Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Monday, November 07, 2011

Review: Once Upon A Time - Pilot

I know I'm a couple episodes behind, but hopefully everyone has now watched the Pilot of Once Upon A Time (for those like me that DVR everything and watch when there is time). There are of course spoilers in this review.

Since both Once Upon A Time and Grimm are new fantasy TV shows this season, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at both while the season passes. I always get excited when I see the networks taking a chance on fantasy.

The Pilot of Once Upon A Time pleased me, overall. However, I was left with a few questions that kind of felt like plot holes.

I loved it that Emma Swan's profession was a bounty hunter. It was unexpected, and unexpected is always good, especially if it fits nicely into the story. Her profession was utilized a little bit in the first episode, but I'm hoping that it will be used throughout the series. As long as the writers didn't just make her a bounty hunter and forget about it in the long run, it was a great choice.

I also liked how she was the type of person to spot a lie. It was nicely done at the end how she asked Henry's "mom" if she loved him - Emma obviously saw it was a lie, but instead of outright telling us that's what she saw, the writers showed us that she saw the lie by having her check into the inn instead of leaving town.

The clock re-starting was a little predictable, but it is hard to get away from some predictability.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there were a couple of things that didn't make much sense. First, Emma's name. She claims she was abandoned on the side of a highway (obviously where she came through via the wardrobe). How exactly did whoever found her or the foster care system know her name? We know there was no note attached to the child. Was her blanket embroidered with her name? If so, I totally missed that, but it does seem like a bit of a hiccup.

The second thing that bugged me was Henry. Supposedly, he's Pinocchio. So then, why didn't he immediately have the curse on him and exist in Storybrooke like the others? How was he then born to Emma Swan? And if bad things happened whenever anyone left Storybrooke, how was HE able to leave Storybrooke without consequences? Some of it just seems a bit shaky or big leaps in suspending disbelief to me.

There was one more thing I wanted to comment about. Now, I haven't watched any further episodes yet (although I hope to this week), but from this one episode it really felt like the writers have a horribly negative view on our own world. Our world has been portrayed as a place where there can never be any happy endings. I do like the darkness that surrounded the first episode. After all, I'm all for the dark fantasy, as you know. I'm just wondering if it was too heavy handed for some people in the first episode with such a negative view on our own world.

I do look forward to watching the next episode of Once Upon A Time, though! That's a good sign - just like the desire of wanting to turn to the next page in a book.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 Stars


NEXT UP: Classic Fantasy from 1950-1974 (I promise this time, really).

1 comment:

  1. The name 'Emma' is embroidered onto the blanket. That's how she was able to keep her name.

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