Sleepy Hollow
FOX | Release Date: September 16, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
8
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubDavid SimsSep 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: Sleepy Hollow works because it approaches everything with a relatively straight face, yet never seems to be taking itself too seriously. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyKelly ConnollySep 28, 2015
Season 3 Review: Throw in some demons, Abbie's sister Jenny, and a classically Hollow-esque historical twist, and the apocalypse looks like fun again. [2 Oct 2015, p.68]
83
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: The first new network show of fall is a supernatural adventure that manages to drop a few good scares. Read full review
83
NewsdayVerne GaySep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Nothing scary here, but Hollow is fun enough, and promising enough, too. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s got some scares and some action and plenty of secrets to unveil. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalNancy DeWolf SmithSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: Sleepy Hollow is great fun and gorgeous to look at.... The mythology of Sleepy Hollow is richly complex. Read full review
75
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: Even amid the excess exposition, you'll be able to spot a few enjoyable jolts, some clever, throwaway culture-shock moments and the charms of the show's two stars. Combined, they give the show more than enough room to grow into an entertaining weekly adventure. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 10, 2013
Season 1 Review: Suspend disbelief, not to mention your knowledge of Washington Irving's classic tale, because the illogical hodgepodge of myth premiering Monday night is great fun. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyJeff JensenSep 10, 2013
Season 1 Review: Sleepy Hollow is is fizzy if formulaic fright-night fun. [20/27 Sep 2013, p.141] Read full review
75
Slant MagazineMatthew WolfsonSep 10, 2013
Season 1 Review: [Lieutenant Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) and Ichabod Crane's (Tom Mison)] sharp banter, coupled with campy scenes of the horseman riding around town severing peoples' heads, makes for a mutually reinforcing combination of amusing and absurd TV. Read full review
70
PopMattersDaniel RasmusSep 22, 2014
Season 2 Review: Even with selective choices of what reality to include in its fiction, Sleepy Hollow is effective, biting like a vampire, infecting with simultaneous thrill and dread. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: For reasons known only to its creators, the pilot for Sleepy Hollow seems determined to jam into one hour what could have easily, and more enjoyably, been spun out over several. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: It's witty but never overly pleased with itself, and even when it's predictable, it's predictable with a wink that says, "Come on--you know you needed that to happen." Read full review
70
Zap2it (Inside the Box)Billy NillesSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: Sleepy Hollow is quite fun, if you're willing to suspend all disbelief and go for the ride. Read full review
70
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: In its pilot, it achieved its modest goals without leaning too far into pompousness (as is the case with "Almost Human") or slicing off too much ham (hello "The Blacklist"). Read full review
70
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerSep 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: Plenty of places for this series to take its engaging leads, one of the odder crime-fighting pairs on TV, doing battle against one of TV’s creepier-looking if expressionless bad guys. Read full review
70
Denver PostJoanne OstrowSep 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: Cultural commentary mixed with the mystery, along with lavish production values, gives Irving’s tale a clever twist. The hour is trying to cover a lot of bases, but it may find its focus. Read full review
67
HitfixAlan SepinwallSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: It is aware of just how ridiculous it is, and it tries to cram in as many wacky ideas as can fit into the opening hour without falling into complete camp. Read full review
67
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 11, 2013
Season 1 Review: Mison and Beharie work well together as Ichabod and Abbie.... On the down side, Orlando Jones so far is stuck in the muck of a prototypically officious police captain named Frank Irving.... Whatever befalls its denizens, Sleepy Hollow gets off to a better and more “believable” start than anticipated. Read full review
63
New York PostMichael StarrOct 3, 2013
Season 1 Review: Sleepy Hollow has an interesting premise and some terrific CGI effects (re: the Headless Horseman), but I didn’t buy into the show’s mystical/mythological/sci-fi overtones, a mishmash of history, witchcraft and muddled Biblical prophesy that left me confused instead of intrigued. Read full review
60
TimeJames PoniewozikSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: Sleepy Hollow got my attention, but I’m not yet sure if it’s good, ridiculous, good but ridiculous, or good because it’s ridiculous. Read full review
60
PopMattersChris ConatonSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: Somehow, this ludicrous premise and uneven plot elements cohere into a fast-moving, exciting hour. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: Success is the exception for shows that try to weave mythologies this complex, and Sleepy Hollow falls back early on predictable conventions like having Abbie’s deceased ex-boss leave copious files on mysteries he could never solve. Read full review
50
HollywoodChicago.comBrian TallericoSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s a program that bounces around tonally and narratively, never feeling like its head is in the right place to know where it wants to go. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: You have one of the most complex and mixed-up and irritating mythology soufflés ever to be delivered in a single pilot. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 16, 2013
Season 1 Review: [A] lavishly entertaining but hopelessly convoluted new supernatural thriller. Read full review
50
Washington PostHank StueverSep 13, 2013
Season 1 Review: It’s all done with a cold efficiency and a gloomy, disinterested tone. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian LowrySep 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: While the show is certainly handsomely done, the fish-out-of-water dialogue already feels a little green around the gills. Read full review
30
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinSep 15, 2013
Season 1 Review: By the end, Sleepy Hollow seems less like a show than a garage sale of used story pitches. Read full review
25
Newark Star-LedgerVicki HymanFeb 13, 2014
Season 1 Review: The mythology comes on hard and heavy in the first hour, but like ABC's blink-and-you-missed-it spring thriller "Zero Hour," it's ponderous yet silly. Read full review
20
Under The RadarDan LucasSep 26, 2013
Season 1 Review: This could be a watershed moment in TV's long and inglorious history of idiocy, a drama that unintentionally almost matches Arrested Development for laughs. Read full review
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