see her become a staple on the show in season two. “Sleepy Hollow” has really found its groove and I’m hoping it can maintain this momentum through this first season – which by the way is only 13 episodes long.
Thus far, I only have a few gripes with the show. First, the religious aspects and prophecies. I’m really hoping things don’t get too convoluted and confusing as they begin intertwining Bible verses, legends, Templar Knights, witch craft and the like. Second, am I the only one that feels like they are over-doing it just a bit with the blurring effect in the flashback scenes? I think it is quite clear when we are viewing a flashback, let’s maybe take it easy on the radial blur you have taking up 2/3 of the screen.
I have said this pretty much every week since I reviewed the first episode of “Sleepy Hollow”: If you’re not watching, then you’re missing out on one of the really good shows that made it to the airwaves amid a lot of shit this season.
“Sleepy Hollow” airs Mondays on FOX.