Fall Shows I'm Trying to Like Part Two: Sleepy Hollow

Yeah, I'm going to just get right into it: I don't like this show. I don't overtly dislike it, I just don't like it. And I've given it plenty of time, like seven episodes, which is an adequate amount of time to really figure out if a show is making it on your watch list or not. What's confusing me about my own opinion here is other people's opinions.

People love this show!

Not one, but three friends have told me how much they enjoy it, how funny it is, how scary, how much they like the look of it. It's got a 7.8/10 on IMDB. This person says it's one of the season's three breakout hits. It already has a guaranteed second season. I don't understand, so I'm going to break it down in the hopes of finding out just where it goes wrong for me.

The Story:

Here's something: it's a little complicated. Just for reference, here is my previous experience with the notion  of Sleepy Hollow from childhood:

Classic Crane. 

And then there was this:

Ichabod got slightly, slightly sexier.

I'm going to go ahead and admit that I loved these previous two versions. Loved them. "Heads Will Roll" - hilarious. So from the start I am ready, excited even, to welcome a third installment into the Hall of Hollow. But this? Ichabod Crane in the future because his witch wife (no, like she has magic) preserved him until a time when the headless horsemen will return and usher in the apocalypse? Makes total sense. 

It's not the stretch, though. For someone who shamelessly and overtly loves Once Upon a Time, I can't stand on any grounds of requiring a simple or even believable plot. The time travel, the colonial flashbacks, the biblical references - this isn't my beef. It's got to be something else. 

The Characters:

I find the acting good. It's good. No one really annoys me here. If I may be a bit picky, the Crane accent kind of sticks out. In a kind of opposite way as Dracula, the British accent in a sea of American accents kind of feels...contrived? I understand it's meant to set him apart, as well as necessary for the whole historical accuracy thing, but mostly I think it's to really emphasize those moments where this guy is so adorably befuddled by this modern world (that sort of winking charm usually works on me, but in this instance I find myself scowling in a really unattractive, old biddy kind of way). 

He's fine, she's fine, those other two are okay.

Okay, so it's not really the story, or the characters, so what? I don't like Fox? I don't like TV as a whole? Why can't I just put my finger on what it is I don't like about this show? It's impossible; I'll never know. 

Actually, I know. I totally know. 

Chemistry. Specifically, there not being any. Not between Abbie and Crane, not between Crane and his wife Katrina, not between anyone and anyone else. And where's the interpersonal conflict? Crane and the Headless Horseman don't really have that intense rivalry and hatred that personalizes their fight, Abbie's defensive and standoffish attitude doesn't really cause specific problems for her, I have absolutely no burning desire to see Crane and his wife reunite (and I really, really want to want this); everything is just kind of lukewarm. The most dynamic character is Abbie's sister, who at least brings some intensity and a kind of friction into the mix. 

I feel nothing. Nothing.

Almost everyone I know is watching this show. Why I can't get into it, just relax and enjoy the tepid environment, is beyond me but the fact is I don't care. I don't care about what's happening and I don't have that feeling like if this happens, or that doesn't happen, I will just die. I want that feeling. 

Because I'm crazy.