It wasn’t too long ago that the name Sleepy Hollow was mentioned and we thought “Oh that sounds cool.” Now it seems that the FOX drama is the best show the network has decided to put on in a very long time.
It’s not just the fan-obsessed craziness talking, we swear. FOX’s Sleepy Hollow has pulled in a ridiculous amount of great ratings since it’s premiere, and their viewership (and fandom) is growing.
When Sleepy Hollow aired earlier this month, a whopping 10 million viewers tuned in. 10 million! The episode brought FOX the highest ratings its had in seven years. Think about it this way: It beat Glee’s 2009 pilot premiere of 9.6 million, as well as Bones‘ 8.9 million back in 2005.
If Sleepy Hollow can do what it’s fellow FOX shows did then we see it running for a very long time, at least for the 7 years that Ichabod and Abbie are prophesied to fight the war against the Headless Horsemen for.
That brings us to our next point, Sleepy Hollow is effectively the most creative and original take on the Sleepy Hollow legend that we’ve seen so far.
Forget what the original story is about? Let’s fill you in: In the original short story, written by Washington Irving in 1820, the Headless Horseman is simply a ghost of a man who got decapitated by a canon in the Revolutionary War and is on an endless search to find his head. Ichabod Crane is a superstitious guy who’s competing with a man by the name of Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt for the hand of a beautiful, rich maiden Katrina Van Tassel.
Basically what happens in the story is Crane goes to a party to propose to Katrina. He parties and feasts and listens in as Van Brunt tells scary ghost tales. By by the end of the party Crane somehow fails to propose, and as he’s headed home he comes across the Headless Horseman who rears his horse’s hooves into Crane’s face and the scene cuts out. The next morning it’s seemed that Crane disappeared with not a single trace except his saddle and scared horse, which leaves Katrina to marry Van Brunt instead. It’s assumed that Brunt was actually the headless horseman in disguise but the wives of Sleepy Hollow say that Crane was whisked away by supernatural means, adding onto the legend of the Headless Horseman.
In the other well known adaptation of the tale, the 1999 movie staring Johnny Depp, Ichabod Crane is a policeman sent to New York to study the decapitations of people in the town of Sleepy Hollow. He discovers that someone’s stolen the head of a Headless horseman, causing him to come back from Hell and reclaim what it is his. To put away the murder, Crane must find the horseman’s head and put it back where it came from.
We have one word for those stories: Boring!
Sleepy Hollow takes an unbelievably imaginative step in telling the tale of Ichabod Crane, and we’re ridiculously excited to see how it continues. To have Crane wake up 200 years later and make Katrina the witch who helped him slumber is unbelievably original. Then Sleepy Hollow creators Len Wiseman, Phillip Iscove, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci go ahead and add on the entire Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse arc as well as more witchcraft and demons, and now you have a story that’s bound to last for years.
So let’s hope that Sleepy Hollow can keep getting the gold because this is one adaptation we do not want to see end anytime soon!
Are you watching ‘Sleepy Hollow’?
Be sure to tune in on Monday at 9pm EST/PST for the latest episode of Sleepy Hollow, “For the Triumph of Evil.” You can also check out previews of the episode right here.
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