Sleepy Hollow Gives its Titular Show Mixed Reviews

Of the all the madcap ingredients thrown into the simmering stew that is Fox’s Sleepy Hollow premiere on Monday night, there is perhaps one kernel of truth:

Sleepy Hollow does boast its own “Abbie," a black female cop with a sister, namely Officer Wendy Yancey. If these sisters went stomping around the cemetery grounds when they were young and saw four scary white trees is another matter. 

In this show, there’s the usual television tension of a woman investigator (Carrie in Homeland, Holder in the Killing) who, annoyingly, is never believed by a stern and condescending male boss.

Against that cop backdrop, it’s either hilarious good fun or a whole bloody mess, depending on your perspective. All terribly exciting, emphasis on the terribly or the exciting is your call.

In just the opener, writes a reviewer on CNN: "The protagonist of 'Sleepy Hollow' has decapitated a Redcoat, flash-forwarded 250 years in history, woken up in a cave, and been hit by a car."

A group gathered at Tarrytown’s co-working space, the w@tercooler, for an impromptu viewing party had wildly mixed reviews, as did many commenting from their couches on Facebook. Sleepy Hollow residents seemed to love it or hate it.

“Cookie cutter sci-fi,” “crazy and fun,” “silly,” “terrible,” “awful, really dull,” were just a smattering of the comments coming in on 10591 and Tarrytown Patch’s Facebook page.

Some were excited to see brief aerial footage they recognized in a show mostly filmed in the south – a glimpse of the Broadway/New Broadway area, the Tappan Zee Bridge, the Old Dutch Church – others were upset it wasn’t enough Sleepy Hollow. “Disappointed not to see more of our hood,” one wrote.

Population 144,000? Starbucks and/or roses on every block? Let's not even get into what they did to our "Legend."

The writers seemed worried that a headless horseman wouldn’t capture everyone’s attention so why not throw in four horsemen and an apocalypse while they’re at it? Washington Irving: too boring; so how about some George Washington? Time travel, anyone? Revolution? Covens of witches? Homicide in Dobbs Ferry? 

“Death itself has returned to Sleepy Hollow to finish what he started.”

One episode seemed to hold more than it could bear, or could it?

Jenifer Ross of the w@tercooler was sufficiently spooked, believing that bad energy still must live in our "fertile soil," though her kids were more blasé.

Caroline Corley, of The Peak radio, just has a crush on British newcomer, star Tom Mison, aka Crane.

Sleepy Hollow Manor blogger Dorothy Handelman sums it up as such: "Well, it does elevate our village in the eyes of the world but given the dire nature of our most infamous inhabitant, does not give me a warm feeling all over."

No matter what your level of critical cynicism, you have to admit it’s very cool to have a show people across the country are watching with our town-name for the title. If, like me, you're obsessed enough with where we live to sign up for "Sleepy Hollow" Google alerts, you've been inundated with an ever-escalating amount of related links in the past months. There are other Sleepy Hollows in other states, but this one is all ours, even if we have no clue what they're talking about.