Sleepy Hollow, the brand new show which premiered on Fox last night (Monday at 9PM) is getting mixed reviews thus far. The show, which, as the title suggests, tells the story of Icabod Crane, the familiar Washington Irving, except now he is, well, rather attractive and rather less cowardly. This makes sense, because it’s two hundred years after the Irving stories and the revolutionary war and Icabod is once again faced with the demonic, axe-wielding Headless Horseman.

Tom Mison, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen Premiere
Mison offers a thoroughly entertaining, if not entirely accurate Icabod Crane adaptation.

The reviewers seem unanimous on this one – it has its charms. Sleepy Hollow is a clever, light retelling of the Icabod Crane story (starring Tom Mison as Crane). Fringe producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have managed to draw out precisely the most entertaining aspects of this premise. Icabod’s insistence that both he and the horseman, who is quick to go on a conspicuous murder spree, are a few centuries old, make for some thoroughly entertaining banter and add another, less serious dimension to this otherwise grisly story.

 Nicole Beharie, Fox Summer TCA Party
The screen partnership between Mison and Beharie could make this series.

The central and so far most interesting relationship is that between Icabod and Abbie (Nicole Beharie) a young detective and the only person to believe our protagonist’s outlandish claims. From the first episode it’s fairly obvious that the two will form the kind of challenging, but resilient partnership that would on its own be enough to drive this show through several seasons. While the premise is one of the stranger ones to grace television this season, we wouldn’t be surprised if this version of Sleepy Hollow, even sans Johnny Depp, manages to worm its way into viewers’ hearts.

Tom Mison, Nicole Beharie, Orlando Jones, Fox Summer TCA Party
This casting was a hit on the part of the production team.