Once Upon a Time: A Curse too Far?
“A group of fairytale characters living in the real world, cursed to forget who they are.” The pitch my colleague gave me in an attempt to get me to watch Once Upon a Time wasn’t all too convincing. You really think I’d enjoy watching a live action Snow White teaching children to love nature, or Red Riding Hood make her way in life as a scantily clad waitress in her grandmothers diner? Please, what a load of drivel.
Well this seems familiar…
A few months later, I was lost. I’d finished Arrow, Falling Skies, Walking Dead, I needed something new to watch. Again, I was told about a show based on fairytales. So I fired up the pilot and three seasons later here I am obsessively watching possibly my favourite TV show of all time, counting down the days before the next episode and wondering who else could be introduced to the story.
That’s where I feel Once Upon a Time is at its strongest. Beyond the cheesy, cliché dialogue and the cheap special effects, there’s a rich, detailed, multi layered story which, in my opinion, trumps the original fairytales. Where else other than the depths of internet fan fiction would you find stories about Snow White and Prince Charming having a baby and sending it through a magical wardrobe to present day Earth, in an attempt to premptively save the future of all the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest? No really, that happens.
One complaint I have come accross a few times in the comments of “totally not biased reviews” is that the show is quickly becoming stale and repetitive. One example of such is as follows. (Spoiler alert)
Season 1 revolves around the breaking of the “Dark Curse” cast by the Evil Queen, the reason all of these characters are in our world in the first place. Season 2 quite rightly deals with the aftermath of said curse while simultaneously introducing the next big bad. Pretty good so far. Then season 3 comes around and mid way through the same damn curse is cast again, essentially bringing the plot back to square one for about three episodes. Ok, we can power through this. Curse broken, big bad defeated, yadda yadda, enter season 4, and quite possibly the biggest case of jumping on the band wagon I have ever seen. Yep, OUAT went there, the Frozen saga. In all honesty it was really good to see what happened postmovie, however one thing ruined it for me. The new villain was amazing, don’t get me wrong, we had the stereotypical shiftyness, the blatantly evil grin that good guys have a habit of ignoring and a really good backstory as to why said villain is a total bitch. But then things get messy real quick. Guess what original, diabolical plan we are treat to after weeks of guessing? A curse. Sigh. Here we go again… So yeah, we do have a problem of rehashed storylines, love triangles and endless babbling from Rumplestiltskin (did you know magic always comes with a price?). But at the same time we have a stellar ensemble of characters all seamlessly woven together, past and present, into a single fairytale filled with true love, magic, monsters, redemption, all the ingredients for a show I would happily watch for years to come.
Comments
