When Once Upon A Time premiered, I watched the first three episodes. I missed the fourth, and promptly forgot the thing existed. (Am I the only one who misses water cooler shows that everyone watches and talks about? I tend to forget things exist on a regular basis if no one else is talking about them with me.)
At any rate, I forgot about OUaT, but I got bored over the holidays and went looking for something to watch on Netflix streaming. They suggested OUaT, and I reached back into the mists of my memory and said, "Oh, yeah. I remember thinking that might be pretty good."
For those who don't know, the basic premise is that most fairy tales exist in the same continuum -- a realm called The Enchanted Forest -- and Snow White's stepmother, the Evil Queen, decides to get her happy ending by exiling everyone, sans memories, to our world, where there's no magic. This curse is designed by Rumpelstiltskin, who has his own reasons for wanting to come. She creates the town of Storybrooke in Maine (really, and obviously, Vancouver... is it THAT expensive to film in Maine, people?), where she is mayor, and the other fairy tale characters are trapped in a joyless, endless loop, where time never passes.
Before this happened, Snow White and Prince Charming had a baby daughter named Emma, and they saved her from the curse by sending her ahead of it in an enchanted cabinet made by Gepetto. She is destined to save them all on her 28th birthday. The show opens on that birthday, with a little boy, adopted by the evil queen (and the only person in Storybrooke who ages), showing up on her doorstep, identifying himself as the child she gave up for adoption. As things work in a fairy tale universe, she goes back with him and eventually breaks the curse (the kiss of true love -- of a mother for her child -- does the trick). The show keep going after this, and gets much more interesting, in my opinion.
Whew. That's just the premise. It's a little dense.
But really, despite the complicated mechanisms of the plot, the story is pretty simple: It's about repairing shattered families. In this version, Snow White once did love her stepmother, but a terrible event broke that relationship up. Rumpelstiltskin is cursed with evil immortality because he tried to save his son (who -- spoiler -- is the father of Emma's child), and then lost the same son because of a magical separation. Snow and Charming never got to raise their infant daughter, who grew up feeling abandoned, no matter how altruistic the reasoning. Everything in the show that matters comes back to that refrain, and it's handled really well.
The performances are first rate, and have to be to sell the material. (Jennifer Morrison should get an award for being able to deliver the following line like it's a serious, melodramatic soap opera event: "You left me! You left me and let me go to prison... because Pinnochio told you to?" Seriously, how many takes did she need not to crack the hell up every time she tried to say it?) The standout is Robert Carlyle's Rumpelstiltskin, but no one slacks off.
Things I really like:
Emma's son, Henry, may go through phases where he's angry at his adoptive mother -- not for nothing is she called the Evil Queen -- but he doesn't stop loving her or considering her his mom, even when he gets his birth parents back.
When Henry finds out that Emma lied to him about who his father was, he is ROYALLY PISSED OFF. She doesn't get off the hook for it, and shouldn't. The father is also less than pleased that this minor detail of his life had been withheld from him. (This is followed by the spectacle of Emma and Rumpelstiltskin bonding over being shut out. It's kind of nice.) I was seriously expecting the show to blow this off and treat the lie as unimportant, or worse, perfectly in bounds of reasonable behavior. Instead, Emma gets seriously called out by everyone. They forgive her, but no one treats it as anything but a really bad call.
Evil Peter Pan. Who is part of the extended family, FWIW. Robbie Kay is fantastically creepy in the part. Colin O'Donoghue as Hook is also very good, though I have issues with the way the character is used.
The Evil Queen (Regina, by name) is given a sympathetic back story, but it doesn't negate the evil things she does. In the fabulous mid-season closer, she finally understands exactly what she's done, and instead of trying to explain it away, she takes responsibility and makes the sacrifice she needs to make to save everyone. It's a nice character arc. (You can see the season ending cliffhanger here, for a few more weeks, anyway.)
Rumpelstiltskin is just a great villain -- his evil deeds aren't whitewashed, either, but you can also completely buy his decent actions as of a piece with everything that's been shown. He's wonderfully written as well as wonderfully acted. I love the use of the spinning wheel as a literal thread of continuity in his life, from his childhood all the way to the present. It's also a nice nod to the Fates, which he, in essence, operates as.
Things I don't care much about:
Belle. She's okay, but I think they went a step to far in making Rumpelstiltskin the beast and having the whole love story. I guess it makes sense enough in context, and the actors sell it, but I could certainly live without it.
Love triangle with Emma, Baelfire (Rumpelstiltskin's son and Henry's father), and Hook. That's almost in "I really don't like it" territory, but if I wasted energy actively disliking every unnecessary love triangle I run across, I'd be very tired. As it is, I just want them to hurry up and get it over with. (Not one way or another. I'm strongly in the Baelfire camp.) All the people are appealing, and Colin O'Donoghue is really REALLY easy on the eyes, but... really? In a show this focused on repairing a broken family, I'm supposed to be consumed with conflict about this silly thing?
Side characters like Ruby (Red Riding Hood) or Cinderella or Hansel and Gretel. They're fine, but their focus episodes don't seem to bring much to the table.
The Disney versions used. Eh, whatever. I could deal with any version, and the Disney version allows commentary without extra explanation.
Mulan is in love with Aurora. They should have done it the other way.
Things I really don't like:
Frankenstein... you just don't fit. Bad fit altogether.
There were several times I felt like I must have missed a major episode, because characters were now acting on important motivations that seemed like they'd gotten new information... but when I go back and watch the episodes, there's not so much explanation given.
Umm... that's pretty much it.
Anyway, the mid-season break ends on March 9.
My theories:
Bae will have gotten in trouble with magic.
Regina's story arc will come to an end (she doesn't have much else left to do)
Snow and Charming will have another child, and enough time will have passed for the child to participate in the plots.
Henry will have a plot to himself that doesn't involve being saved from someone.
There will be more Robin Hood?
The producers have said that one of the characters will die. Plotwise, my money is on Regina (like I said, not much further to take her arc), but I think O'Donoghue lives in Ireland and has a family there, and might well not want to be roped in as a permanent part of the show, so Hook is also a major possibility.
We know they're bringing in Oz's wicked witch as the new Big Bad. She's somehow summoned by Rumpelstiltskin's sacrifice? Don't know.
