Sleepy Hollow, starring Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie, is a fun filled adventure, if not a bit gory, but it is ultimately bogged down by overacting and odd cinematography. Loosely based on the short story from Washington Irving, the television series depicts a “modern re-telling” of Ichabod Crane, a revolutionary war spy, who awakens mysteriously 250 years after the Revolutionary War and has to protect the town from the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Beharie, best known for her role as Jackie Robinson’s wife in 42, plays Abbie Mills, a young lieutenant who is trying to get out of Sleepy Hollow, because it’s just too small-town for any real crimes. She and Mison’s Ichabod Crane, spend a lot of their time doing a big sass-off, whether it’s about Mills always seeming to want to shoot him or Crane’s inability to keep updated on the new times.

The plot is interesting. Where some sci-fi shows can have plot riddles with holes and hard to make sense of, the pilot shows an ability to go where most won’t, including killing two big characters in the first episode. The cinematography, while better than some, are too much of a contrast to the dreariness of Sleepy Hollow. At one point, the Headless Horsemen kills a character using his ammo of choice, an ax to the head, and we watch him from the viewpoint of the dead, sliding to the ground with the head, blood spurting on the camera lenses. For a split second, I thought my TV had switched over to a video game ad. It’s an unattainable goal the show is trying to reach with each special effect they create, and so far, excluding the lack of head of the Horseman, it has added nothing to the plot.

All in all, I enjoyed it. The plot was suspenseful and fun, and I’m interested in the inner workings of each creature. I’d watch it again, because I want to know more about the characters. Specifically how exactly the Headless Horsemen can die, considering bullets and axes just won’t do it these days.

Make sure to watch it on Mondays at 8 p.m. on FOX.