TV Crime Log: Sleepy Hollow

So here’s a curious bit of genre-bending television. Sleepy Hollow is a modern-day retelling of The Legend of Bagger… no wait, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving.

Part apocalyptic fantasy, part police-procedural, it follows poor Ichabod Crane, who kind of dies – but not quite – during the Revolutionary War while on a mission for George Washington. He wakes up in a small American town where the local sheriff is understandably astonished - which is more Irving’s Rip Van Winkle than Sleepy Hollow, I think.

Anyway, this being Sleepy Hollow, the Headless Horseman also wakes up and goes about doing his slaughterous business, revealing the existence of two groups in the town – one good, one evil. Beardy guy Crane teams up and solves this supernatural phenomenon with a young detective.

Alas, my own detective skills have gone largely unexplored but even I’m thinking I could probably locate a guy marauding around town with no head. Anyway, that’s the premise. I’ll give it a go, I love these supernatural things.

It’s hit a chord with US viewers. I believe Sleepy Hollow has been the first series over there to get picked up for a second season. It’s written by the guys who wrote Fringe so fully expect Sleepy Hollow’s mythology to become hideously convoluted within, say, a season an a half.

It starts on Wednesday night on the Universal Channel – look, check your EPG – at 9pm.