Sleepy Hollow (TV series)

Premise

In 1781, Ichabod Crane works for George Washington as a double agent. Crane beheads a Horseman, who doesn't die; in desperation, Crane wins with a mutual blow. However, Crane next awakes in 2013 Sleepy Hollow with Washington's bible to guide him; he meets Lt. Abigail Mills, and learns the Horseman is back. Crane learns he and Abbie are the Witnesses and the Horseman is Death; should he get his head back, or his master, Moloch, be released from Purgatory, the End of Days will occur. Crane also learns his wife, Katrina, was a witch banished to Purgatory for saving him as his blunder linked his life with the Horseman's. Fighting off Moloch's army of demons, Crane learns the Horseman of War is his own son Jeremy Crane/Henry Parish, who loathes him and Katrina for abandoning him; he also learns "Headless" is his former friend Abraham Von Brunt. They manage to defeat Moloch, but at the cost of releasing everything trapped in Purgatory, including demons looking for a replacement for Moloch. Henry gets Katrina to side with him to awaken the descendants of their coven, but both are regretfully killed by Crane.

In the following months, Crane investigates all myths regarding the Witnesses, learning that Moloch was the first of the Seven Tribulations. The second comes in the form of Pandora, and her master the Hidden One. As Moloch is dead (and thus cannot end the world), Crane gives the Horseman back his head, allowing him to destroy Pandora; however, the head is sucked into her box, which is destroyed. Unfortunately, this battle cost Abigail her soul. Learning that there will always be two Witnesses, Crane vows to find her replacement to face the last five Tribulations.

Cast and characters

Development and production

The pilot episode was filmed in Gastonia, Salisbury, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The rest of the first season, all of the second season and the first two episodes of the third season were filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. The remainder of the third season was filmed in Conyers and Lawrenceville, Georgia, in the metro Atlanta area.

Aerial footage for the series is filmed over the actual village of Sleepy Hollow and the surrounding Tappan Zee region of New York.

Broadcast

Sleepy Hollow airs simultaneously on Global in Canada. For the third season, the show moved to CTV Two. In India, it airs on Star World Premiere HD (only in high-definition) and on Star World India (both in standard and high definitions).

In Australia, the series premiered on September 17, 2013 on Network Ten. The series was moved to Eleven on January 13, 2014. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the series was acquired by the Universal Channel, which premiered it on October 9, 2013. The second season debuted on October 15, 2014 and the third season debuted on October 22, 2015. Season 4 premiere on Syfy February 22, 2017.

In South Africa, the second season began airing on M-Net Edge alongside the network's launch on October 20, 2014. In Thailand, the series aired on Channel 3 every Thursday night starting November 26, 2015.

Reception

Sleepy Hollow has received generally favorable reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a rating of 77%, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Despite its overstuffed plot, Sleepy Hollow is a fun romp with exciting action scenes and sparkling production values." On Metacritic the first season has a score of 64 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Verne Gay of Newsday commented that although there is "nothing scary here", the show is "fun enough". Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the show 3 out of 4 stars. Entertainment Weekly, which originally doubted the premise of the show, gave the show a B+ after seeing the first half of the first season, citing the Crane & Mills' chemistry and the show's surprisingly fun mythology. Time called Sleepy Hollow one of 2013's Ten Best new shows.

The series premiered on September 16, 2013 to 10 million viewers with 3.5 rating/9 share which was double the amount that Fox's The Mob Doctor brought in at the same time last year and marked the network's highest rated fall drama premiere since the 2006 police drama Standoff. In Australia the first episode had 597,000 viewers and in the United Kingdom the same episode had 527,000 viewers.

In the real Sleepy Hollow, New York, the local newspaper has regularly enumerated the many fanciful fictions told about the village, including its labyrinth of Revolutionary-era tunnels and a vast increase in population (from an actual 2010 census of 9,870 to roughly 144,000 reported in the show).

Season 2 was met with more favorable reviews, holding a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus reads, "Sleepy Hollow continues to pack a punch in its sophomore season, with fantastic writing and lots of chills."